CorporateCoach

I am delighted to learn that Dr John Demartini is coming back to London. It is rumoured that this could be the last time until British exchange rates recover so that we can afford him ;-(

I have studied with him before, but the reports from his Breakthrough Experience have been so powerful that I have already registered for this one.

Be warned; this is a really intensive - and life changing - event. The Saturday runs from 08.00 until after midnight. Make sure you take this into account when arranging your accommodation. The trains won’t be running when you come out, and you will be due back for more at 09.00 a.m. on the Sunday.

Demartini is a phenomenon. He has studied so many subjects and created so many programmes that there is always something else on the menu.

Here is a shorter, half day event.

Nothing has changed in the last week. The world is still facing environmental catastrophe. The world is still facing financial collapse. The world is still at war.

However, everything has changed. The inauguration of a new American president, who is new, intelligent and clean. In fact, a new American president who is just ‘different’ offers the opportunity for new attitudes, new starts and an emotional uplift. All across the world people want to feel different and slough off their increasing depression.

Is this just fantasy - or are things really different?

Often when change is needed, something symbolic is required to help people let go of the past and to be prepared to think differently. Sometimes it is necessary to change the person at the top just to be seen to making a new start, but also in practical terms to enable new thinking. So often, it is the legacy of doing and thinking in one way - that might have been successful in the past - that holds back progress.

Just as a new leader can stimulate change, so, often, can the old leader in a different situation. Change can be good. However, too much reorganisation for the sake of it (much loved by governments) can be wasteful and counter productive. I have worked with organisations suffering from initiative fatigue. “Don’t worry, another one will be along later!”

Barack Obama offers something else. He has charisma and hope. Think of some others who have had the same: John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King.

There is plenty of evidence of world and business leaders with an inspiring vision and mission, and strong values whose leadership has turned around failing situations.

Let us pray for the man in the hottest of hot seats.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Leadership coaching
• Change management for organisations
• Leadership games

One of the best sources of new business is your existing contact list. People like to buy from people they know, particularly people they know and trust.

So, I am delighted to recommend a new video course that teaches you how to build an opt in mailing list from people you send emails to.

Paul Fuggle of Internet with Integrity has produced a 20 minute video and downloadable instruction set to teach you how do just this.

There is no cost - just sign up (and add to his mailing list!). Not only will you learn how to use your emails to promote your business, but you will be able to learn from Paul’s own role modelling as he builds his own.

To learn how to get started easily, just click on http://tinyurl.com/getstartedvideo

USEFUL LINKS

• Internet with Integrity
• Paul Fuggle
• Developing your Internet and Web presence

I recently attended a workshop by David Hyner of Stretch Development entitled The Massive Goal Principle.

David has spent more than eleven years interviewing top achievers from all walks of life to establish how they think and behave in order to succeed at the highest level. Initially, he wanted to learn about setting SMART goals. But he discovered that they do not use SMART goals. Rather, they set massive goals.

Here is the strategy he learned from David Gold: -

1. Set big goals
2. Prioritise
3. Take action
4. Don’t give up
5. Do something every day

When he heard this, he thought it was so simple that Gold was not taking him seriously. Simple it might be, but simple discipline can lead to powerful results.

His highly successful interviewees set massive goals - but they made action plans of simple - and SMART - actions.

Here is such an action plan, as recommended by David Hyner: -

1. Understand why you want the goal
2. Plan - write it down
3. Make a small improvement every day - one third of 1% improvement every day will result in more than 100% in a year
4. Find a top achiever and look into them - understand their emotions. He reminds us that the only reason we do things is to feel better about ourselves
5. Join or create a mastermind group
6. Have fun - celebrate each success

We had a brain storming to add to this list and came up with these: -

• Work in teams
• Visualise with emotion
• Be brave - don’t be afraid to make mistakes
• Double your goal
• Challenge and review your beliefs
• Focus on daily actions
• Create a timeline with milestones

David recommended drawing a pyramid form in which to show the prioritised actions - and then to cross them off as they are completed.

Start with six boxes in the first row, five in the second, four in the third, and so on. He says that by the time you are halfway along the second row you will notice that something special happens.

