Category Archives: Coaching

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Shorter, More Frequent Coaching Conversations Are Better

You can be a great coach, but be less effective because your conversations are too long or too short or not frequent enough. This applies to anyone helping people grow: coaches, managers, parents, and ministers. What length, frequency, and delivery methods produce the most effective coaching conversations? Several studies point us to answers.

A study by Coaching Research Institute LLP polled clients about the behaviors and structures their professional coaches used and the resulting effects on clients. Significantly, those surveyed were clients not coaches, as in most coaching studies. Ninety-three professional coaches from

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Radically Improve Your Understanding of What People Mean

Communication is a two-way street. Someone talks. You hear, then interpret what they said. And this is the point where things can go wrong. We think we understand what they are saying, but often we don’t. Here’s why and what to do about it.

Four Reasons We Misunderstand What People Say

1. Words have multiple meanings

At an Apple iPod release presentation a reporter asked how long

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Coaching the Positive Impact Scales

After my previous two posts on Positive Impact Scales I was asked how to coach using them. I have seen incredible changes in people and their organizations as they made changes in these four areas: Purpose, Impact, Money, and Ease. Here is my toolkit for increasing Positive Impact.

First, let me overview my 4-step process to coach the Positive Impact Scales.

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4 Strategies You Follow That Reduce Positive Impact

Effective leadership produces a sustained result within the organization’s purpose. I developed the Positive Impact Scale to manage tradeoffs between Purpose, Impact, Money, and Ease. I wrote about those in 4 Tradeoffs to Create Positive Impact. This article looks at 4 strategies you may follow that actually reduce Positive Impact.

photo by Matt Hobbs

It’s sometimes more instructive to talk about what not to do. I’ve seen 4 common mistakes that leaders make when trying to create positive impact. By understanding these 4 mistakes, you can plan activities and predict outcomes, even unintentional ones, better.

Making Someone Else’s Impact – Feel-Good Impact

The good is the enemy of the best. That is the case with Feel-Good Impact. A classic example is the non-profit focused on the slow work of poverty alleviation through education. That is its Purpose. They face the constant temptation to

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4 Tradeoffs to Create Positive Impact

“Changed lives,” Peter Drucker said, is the bottom line for the not-for-profit organization. To produce the sustained ability to change lives, you need purpose, effort, organization and money. Everything you do is a trade off between resources and results. Here are 4 scales I use to plan and make decisions to create sustainable positive impact.

photo by Matt Hobbs

Let me explain the four scales first, then I’ll show you how they interact.

1. Purpose

Purpose answers the question Why? Purpose is the bigger picture you seek to achieve. Regardless of whether you are a solopenuer or large organization you must know and maintain focus on your purpose.

For a solopeneur, your purpose will be closely related to your calling and giftedness. You can stray from your calling, to go after money, for example, but you cannot continue for long without having the life drained out of your work.

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Do It Now: Change the Toilet Paper Roll and 19 Other Things to Boost Your Productivity

We are really good at putting things off until later. Some things, like changing the toilet paper roll, are better done now. Leaders who Do It Now at work and at home have more focus and greater productivity.

When I posted a photo on Facebook of an empty toilet paper holder and a new roll set on the counter, I received a lot of comments.

What surprised me was how many people defended setting the toilet paper on the counter rather than taking 10 seconds to put it on the holder. It’s a small thing, you might say. But when multiplied throughout the day,

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Want To Be Happy? Embrace Your Problems

Too often people find a new job, house, friend, or spouse, only to discover that the problems of the previous one followed them. Happiness comes not by changing the scenery but more often by changing our perspective.

We don’t like pain, dark questions, and life’s tensions. But it is one of life’s great ironies that personal growth and happiness are often a result of journeying through the tough times, not avoiding them. Shortcuts and Band-Aid solutions only repackage and prolong our difficulties.

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Effective Coaches Are Not Problem Solvers

This is a guest post by Katie, a coach instructor at Creative Results Management. She facilitates the ICF-approved teleclass series Strengths-Based Coaching and was part of the research team for the study on which the training is based. Katie has an MS in Leadership Development and Coaching Psychology and an PCC from the International Coach Federation.

I’m a problem solver. That’s what got me into coaching. I wanted to help people solve their problems and experience better results. I found the best way to solve a problem was to NOT be a problem solver.

It’s common in problem solving to focus on what’s missing to solve a problem or meet a challenge. The trouble is, what’s missing isn’t there! What’s missing is a hole. It’s empty.

This is where problem solving gets stuck.