Mountain State University LeaderTalk

Welcome to Our New DEL Cohort

New Doctor of Executive Leadership Cohort, Students and Faculty

 None of our new Doctor of Executive Leadership students will forget this wintry weekend, the first residency of their three year program. Despite threatening weather conditions, all fifteen students arrived on campus. They've come from as far away as Florida, Texas, and Colorado. A few members of this group are Mountain State employees, including the Senior Officer for Human Resources. This group of fifteen students is embarking on an exciting adventure, a time of intense study and self reflection.

Unlike our first DEL cohort who began their study in October 2009 as in-seat students, and who meet on campus on an average of two times per month, this group willl complete the majority of their study in an online modality as our first web cohort. They will use a variety of technology to connect with one another for group interaction and projects. Their time on campus will consist of a four day residency each year.

Welcome, students! We're glad you're here and excited to follow your journey to the doctorate.

To follow one student's journey, check out Dallas Bragg's Developing Daily.

February Round Up: A Leader Develops Others' Capacity

This has been a great month of conversation on the topic of "A Leader Develops Others' Capacity." We have barely scratched the surface with the posts presented here; there is so much more to be learned and discussed about how leaders can make a difference by building into the lives of others.

I am pleased to present this round-up of posts on the topic to extend the learning found at LeaderTalk. These posts come from some of the best and brightest bloggers I know. To be included in next month's round-up, email me a link to your post on next month's theme, "A Leader Embraces Diversity and Bridges Differences" by Friday, March 26, 2010 for inclusion in the round-up on Monday,March 29th. Write a new post for the round-up or dig into your archives to find one.

There's some great information contained in the posts below. I hope you'll take some time to read the posts included in this month's round-up.

In his post "Investing Time in Developing Leaders," Bill Bliss asserts that developing others is one of the most important tasks of a leader.

Tanveer Naseer shares a personal story about a great boss who helped his employees develop their capacity in his post,"Leaders, Are You Developing Your Employee's Superpowers?"

Find motivation for developing others in this post from Mary Jo Asmus, "Four Selfish Reasons to Develop Your Employees."

Steve Roesler gives great advice for coaches to improve their effectiveness in "Seven Elements of Effective Coaching."

Jennifer V. Miller reminds those of us who are fortunate enough to have been mentored and developed by others to say thanks.

Feedback is a powerful tool in developing others. Sonia DiMaulo shares some powerful insight in her post "The Power of Feedback in Coaching."

Miki Saxon shares a wonderful illustration of how even people's flaws can be appreciated and enjoyed in "Why Cracked Pots Are Good for Your Team."

Wally Bock offers "Leaders Decide, Let Them Learn How," encouraging leaders to allow people to grow through practice and learn from mistakes as well as successes.

This great post on mentoring from Mike Myatt, "Mentoring — A Word to the Wise," offers clear advice for people as they develop mentoring relationships.

Tanmay Vora outlines a plan to help people develop capacity by building their confidence with small successes in this post,"Play to Your People's Strengths."

Why choose one? Read them all! Be sure to check out this selection of posts from Kevin Eikenberry for practical insights about coaching. And don't forget to sign up for Kevin's Coach and Be Coached event on March 16th.

A late addition: I want to introduce you to Ericka Hines, aka Social Change Diva, who is fairly new to the leadership blogging scene. In this post "Scarcity, Mysticism, "Can't" - Creative Tensions for Leaders," Erica shares her views of leadership and leadership development.  

Coach AND Be Coached

Over 16 years ago, Kevin Eikenberry left a corporate position at Chevron to start his own coaching and consulting business. His life's work has been helping others develop their capacity. His goal, simply put, is to help leaders be their best.

Kevin and his team are putting together an exciting learning opportunity for everyone: Coach and Be Coached. It's already on my calendar and I hope you'll put it on yours:

March 16, 2010 from 11 am EST to 3 pm EST

Kevin personally called me on the phone to tell me about this event and it fit so well with our theme this month that I decided to interview him about it and share the information with you.

Coach and Be Coached will be four hours of live streamed video, featuring interviews with top level coaches from various fields: sports coaches, CEOs, consultants, and more.  