David gave us this quotation from Kriss Akabusi MBE: -

“Top achievers should be looked into not up to.”

He also gave us this sentence to help us tap into other people’s resources: -

“This is what I am trying to achieve. Who do you know that I should be speaking to?”

Certainly, I used this approach when I first opened an office in Birmingham - and I am currently in a mastermind group that is helping grow my business much faster.

USEFUL LINKS

• Stretch Development
• David Gold
• Another approach to goal setting

New Year is a time when people are supposed to make resolutions. I have never been an enthusiast for this. If something is worth doing, it is worth resolving to do in the moment – not waiting for a new year.

However, life does have a rhythm, evolving in seasons and years and it is good to celebrate anniversaries. A new year, whether it be calendar, academic or religious, is a good time to review and to plan.

A good place to start is with your values. Clearly, it is worth living your life in line with your values – and goals are more likely to be achieved if they are linked with fulfilling your values.

I have described John Demartini’s method for this already.

This will help you with the first stage. Next is to reduce your list to a really manageable challenge. Definitely allow yourself to stretch, but nothing succeeds like success. A problem that I come across with clients is that they have long to-do lists – and then they focus on what’s left on it rather than what they have achieved.

There is only so much time available – and quite a lot of that gets lost in interruptions, admin etc. So, be pessimistic – if that is necessary for you to be realistic. Set yourself targets you can achieve, or exceed.

Another problem I meet with clients is that they can be excellent project managers of small projects but lose money on big projects. Simple answer – break the projects down! In this case plan only for 90 days. Life changes and three months is as far as you can reasonably plan without adjustments.

Normally, I encourage people to think big, think long term and be positive.

For a successful start to 2009 I recommend, plan small, plan short term and be pessimistic. All this, of course, within your big picture!

Here are some considerations for your 90 day plan: -

• Your goals and the strategic projects necessary to achieve them.
• The critical resources necessary to carry out the projects.
• The players who have accepted responsibility for the projects.
• The results that enable you to measure success of the projects

Have a very happy, healthy and successful New Year.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• 90 day plans
• Discovering your hierarchy of values

Here is another technique that I brought back from the recent ICF conference in Montreal. The World Café is an easy to use method of fostering collaborative dialogue, particularly in large groups. It is ideal for conferences or consultation meetings at which large numbers of people are involved in exploring a few key questions.

A World Café simulates the way communities naturally learn and spread ideas – over coffee, at lunch or by the water fountain. It is based on the natural process by which authentic conversations enable people to think together, create shared meaning, strengthen community and ignite innovation. These informal chats are brought together into a ‘café’ environment under the control of a facilitator.

The concept of a café comes from participants sitting in small groups (4-5 people) at café-style tables with paper table cloths, on which they can sketch and make notes (if tablecloths are not available or acceptable, use flip chart sheets or large cards). Each table is supplied with coloured pens or pencils in a mug or vase.

The environment contributes to the atmosphere of informal and creative chatting; so add flowers, background music, drinks, snacks and anything else you judge to be appropriate.

The model is very simple. All groups are given a single issue or question to consider for 20-30 minutes. They are encouraged to write, doodle and draw key ideas on their tablecloths.

At the end of a round, one person on each table remains and the others disperse to different tables. The ‘host’ on each table then shares the main ideas, themes and questions discussed during the previous round and the newcomers then comment and add what they had learned to the notes and sketches. New ideas and discoveries are also recorded.

Depending on the number of participants, delegates can move to new tables for additional rounds or they can return to their original table, bringing back what they had learned at other tables. The objective is to synthesise their discoveries.

Sometimes, the facilitator might introduce a new question that will help deepen the exploration.

After several rounds of conversation, the facilitator can initiate a whole group conversation. This offers the entire group an opportunity to share discoveries and insights, and connect the overall themes or questions that are now present .

Here are five ways in which the collective knowledge can be made visible: -

1. Use a graphic recorder to draw the group’s ideas on a wall mural
2. Take a gallery tour. Display the the papers from the tables on the wall for people to visit
3. Post your insights. Put single insights on large Post-Its® for people to view
4. Create idea clusters. Group insights from Post-Its® into affinity clusters so that related ideas are visible
5. Make a story. Create a newspaper or storybook to bring the results to larger audiences after the event.

