When planning to attend a meeting where you know few people do you (a) break out in hives at the thought of being in the room with strangers; (b) view it as an opportunity to work your personal agenda; so you determine who’ll be in attendance and develop a plan for working the room; or (c) view the meeting as an opportunity to meet some interesting people and show up intellectually curious and ready to make new acquaintances?

People in (a) will likely view the meeting as an onerous, burdensome event where they’ll feel alone while in the midst of a sea of people. People in (b) will likely have an adrenaline rush planning their strategy and tactics to meet as many people as possible. People in (c) will likely embrace the meeting as an exciting adventure and the opportunity to expand their network of valued relationships.

Professional networking is the process of initiating connections with others. Its ultimate objective is not simple information acquisition but rather to turning initial connections into mutually valuable relationships.

Key benefits of embracing the opportunity to develop mutually valued relationships include:

• Familiarity: You’re no longer a stranger; you’ve connected with others.

• Commonality: You’ve found things in common with others.

• Sharing: You’ve offered perspectives and insights to others.

• Visibility: More people know who you are.

• Self Confidence: You’re more confident reaching out to and engaging you don’t yet know.

• Reciprocity: You’ve actively engaged in and contributed to conversations with others.

• Collegiality: You’ve begun to build a network of valued colleagues.

It’s a normal human emotion to want to favorably impress friends, colleagues and new acquaintances, however, it’s easier to impress once a genuine connection has been made. But when impressing others is the principal objective then developing a mutually beneficial relationship becomes secondary and the value of the relationship is marginalized.

Key obstacles to networking and relationship development include:

• Being controlling: Attempting to work an agenda.

• Being manipulative: Being single-minded in pursuing your interests.

• Being superficial: Being distant and not engaged in conversation.

• Being argumentative: Being overly opinionated and stubborn in conversation.

• Being unwilling to learn new things: Being disinterested and not intellectually curious.

Key attributes for successful networking and relationship development include:

• Taking a risk: Continually attempting to connect others.

• Being authentic: Being present and engaged.

• Actively listening: Listening with empathy and to understand.

• Allowing yourself to be influenced by what you hear.

• Being engaged: Actively listening and participating in conversation with others.

So, don’t fear the networking process; embrace it. Don’t try so hard. Just be authentically present when meeting others and let your intellectual curiosity for experiencing and learning from others wash over you - enjoy the ride and the new relationships you’ll form.

If you’re open to connecting with others and making your best effort to do so, you’re a winner. The reality is that you won’t connect with everyone, but those you do connect with can become mutually valuable relationships. What’s important is the willingness to put yourself out there and engage others by listening to, sharing with and learning from them.

At the end of a meeting would you rather have collected 30+ new business cards or have genuinely connected with 5-10 people who enjoyed meeting you and are interested in keeping in touch with you? It’s not the number of people you meet that’s important; it’s the quality of the relationships that you form.

Networking and relationship development are coachable skills. Honing these skills can be invaluable to you both personally and professionally.

The Corbett Group provides coaching support to help individuals enhance their relationship development and management skills.

Bob Corbett

What does it really mean as a team member to commit to one another’s success? At one time or another you may have been the member of a team who met and collectively agreed to pursue and achieve a common set of goals and actions. Most likely the agreement included a commitment to achieve your individual goals and to do what’s needed to support other team members achieve theirs. But as we know just saying, “I’m committed”, doesn’t create success. Instead it’s ownership that creates success.

The belief here is that ownership in combination with an individual and collective commitment to succeed will create success. Ownership minimizes maverick-like behavior and encourages genuine team oriented behavior, i.e., being far more successful by acting en masse than individually.

At the individual level, success requires that each team member own the achievement of their goals and actions with a Commitment to Self, i.e., a commitment to own and deliver your best efforts every day. Additionally, at the team level, success requires that team members collectively own the team’s goals and actions with a Commitment to Achieve Something Greater Than Themselves, i.e., the collective commitment to own responsibility for helping one another deliver their best efforts to achieve the desired organizational outcome. The net effect of this individual and collective ownership will yield results that are greater than the sum of team members’ individual accomplishments.