What are you hoping to accomplish through "Coach and Be Coached"?

We want to use a unique platform and an exciting group of coaches from a variety of disciplines to inform and inspire leaders to think more about their role as coaches. We want leaders to do more than recognize the need to coach; we want them to see coaching as a great opportunity.

Beyond that, we want coaches to look in the mirror and recognize the importance of being coached — that they have tremendous potential that being coached will help them tap and unleash.

Our third goal is to support our internal and external “brethren" — organizational leaders, HR professionals, trainers, consultants, and coaches — who are helping leaders and organizations improve. We hope those people will join us, too: to be rejuvenated, to get new ideas, new connections, and new tools.This live streaming video event will be informative to be sure, but it is will also be fun and inspirational! And we plan to do everything we can to add value for people that day – whether they can join us for 10 minutes or the full four hours. People can learn more on Facebook or can register here.

Tell about your first experience with coaching.

My father was my first coach. Growing up on a family farm gave me the chance to receive coaching from him from a very young age outside the spectrum of parenting (though the line was often blurry). Dad was more than my Dad, he was also my employer. He coached me on work habits and behaviors as well as job specific tasks, many of them too messy or smelly to discuss here.

My first experience coaching others was in high school. I was junior class president and experienced a very strange dynamic during spirit week. Rather than doing many tasks, I found myself being pulled from group to group as each group asked to give my advice and counsel on various tasks. This was an early lesson to me about the role of a leader as a coach.

How long have you been involved in coaching?

A long time! As a professional, I have been involved in coaching — both coaching and being coached —from the beginning of my career. In my first sales role, I had the chance to coach our customers' sales people on how to best sell our premium products. It gave me a unique and interesting perspective to coach people who were older and more experienced in the work world than me! Later in my career at Chevron, I had the opportunity to coach both leaders and trainers from my role as their consultant.

I am still coaching others today. Now, of course, with my terrific team at The Kevin Eikenberry Group, I get to continue to practice my coaching skills as well.

What is the single most important reason you think people should be involved in coaching (or being coached... or both)?

People should only be interested in receiving coaching if they want to be their best.

If we are leaders, it our responsibility to help others be more successful in their work as a part of our team. It is also our opportunity to help others develop and become more successful. In a leadership role, we have a unique situation to influence and help others grow. In the end, this is one of the most important and gratifying parts of our work as a leader: that we can make a difference in the world by making a difference for others.

A Myth About Developing Others

Investing time and energy in helping others' develop can seem like a huge undertaking, and it is.

Many years ago, I worked as a tutor at local YMCA. One afternoon, one of my students began sharing her story with me. Due to a crisis in her family, she needed a temporary home. Her mother had contacted a local church to look for a family who would be willing to care for her.

Immediately, I began to wonder if my husband and I could do it. A few weeks later, on a cold November evening, "Mary" came to live with us. Too young to be her parents, but too old to be her pals, my husband and I began to discover what our roles might be in her life. For the next 9 months, we shared our lives with her: laughing, crying, car-pooling, homework-helping.

One of my favorite moments from that year happened during late spring. During a thunderstorm, torrents of rain poured from the suddenly dark grey sky. We had been gardening, digging square shaped beds for flowers, and we rushed to our front porch to avoid the rain. We yelled inside for Mary to come out, and we all sat together on the porch, feeling the warm breeze and watching the lightening in the distance. We sang together — something loud, undoubtedly.

It was an intense time, those nine months that Mary shared our home, life-changing for all of us.

But developing others doesn't have to be an all-in, 24 hours a day, invite-someone-to-live with you sort of proposition.

Leaders can develop others on-the-fly or for-a-moment. Developing others can happen up-close but it can also happen from a distance.

If you want to develop others, don't be overwhelmed by the myth that making a difference will require as much as you can give. Instead, keep these simple ideas in mind.

• Developing others begins with valuing them and believing that they have the potential to grow and learn.
• Developing others can be as simple as sharing who you are and what you know
• Developing others can happen in whatever time you have to give, from minutes to hours each week.