Using the World Café as a method empowers leaders and other professionals to intentionally create focused networks of conversation around an organisation or community’s real work and critical questions. It takes advantage of people’s innate wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges. As people become aware of the power of conversation as a key business process, they can use it more effectively for their mutual benefit.

USEFUL LINKS

• The World Café
• World Café Method

I recently attended a tantra workshop. This was not religious, but focused on communication between men and women.

It mainly involved meditation and silent communication exercises in pairs. However, one group exercise separated the men from the women and then asked each what they liked about the other – as a group. The men were asked “What do you like about women?” I couldn’t answer the question. Not because I don’t like women – rather, the question did not compute. I had been brought up to think of people as people – some happening to be male and some female. I had never built a set of distinctions about such differences – I am working on it now!

Recently, I was talking to a colleague who had worked in China. It is often quoted in development workshops that the Chinese words for challenge and opportunity are the same. However, my colleague explained that there are several key management concepts for which the Chinese language does not have distinctive different words. Just as we do not have the 13 words for snow that Eskimos are reputed to have and cannot, therefore, differentiate between different sorts of snow, so Chinese speakers cannot understand what we consider to be simple and key management concepts.

I have been studying wealth dynamics. According to theory, different profiles ask different questions. For example, a mechanic like me asks “How?” A supporter asks “Who?” It seemed a simple concept until we were discussing an exam that we had all sat earlier in the day. Two stars (What? or Who?) said that they had not been able to answer a (simple) question starting with the word “how”. Their brains did not compute. Until they rephrased the question to “Who could help us ….?” they had been unable to answer.

Language is more than just a means of communication. It influences our culture and even our thought processes.

It is important to use language with care. There was a famous case about London’s fares policy in which the judge apparently did not appreciate the difference between “economic” and “economical”, with unfortunate consequences.

One of the tasks of a coach is to help clients develop new distinctions. With new distinctions people can make a step change in how they interpret situations and then easily evolve their behaviour. Introducing better language into an individual’s - or organisation’s - vocabulary can facilitate development.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Tantra
• Wealth Dynamics profiling

One of the techniques that I brought back from the recent ICF conference in Montreal was “Serial Testimony”.

Serial testimony was developed by Peggy McIntosh as a counterpoint to meetings where “the talkers talk, the listeners listen, and a general feeling of malaise prevails”.

This group activity is very simple in concept: the facilitator poses a question, and each participant speaks in turn for a set amount of time, between one and three minutes. Other group members are not allowed to respond. There is no interruption and after a serial testimony there is no debate.

The aim is to listen, to hear and be heard, to compare, contrast, and deepen one’s own understanding of oneself and others.

As simple as this technique is, to many participants it will feel unnatural, especially in settings where they are accustomed to discussion. The facilitator must carefully prepare the group in advance. Ask the participants to honour the following ground rules: -

• Listen to each other with respect, without interrupting to comment or ask questions
• Speak about your own thoughts, reactions, feelings and experiences, not those of others.
• During your turn, do not comment on what others have said before you.

You might tell the group that they will probably have strong reactions to the process; ask them to hold onto and reflect on their thoughts and feelings. Assure them that there will be ample opportunity to continue the dialogue in other settings.

Move systematically round the group rather than asking for volunteers to speak. You might want to use a talking stick to reinforce the ground rules.

If someone speaks out of turn, the facilitator should gently but firmly restate the ground rules; otherwise, the facilitator, too, should refrain from comment.

Closing serial testimony may be done in several ways:

• A minute or more of silence
• A minute or more for participants to write their reactions
• A few minutes of debriefing about the experience or open discussion in response to an overall question about the workshop.

When we used serial testimony at the ICF conference, we repeated the exercise with a series of questions from the facilitator who could thus control the development of our thinking – but not the content.

USEFUL LINKS

• Serial testimony
• Peggy McIntosh

I am a systems thinker and my coaching focuses on such matters as vision, mission and values, sorting out structure and strategy.

