ReaderStrength™ is published monthly

LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. 2004

 Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest:
The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On

by Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan

Have you ever thought about hiring a coach? Many leaders recognize the value of using a coach to assist them in doing exactly what the title of a new book by Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan suggest: Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest: The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On

While the book does not explain the details, coaching is a methodology that is truly effective when behavior change is desired. We know from studying how learning occurs in the brain that a person can change their behavior. However, many behaviors - such as a leader's approach to leadership and management - come from implicit memories: ways of being and thinking learned long ago. These types of memories occur without conscious awareness and are difficult to change. A coach assists the leader in using the part of the brain that plans, so that they can apply new leadership and management actions. The coaching relationship provides an ongoing focus, a structure for building new attitudes and behaviors, and feedback to assist the leader or manager in continuing to adapt their behavior.

Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest: The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On is designed as a self-coaching tool. Keep in mind that reading a book and doing a few exercises will not lead to the kind of behavior change and results you are probably seeking. However, if you are reluctant to hire a coach without understanding what they do, this book is an excellent inside look at what a coaching relationship would be like.

As you begin the book, you will read an introduction by Ken Blanchard, Scott's well-respected father who gained his fame initially two decades ago as coauthor of The One-Minute Manager. Ken shares the story of his own experience of reluctantly agreeing to be coached in order to better understand coaching. When a management guru like Ken Blanchard is convinced from personal experience, it provides a great endorsement for the concept of coaching. Ken describes his relationship with Shirley Anderson, his coach:

"I initially thought after taking my Scrubdown (you'll find out about that diagnostic tool as you read the book) that Shirley would try to fix me. But that was not the case. She treated me as if I was 'already perfect' - one of the key truths you'll learn from Scott and Madeleine. Once I realized that reality, I could choose to change any behaviors that I felt were not serving me. The key phrase here is 'I could choose' - Shirley would not choose what I would change or even change me, I would choose."

This concept that Ken discovered is a breakthrough concept that, if applied to business on a large scale, would transform our workplace. Employees often feel they are being controlled. True coaching relationships can lead the way to creating an organization of self-directed leaders who choose to reflect on the behaviors that are not serving them well. These self-directed leaders will choose to transform themselves instead of trying to change others.

Back to the book. . . After Ken's foreword, you'll read an overview of the coaching process and then eventually, in Chapter Two, you'll take the self-assessment he referred to as the Scrubdown. It is a list of 40 true or false questions that when answered honestly will lead you to examine a grid. That grid will aid you in determining what chapters to read first. This approach to the book models how a coaching relationship might develop. A coach will spend time getting to know you and determine what types of exercises would be helpful to you as you learn more about yourself. In this book, you will spend time getting to know yourself and then will select chapters that give you deeper insight through the exercises provided. The chapters that follow include these eight categories of exercises and reading:

1. Three perspectives: How do see yourself, how do others see you and how do you want to be seen?

2. Master your universe: Do you really know your environment?

3. Manage your gifts: What does is cost to let your gifts go unacknowledged?

4. Get your needs met: How do you undermine yourself?

5. Cherish and protect your valuables: What really matters to you?

6. Name and claim your standards: How do your standards hurt you?

7. Draw and Defend Your Boundaries: How did you let yourself become a doormat?

8. Eliminate Tolerations: What are you putting up with?

Sprinkled throughout the book are sections called Snapshots that are real examples of leaders working with coaches. Meet John, one client whose story begins in Chapter One and concludes in Chapter Eleven:

"I had six meetings yesterday, and I walked away from each one with so much work I don't even know what hit me. I'm working late every night, my wife seems permanently angry with me, I feel like I haven't seen our kids in weeks, and the best people on my team are all about to quit because the workload isn't easing up - it's getting worse."

Following the story to the end of the book, the reader discovers that after a year, John has the perspective to evaluate what he wants and the ability to communicate ways to achieve what he wants. If you can't relate to this particular story, there are over twenty other stories to read so you can recognize your own personal dilemma. Reading the stories in the book and completing the exercises that fit your situation will give you a fresh perspective on what is possible through a coaching relationship.

LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. offers coaching packages to fit your needs. Contact us at leaders@leaderstrength.com to set up a free sample coaching session.

Copyright 2003, LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. 630 Freedom Business Center , Suite 300 *

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