Tag: #Co-Active

Global Leader Tips

Possibility of Challenging

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One of the drastic but practical coaching skill is Challenging. And this is also quite helpful in the usual business conversations promoting the aggressive business execution. Challenging something to the coachees or members, it should be based on the definite belief of the unlimited potential of them. Besides, it may make them to find out their unconscious but extraordinary resources that have been equipped in their inside. Or, in some case, that could be the golden chance to him exceeding his own setting limitations. 
The effective and valid reaction with the certain Challenging of the members, usually show the dual aspects. One is the real surprising with the too much or too high target that have been requested, and the reaction could be “No, no, no, definitely impossible!” At the same time, he or she may feel some kind of happy feeling to understand the leader or coach believe their great possibilities. Then this intensive deal feeling will be the strong energy to evoke positive challenge exceeding his own setting then existing limitations.
For example, the leader asks his member to say thanks to his supporting staffs 50 times a day. He may counter immediately “No, it’s impossible.” This kind of first “No” is a kind of the door opening with Challenging. And the starting point of the conversations can be setting the challenging but realistic goals. Then there are two essential key points here. One is the member should find the challenging and appropriate goals with his own honest feeling as his commitment. And second one is the importance of the leader’s participation finding out his challenging line that should be exceeded his own setting and safe zone. The fun of using Challenging skill is to discovere the unexperienced zone with the alliance between leader, coach and member, coachee. 

Global Leader Tips

Discover new horizons – Meta-View

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Getting in to the imagination of the scenery from top of mountain looking over the new horizons. It will be quite different from the very limited view on the way of walking forest struggling, tired and exhausted. It brings absolutely comfortable feeling, brilliant and wide view, and possibly new ideas or awareness. Meta-View is one of coaching skills that can utilize that kind of changes of viewpoints.    
When the coachee is in the situation like falling in to the hole and is not able to see anything around him, Meta-View is helpful to change his depressed viewpoint to larger and higher one.
Using Meta-View by coach, same as discovering the new horizons from top of mountain, the coachee can look down the whole life, long and winding business career, corporate global strategy or total timeline of the project. 
And it is also effective for coach or leader himself to be the top of mountain, then watching carefully the coachee or member’s facing situation from there. The coach or leader should support him finding out the easiest and the best route to his original goals together. 
Especially in the business conversations, Meta-View is quite helpful in the situation like the member has been sticking to the detail problems or objections in the trivial places, to remind him the original goals, priorities and contexts. The leader’s questions of Meta-View will get him the wider viewpoints, release from getting stuck then support his own steady execution powerfully.

Global Leader Tips

Real Planning by Requesting

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In the coaching interaction, we’ve emphasized that this is a coachee’s agenda, because he is resourceful, and he knows the answers or resolving solutions. Still, it will be appropriate at times the coach to request certain actions. Coach’s ideas based on the experiences or intuitions, will be the useful materials that could be the coachee’s hints selecting his most realistic answers. The key to making successful request is not to be attached to it. The moment when the coach comes up with the brilliant idea, is just the starting point for coachee to get result. It’s still coach’s agenda, not coachee’s. With a request, there are always three practical responses: yes, no, or a counteroffer. The coachee can agree to the idea, reject the idea, or negotiate for something else. It’s no problem, if the coachee rejects the idea. “No” could be the good starting point asking coachee’s own ideas or answers. If necessary, the coach can explain why his idea will be the most appropriate and realistic. Then the coach may ask the coachee’s frank thoughts or concerns about that. The coachee will finally find out his own answers that he selects from several alternatives for himself. The coach should not order, should not force his ideas, is just supporting the coachee to find out the best answers. 
The requesting is one of the most helpful and practical coaching skills that can encourage the realistic planning in the business as well as personal life. It could be rather quite useful in the business conversations. Building up the practical action plans, that is quite important for the member’s feeling convinced, whom will make some actions. In the daily business conversations, in some cases it may look a little bit time consuming or irritate getting some action plans. However, thinking about speed and qualities of the series of actions that will be executed by the action takers who convinced and fully involved, certainly will be realized the better performance comparing with the order or given action plans. Anyway, the efficient leader can use order and requesting situationally as both effective interaction with the team members.        