I like the coaching model because it is very logical; as we increase someone’s awareness, they see the structure and are able to make better decisions. As we help clients to clarify goals, they are able to build a route map of how to achieve them.

So, I was pleased at the recent ICF conference to attend a session in which context was being emphasised.

I was attracted to the session led by Joel Rothaizer because he was quoted as using the enneagram in his executive coaching and organisational consulting work. I am currently studying the enneagram in order to incorporate it into my own work.

Joel introduced the concept of a fundamental attribution error, which involves ignoring the the context. Contextual thinking, he said, means considering the system.

He introduced some questions that coaches might like to consider: -

• “Before you make a decision, have you considered the context?”
• “How do you know that’s the right problem?”
• “Why might a rational human being be acting in that way?”
• “Is how you are behaving now more or less likely to cause your children to come to you when they really need help?”
• “Are there contexts in which you tend to think at a higher or lower level than in other contexts?”

If we don’t consider the context and the impact of the system, we can easily spend time coaching someone through a symptom without addressing the cause.

We often hear in the UK that our police forces suffer ’systemic racism’. If this is true, there is no point in introducing training courses or coaching to deal with employees’ supposed racism; the likelihood is that individuals are not racist. The challenge is either how to change the system, or how to operate ethically and congruently within (in spite of) the system. This requires a different approach.

Very often, staff find themselves in difficult situations. Stage one is to recognise and accept the situation - and then to consider how to react to it. Simply attempting to change behaviour is likely to be continually undermined by the system. What is needed is a strategy for dealing with it.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Joel Rothaizer
• ICF Conference handouts
  

Would you like to offer buddy coaching to a bilingual French Canadian who is studying for a master’s degree in linguistics in Angers, France?

I have received a request from a lady mature student who wishes to address self-motivation, organisation and her work ethic. She has been out of university life for twenty years and is looking for a buddy coach or a mentor.

She can arrange free telephone calls and is willing to offer French language services and proof reading in exchange. The coaching could be in English or French. In return, this is an opportunity to receive coaching in French language skills - and possibly to use her apartment in the Loire Valley for a week in the summer.

If you are interested, please contact the editor.

John Demartini believes that your hierarchy of values dictates your destiny.

So, how do you discover your hierarchy? Here is Demartini’s suggestion; answer these questions: -

1. How do you fill your space? Look around you, what is there? What is important?
2. How do you spend your time? What do you do - and what do you put off doing?
3. How do you spend your energy?
4. How do you spend your money? What can you always afford - and what is a struggle?
5. What do you think about most?
6. What are you visualising and dreaming about?
7. What are you affirming in your mind? What can you learn from your internal dialogue?
8. What do you talk about most?
9. What do you react to? What are your hot buttons? What would cause you to respond with enthusiasm or negatively when someone speaks?
10. What would be your top five goals?

In order to improve your motivation, find a link between what you want and your highest values. To motivate someone else, discover their highest values and then create a link with what you want them to do.

I attended a workshop at the ICF Annual Conference last week by Shirlaws. Shirlaws is a business coaching company that was started in Australia in 1999 and now has coaches in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the USA; they have 90 coaches in the UK alone. They believe the best results come from coaching in teams and claim that their global and national team structure brings benefits from a specialist in every area of business growth.

For example, strategic coaches help turn commercial visions into strategy. Productivity coaches enhance infrastructure, efficiency and delivery. Revenue coaches help improve profitability.

Shirlaws has studied the possible development of coaching over the next ten years. In particular, they have considered the effect of Gen X and Gen Y moving into management roles as both commissioners and users of coaching. As a result, they have already divided their business into several brands.

What interested me most was their conclusion that coaching is moving to a new business model similar to other professional services.

Coaching is beginning to find a way into budgets and global corporates are expecting coaching companies to be able to provide a consistent delivery of services across offices on several continents.

In order to be able to supply this, large coaching companies will need to adopt a financial business model in which equity can be invested and then traded. An example was given of Boston Consulting, which has budgeted $10 million to create a coaching division.

The challenge that has set me thinking was to establish a career progression so that coaching can be a first career, as in the legal profession.

