Team Coaching with Lisa Walsh & Gary Nowak on Coffee House Coaching

team coaching with Lisa Walsh and Gary Nowak

Work with teams and individual clients is a confidential process. Rarely is there an occasion for a coach to share by demonstration how they do what they do.   What can be shared is a conversation on team coaching featured on this podcast hosted by Gary Nowak. In it, you will hear from me and my colleague Lisa Walsh. You can witness the different stages of a team as we form, do a little storm, and …

Leverage Your “I” For Better Team Collaboration

I in Team Accelus Blog

There is no “I” in team. But every individual in every team needs to have awareness of their “I” in order to be a strong and contributing team member. “I” in this case is knowing your strengths, weaknesses, preferences and your common stress responses as you work in a team. It sounds like: Teammate 1: I am good at seeing the big picture and can lose sight of the details. I prefer working more of …

Perception & The Power of Feedback

perception & feedback

Early in my career, I had no clue that at least one of my colleagues perceived me very differently than the warm, caring and friendly colleague I considered myself to be.  Out of the blue, and not part of a performance review, a colleague shared that I gave the impression of being an “ice maiden.”   Shocked by his feedback, and still trying to reconcile the vast difference between his perception and the one in my …

Managing Stressful Situations

Man stressing at work desk

The drop or churning in your stomach, the sweaty palms, the flushing of the face. Full-on signs that something or someone has just sent you on a path of worry, frustration, fear, or panic. While not always appreciated, our bodies send us instantaneous signals of our state of being. The trouble with these reactions is that they served us well when we needed to outrun the saber tooth tiger, but most of us are not …

Why is Communication so Challenging? 

The Latin base of communication is communicare, which means to share. To share something, you must hold or know it, and recognize that sharing will benefit you and the other party.  It then needs to be presented in a way that others will want to partake or engage. If the other party is not interested or does not know why they should be, the message will fall on deaf ears. This gives us three distinct …

Who wouldn’t want to be a Learner?

People especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.   This short definition of the Learner® talent theme from the Clifton Strengths® Assessment summarizes how those with Learner in their dominant strengths address the acquisition of knowledge. Second in frequency in the Top 5 strengths of the population, Learner is surpassed only by Achiever. …

Leaders, Can You Identify Your Blind Spots?

  Driver’s education provides hand-on experience maneuvering a vehicle on roads and through traffic. Warnings about blind spots are given in training, yet the reality of their existence is hard to fathom. “How could you not see another large vehicle to your side?” Yep, we all know that feeling of “oh my gosh…a near miss!” That is the blind spot. Newer model cars include a blind spot detection system that activates to warn the driver …

Self-Assurance, Last on the List of Strengths…Really?!

  Imagine awakening each morning with a deep knowing – confidence in your ability to manage your own life – that you possess an inner compass that affirms the decisions you make throughout the day are the right ones. That would be a reassuring feeling, wouldn’t it? Why Does Self-Assurance Rank Last on the List? Self-Assurance® is the talent theme described above and identified by the Clifton Strengths Assessment®. The assessment identifies 34 distinct talent …

Talent & Trust = The Building Blocks of a High Performing Team

teams, high performing team, high-performing team

What do you see in the photo above? A team that appears to be interested and engaged in what is being discussed. But a picture can be misleading…very misleading. What if the leader is simply telling the other members of the team what will occur? That changes the entire dynamic of what we think we see. And that is just what many have experienced when working as part of a team. Perhaps you can relate. …

What Leader Wouldn’t Want to be Known as an Achiever?

leader, achiever, leadership, Clifton Strengths

Can you think of a leader who wouldn’t want to be known as an achiever? Most of us – leaders or not – would appreciate that moniker following behind our name. And for the 6 million plus people of the 20 million who have taken the Clifton Strengths® assessment, they can rightly claim the talent of Achiever®. But wait…isn’t “leader” synonymous with “achiever”? Specifically, Achiever® is defined by Gallup as: People especially talented in the …

Want that promotion? Change your mindset.

