Leadership: Assumptions or Facts?

I was revisiting many of the comments I've received in the past and they got me thinking….

I heard everything from “Talking about leadership style is a distraction” to analogies re the present Administration to definitive ideas of what makes a leader. These are amazing, insightful comments.

I wonder how many assumptions are made around the term and definition of ‘leader’? One might assume that a leader needs followers. One might assume a leader is brought on board to help evolve an organization. And one might assume that a leader has the ideas, insight and innovation to bring a stagnating organization forward. There are assumptions that leaders have the “ability to see a bigger picture than us and an ability to make meaning for us”. That is definitely not the case, though something most people crave in their leaders.

I could ask 100 people about what they look for in a leader and get 100 different answers. Oh yes, there would be commonalities, but as everyone’s needs differ, so do their needs for what they want in a leader.

A question recently asked is “Do leaders really listen to advice or do they use advice to validate what they already know and want to do?” A great question. To find out the answer I’d have to poll many a leader. You might assume I’m going to pose that question to you (and you would be right)

Listening to advisors and integrating their advice are very different and can really impact a leader’s world. Paying attention to informed advisors can also make or break a leader. I know many in positions of leadership who are known for their experience and level of expertise but that doesn’t mean they have the up to the minute information they need or are up on current trends. No one person has all the information necessary to run an organization. What they need are the right contacts in various areas of expertise to give them what they need when they need it.

As a Shadow Coach™, one of the dynamics I question clients on is when they say “Interesting concept, however I would have done it this way”… and continue to outline their perspectives. When this happens on a regular basis, I challenge my clients to stretch beyond what they know into the world of the unknown to listen for and integrate what they didn’t know.

Great leaders listen to the wisdom of those around them. I’ll go out on a limb to not only say that’s an assumption but a fact. Learning is more than gathering information. It’s being open to realizing you don’t know and will never know all you need to know to lead and operate from that premise.

Your thoughts on this?

Best!
Donna Karlin

**A few notes: Welcome reader from Suriname, 120th country and counting! We're very glad you've joined us and hope you stick around for a long long time.

Many of you are emailing me directly with your insightful comments, which is great! Keep them coming! Now if you posted them as comments on the site, that'll generate more than just my three cents and will create a community dialogue. That way everyone can benefit from your perspectives as well.

Secondly we put out a free newsletter, Perspectives in Brief every other week that is delivered to your in-box or handheld that will give you great tips on the run to run with, pricing breaks for coaching and program launches. Reading time 2 minutes or less. To subscribe, go to www.perspectivesinbrief.com/subscribe

Perspectives of 2007 and What’s to Come in 2008

It’s that time of year again. Amazing how much was packed into the year and what’s to come for 2008. 2008…. Wow!

As busy as I was in 2006, I was even busier in 2007, but I figured it out. It’s that Time Mastery thing where I really learned to respect time and my life in relation to it. I figured out I do about 30 days work in 20 days. Impossible? No, not at all. It’s working smarter, making better choices, working with clients and in realms that energize me rather than deplete my energy. Nothing will take me from enjoying an amazing personal life as success is life. To me, a successful life is one lived from joy and growth. It’s all of my life, not just one aspect of it.

So let’s recap for a moment. And if I forgot something and you catch it, let me know OK?

I’ve been writing more programs, launched ‘It’s All About You…and Others”, I’m working on a guide for those going through a rough divorce, a coaching methodology perspective so you thrive throughout, I’m doing Time Mastery workshops and working on a virtual program with my friend Donna. Yep…the Donna and Donna team. Scary duo but hey, we’ve been creating some great things…

I’ve been teaching in many parts of the world and loving it. I was elected to the Board of the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations and the Board of Governors for the International Association of Coaching. Those positions are a huge honor for me as they are at the cutting edge of Coaching in Organizations and credentialing based on Mastery in our field.

I’m working with clients who are global leaders and continually blow me away at their authenticity even in positions of power (and yes! they can and do co-exist).

I’m wearing many hats, that of Executive Coach, Shadow Coach, Teacher, Lecturer, Participants in Research and Development and Think Tanks, collaborating with some amazing colleagues, writing both articles and program content, became an expert on SelfGrowth.com, have developed quite the readership for my Fast Company Experts Blog, am now a part of Faith Popcorn’s TalentBank, still working with Microsoft Vision Team to look at the life/balance and context of technology.

The new year will bring me to new parts of the globe as I teach my Shadow Coaching model to Master coaches from all over the world. I’ll be writing more, picking and choosing the clients I want to work with, and helping design international symposia. I’ll be looking at identifying rising stars and helping them evolve into their level of excellence. It’s not only about succession planning…it’s about growing new talent and helping the next wave of leadership slide into roles they are really ready for. As corny as it might sound to some of you, I’ll be looking to see how I can make a difference in the world. It’ll mean strategic choices as well as paying attention to how I could have the biggest ripple effect. And I’m going to help grow the practices of future Master Coaches so they thrive and have prosperous practices. It’s not only about teaching what it is I do….it’s about helping them create sustainable, thriving practices where they can do what they do best and grow their businesses at the same time.