Traditionally, coaching has been seen as something that you move into once you have some life, business or corporate experience of your own.

When I first started as a management consultant, I claimed that every year was the equivalent of another MBA. In other words, the rate of learning from my clients was considerable, in terms of both range and depth. The same could apply to coaching. A graduate who trained as a coach would have to start coaching at a more junior level and would benefit from assisting at workshops and coaching programmes. However, just as in consulting, they could rapidly gain industry experience. I can also see that an ambitious coach would later take an MBA or a master’s degree in, say, marketing to become a greater expert in a particular field.

The ICF has in the past researched the competencies needed by an executive coach. These include understanding of organisational change, etc. - just the things that can be learned in appropriate degree and post graduate study.

Of course, the accountancy and legal professions do not comprise only Pricewaterhousecoopers and Accenture type companies. There are a few global companies, many mid size regional and national companies - and very many ‘High Street’ sole traders and partnerships. A similar hierarchy seems reasonable for the coaching profession.

The opportunity is for those prepared to establish or join the big coaching organisations of the future.

It is time to think on a different scale and to develop professionalism in more depth.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Shirlaws Coaching
• ICF Coaching Core Competencies
  

One of the most interesting presentations at the ICF Annual Conference last week was from Christian Worth.

Christian is a Frenchman who has lived and worked in many parts of the world. He uses his Frenchness to establish a charming and highly entertaining presentation style.

In addition to this, his presentation was extremely interesting. Having discovered dowsing when he had a damp problem in an old house in France, he had gone on to investigate the energy fields that we each produce.

I was aware of these and have taken part in some fascinating exercises with dowsing rods in the past.

The message that Christian was putting over was that in addition to the different energies that different people give out, we have an impact on other people’s energy according to how we are feeling towards them.

He demonstrated very effectively that if we have negative feelings towards someone we can destroy their energy field - and they are likely to be unaware of it.

• A positive mental attitude amplifies a field.
• A negative mental attitude destroys an energy field.
• Distance is no object.
• A large energy field attracts; no field does not attract and may cause discomfort.

So how is this relevant? A positive mental attitude will increase your energy field and make you more attractive. Your attitude to another person can make them feel positive or negative.

This is very relevant to rapport.

A positive mental attitude for coaching means: -

• Better rapport
• Increased listening
• Trust in the client’s resources and ability
• Self-induced self-confidence
• Better coaching
• More referrals!

I shall change the way that I teach rapport. Before I set demonstrations of positive and negative body language etc., I shall demonstrate with dowsing rods

Two comments on how to deal with negative moments.

If you are conscious of feeling negatively to another person use a mantra; have one prepared that you can say to yourself that will change your state. I have tried this with great success (not telling you what the negative thought was, though!).

If you believe that someone is directing negative thoughts to you, then visualise a shield around you.

Christian has written a book: “Less stress, more success”.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Christian Worth
• Less Stress, More Success! (Amazon UK)
• Less Stress More Success! (Amazon.com)
• Dowsing rods
  

The ICF has reviewed its ethics statement and has composed a new definition of coaching.

“Coaching is partnering in a thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise personal and professional potential.”

This definition was given out at a discussion on ethics, but has not yet been formally published. They have also, for the first time, discriminated between a client and a sponsor. This is important in corporate coaching when the person being coached is not directly responsible for paying or for having initiated the coaching.

Client: The client is the person(s) being coached.
Sponsor: The sponsor is the entity (including its representatives) paying for and/or arranging for coaching services to be provided.

In all cases, says the 2008 ICF draft code of ethics, coaching engagement contracts of agreements should clearly establish the rights, roles and responsibilities for both the client and sponsor if they are not the same persons.

This chant was used to open this year’s International Coach Federation Annual Conference.

When you were born
You cried
And the world rejoiced.

Live your life so that
When you die
The world cries and you rejoice.

A significant event it is an important factor in the process of change. A significant event can release pent up forces and achieve a step change.

So, I was interested to read when I was in Singapore that earlier this year, before the financial crisis erupted, two different senior bankers had moved from London to Dubai. My conclusion is that when the financial world settles down and we come out of the current recession things will not be the same as they were before. In particular, the trend to move from Europe and the “New World” of America eastwards to Asia will accelerate. We can expect a significant move in the centre of gravity of affairs.