Global Leader Tips

Powerful Acknowledging

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The coaching skill of acknowledging strengthens the coachee’s foundation, and it should be utilized in the business conversations, like leader’s recognition to his member. This skill should be focused on the whole personality of the member, not on the activities or achievements. For example: “Good job, Hiro.” or “Your presentation was quite impressive.” They are focused on the achievements or activities. Using acknowledging, leader should be focused on the inner personality or values of the member, like “You look absolutely sincere.”, “You always respect higher challenge.” 
The acknowledging will evoke the member’s confidence for himself and will encourage him challenging to the difficult situation. Sometimes the member discovers his unconscious strength by the acknowledging, and it could be contributed to dig out the member’s enormous inner resources and possibilities.
In addition to the powerful acknowledging to the member, leader should focus on the member’s impact and reaction. The effective and powerful impact of the acknowledging delivers to the member, that the leader can hear, sense and see them and it could be the great hints coaching and leading him to the absolutely better performance. 

Global Leader Tips

Metaphor Practice

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The communication style in Japan, is typically high context and indirect. It means the Japanese people take care of relationship and harmony, so they often do not use straight and direct words. Although the Metaphor is a quite effective skill generally, it’s very powerful in these situations especially. 
The metaphor is a kind of the visual and real expression of the situations or experiences, not the description nor explanation by some words. Then, it’s rather effective sharing the real feeling or image of the experiences. Although the metaphor is quite useful and powerful skill, it should be trained in the usual conversations intentionally. Learning the impressive and easy understanding metaphor, practicing to get the words out again and again, creating their own metaphors of something like “chaotic work environment”, “brilliant success”, “disappointment” and so forth. And it is also quite important that if the metaphor does not hit to the coachee or the member, the coach or leader should not stick on to his own metaphor any more, and he has to try something else.

Global Leader Tips

Big Impact of Articulating

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The articulating is one of the powerful coaching skills that can utilize in the business conversations. This coaching skill is also called longer name “Articulating what’s going on.” During the careful listening focusing on the whole person, may be one of the team members, the leader sometimes feels a kind of sense of awareness or something like intuition. The articulation is the ability putting the word simply or speaking out that feeling frankly. Sometimes telling him what is going on at that time or frank look of him. The important things are he often can’t see himself or an expression on his face. Or perhaps he can see details but not the whole picture.
With the articulation, the leader should share the observations frankly and clearly but without any judgement. The leader sometimes needs to tell him a kind of hard truth in order that the member find out the best and realistic solution or selection.

The effective articulating power is that the member can aware the unconscious feelings or facts, then he will not aware that by himself eventually without that articulation. Utilizing the big power of articulation, the leader has responsibility to articulate what he sees, but at the same time, as with all of coaching skills, not feel attached to being right about it. The articulating to boldly say what the leader sees without needing to be right, it could be empowered the member and could be pulled out his unconscious possibility. That’s why the articulating is powerful.  

Global Leader Tips

Career Selection with Coaching

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A career selection is one of the most critical subjects not only for the organizations but also for the individuals. In the general business field most of leaders and managers have a kind of career interview or individual development planning conversations. However, how much individuals are satisfied with their careers or development plans? Did each team member get it? Some of leaders may have explained only the organizational situations or circumstances.

In the discussion of their career planning or personal development, the coaching method is a quite powerful tool, and is also effective way for deepening the collaborative relationship between leader and team member. The leader’s most critical attitude is believing the member’s capabilities and possibilities, like NCRW; People are Naturally Creative Resourceful and Whole. Then the leader should focus on the whole person of the member, not on the daily business issues. The leader had better give his gentle and supportive look to the member’s happy whole life, not only for the business. Thinking about the frank feeling about his career connecting with his happy whole life, he can choose his coming career near future as his own resonant selection. If he believes that his selection with resonance making with his own intentions and convinced life purpose, he must move forward his daily business and life, with steadiness and fulfilment. 
To keep the team member’s motivation higher is one of the critical essences for the leadership. And that’s why the resonant career conversations through coaching method is the most essential hint presenting the leader’s deep feelings to his members. 