Join the conversation!

What keeps you from developing others? or How have you made developing others a habit and priority?

Share What You Know

A week ago, my family moved from our home in Chicago, where the view from our windows looked like this,

to southeast Michigan, where the view from our back deck looks like this.

After one week in our new home, I am happy to report that we've unpacked most of the boxes. And, thanks to the help of extended family nearby, we have also checked a number of projects off our to-do list.

One of those projects: replacing a few electrical outlets. I had assumed we would need to hire a professional for that one; wiring is not in my skill set, nor in my husband's.

But my husband's uncle, who has helped out around our home for two days this week, has built his own house, so he volunteered to work on the outlets AND he taught my husband a few things about electric circuits.

This is a long introduction to a post with a simple message: Leaders who develop others' capacity share what they know.

The trick to sharing what you know is being very clear about what your skill set is so that you know what you have to offer to others. Once you know what you know, you can start to give that knowledge away to others, helping them to learn and develop.

Take a moment to think about it. What are the five things you know the most about? The things we know best are the easiest ones to pass on to others. Teaching them to others feels natural and requires little advance preparation.

You can share what you know in a formal way, as a teacher, mentor, or coach; or you can share what you know informally, the way my husband's uncle did — along the way, as you go, as a matter of course. In both cases, sharing what you know is most successful when it happens in the context of trusting relationships.

Join the conversation:

What are some of the things you know best?

How do you share them with others?  

Guest Post | Extending Capacity

This is the first guest post of 2010 and I am pleased to feature Christopher Zaucha. Chris is the co-founder and Vice President/CFO of Innovative Glazing Systems, Inc. a sub-specialty Union contractor in the field of glass and glazing.  

Chris has been a member of Board of Trustees of the Institute of Certified Construction Industry Financial Professionals (ICCIFP) since the organization’s inception in 2003 and served as Chairman in 2008-2009.   He has authored several articles for CFMA Building Profits and ICCIFP Inside the Institute on issues such as leadership, mentoring, time management, volunteering, social media, and other timely topics and maintains a blog, CFO Insights.

He received a degree of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from Villanova University, and holds ICCIFP’s Certified Construction Industry Financial Professional (CCIFP) professional designation.

There is a common misconception when discussing mentoring, coaching, supervising, etc.: Too often, the discussion centers on the different opportunities we as leaders have to extend the capacity of others. Instead, the conversation should focus on how extending the capacity of others allow us to extend our own simultaneously. When we share thoughts, experiences, and knowledge with others we receive the same in return, resulting in fresh, new ideas.

Mentoring is often viewed as a one-way street. At times, it is ... but it should not be. In giving of your time to help develop colleagues, you also gain enlightenment. Through your interactions, both parties share different points of view. It is this opportunity to have a fresh perspective that typically lends itself to a proactive environment where ideas are frequently shared and developed. This creates a dynamic relationship and exchange of knowledge between the parties.

Everyone needs to be exposed to new opportunities to develop their capacity. When discussing these with the individuals you mentor, ask them to challenge you to reach greater heights. After all, we did not get where we are today by shying away from the prospect of a challenge. If you truly want to give others the chance to be great and shine, allow them the same chances you were afforded (or those you wish you had been afforded). Exhibit the same willingness to accept opportunities and challenges that they present and your own capacity will be developed.

Developing the capacity of others is a two-way street, an ongoing relationship that results in mutual growth, understanding, and enlightenment. Ultimately, everyone benefits from boundless capacity and the willingness to share ideas and experiences. If given the opportunity to question, challenge, and inspire you, the individuals you mentor will receive confidence and inspiration in return.

Join the conversation:

How have you grown in your own abilities as a result of mentoring others?

What are some other ways that we can make mentoring a two-way street?

How To Develop Others

Developing others' capacity involves providing exposure, opportunity, and challenge.

In order to grow, people need exposure; they need to be exposed to new ideas, new relationships, new environments, new technology, new ways of doing things. A leader's role is to introduce others to new worlds, expanding their experiences and providing the tools they need to develop their capacity.

