Coaching at times seems to be one of these fad-ish words. Its intentions are clear but the specifics are blurred. Coaching, especially in the workplace, is often cast as an alternative to traditional supervision. In fact, it is not an alternative mindset, but a complimentary mind-set. Coaching may be a contemporary label, but it implies a capacity that all great leaders possess: the ability to enhance the proactive ability of others coaching.
Coaching is your leadership …

A good idea is not good enough. Good ideas don’t have wings and they don’t take off without a support base.
In the following podcast I discuss how great leaders rely on the skills of execution rather than the strength of an idea or vision.
I take a look at the leadership style of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln and ask what was key to their successful leadership.

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Day-in-day-out drudgery is the nemesis of employee engagement. The challenge for leaders is not simply how to engage, but how to reengage others when drudgery has set in. When the drama is forgotten, when the sense of purpose is diminished, leaders must reinvigorate others be reaffirming the common coalition mindset by reengaging their role by:
1. Reinvigorating the vision
2. Reinforcing the benefits
3. Sustaining the optimism
4. Maintaining credibility

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Today, we are finally starting our new podcast series. I hope you will enjoy it and get something out of it. We’ll try to keep them coming at a reasonable, but not overwhelming pace.
The purpose of this series is to elucidate and elaborate clear and specific principles around the issue of being proactive, with no promise that we won’t spill beyond these boundaries.
Let us know what you think. Hope you enjoy.
Sam B.

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Solid leadership and team organizational skills will require that you can push an agenda through to fruition.
However, you will, in most cases, meet resistors to the change you want to bring about.
Please listen to my podcast below where I outline the harm of ‘resistors’ and some methods to get them on your side.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

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When you teach, you sometimes for dichotomies, exaggerate distinctions. I think the distinction between Jackson Pollock and Knute Rockne as presented in the two videos I showed the other day (featured yesterday) carry a very strong message.  In a real way, they give us a classical distinction between looseness and control, two styles, not only for approaching the world but also for approaching leadership—each style lacking a bit. In the podcast below I examine the …