Are You Building Trust With Your Team?
I heard this recently: “Trust is the highest cliff from which a person can fall.” It seems fitting to beginning this article exploring trust and building it. We talk about building trust because it’s not something that exists without a foundation. When a building falls it often takes more to rebuild it than what it contained in the first place. In the book The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M.R. Covey, it states that trust is a function of two things: character and competence. I think it’s important to note that a person of good character isn’t always a person we can trust. Trust is not universally based on this idea, rather it’s situational. For instance, think about a person at work who you trust completely to make decisions. They are probably people who you see as having good values, reliable, and basically of good character. Would you trust them to re-wire your house? Maybe if you worked as an electrician. Their character didn’t change, but the competence for the task changed. Then again, a person of good character probably wouldn’t offer to re-wire your house unless they knew they were competent. When I look around my workplace, I think about whom I can trust and, yes, it changes depending on the task at hand.
What is Trust? Read More…
Posted in: Transformational Leadership, Uncategorized
Tagged with: Executive Coaching, goates, Goates Consulting Group, Kevin McCowen, Leadership, leadership coaching, management, Personal Transformation, Transformational Leadership
How Are You Selling Possibility?
“I tend to get bogged down in the process of writing and editing these blog articles. It’s kind of a feeling like I’m turning them in for a grade so they need to be perfect up front. What I really want to do is just write and see what works and what doesn’t.”
Create Possibility, Create Potential
It may have been somewhat foretelling that I said this to Greg (Executive Coach and Transformational Leadership Instructor) the morning before our third Transformational Leadership class. His answer was along the lines of, “Yes, just write and we’ll produce good stuff.” That night we watched a video, ‘Leadership, the Art of Possibility’ – a short piece featuring Benjamin & Rosamund Zander. Rosamund is a Psychotherapist who wrote the book upon which the documentary is based. Together, the Zanders present twelve practices, based on Benjamin’s experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, to bring more creativity into our endeavors. One of their tenets is to give everyone in the class an A on the first day. As Zander says, “The A is a possibility to live into, not a standard to live up to.”
Create Confidence, Create Leaders Read More…
Posted in: Transformational Leadership, Uncategorized
Tagged with: Executive Coaching, goates, Kevin McCowen, Leadership, leadership coaching, Personal Transformation, strategic, Transformational Leadership
Are You Creating Your Map to Becoming a Better Leader?
There was a point in time, way back, when I thought I had the potential for leadership. This was when I first read the book ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. It was a little over twenty years ago now. At that time, I was in the Navy and somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A few things about that first reading have stuck in my mind since. The first was the notion of walking through one city using the map of another. The idea was that you might be in the right place but using the wrong principles or priorities (the wrong map). Second, was how difficult it was to comprehend many of the ideas. Creating a personal mission statement seemed appealing but I found it difficult to wrap my head around how mine could be unique.
Who do you want to be when you grow up? Read More…
Posted in: Transformational Leadership