Tag Archives: Values Based Leadership Ppt

Value Based Leadership Coaching

Posted on January 12, 2012 by leadership

What can I do to be a better coach? The Eight Step Coaching Model describes the process, yet too often the focus is on techniques only. “How can I say it to win my point, get others to do things my way, or convince them?” Focusing only on one technique is fundamentally manipulative. Good leadership coaching, like good parenting, is a way of being as well as doing. This way of being, or our values, drives our behaviors. Like Olympic figure skaters, coaches should evaluate themselves in two areas; skills and style, the expression of your values.

Neither Gandhi nor Martin Luther King ever took a course in non violence; Harry S. Truman on straight talk; Abraham Lincoln on valuing diversity; or Walter Cronkite on integrity. They trusted their values to guide them toward doing the right things. They were the essence of their values. Similarly, how many times have we admonished our teenagers before departing for a night out with friends: “Don’t forget who you are!”? Your values are on display throughout your coaching discussions and particularly in Step One of the Coaching Model – Be supportive. Note it doesn’t say Do Supportive. Support is an inside job, an inner decision, about how you want to relate to others and the values you will attempt to live in your relationship with others.

Partnering with, versus managing and controlling those you coach, is based on two different value sets. Partnering is predicated on a basic value of helping other achieve their goals. Without a partnering/helping core value, focusing only on supportive words and actions results in shallow words with no heart felt meaning or motivation and disingenuousness.

Which of these two coaches would you like to work with? One who had excellent technique, a real smooth communicator who valued control and getting their way; or the other who lacked good technique but had a fundamental belief in others, and a desire to help them achieve their goals?

Fortunately we are not faced with these black and white distinctions. Effective leadership coaching from a helping value base requires both skills and a critical assessment of how you view your role: a resource or gate keeper; helper or competitor; catalyst or controller; facilitator or salesperson; mentor or boss; teacher or teller?

Before entering into a coaching discussion, ask yourself one simple question: What is my mindset or paradigm, adversary or ally? Your answer to that question will have the most impact in your coaching relationship. Self evident? Then, why in a non-business setting does conventional wisdom make the case that parent-adolescent relationships are unavoidably adversarial? Why is there such a dark history of labor management relationships? Why do managers have such a difficult time with letting go and trusting others to do the right thing? Partnering is predicated on the coach wanting to create an alliance and a helping relationship. This inner decision to live this value will drive the collaborative partnering behavior upon which effective leadership coaching and the Eight Step Coaching Model are based.

By Chris Stowell

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Value-Based-Leadership-Coaching&id=56180 Continue reading →

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Values Based Leadership

Posted on September 9, 2011 by leadership

“Baldwin occasionally stumbles over the truth, but he always hastily picks himself up and hurries on as if nothing had happened.” — Winston Churchill, English statesman and prime minister

A number of studies that have shown over the years that companies with “high standards of ethical behavior,” “shared values,” or who are “socially conscious” have much higher than average performance. That’s because when a team or organization identifies and lives its core values:

o There’s a sharp focal point and context for culture change or renewal.

o They shape organization structure, define the use of power, and determine the degree of participation, shared leadership, or autonomy of teams.

o Teams are strengthened and collaboration is improved. James Kouzes and Barry Posner found, “leaders who establish cooperative relationships inspire commitment and are considered competent. Their credibility is enhanced by building community through common purpose and by championing shared values. In contrast, competitive and independent leaders are seen as both obstructive and ineffective.”

o Managers are less likely to contradict each other and confuse people in their organizations. Management teams can “sing from the same sheet of music” in caring for the organization’s context and focusing everyone on the improvements that really matter.

o Everyone makes more consistent choices according to a shared hierarchy of values.

o There’s a deeper source of spirit and passion renewal to draw from during continual change and constant improvement.

o People feel less helpless and more hopeful, even if the organization has been having performance problems. They feel they can better predict and influence what happens to them, their teams, and the organization.

o People spend less time playing political games and guessing what the “real reasons” are for management’s actions. Everyone knows what to expect from each other and what behavior is and isn’t acceptable.

o Trust, toleration, and forgiveness levels increase.

o Morale, pride, and team identity is enhanced.

o People in the organization are either excited or repelled by the alignment with their own principles and beliefs. They reinforce the values by supporting them or leaving.

o Hiring, promotion, reward and recognition, performance management, measurement and feedback, and skill development decisions and priorities are much clearer and more consistent.

o Customers, suppliers, and other external partners know what to expect.

o Rules and policies can be reduced and changed to treat people as responsible adults.

Well-grounded, shared values that are alive and thriving in teams and organizations can do all of the above and more. Now here’s the big BUT — most organizations, management teams, and managers have a major gulf between what they say and what they do. Since they confuse their aspired behavior with their actual behavior, they don’t recognize their own rhetoric-reality gulf. Sometimes they point to the declining work ethic as a reason for the inconsistent behavior on their team or in their organization.

But that is often a cop-out. The desire for doing meaningful work, being part of a winning team, and making a difference in our jobs has been on a steady increase throughout the Western world. If I feel that “people don’t want to work any more” I need to take a deep look in my management mirror. Maybe they just don’t want to work with me! Continue reading →

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