Coach Dan's Blog

📖 “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” -  William Faulkner It takes courage to stand up and say something that may go against the grain, or be an unpopular opinion. Faulkner challenges us to change the world by sharing our ideas - for standing up and challenging the status quo. Leaders have to strike a balance between efficient decision making, and creating a space where team members feel safe to add a differing perspective or contrary idea to the conversation. Innovation requires "outside of the box" thinking. Do you create an environment where team members can "rasie their voice?" Need some ideas to try? Maybe explore one or more of these... ✔️ Establish (and continually revisit) shared norms ✔️ Give space and effectively listening ✔️ Communicate with compassion ✔️ Reward speaking up ✔️ Frame work as experiments ...

  📖 A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."
 -Lao Tzu True leadership is about helping people to grow, and enabling them to succeed. By creating a clear understanding of the goal, equipping people with the tools they need, creating an environment where people can feel empowered and inspiring them to work together to achieve... a leader fulfills their purpose. Are you leading to equip, empower and inspire? Or are you leading to be seen?

📖 “A drop of ink may make a million think.”- George Gordon Byron Sharing your throughts and perspectives, asking your questions... these are the things that can help your team unlock an innovative solution. Why do we find it so hard sometimes, to share something that may be counter to what the group says?  

  📖 “He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak.” - Michel de Montaigne Those who belive the loudest voices have the best answer often miss out on hearing some of the most innovative ideas. Do not assign the highest value to the loudest idea. Ask the quiet people on the team what they think. It might just learn something new!

  📖 “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche A shared senses of purpose leads to alignment. Alignment, coupled with psychological safety leads to engagement. Engaged teams out perform when compared to disengaged teams. Are your teams aware of the purpose they serve, and how they solve problems for your customers and your company?

📖 “If I were asked for the most important advice I could give, I should simply say: stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” - Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy understood the importance of awareness and reflection. Pausing a moment and reflecting on your day is a vital way to continuously improve the way you work with your team, your partners, your clients and your customers. Did you pause and reflect today?  

  🥳 Happy National Awkward Moments Day! - March 18 Celebrate the day by Seeing the humor in awkward moments and have fun with them. Being vulnerable –Share stories about our own awkward moments with your team. Laugh over them and enjoy the memory. Helping someone else recover from an awkward moment. They may be embarrassing at first. Everyone is human, and everyone has awkward moments! Keeping in mind that no one is perfect, ever.

  "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones" - Confucius Even Confucius was a fan of iteration!  

📖 “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” -Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche's thinking about how individuals interact when in a group closely aligns with the concept defined by Irving Janis in 1972 called "groupthink." ✏️ Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinions of the rest of the group. Individuals with differing opinions, or even opposed to the group's decisions frequently remain quiet in order to keep the peace rather than disrupt the crowd's uniformity. This phenomenon is common in the workplace, as the decision-making cycle continues to compress, and the pressure to deliver increases. It's a danger to leaders and managers because it reduces the likelihood of teams identifying and mitigating risk. Creativity and innovation is pushed to the side in favor of "goin...

  Over the last 24 hours, I heard 3 questions that really caught my interest. The first question was "How can you coach someone to get better at something if they don't think they need to improve." The second question was "What do you do with that one person on the team who always seems to have an excuse as to why things aren't finished." The third question was posed today on LinkedIn by our very own Andrew (Drew) Boyer, "Is the demand for Leadership Coaching coming from Corporate Leaders or Employees??" What struck me is the answer to all three questions is quite the same... A coach can't help someone improve if they aren't open minded and ready to improve. If there is no invitation for coaching, no coaching will occur. If the person you are working with doesn't believe they need to improve - the likelihood of them investing in improvement on their own volition is small. You may show them data indicating there is room for improvemen...

  📖 "You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." – Jane Goodall   The daily leadership calendar hits just right again!   Every single day we make an impact on those around us. Everything from the questions we ask, to the tone of our voice makes an impact on another person's day. What we believe in... what we value - comes shining through in the way that we show up to our colleagues, teams, partners, friends and families.   What kind of impact are you having today?   ❔ Are you leading with curiosity? Asking questions to grow and challenge, and then empowering to follow through can help a team member learn a new skill, or gain confidence in skills that are developing.   ❔ Are you balancing results with growth? Getting the job done is important, and when you balance getting results with learning new skills, ...

"I want my team to be more accountable." "I wish my team took initiative more often." "It would be great if my team thought more 'out of the box.'" Teach your team HOW to think, instead of WHAT to think. Teams follow your lead, so if you're looking for improvements in them... why not start looking at how you're leading? Start by turning the statements into questions. ❔ How can I make my team more accountable? 💡 Give them a stake in solving problems. Encourage them to design AND build solutions. People tend to feel more ownership when they have a hand in designing what's being built. For example: -- Conduct brainstorming sessions around solving a specific problem. -- Gamify problem solving ( such as rewards for the most creative solution to a sticky problem.)   ❔ What am I doing to keep my team from taking initiative? 💡 Be clear about the results you are looking for, and reward your team for identifying ways t...

  “Do not give them a candle to light the way, teach them how to make fire instead. That is the meaning of enlightenment.” ― Kamand Kojouri   It's a fine line- balancing between helping your partners achieve a goal, and teaching them the skills (and building the experience) necessary to achieve their goals over and over and over again.   ⛔ "Just tell us what to do, and we will do it." ⛔ "Provide us the steps or the checklist." ⛔ "How do you want us to do this?"   This language is common, and it suggests to me that the team (regardless of level) has been conditioned to not take risks. To me it means they have learned through experience that their safest course of action is to have someone else solve the problem and instead just do as told.     In other words, they are doing exactly what they have been trained (and incen ted) to do.   Sure- some problems need to be solved right now! There can be an immediate benefit ...