Second day at converge is a full day of programs with 15 minutes breaks in between. Gosh I do miss the opportunity to meet up and chat with other participants in between session, walk by an exhibitor or two checking out their stuff, getting some inspiration. It is of course an option to open up and look at sponsor contributions and I do use it but miss the hands on experience. To keep me on my toes today my small herd of sheep decided to help out. Looking out the window while getting my cup of tea I realized they were all strolling around outside my house and not at all in the meadow they were supposed to be. No chatting, no exhibitions, no tea – that break pumped up my energy levels by having me rush out, grab a bucket of sheep food and lure them in behind fence again. Well it works but it sure is a different conference experience. *laughing*
First session today was a lovely coffee chat with interaction in breakout rooms discussing in which scenarios coaching adds value to change management. Basically all it turns out, we swayed the question a bit and pinpointed the importance of identifying the context in which you as a coach are working. Organisational change happens on 3 levels, individual, team and organisation. In all stages of a change management project within an organisation coaches are useful (as we learned yesterday most effective in early stages but way to often “called in to mop up the mess” when process is not working according to plan. Anyway – in whatever stage or scenario we are called in as coaches, it is crucial to sort out and keep in mind what level we are working. People and organisations in change tend to mix them up, in example making individual fears appear as organisational business risk or attributing team issues as individual unalignment. As coaches we are the non-biased observers who can help sort out what is what and have a responsibility to keep clear and aware of the levels and coach at the appropriate one in each situation.
The S-curve of learning
The keynote I chose today was on Coaching smart growth. A session in which Whitney Johnson delivered really useful tools and models to challenge my mind and bring clarity to the work I do with my entrepreneurs. Love these aha-moments when experience connects to theory and both begin to glow a bit extra.
At early stages learning is slow, growth happens but it is hard and uncomfortable. As we move towards the sweet spot in the middle we pick up speed, it gets fun and we feel things happening and as we then reach next level growth slows down again and it starts to feel boring. As one who myself loves climbing this curve over and over again I can easily relate to the need to find the next curve to jump to to keep things happening. A trait I share with the entrepreneurs I am coaching. Growth comes fast when we find the smoothest transition between curves and don’t spend too much time on the satisfied mastery level. Bring on the challenges we shout, and then wonder as it gets hard again “why do I keep doing this, why can’t choose the easy path?” Gosh are awe lucky there are coaches around. And gosh do I love being one of those coaches supporting the journey.
Interesting learning was that it actually doesn’t matter at all where we objectively could be considered placed on the cure. Everything that matters is where you think you are. That sparked some thoughts around the absolute necessity to meet and work where clients are and why that seems to be one of the specific parts of coaching that attracts the entrepreneurial personality. Quickly moving from curve to curve I guess working in a method that quickly figure out where we are today and adapts to that rather than building on premade steps is of course most helpful on a fast moving entrepreneurs learning curve.
Exploring the executive coaching triangle
Ana Pilopas shared in her session research made on the triangle of executive coaching where coach, client and organization relationships interact. In a study including 16 clients, 14 HR professionals and 15 coaches the factors nourishing and hindering each relation was explored.
In summary:
Coach -client relationship is nourished by the working alliance, trust and confidentiality
Client – organization relationship is nourished by client manager holding the organization view and HR professionals giving structure to the process. Strong hinders here are when managers try to hire a coach instead of addressing an issue they as managers are avoiding or get too close into the coaching, in example trying to get information about results without client presence.
Coach – organization relationship is nourished by clear roles, expectations and responsibilities and by embraching ambiguities and being ready to recontract as changes may occur. Important here to differ between the basic commercial contract which is pretty once and for all and the learning and psychological contracts that are more volatile.
My main take away here is that as an executive coach I am wise in protecting trust between client and coach and to embrace the complexity of it all by clarifying expectations when needed.
Neuroplasticity in the brain
As it happens several of the sessions I chose today where around the brain, neuroplasticity (beautifully explained by Ann Betz as walking to the mailbox to get your paycheck through a thick layer of snow. Heavy at first but the more times you have walked that way, the easier it gets but sometimes changes in life makes it necessary to start walking towards another mailbox. It is heavy at first but quite possible and the kore often you do it the easier it gets again. That’s how your brain rewires as you change your pattern of thought.)