It’s time I shared more. It’s making strategic choices in that as well as let’s face it, I can’t be everywhere at once. But just as my work is laser, so can my mentoring sessions be as well.

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. I do, however set intentions as for me, they’re a lot more powerful and do-able. My main intention for 2008 is to make sure I always have time for the people in my life ....and life!

And to you all, I wish you a happy new year, filled with possibilities, and choices, not out of obligation but joy. May you grow, experience life to the fullest rather than just exist through it and may you realize how you touch everyone around you, known and unknown to you in a profound way. It’s how you choose to touch them that will determine what that might mean to them and for you.

I wish you the best of 2008 and beyond.

Donna Karlin

***Note: For tips on the run to run with, and to be the first to know about program launches and special pricing packages, subscribe to our free newsletter Perspectives in Brief; 2 minutes reading time or less, delivered every other Tuesday directly to your inbox, BlackBerry or handheld.

Breakthrough

What is 'Breakthrough'?

def.
1. an act of overcoming or moving through an obstacle or restriction.
2. an important discovery in a particular field that encourages an acceleration in knowledge.

Have you had a breakthrough lately? It’s very different than making small changes in your life, career, or ways of being that might or might not be sustainable. It’s the tipping point that shifts paradigms permanently. It's changes the way you process thought, the way you tackle something and interact, deal with issues, lead others,…it’s all of it. You’ll never be the same or 'go back' because the fundamental way you think will come from a different place altogether.

To use an analogy, picture being surrounded by tinted glass, an enclosed room muffling everything around you. All of a sudden something comes along that smashes the glass. It’s not removed, it’s eliminated. There are no more barriers, no filters. All of a sudden the walls are opened up no longer boxing you in, allowing light, or illumination to stream in. The epitome of the 'AHHA!' moment bringing absolute clarity and direction.

Take that analogy and apply it to your life, your leadership, your perspectives. Now what would it look like?

*Note: We just hit 115 subscribers! Welcome our new reader from Luxembourg. Sit back and enjoy and we'd love if you'd share your thoughts with us.

Bookmark this page and hold onto it

You know I don't often include recommendations but this deserves a special mention. Save the bookmark so you have it when you need it because as professionals you will need it at some point and this way you won't have to look any further.

David Bernstein, former coaching editor at Wiley, recently set up Able Press Consulting to expertly guide folks through the self publishing process. David (who at Wiley published Pat Williams, Coach U, and many others in the coaching world) helps coaches, speakers, and consultants to create a profitable self publishing strategy, and to professionally execute that strategy.

If you're even thinking of publishing, contact David. You won't be sorry!

Being a Part of a Global Community

I was recently asked what it meant to be a part of a global community. It's funny because in Coaching none of my colleagues and friends confine their practices to their general geographical area. However it means more than that....

In writing this blog, for example, I have created a global community of 110 countries and territories where people from many parts of the world can comment on their perspectives, ways of being, challenges and victories and educate us as to what's happening in their worlds in every possible context. I can't imagine confining my learning to just my city or country. How in the world could I bring a richness to my work if I was so boxed into one way of thinking? I certainly couldn't serve my clients well enough that way.

Technology has made the world a very small place where we can now pick up the phone, use Voice over Internet (Skype etc) to have lengthy conversations at very little cost. We can email, post blogs, contribute to Wikis and have intranets like CollectiveX bring global working communities together as if they were around the corner. Even with how easy it is to reach out, most people tend to stay within their immediate worlds.

Is it more comfortable? Perhaps. Is it a way for people to ignore some of the horrific things that are going on in other parts of the world? Also a definite possibility.

What does it mean for me to be a part of a global community? It means expanded learning, a ripple effect that goes beyond my wildest dreams or imagination, connection and possible impact.

What would it mean to you to be a part of a global community? What would it bring to your life and the lives of others?

Best..
Donna Karlin

*Note: Speaking of global community, welcome 111th subscriber country from Armenia. Make yourself welcome!

It's a Launch!

Well, it's finally happening. After a truck load of emails, and trust me when I tell you there is NEVER a shortage of emails in my inbox, we’re finally launching our newsletter Perspectives in Brief. We’ll have a home for it at http://www.perspectivesinbrief.com/, for those of you who sign up after tomorrow’s post so you can read what was sent out in the past.

And as comments keep coming in to this blog, through my weekly posts on Fast Company Experts, and through published articles and interviews, I realized I had to do a few things differently as well as add a few. So to meet those requests, I created a self-coaching program that will give people a piece of me even when they can’t (for whatever reason) have a piece of me and secondly set up a system by which I could be more accessible through phone or technology for laser and lightening round sessions.

We just launched “It’s All About You…and Others”. Click here to check it out! Soon to be released is our Time Mastery program, “If I Could Save Time in a Bottle”. Stay tuned. We'll let you know when that one's going to launch.