I was interested to read in The Times of India the following heading: “Earn & burn Gen Y starts saving up”.

The economic slowdown is turning a generation of earn-and-burn the Indians into cautious savers who scrimp, stash away and cannily budget for tomorrow, the article says.

It has taken just a few weeks to transform a generation raised on seemingly endless supplies of everything. But the effects are clearly visible. Sales of cars, mobiles and iPods, whose consumption is mostly driven by youth, have slumped 5-15% since August, according to consultancy firm KPMG, which tracks spending patterns.

Many of India’s new young savers believed the change is all to the good Amit Khandelwal, a 26-year-old equity analyst at a Mumbai investment firm, says his new, cautious saver mindset led him indefinitely to defer a housing loan application, even though it went through without furnishing proof of employment.

Another theory of change is the “tipping point”. And if Gen Y people in India, which is still growing and likely to continue growing, are changing their habits, then a tipping point has been reached.

I was in India at the end of 10 days of festivals including the Diwali festival of light. The Times of India reported some debate about a decision taken by an Oxford council that this year’s festive celebrations for Christmas should be renamed the “Winter Light Festival”. The council leaders have done this to make the celebrations more “inclusive”. The paper’s editorial claims that this is an instance of multiculturalism gone haywire.

It is interesting to read the debate about British attempts to respect their relatively new immigrant populations and their religions from the perspective of a country in which religions have long been mixed. I further quote:-

The Oxford City Council could take a leaf out of the celebratory nature of Indian and multiculturalism. All religious festivals are celebrated with great fervour in India and many of them involve people belonging to different religions. So, during Christmas it won’t only be the Christians who will be celebrating in India. The same holds true for Hindu or Moslem festivals.

The Times of India also discusses the success of Barrack Obama in using the Internet to generate funds for his recently successful campaign. An increasing problem in politics and the government has been the need for political parties to depend on organisations for funding who later expects favours in return. There have been a number of scandals as a result of this in the UK and the USA is well-known for the power of its lobbyists in Washington.

The theme of The Times editorial is that Internet technology has enabled Barack Obama to rise above this problem because the majority of his funding has come from many, many individuals who have contributed amounts $200 and thus remained anonymous. Such donations, apparently, comprise about half of the $650 million that Obama has raised since last year. At a time when the influence of big money in politics is obvious, grass roots financing has the potential to give candidates a way of raising money that does not leave them beholden to big corporate sponsors. Obama has reached small donors through social networking websites, e-mail and SMS, who reached out virally to more donors.

Once again, technology has come to the rescue of society!

I would like to introduce you to somebody whom I met while I was in Bangalore this week. Krupalatha Martin Dass runs a school for children from the slums. She and her mother have been doing this for the last eight years and this week they have been able to expand to a second property. They have been providing this service from their own funds and from such funds as they have been able to raise.

The mission of the Sukrupa Organisation is this: -

“Sukrupa’s mission is to help underprivileged children escape a background of poverty, slum-life, illiteracy and ignorance, replacing it with hope and opportunities available to mainstream children.”

I encourage you to visit their website and to consider how you can support them in this. I have been particularly impressed at the emphasis they put on not only educating the children but giving them the life skills and experience and support that are necessary to ensure that these children can go forth to play a full role in society and not revert to the helplessness and drunkenness which are rife within the slums.

In a couple of days I leave for Montreal for the Annual Conference and Exhibition of the International Coach Federation. If you are attending, I hope that you will visit us at Stand 616.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• The Sukrupa Organisation

These six questions are based on the book “Your Life Your Legacy” by Roger Hamilton. They involve identifying your internal values. Roger Hamilton considers that your wealth is actually what is left if you lose all your money. I would like to put a different slant, which is that your wealth is what you have before you attract your money. And your internal values are your real wealth.

Apparently ‘wealth’ comes from an old English word - weal - which means “well being”. So, wealth is more than just money.

1. Passions

Ask yourself, what are your passions? Do you know? And if you do, to what extent do you live your passions, do you project your passions and is your life work congruent with your passions.

