Nashville: A new address and 7 examples

After 7.15.14 our new address is:

3482 Stagecoach Dr, Franklin, TN  37067

704.995.6647 cell

Special Offer:  Please call for a free consultation in your Nashville area office to discuss your leaders or your business.

Why did we relocate?

1.  Personally: to support my wife’s career, and her recent promotion.

2.  Professionally:  to develop new relationships in a new geography, while continuing to provide value to clients in any geography.

Life requires adaptation to new environments.  A coaching question is:  How are you moving?

Here are 7 examples of new affiliations and movement in the last 13 months:  

  1.  The Brentwood, TN Rotary Club (a long time Paul Harris fellow) committed to “service above self.”
  2. Member of the Williamson, Inc Chamber of Commerce, in Franklin, TN
  3. The Association of Talent Development (ATD) board member in professional development (2015-15) and membership (2015-16);  created a Special Interest Group (SIG) for Consultants and hosted monthly meetings on countless topics since January, 2015
  4. Member of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
  5. Member of the Nashville Technology Center (NTC); accepted by Launch TN grant funding program to apply for federal grant to the NIH or USDA, using consultants Mark and Catherine Henry, with mentoring from Jim Stefansic PhD, to assess the impact of telemedicine programs in rural disparities
  6. Promoted the TN-HIMSS conference in October, 2015 for healthcare leaders, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Information Officers
  7. Created and hosted monthly meetings on “Talent Analytic Trends” at local businesses, including Rustici Software, the “best technology company in Nashville” and a global leader in SCORM and Watershed, their Learning Record System; those meetings featured leaders and new technologies that are redesigning how we measure talent, careers, and human achievement.

Quite a list for 13 months in a new town.

Back to that coaching question:  How are you moving?

Call any time to discuss what is next for you, your leaders, or your business.

What is Action Learning?

Action Learning is a behavioral change process model that works 1) for groups and 2) for individuals.

 

For groups, Action Learning occurs when stakeholders use real problems to acquire learning and implement system-wide solutions.

For individuals, Action Learning is a behavioral coaching methodology that applies the same 4 steps.  

 

The Action Learning change process model includes four steps:

1) decide what breakthrough requires you to invest resources,

2) act with a talented, cross-functional team and executive endorsement,

3) reflect on steps achieved, and

4) connect or expand the results across business or functional lines, to new markets or clients.

We have facilitated organizational Action Learning change using both virtual and direct processes:

 

1. Technology processes: SharePoint, Action Item task lists, virtual teams, e-coaching and e-consulting, digital consulting and short implementation teams.

2: Direct meeting processes: assessments, facilitation in a series of workshops, coaching and consulting, project initiatives, leadership off-site retreats, strategic reorganization

For a summary of consulting fees and investment levels for organizations click here, and for individuals click here.  

 

Our Services typically include:

Assessments  (e.g. individual, group, organizational, strategic)

        Qualitative or Quantitative 360 assessments

        Organizational Culture Assessments

        Leadership competency assessments

Leadership consulting and behavioral coaching (e.g. individual, team or group levels)

Strategic planning and organizational redesign

Videography

Shadow Coaching

Facilitation, training, retreats or workshops

 

The result is that the Action Learning process helps individuals and groups become true learning organizations.

What are you waiting for?

Download this list of services and investment levels now:

Please contact us or call immediately at 704.995.6647 or schedule your initial consultation here.

What is leadership?

This could be a long discussion.  But I’d rather keep it short.

 

Leadership is influence.  Nothing more, nothing less.

 

The word “influence” implies results.  The influence may be slight or even negative.  The influence could be momentous.  The influence could be focused on relationships, such as the number of new people you meet each month, or the value you provide to others.  The influence could be focused on results, such as the number of new sales per quarter, or gross revenue per year, or goal attainment percentage.

 

If you need an academic definition of leadership, here is a current favorite:  Leadership is defined as the process of influencing others, and facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives (Yukl, 2013).

 

Too many people confuse the words “leader” and “manager.”   So perhaps another definition is helpful.   Here is a distinction based on Marcus Buckingham’s research of the Gallup Poll data, plus interviews with thousands of people.

 

Leaders: by definition, rally others behind a vision of a better future.  The core skills of leaders are optimism and public.  Think of your self, or your favorite leader, on a stage, leaning forward, describing a better future.   They have influence.  Or not.  The capacity of leaders is infinite, based on research in positive psychology.

 

Managers: by definition, maximize the productivity of others.  The core skills of managers are coaching and private.  Think of your self when you need to make sure that others produce a result, such as increase a sale or host a remarkable executive retreat.  Note that the skills you use are different than the skills you use as a leader.  You will coach Shawn differently than you will coach Ellen.  No one likes to be managed. And no one boasts about being a manager.  But when I ask an audience “How many of you are managers?” over 60% will raise their hands.  Virtually all managers are now “working managers” tasked with both maximizing productivity and getting the work done.

 

However, everyone wants to be a better leader.

 

A key coaching question is:  What influence are you having on others?

Call Doug at 704.995.6647 today if you want to have a greater influence on your self or your team.

Or schedule your initial consultation here.

 

What are you waiting for?

Download this list of services and investment levels now:

What Site Managers Want From Safety Leaders, Published in Professional Safety, May 2013

At the request of the editors of Professional Safety magazine, I interviewed several site managers to gain their wisdom

Regardless of your industry, or job title, you can apply these 5 Tips to your business.

May2013p1 WhatSite ManagersWant   (page 1 of 2)

May2013p2 SiteManagersWant  (page 2 of 2)

I love this acronym, developed by a former coaching client:

T= take the time

R= regularly meet

U=  understand the situation and facts

S=   share solutions and agree on the next actions

T=  thank the other person

A coaching question is:  How are you demonstrating your competence and skills with your manager or clients?

Please reply at 704.895.6479 and let me know…

Success Tips from John Maxwell

You may know that John Maxwell has written several best sellers, including “Developing the Leader Within You” and “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.”  At one time he managed two leadership training companies-  one in the business world, and one in the christian world.  IMHO, no one bridges these worlds better than John Maxwell.  He has been called the leadership guru of the century.

He defines “leadership” as influence, nothing more or less.

I have trained teams and individuals using the 5 levels of leadership content:  1.  position based upon rights, 2.  permission based on relationships, 3.  production based on results, 4.  people development based upon reproduction, 5. personhood based upon respect

Here are some of his gems:

1.  You can’t export what you don’t have.  Specifically, you can’t be a “leadership consultancy” unless you have proven expertise leading others.

2.  My greatest leadership challenge is not leading others, my greatest leadership challenge is leading my self.  Nothing is harder.  And nothing is more important.

3.  Examples prove concepts.  When I use an illustration it “brings the cookies to the lower shelf” so that everyone has access to the cookies.  See the point?

4.  Leaders are readers.  There are so many great ideas that others have explored.  We need to sift through those books and blogs and determine what we need, so that we can serve others.

What are some of your favorite gems from John Maxwell, or others?