As of tomorrow, the first broadcast of Perspectives in Brief will be sent out to subscribers. It’s a short sweet, to-the-point 'tips to run with' and think about that can be delivered through your in-box or Berry. The way I look at it, anything longer than what you can read in an elevator is too long for a newsletter. To sign up, fill in the form on the sidebar of this blog to get you going. More in-depth and detailed articles, book recommendations etc will be posted here on Perspectives.

We’ve reserved a few days a month for laser and lightening round sessions. I believe executive coaches need to rethink how they work with many clients. Life coaches are a different realm altogether, but in this fast paced chaotic world when sometimes you might need a half hour to an hour reality check, brain storming session or removal of a roadblock, one session just might do it. And if you know it’s possible to book as you need, then you’ll get what you need.

For those solopreneurs, business people or those new coaches who are up-and-comings and need some help in designing a practice that works for you, hour long lightening round sessions will give you the chance to pick my brain and create something that speaks you, not a clone of someone else and to look at marketing, target audience etc. Let’s get you jumping into the deep end with an eye on the sky, OK? To find out more about how to book Lightening Round and Laser sessions with me, email us and we’ll get right back to you!

It’s time you asked for what you want, not just accept what you’re getting. But that goes for life too, does it not?

Best!
Donna Karlin

Perspectives for the Summer

Over the summer months we tend to spend more time playing than inside reading so to reflect that, I'll be posting shorter, to the point posts. This is the time of year when I do more program and model creation as well as seeking out like-minded blogs and articles and wading through the many books I've been asked to review.

How you'll benefit from this is to be the first to find out what it is I'm launching, creating and to be able to benefit from launch discounts, tips and pointers and other blogs to peruse that will give you the insights you're looking for.

Today I'd like to quote a blog I came across which really resonated with me.
Nic Askew writes... When your company must show itself naked...Exposing Company Soul...

"It occurred to me that if a company doesn't know its own essence, its reason for being perhaps even its soul then it will, as a result, spend most of its time and money re-inventing itself to react to the world.

It will always be telling the market what it thinks it needs to hear in order the convince that market to act how it wants. That sounds frustrating and expensive.

And I'm not sure that such a company could ever possess the sense of wonder & curiosity that would act as a lighthouse to customers, employees, ideas, funding etc. That also sounds no fun at all. Why do it, why run such a business?" Click Read On for the rest of the article..

The same concepts goes for individuals, though, doesn't it? If we can't articulate what it is we want in life, work, relationships, any of it, we too will be in reactive mode and let life's circumstances dictate our roles within it. Is that what you want? You can fall into a life based on everything and everyone else, or create it.

Best..
Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome subscriber from Bahrain. 105 countries and territories and counting!

To Learn You Must Know

People look at their worlds through the perspective of what they know. It’s obvious, right? What I love to see is when they discover what they didn’t know and then want to dive into the deep end of it and learn everything they can. That’s the best part of being a Shadow Coach; watching awareness as it dawns.

It happens to me on a regular basis. When I’m teaching seasoned experienced coaches and look at paradigms, concepts, ways of being and touch on something that had never occurred to them before, all of a sudden the energy in the room is tangible; enthusiasm so intense you can almost ‘taste’ it. Now what if leadership brought that to an organization? Not only would staff want to dive in with both feet, but they know instinctively that through every day they’d learn something that would shift their developmental level exponentially. Now what would one have to do to make that happen?

The first thought that comes to mind is to dialogue and often. Not meetings that drain everyone in the room of any energy they might have arrived with at the start of the day but a true brainstorming dialogue to create and listen to ideas and experiences they never heard or thought of before and to explore the possibilities.

What if, instead of regular meetings, there were creative sessions once a week or bi-weekly that brought out the best of every individual around the table, no matter role or responsibility? What if we went way beyond that? I started reading the book Wikinomics which talks about harnessing the knowledge, perspectives and insights of people from all over the world, not just within the boardroom. Could you imagine how powerful that would be?

Possibilities are endless. But what steps would you have to take to make that happen and then do something with the outcome? Ahh now that’s a whole other conversation for another time. It’s call paying attention to what unfolds.

Best!
Donna Karlin

*A few notes: As I'm constantly asked by coaches, students and businesspreneaurs alike what I use for my graphics work, my postcards, logos etc, not to mention the technology I use in my work, I updated my Coach Tools of the Trade site with all my recommendations. Go to Coach Tools of the Trade to check it out.

Secondly, stay tuned for an upcoming invitation to connect with people from all over the world through 'Perspectives'. Let's see in real time just how powerful it could be to bring people together from all over the world.

Lastly, now and then through my blog I'll be recommending books, websites, new software I've come across that might just meet a need or two of my clients and readers. One such discovery deals with memory improvement. I can't tell you how many times in a day I'm asked if I know any way to improve memory retention, especially when it comes to names! Check out this software. Memory Improvement Techniques It'll go a long way in helping you retrieve that information that seems to have gone poof into the night or the quiet recesses of your mind.


A great book that really packs a punch is Wikinomics. You'll never look at brainstorming and sharing knowledge in the same way again! And for a blogger who has subscribers from 99 countries and territories it makes a world of sense and yet still leaves me with a sense that even more is possible.