mindset, promotion, attitude

Did Two Sides of the Same Coin get you thinking? Was it an “ah-ha” or an “uh-oh” moment when you recognized that your ability to earn income is likely your greatest asset? If you want a different experience, change your mindset. Perhaps it was “Duh, I knew that. Why doesn’t my boss? Good luck prying an additional dime for my paycheck or professional advancement.” You’ve come to a fork in the road. You can commiserate …

The Ability to Generate Income: Two Sides of the Same Coin

generating income, income generation

A client’s greatest asset is the ability to generate income. That’s an early lesson I learned as a financial advisor. For most, this income generating ability comes from employment. For the few with investment assets great enough, it is still the ability to provide income – from their assets or otherwise – without depletion of assets before the end of the life cycle (cycles for a couple). What strengthens income generating ability Most of us …

How Relating to Others Makes a Good Leader Great

leader, leadership

Genuine. Authentic. Natural. You’re used to seeing these words on the labels of leather shoes or handbags. Yet, these adjectives are also used to describe great leaders. When you are with them, work with them or are simply influenced by them, their style of leadership is often described by how it feels: Genuine. Authentic. Natural. Some Leaders are Naturally Authentic. While any leader has the potential to engender these feelings in others, those with the …

How do you keep the right talent at the table?

team, table, talent

With the U.S. economy supporting over 167 million workers, unemployment levels are low and stable, averaging between 3.5 and 3.7 percent over the past year. While that’s great for our economy, it strains resources and creates challenges to find, recruit and retain talent. Strong salary, benefit and signing offers tempt employees to jump ship. Turnover and recruitment are expensive. So, just how do you keep the right talent at the table? Do you know talent when …

Book Review: The Dream Manager – Employee Engagement Done Right

employee engagement, employee

For those who regularly follow my blog, you’ve come to know that my book reviews are not a detailed review of the book. You can get that on Amazon. Rather, they are an understanding of the application of what is in the book and why it may be beneficial for you. If you care about making the most of the greatest asset in your organization, then you will want to continue reading on… I wish …

Are you a Strategic leader?

strategic leadership, strategic leaders

Strategic™ as a talent theme occurs frequently in the population, showing in the top 5 for 4 million of the 18 plus million people who have taken the Clifton Strengths® Assessment. That is a really great thing. Why? As we learn from the full definition, the ability to sort through the clutter and find the best route is not a skill that can be taught. Strategic leaders shine at establishing a path forward. Just ask …

Power Dynamics: How to Get YOUR Seat at the Table

gain a seat, seat at the table, power dynamics

Like the childhood game of musical chairs, getting a seat at the table can seem like a rare mix of chance and luck. Colleagues and friends pull out a chair for one another socially. In the real world of business, however, this rarely applies. Getting a seat at the table can be complicated Instead, you often find there is not an available seat – or it is obvious (not to mention awkward!) that you are …

Magic Happens When You Capitalize on Everyone’s Talents

team, table, talent

Need a solution to a problem? Find someone on your team with the talent theme of Restorative™. The short definition of this theme is: People especially talented in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.* Not only are they adept at solving problems – they can get energy from it! The talent theme of Restorative ranks #9 of the 34 themes, …

What Do You Do When Others Aren’t Watching?

accountability | accountable

Provocative, yes? Pull your mind back from the gutter. This is not that type of message! In fact, it is about what we don’t do when others aren’t watching. When we’re not accountable to someone, we can easily slack off. My fitness tracker recently stopped charting my exercise and steps taken. While it did not stop me from doing my early morning workouts, the lack of tracking stopped my extra steps during the day. You …

3 Key Coaching Skills for Leaders (and How to Implement Them)

“Coaching conversations” are all the rage for leaders, especially when providing feedback on performance. Case in point: in 2013 Deloitte replaced “performance review” with coaching conversations that focus on an employee’s learning and performance. Major organizations are implementing “coaching conversations” Many other major organizations have followed suit, including Microsoft, Google, Accenture and Adobe. These are large organizations with “large” resources making it easy for them to implement, right? Not so fast. This is something you …