Global Leader Tips

Evoke Transformation

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Final cornerstone is the ultimate goal in the co-active model, and it is “Evoke Transformation” with the coachee. The common purpose of the collaborative conversation in co-active model is the coachee’s full and best life. The topic of the coaching will likely be something quite specific that is a kind of part of coachee’s life that the coachee is focused on, or is facing in the timing: new job, promotion, working condition, improved fitness, or execution on a business plan. Actually, some coachees may have their attention only on the specific goal for that specific topic. On the other hand, the coach sees not only the specific topic that the coachee brings, but also the fully connected life. The coach should have the pure desire to realize the coachee’s best, resonant and tasteful life. Then the coach structures the practical connection of the specific topic and the desired potential. These kind of positive, wide perspective and resolute engagement of coaching will bring the breakthrough awareness: a new strength, a renewed capability, a wide range of options, to the coachee. It seems like that they have real experience finding muscles they didn’t know they had or had forgotten they had. Then by taking a stand for the greatest possible impact from even the smallest action, coaches encourage, and ultimately “evoke transformation”.
Although Co-Active model originally designed for the professional coaching, it can be changed the daily conversations at work with a colleague as well as a son or a daughter. No doubt we were busy focusing on resolving a particular issue. But think again, with the advantage of hindsight, how the conversation might have changed if we are conscious of the four cornerstones.  
How does the quality of the conversation change when we start with a belief that the coworker, son, or daughter is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole? Capable? It’s possible the conversation might change from giving advice to being curious: asking more questions and inviting the resourcefulness of that other person. The awareness will be shift from daily business or issue itself to the someone’s hopeful life with the great possibility. 
The ability to dance with whatever shows up is certainly a leadership competency; in today’s world of business, great agility is essential. Effective leaders display that quality in their work with others every day. Even the fourth cornerstone, “Evoke Transformation,” can be a resonant field in which the conversation takes place. That brief conversation has the potential to affirm that colleague, son, or daughter in ways that reverberate long after the presenting issue has been handled.
Then, of course, we don’t need to be conscious for four cornerstones in every conversation. We can use them in addition to the usual conversations, problem solving mind-set, or logical discussion situationally, to get the conversation wider and deeper, then to evoke drastic transformation ultimately.

Global Leader Tips

Dance in this moment

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A conversation is a powerful and dynamic interchange between people. Although it is natural to pay attention to the content of the conversation: the words, the positions, the ideas, there is much more going on in every moment. Every conversation creates tone, mood, nuance in addition to the content. There is as much information, sometimes more in how the words are said; sometimes there is more information in what is not said than what is said.
The third cornerstone of four cornerstones in co-active model is “Dance in this moment”. This means the importance and possibility of dynamic conversation focusing on the moment, THIS moment, and then the next moment. For that, it is critically essential listening intently at many levels, and of course, choosing when and how to respond, to intervene. They should be with no plan, no scenario, no preparation. 
To “dance” is to respond from a co-active core meaning both “co” as in collaborative, and active, moving the dance forward. In a truly co-active conversation there are moments when the coach leads the dance, moments when the coachee leads the dance, and moment when it is not clear at all who is leading and who is following.
The perfect dance should be lose the designation of leader and follower in a place of tuned in to each other and in a place of frank but trusted. 
The synergy of their synchronized dance should be utilized only for the coachee’s learning and discovery.   

Global Leader Tips

Focus on the whole person

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The second cornerstone of four cornerstones in co-active model is “Focus on the whole person”. People are usually focus on solving issues that they are facing, not only in the business but also in usual life. Especially in the business, leaders and managers have to focus on the problems or issues that they should solve realizing the required outcome. Under enormous pressure, first task they take on is to identify the problem to be solved. This is quite understandable, and of course solving problem is important. However, leaders manage people, not just problem. Developing talent and creating a more resourceful and effective organization accomplishes sustainable results, long after the presenting problem is solved. Even under organization stress, this whole-person mind set sees opportunity not to be overlooked.
The person does have a problem to solve: a change to make, a dream to fulfill, a task to accomplish, a goal to reach. All of these are true. But this person is more than the problem at hand, or the dream, the task, the goal. This is a whole person: heart, mind, body, and spirit. And this issue, whatever it is, is not neatly isolated. It is inexorably entwined in the person’s whole life.   
The “focus” here should be a soft and broad focus, an attentive focus that includes the whole person and the whole life, listening on many levels. It is not a hard, tight and concentrated focus on the whole person. We should not be focusing on heart, mind, body, and spirit as independent elements. Then a coach or anyone in a co-active conversation ought to be tuned in to the influences that are present in these different dimensions.
Obviously, a focus on the whole person also means that we are aware of all the ways the issue or topic before us is interwoven in the person’s life. The key is increased awareness that the single and narrow subject should be connected to the possible broader or deeper conversations for the person’s whole life. Although a  coach or a leader can work with someone on a very narrow topic, in the co-active way there is a larger picture of the whole person and the person’s whole life.