Executive Coach and Executive Coaching Articles

Do you ever wonder why decisions you make foster reactions that you never dreamed of? In a Hay Group research brief entitled "Executive Blind Spots," the results of a large survey concluded that the higher executives rose within an organization; • The more they over-rated themselves compared to how they were rated by others, and; • The wider the gap between how they saw themselves and how their peers, subordinates, and managers viewed them.

Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. ~ Samuel Johnson Did your first marriage end in divorce? Did it leave you shaken and unsure about yourself, or life, or about marriage? Would you hesitate to enter into marriage again? Have you learned what you were supposed to learn so that a second marriage can be more successful? Wonderful? Frank Sinatra had a hit song entitled “The Second Time Around,” and the lyrics said: Love is lovelier, the second time aroundr Just as wonderful, with both feet on the ground

Chief learning officers (CLOs) are also known as Chief Knowledge Officers at various documents. These are the professionals who ensure the full-fledge availability of the critical knowledge firms in order to avail comprehensive business goals. A CLO measures various ways to earn huge revenue base from a company's intellectual property tags. These officers even and guide various institutions to become a learning organization in times to come. The CLO usually has CEO as the rep

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” ~ Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, 251 You know that I am a Change Coach. One of the most beneficial things I do is to help people who want to improve their lives to systematically make the necessary changes even though they currently feel locked in place and unable to change.

I’m going to fill you in on something many leaders don’t get: You must fulfill five very basic requirements if you expect people to perform. You MUST give your people an explicit sense of the overall organization’s mission and values, and why they should care about them. You MUST develop specific, precise, granular and measurable performance expectations with each of your people. You MUST review people’s performance against those expectations on a systematic, regularl

Do you think leaders are liars? A recent PBS show investigated the question - "Are leaders good liars?" According to psychologist Carrie Keating's experiments in human behavior - "the findings seem to demonstrate a correlation between persuasive abilities and dominant behavior." From the corporate world, to the curious gene pool that makes good politicians, the case can be made, according to Ms. Keating, for why leaders are good liars.

Imagine the patience Thomas Edison must have had. He reputedly failed 10,000 times before he perfected the incandescent bulb. For 13 years he feverishly worked on it.

I’m sure, you like me have in your daily life management planner a to-do list. Do you not? Well, do you have a to-be list? You know, a list of who you want to be. The type of person you really want to be. The highest version of your self? The unlimited you! Whether it is to be more philanthropic. Patient. Knowledgeable in a certain area. Gain mastery of your thoughts. Friendly. Humorous. Attractive. Resourceful. Loving.r

People in the real estate business talk a lot about the power of leverage. Essentially, it means investing a limited amount of personal cash to geometrically increase net worth through appreciation. Let’s say you buy a piece of rental property for $300,000 with a down payment of 20%. You laid out $60,000. The rental on the property covers your monthly mortgage and all of the expenses to maintain the property, so the investment is cash-flow neutral (for simplicity sake). In

We all know at least one of these people, in our circle of friends or where we work: in their professional lives, they are decisive, self confident, self disciplined, even tempered, energetic, productive, balanced and positive. In their private lives they are supportive, encouraging, patient and fair. These are the successful people that we admire and emulate. We are motivated by their successes; we want what they have and to be like them. Most if not all of these people have

I am a big believe in the theory of you get back what you put out. I think this especially holds true for volunteering for charitable causes. Recently I was asked to speak at a large Society for Human Resource Management conference here in Colorado. The topic they asked me to address was how ...

The Art of Using Notes I’m often surprised that many speakers still fall prey to the fallacy that preparation means memorization — and that bringing notes to the podium might make you appear ill-prepared in the eyes of your audience.

Changing a career can be a daunting prospect, especially if you have never done it before. The following steps will probably apply to those of you who are considering more dramatic change – but as a philosophy, these steps can be applied by anyone.

