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Be Aware of Your Behaviors

Guest post by: Eric Douglas

Article Overview: Leadership is not something you learn once and for all. It is an ever-evolving pattern of skills, talents, and ideas that grow and change as you do.

Be Aware of Your Behaviors

"Leadership is not something you learn once and for all. It is an ever-evolving pattern of skills, talents, and ideas that grow and change as you do."

- Sheila Murray Bethels Once you accept responsibility, you need to develop a clear picture of what's driving you and where you want to go. This is not a job you can do yourself. You need people to help guide you. We live in an inter-dependent universe, and it's important to recognize your natural allies, the appropriate teachers, and what kinds of support you already have or need to create.

So, once you've made the decision to assume responsibility and change, the next step is to find a coach. First, a definition. The kind of coach I'm talking about is someone other than your boss. It is someone whom you trust to offer confidential and direct counsel about you and your development as a leader. Typically, it's someone outside the organization. It may be a trusted adviser, or a friend, or your spouse. Or it may be a professional consultant-coach.

A good coach will be a sounding board, asking questions and offering counsel. An engagement with a professional coach typically begins with a period in which the coach observes. He or she will want to meet with you and ask questions. Often a coach will conduct confidential interviews to get a sense of what you do well and areas where you need to improve.

A coach might also use several assessment tools to help you build a more nuanced picture of yourself. There are assessments of your communication, such as Straight Talk®. The Birkman Method® can help you get a clearer sense of your natural preferences and needs. there are personality assessments, such as the Minnesota Multi-phasic inventory or the Myers-Briggs type indicator. all of these help you draw a picture of yourself in relationship to others.

Your coach may also want to trail you for a few days, observing you in meetings, watching you interact with your peers, sitting in on a meeting with your boss, all to get a sense of how you handle yourself. Your coach may ask you to keep a journal or write a vision for your professional growth. Your coach may want to collect 360-degree feedback. a good coach will be both a source of insight and a thorn in your side. if you don't get mad at your coach at least once, he or she probably isn't pushing hard enough.

A coach should help you distinguish between skills, competenciesand proficiencies. a skill is something you master, like organizing a sales team. a competency, on the other hand, is open-ended and involves continuous learning. Marketing is a competency. Strategic planning is a competency. project management is a competency. Finally, a proficiency is something you're naturally good at. Maybe you're proficient at sales or accounting. a good coach can help you identify your proficiencies, and help you decide whether your professional role takes full advantage of them. the overarching goal of the coaching experience will be to help you identify specific competencies that you want to develop and move you through the stages of the adult learning cycle to a state of "unconscious competence," as shown in the diagram below.

A coach isn't the same thing as a psychologist. a psychologist will help you understand how your past experiences influence your present behaviors. a coach, on the other hand, will help you become aware of your present behaviors with an eye toward helping you become more effective in the future. a good coach should use a "whole person" approach and address the underlying issues that impede your progress. Using a systems perspective, a coach can help you see how several different problems might be caused by the same underlying behavior. through exercises and training, the coach can help you become more conscious of those behaviors - and help you visualize the benefits of change.

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Article Tags: business, leadership, leadership coach, management, qualities, talents



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