2. Talents

Roger Hamilton has developed a set of wealth profiles which are extremely powerful and useful in business. Your wealth profile identifies your core talent, though you will also have other talents to do with your physical and mental ability. So, ask yourself the question to what extent are you spending your time in areas that make full use of your talents?

3. Knowledge

To what extent do you have have the knowledge necessary to pursue your path with ease? What are you doing to increase your effective knowledge? That is, the knowledge that is required for you to pursue your path with ease.

4. Network

To what extent do you have the network of people necessary to pursue your path with ease? The type of network you need will depend upon your profile. Roger Hamilton explains that wealth is a function of value multiplied by leverage. And one person’s value is another person’s leverage.

The network that you need depends upon the leverage you require. In my case, I need people who will promote my business and also people who will find other people to work within my business. People of a different profile or from businesses at a different stage, for example, might need to network with people who can do deals for them in terms of finding joint ventures or finance. And others, yet again, might need to network with people who can provide the backup services and advice that their company or they themselves need.

5. Character

To what extent does your reputation and conduct create an attraction for you? Your character is a function of your integrity and your personality. Assuming that you have these, what are you doing to promote them so that people who know you or know of you know who you really are?

6. Purpose

What is your purpose? To what extent are you clearly are living your life purpose of contribution?

Earlier this week I spoke to some colleagues in Bangalore. One of the members there is running a school for children from the slums. Her passion (question one) is working with children. Her purpose is helping children escape from deprived backgrounds.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Your Life Your Legacy
• Roger Hamilton
• Discover your Wealth Dynamics profile

Regular readers of CorporateCoach will be aware of my interest in the Law of Unintended Consequences.

There is another concept that we have heard a lot about recently, “moral hazard”. The discussion has generally been around the potential moral hazard of helping out failing banks and supporting investors who have lost money. The concept is simple. If we help people when they get into trouble as a result of taking risks, there is a danger that in the long term this will cause people to take more risky decisions.

So moral hazard can lead to unintended consequences!

In my early career as a publisher I published a book by Professor John Adams which was entitled “Risk & Freedom”. The theme of this book was that the more we protected motorists by, for example, requiring them to wear seat belts – or in the case motorcyclist’s safety helmets – the less they will take care of their own selves and the more there will be a risk of motor accidents in which pedestrians will get injured. As an extreme, Adams’ suggestion was that all steering wheel columns should have a spike in their centre so that if the driver were involved in an accident that spike would go through his heart. His belief was that as a result drivers would take more care and that, overall, safety would improve.

I first came across the concept, though not knowing it by its name, when I was a schoolboy. A girl living opposite, also still at school, became pregnant. I was fascinated by the dilemma. At one level it was clearly desirable to give this poor girl as much support as possible. However, at the same time, the more the pregnant schoolgirl was supported the less of a deterrent there would be to other girls taking risks. Furthermore, if the girl were treated too well, then such actions would contribute to a social attitude that it was acceptable to get pregnant when you were young and without support. Certainly, at the time when this happened, society did not believe that it was acceptable for young (unmarried) girls to get pregnant.

My conclusion as a young teenager was that in practice it was better to take a macro approach than a micro-approach. In other words, even though girls such as this might suffer some social and practical discomfort, the outcome would be that society as a whole, including other girls at risk, would benefit.

Hard as it might seem, I have since concluded that this rather tough approach is desirable in many situations. And recent discussions about the problems in the banking and financial sectors suggest that this is still a hot topic.

The question, therefore, is how does moral hazard apply in your own organisation or among your clients?

Some years ago I was employed for a while to work within an international organisation with responsibility for the development of directors and senior managers. One of my first tasks was to prepare the ground for sacking a managing director. My boss, the chief executive, was concerned about the message that this would communicate throughout the organisation. The feedback that I received from my soundings was that people were aware of this person’s performance and that there would be more damage from a soft or delayed approach than from a tough and early dismissal.

As we move into a difficult time for employers there will be many occasions where managers have to decide between a tough approach and what on the face of it is a more caring way of supporting staff.