People need opportunity in order to develop their skills and abilities, to turn exposure to new ideas and relationships into action and practice.

Leaders who give others opportunity give more than just a one time experience. Opportunity helps people discover new abilities, develop strengths, and re-ignite latent ability.

By providing opportunity in the present, leaders help a person develop abilities that unlock future opportunities.

To be truly effective, leaders provide opportunities that challenge people beyond their current capacity. Challenges help people stretch and grow while giving them confidence.

Leaders who provide exposure, opportunity, and challenge help others develop their capacity.

Join the conversation:

How do you challenge others? What opportunities can you provide? In what ways do you expose others to new worlds?

Of the three components leaders provide to develop others, which do you find the most difficult?

Set Aside Time to Develop Others

I could see Kaldi's from my office window. The coffee shop offered breakfast bagels, panini sandwiches and salads at lunch time, and a cozy corner for my mentoring appointments with Cindy.

As often as we could, we met for lunch, stolen hours in the midst of busy workdays. Often, we had to cut our conversations short to return to meetings or get back to our desks to meet deadlines.

We each made those regular lunch dates a priority, and over time we shared our stories and struggles with one another.

Our real breakthrough came one weekend when we attended a retreat together. The hours in the car, late night talks in the cabin, and afternoon walks through fall leaves provided the time and space we needed to connect more deeply than we had before. Later, Cindy remembered that weekend as a major turning point in her life, a time of growth and healing for her.

Certainly, our weekly times together laid and important foundation in our relationship. But the time away was special, set apart, sacred.

Leaders who want to make an impact by developing others need to set aside time to do so.

If you're looking for a breakthrough in a mentoring or coaching relationship, consider planning a day-long or weekend retreat. Attend a conference together. Break out of your usual routine.

Developing others takes time: regular and predictable times, part of a routine or schedule, but also extra times away from the daily grind.

Change in location and change of routine can create the conditions needed for people to make other changes in their lives. Time spent away from business as usual is more easily remembered and cherished.

Join the conversation!

When have the greatest times of growth occurred in your life and relationships? What special times can you set aside to develop others?

How To Have Great Impact

My oldest daughter has lived over 35 million minutes in her eight and a half years of life. She's grown from 7 pounds to 60 and stands about four feet tall. She is independent in many ways, especially compared to the infant we brought home from the hospital.

She has a lot more growing up to do, and I feel so privileged to walk through life with her and watch her grow.

Even though I know she has many more minutes to live in my care, I still feel an urgency to make the most of our time together. These first 8 years have gone so quickly.

Leaders who want to invest time in developing people need to remember that developing people takes time: Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades.

The greater the investment of time, the greater the impact.

Developing people — like raising children — doesn't happen overnight or instantaneously. There are no short cuts or accelerants, no quick fixes.

The way to have a great impact is to invest time in relationships.

Parents know this instinctively: raising kids is an everyday commitment, with steps forward and steps back. A parent's commitment to developing children is long-term, lifelong. And the impact of parents on the lives of their children is inestimable.

Leaders who want to have a great impact can apply the principles of parenthood to their employees, colleagues, or followers.

1. To have a great impact, make a great investment of your time and commitment.
2. Growth comes from relationships. The closer the relationship, the greater the impact.
3. In developing people, there will be setbacks along with advancement.
4. Developing others is a privilege and honor. Enjoy it!
5. Make the most of the time you have.

Join the conversation!

Which of these principles of parenthood resonates most with you? What other principles of parenthood can you apply to leading and developing others?

February 7th Leadership Development Carnival

It's the first Sunday in February and your mind may be focused on the big game in Miami. Maybe you're thinking about the party you're throwing or the one you're going to. On food, or commercials.

But something else is happening today: The Leadership Development Carnival is traveling to Talented Apps for its February edition, with great posts on leadership from around the web and a great theme as well.

I already know who the winner is: You.

When you spend time reading the posts from this carnival, you'll be exposed to new ideas, challenged to begin new practices, and inspired to be more effective. Set aside some time this week to check out the posts at the carnival. And be sure to mark your calendar for next month (March 7th) when the carnival returns to its home at Great Leadership.