“I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.” ~ Maeve Binchy Most parents want their children to be smart as well as happy, while some have more specific dreams for their kids. Regardless of which category you prefer, every parent wants the best for his kids, so that the future of society is aggrandized. Kids don’t come with a “How To” manual, so you and I are free to do our level best for our kids. Here are some ideas that might help to contribute to your smart and happy child.

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me. ~ Henri Matisse When the cold, darker days of winter have passed; when we pack away our heavier draperies and we put away our winter woolens, like Mother Nature, our thoughts turn to lighter ideas of freshness. We can change to spring décor in our homes to a lighter, brighter theme and still be redecorating on a budget by following these suggestions:

Your stomach is tied up in knots. You need to tell a colleague what you really think, but you can’t...fearful of the reaction. Sweat breaks out on your palms. You need to say ‘No” to an unreasonable request, but a voice within tells you saying no isn’t acceptable. Who’s running the show? You or your inner critic? Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post said, “We may not be able to tune our inner critics out entirely, but we don’t

"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year." ~ John Foster Dulles We hope this doesn’t come as a shock to some of you, but there just isn’t any such thing as a pain-free, problem-free life. We hear about Nirvana, and Xanadu, and Camelot. These places do not exist in nature. They are man-made fantasies, and they still come with challenges.

What drives human behavior? There are a few schools of thought about what makes humans tick. I use Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Behavior to better understand why we humans do what we do, which includes five elements with multiple aspects in each element: physical survival, safety & security, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

As we approach the final week of wrapping up another year we will soon (if not already) assess how well we did in achieving our business goals. If you hit a home run this year in your business, it’s not hard to be joyful in this season of Christmas. However, if these last twelve months reflected nothing more than a disappointing series of strike outs, I know it’s pretty tough to feel joyful even during this holiday season. If that’s you, here’s where the psychology of success matters now more than ever. In fact, Christmas can teach us a critical lesson on that psychology of success.

Each of us has different standards regarding telling the truth vs. telling a lie. I’d like to share with you some ideas about why telling the truth might be a lot easier on you. Shakespeare said “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” That is a very meaty statement so let’s examine this topic about truth vs. lies.

Sometimes it simply takes courage to be still and unplug from all of our gadgets in order to listen to our souls. When we sense that we are disconnected from our colleagues, our spouse, our kids, ourselves, and even our dog......it is time to UNPLUG AND CONNECT! We know the headlines in entertainment, politics and sports. We are experts in our industry. Yet we stall and procrastinate getting away to get in touch. We become numb,empty bored and boring. We just need to follow

No man stands so straight as when he stoops to help a boy. ~Knights of Pythagoras Have you ever wondered why individuals like Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama encourage us to "be of service" to others and live that in their own daily lives? What is so wonderful about being of service?

People certainly beat themselves up for procrastinating. Well, when they get around to it, they beat themselves up. But what if procrastinating wasn't that bad? Just think: what if procrastination could actually be good for you? Example One: You procrastinate about buying that house you toured ...

ASK COACH DAVE How Not to Achieve Your Goals in 2011 By Dave Ferguson, 12/19/2010 Over the past few months, we’ve talked about how were going to tackle our goals and dreams drastically different in 2011. Now, lets talk about why some people fail to achieve their goals (so it doesn’t happen to you). I have found these 7 common reasons people fail to achieve their goals:

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” ~ Francis of Assisi Our society is so goal-oriented that any unfinished task feels like a source of distress and shame. We tend to either avoid thinking about our incomplete projects, or, we feel tremendous guilt over them. Somehow, the option to allow it to lie there peacefully unattended doesn’t seem to be an option.