It is often to the benefit of the organisation as a whole, and especially to staff who remain, if tough decisions are made quickly. Helping managers consider such dilemmas and providing outplacement services to staff who must leave are roles for professional coaches.

One business response to the difficulties in the world economy is to head east. Whether by good judgement or coincidence, I am leaving on Monday for a major tour to the Middle East, India and the Far East. I would very much like to meet any CorporateCoach readers who live in Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bali or Bangalore. On my return I shall be heading for what was once known as the ‘New World’ as I attend the International Coach Federation conference and exhibition in Montreal. Once again, I shall be delighted to talk with any other delegates.

My itinerary can be found on the CorporateCoach blog.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

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The Johari Window, named after its inventors Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, is one of the most useful models describing the process of human interaction. It is also referred to as a disclosure/feedback model of self-awareness and by some people as an information processing tool. The Johari Window represents information such as feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions, motivation, etc described from four perspectives.

The model can be used to represent either an individual or a group.

A four paned window divides personal awareness into four different types, as represented by its four quadrants: ‘Open’, ‘Hidden’, ‘Blind’, and ‘Unknown’. The lines dividing the four panes are like window shades, which can move as an interaction progresses.

It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships.

The subject is asked to pick five or six adjectives from a list of 55 that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subjects are then given the same list, and each also picks five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto a grid.

Adjectives selected by both the participants and his or her peers are placed into the ‘Open’ quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the participant (or subject group) of which both they and their peers are aware.

Adjectives selected only by the participant, but not by any of their peers, are placed into the ‘Hidden’ quadrant, representing information about the participant of which their peers are unaware.

Adjectives that are not selected by the participant but only by their peers are placed into the ‘Blind’ quadrant. These represent information of which the participant is not aware, but others are, and they can decide whether and how to inform the individual about these “blindspots”.

Adjectives which were not selected by either the participant or their peers remain in the ‘Unknown’ quadrant, representing the participant’s behaviours or motives which were not recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply, or because there is collective ignorance of the existence of such a trait.

Coaching can take place around a discussion of the differences between the adjective selected by the individual (or the subject group) and the individual’s peers (or by other groups). The window can be redrawn to reflect the relative sizes of each pane. increasing the size of the open area by reducing the size of the blind area would normally be seen as a benefit. This can be done by the quality of feedback, and the process of disclosure.

The unknown area can also be reduced. For example: by others’ observations, which increases the blind area; by self-discovery, which increases the hidden area, or by mutual enlightenment – typically by group experiences and discussion, which increase the open area as the unknown area reduces.

Here is the list of the 55 adjectives used to describe the participant:
Able, accepting, adaptable, bold, brave, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, complex, confident, dependable, dignified, energetic, extroverted, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic, independent, ingenious, intelligent, introverted, kind, knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, nervous, observant, organised, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self assertive, self-conscious, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, trustworthy, warm, wise, witty.

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Well, the summer is over for us in the north. I think there has been a mistake worrying about global warming. The issue seems to be global ‘wetting’ or even, in the Gulf of Mexico, global ‘winding’. Not to mention turbulence in the money markets.

So it is back to work for us all – even university students are returning to ‘freshers weeks’ or, as I saw yesterday, ‘welcome weeks’.

What is going to be different for you now? I have had a very productive time during the quiet period of the summer holiday. Over the last few years I have focused more and more on working with directors and boards. Now, we have created a new section of our web site dedicated to this activity. We describe the roles and responsibilities of directors and boards, general training and development, and specific needs of new directors. In addition, we have differentiated board retreats from corporate retreats. I hope that you will have a browse.

I am training as a master practitioner in wealth dynamics, about which I shall tell you more in the future. A first step is to join a boardroom club as experience for when I launch one next year. This is a twelve month group activity dedicated to helping the group significantly improve its earnings. The club meets quarterly and supports each member in preparing and implementing a 90-day plan.

Here are some notes about what you should consider in preparing your 90-day plan: -

• Your goals and the strategic projects necessary to achieve them.
• The critical resources necessary to carry out the projects.
• The players who have accepted responsibility for the projects.
• Milestones and signposts along the way
• The results that enable you to measure success of the projects.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.