Anyway – I love brain science and I wish we had moved deeper down into it. We are still skating a bit on the surface at these conferences, explaining the basics of how he brain works but with several good presenters I found good nuggets to keep digging around.
Specifically interesting was Christian Vermuelens accessible way of explaining how the brain cocktail of chemicals affects our transmittors and stress releasing cortisol actually hinders the connections from fully functioning and as a result we don’t have full access to our brains in stress and negative thinking whereas relaxing and positive thinking supports brain function. And no, that doesn’t mean happy thoughts solve everything. Realism is a thing. But in the space between stimulus and response we can choose what to spray our brain with and the choice we make has an impact. The absolute majority of what we see we see through our mind’s eye.
Coaching and the human spirit
A thought provoking session around instinct vs the human spirit was not what I thought it would be but turned out to be the food for thought I needed to advance my own thoughts around what it is I actually see happen in coaching. There is this part of brain chemicals and neuro-science and there is this other part that I find harder to put in words and still don’t really want to simply call the “magic of coaching”. There is something going on in coaching that shifts something within the client and the way I see it often results in clients seeing that fabulous person I see in front of me. As that happens and clients are starting to act on their inner wisdom and true self rather than their habits, fears and non-supportive thoughts patterns everything just takes off.
Donna King and Flame Schoeder calls it the human spirit and maybe that is what it is, our true genious. I don’t know but definitely get what it they are talking about and I like the keys thy work with where generous assumptions is a big part.
Assuming when you meet people that they have inner resources above and beyond mere instincts and brain functions. That every behaviour has a positive intention of some kind and I can be curious as to what that is. That all behaviours are a form of communication from which I can learn if I listen. That if they are in touch with it, people align with and act on that inner force we can call spirit.
Meeting people from these assumptions, clearing myself from negativity and prejudice, definitely makes the world a better place for me and it makes a difference to people around me, clients or not.
And then some business facts
Going to a Converge conference is a way to build knowledge and get inspiration as a coach. But it is also a business development opportunity. Some useful facts extracted from Kevin Campbells energetic presentations (Way more in my notebook but come on, I can’t give away all my business secrets. Or actually I could, these statistics are all out there and as I picked up in Whitney Johnsons presentation earlier on: amateurs compete, professionals create. But then these notes would be far too long, I’ll stick to some nuggets.)
Taking off rom a point of the role of performance evaluations and their role in company development here are some things worth thinking of:
Employee engagement is a state of being consisting of emotional commitment, choosing to go that extra mile and psychological connection.
Performance management is a process: clarifying expectations, fostering growth, measuring and reviewing results.
O get these two to interact powerfully the coaching conversation is a powerful key. There is a bi-directional relationship between engagement and performance.
Companies know that and they want that effect. Actually 81 % of companies in a recent Gallup plans to invest and focus more on employee satisfaction from 2021 and onwards.
89% of companies already measure employee engagement but only 7 % of employees say that their companies act on their feedback. Most companies are good at setting programs but fail at clarifying goals, improve performance and having powerful communications. And Tada! – here comes the coaches!
Bringing in external coaches to work coach on the results of performance measurements make things happen. In Kevins words it is easy as ABC 123.
A: Action oriented
B: Business relevant (when connecting business goals and survey results)
C: Conversations based
1. One focus are
2. Two relevant actions
3. 3x3 communications. We don’t listen as carefully as we believe when we are sending out a message. Any action taken on feedback should be communicated three times in three different channels to ensure actually being heard and noticed
One of the things forward thinking organisations do is to both promote a coaching culture internally and bring in external coaches to close the measurement to improvement gap, moving from knowing to taking action on what data surveys and performance evaluations bring.
And that’s it folks. Day 2 of Converge must come to an end. I have not been able to persuade my animals to move with me into US time zone for a couple of days. I will need to get up early Swedish time tomorrow to as Fia the beagle demands her breakfast, the horses want out of the stable and god knows where the sheep will be.
See you tomorrow!