2019 Learn to Cope With Stress By Dr Cita Maloon-Gibson, EmpowermentDOC™ Stress is a part of life and it can be categorized as good or bad. It is neither positive nor negative and can be internal or exte al. The Stressors of life may be beyond our control as stressors are a part of life. There are various stages of stress that triggers the body and various causes of stress. Stress can become distress and effects the way we process stress mentally and physically—is it all in your head? You can learn to cope with stress is my resolve.r

Perhaps, by now, you already know this truth: happiness is not something you need to discover because you are already capable of it and because it is intrinsic to the essence of your being! Believe it or not, happiness is not elusive. I just requires your focusing on it for it to become completely obvious to you, because it IS there. You see it in others and you like seeing it there. You want more of it for your own life. You may only need a few tools to either maintain a baseline of happiness, or build upon what you already have.

1) Spice it up (add color) For a quick fix, start by adding some color to your résumé you will stand out, but not only that, you can also take control of where the reader is looking. Their eye will tend to follow the bold color so you can use it to highlight your strong points like relevant job titles and bullets showing accomplishments. 2) Hit the bulls-eyer

People-watching is an insatiable craving in my life. People are beautiful, compelling and fascinating. With willing eyes and an open mind, we have so much to learn about how people choose to make their mark. While walking the beaches of Maui, Melinda and I were fascinated by an overwhelming wave of people who made the decision to decorate themselves with a tattoo. I guess that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise…people on the beaches of Maui walk around mostly uncovered – if you have a tattoo, Kaanapali Beach is a fitting showcase.

In coaching leaders to greater professional success, I often steer discussions to the idea of “Living a Purposeful Life.” As I think about my own approach to that issue, I’m drawn to thinking about my own daughter, Lindsay, and what she might tell me she sees as being my purpose in life. I think she’d say – because she’s been told it often enough – that being her mom was my #1 job in life. That I felt strongly that, once I’d given birth to her, I was going to give mothering all I had – that there would be no priority higher than her upbringing, during the years that that was occurring.

I became enthralled with the concept of change at a very early place in my life when I read about Gandhi and his principles. Because my life was also touched by the war in Lebanon, I knew life could not go on the way it was and I knew that I just had to change things in order for me to feel good about my life.

“Sometimes the most happy people in life are the ones with nothing. We can't lose sight of the little things in life that should make us the happiest.” ~ Ryan Cabrera Being happy. It sometimes feels so easy, and yet, in times of stress when it is replaced by another emotion, where did the happiness go? Some people are clearly born as natural cultivators of life’s most prized emotion – happiness - and that makes them particularly interesting. Where are you on the scale of happiness?

“I’ll just run this by my boss” was a phrase that I heard all to frequently from my client who came to see about work-related stress. Laura, a young woman in her first major corporate job, worked for a boss who micro-managed. The boss, who did not like surprises, insisted upon being appraised about each and every decisio Laura was about to undertake.

Here’s a list of some people I feel really sorry for: • Mike Tyson’s accountant (only kidding Mike – really!)rn• The choir director in my church (Would somebody please tell those people the truth about their voices?!)rn• Derek Jeter’s social secretary (busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest).rn• Here’s one just for my friends in Maryland and Virginia: The guys in charge of planning street construction in Montgomery County, Md., and Fairfax Co

Frank was the CEO of a large investment bank that was owned by a gargantuan New York bank. His boss Charles, the chairman of the bank, called me to coach Frank. (Frank and Charles are pseudonyms.) As Charles described it, Frank had a “rough engagement style,” which is corporate speak for not being able to play well with others. My phone call with Charles went like this: Charles: “Rand, Frank runs the risk of mutiny on his team. He belittles his guys publicly. He second-

The tension was palatable as the 2012 Presidential Town Hall meeting concluded. Following the debate, both men greeted their families and then continued campaigning — signing autographs and having their picture taken. Neither candidate turned to greet the other, neither acknowledged the others family. To me, this was a natural reaction to the animosity that was expressed during the debate. And in fact, if they had greeted each other I would have questioned the authenticity of the gesture.

“I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.” ~ Steve Maraboli Do you welcome success in your life? A healthy, positive, optimistic mindset does more than just boost your mood. A truly positive and self-affirming perspective allows success to be felt more fully. There are many ways to welcome and embrace a success-positive attitude:

When Carly Fiorina became the CEO of Hewlett-Packard years ago, she lamented that the culture had become one in which “anyone can say ‘no,’ but nobody can say ‘yes.’” How decisions are made is a significant part of any company’s culture. Like Ms. Fiorina, most executives wrestle with the priority of creating or changing their corporate cultures through the decision-making process. Years ago, as a senior executive of a financial services company, I undertook that

Debate over the existence of a “glass ceiling” for women for top leadership positions has been renewed by the publication of the book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and some new research data on gender equity. Sandberg is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

To the onlooker, John's life was idyllic. He was a vice president at a large financial services company. He earned great money and appeared to have a successful life. At the age of 43, his mortgage was paid off and his kids' college educations were funded. His wife did volunteer work as a member of two non-profit Boards of Directors after spending her first ten years after college working for a large consulting firm. rn rnJohn had been a vice president for seven years and was

As a thoracic (chest) surgeon, Aaron was used to working on hearts and lungs. He’s a gifted surgeon, with a wonderful bedside manner, impeccable skills, and true caring for his patients’ lives and families. But the truth was, his case volume was down, and so too was his income. What to do? Aaron was surprised to realize that he had a sales problem.

Is your company stuck? Are you in a hiring freeze? Are all of your new hires coming from competitors? Do you demand “current industry experience” when considering new candidates? Are you ignoring smaller competitors, no matter what kind of noise they’re making? Is your growth strategy centered around acquiring competitors? Don’t tell me – you just installed a new ERP system. Oh, and you’re looking for professional management to “right the ship.”

Now that you understand that you are made up of various parts and have identified those parts and what they mean to you, it is time to focus on them and yourself on a deeper level. This is where the real fun begins! It is important to note that some individuals have found that their spiritual ...

“If you cannot be positive then at least be quiet.” Joel Osteenr In her book, You Don’t Have to Go Home From Work Exhausted!, Anne McGee-Cooper explains that there are four chances during the day to recharge energy levels: “getting ready for work, commuting to work, eating lunch, and commuting from work.” She then advises on ways to plan and implement an improved routine for energy renewal. Expanding upon this, we have some fresh suggestions adapted from this workaday classic, because we want the best for you and your one sweet life. Getting Ready for Workr

Are you a renter or an owner? The question is generally asked about living space or maybe an office. Today, I ‘m asking about it with regards to your job and/or career.

“The focus of tolerance education is to deal with the concept of equality and fai ess. We need to establish confidence with children that there is more goodness than horror in this world.” ~ Morris Dees Your little boy wants to play soccer so badly. The others on the team consistently choose him last. Your son ends up sitting most games out, watching hopefully from the sidelines. It’s painful for you to watch the pain in him from not being selected. Your empathy for his plight can hurt.

For nine consecutive years, info marketing guru Dan Kennedy had been a presenter at the number 1 seminar tour in the US. You only have to be around Dan an hour to observe his certain kind of genius as well as understand that maverick is not an understatement. Despite his eccentric behavior he manages to hold on to some very sensible pearls of wisdom.

How many times have you found balance in your life, only to end up in the same unwanted yet familiar territory of unwanted behaviors? You realize it's not different this time. You're stuck again. You are not alone. It's part of our humanity to sabotage our best efforts. Understanding and ...

The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences. ~ Maria Montessori Do you think that your children are connected to nature? Do you remember the activities from your own childhood that bring up a sense of great joy? Have your kids become sofa-bound? Would you like to encourage more activity in them? Turn Off the Electronics!

Most times when working with clients I am offering strategies for learning how to find their voice, expand their voice, get heard, speak up, and make themselves known. You see the direction. However, a great leader knows when to be quiet. When to stop, listen, inquire vs. tell or simply avoid a conversation because it’s not in your best interest to speak up.