What does successful commitment to one another’s success look like? You’ll see trusting, supportive and collaborative team interactions, i.e., constructive, candid communications and productive team meetings. Additionally, you’ll see individual and team successes because team members “have each other’s backs”. For example, you will see individual team members sharing human and/or physical or budget resources to ensure the success of individual members and the team overall. For onlookers, i.e., non-team members, successful teams become desirable places to learn, grow and contribute.

Key elements for establishing a supportive culture where team members commit to one another’s success include:

• Ownership: The commitment to take personal responsibility for an outcome.

• Self Management: The commitment to be focused, organized, disciplined, proactive, and to follow through.

• Constructive Participation: The commitment to put others first by listening to understand; being intellectually curious; proactively participate by constructively debating, problem solving, developing solutions and providing feedback.

• Trust: The commitment to give others the benefit of the doubt and believing that they’ll do what they say.

• Direction and Support: The commitment by the team leader to establish a supportive culture and clear expectations for the team; and provide access to coaching support for team members as needed.

Leadership/executive coaches work successfully with leaders and teams providing timely, focused, objective support to maximize team effectiveness in areas including, alignment, communications, assessing and leveraging strengths, working relationships, ownership, and goals and actions.

Committing to one another’s success will lead to multiple team improvements including, increased team energy and focus; improved problem solving and solution development; improved and productive working relationships; increased visibility and job satisfaction; lower stress; and increased ownership and overall team success.

The Corbett Group provides Executive Team Alignment consulting and coaching support to leaders and their teams.

Bob Corbett

In this article we’ll consider the value of coaching in helping current and future leaders maximize strengths, shore up areas for development and commit to continuous learning by answering seven questions:

1. What is coaching?
2. Who are the partners and their roles in a coaching relationship?
3. What do coachees need to know to prepare for greater responsibility?
4. What level of commitment is required by coachees?
5. How can a coach be most helpful to coachees?
6. What’s required for a successful coaching relationship?
7. Why is coaching important?

1. What is leadership/executive coaching?

Coaching typically reflects an organization’s decision to invest in and prepare current leaders and high potential employees for greater responsibility. Coaching is a relationship between a coachee and a trained, certified third party consultant who helps a coachee plan for and achieve his or her organization and/or career goals. Coaches can be internal to the organization or external consultants. Typically the initial duration of coaching engagements is three to six months to provide sufficient time to track and measure progress.

Examples of organizational goals include, improving job performance, developing skills and behaviors required for organizational success, developing higher performing leadership teams, and improving collaboration among team members. Examples of career goals include, identifying career objectives, identifying development opportunities to grow critical skills, and developing action plans to ensure continuous learning and growth.
2. Who are the key members of a coaching partnership and what are their roles?

When sponsored by an organization, the partnership is a three-way relationship between the coachee’s manager, the coachee and the coach. Alternatively, a coachee may decide to enlist a coach directly resulting in a two-way coaching relationship.

The roles of the coaching partnership members must be clearly defined and agreed upon. The principal role of the sponsoring manager/executive is to identify and communicate the developmental needs of the coachee to the coachee and the coach.

The principal role of the coachee is to own, i.e., accept, the developmental feedback and bring the energy, commitment and interpersonal collaboration necessary to improve.

Finally, the principal role of the coach is to help the coachee understand the developmental feedback, identify specific goals and actions to be accomplished, and hold him or her accountable to achieve intermediate and long term goals.
3. What does a coachee need to know to prepare for greater responsibility?

He or she needs to genuinely understand the organization’s agenda, i.e., its vision, strategy and operational goals. The coachee must understand how his or her organizational role aligns with and contributes to the achievement of the organization’s agenda. To be successful he or she must know the critical skills and behaviors the organization values. He or she should seek feedback from their manager, direct reports, peers, and customers on the compatibility of their skills and behaviors with those the organization values. The coachee must know what it will take to improve his or her existing skill set and behaviors to align them with those valued by the organization.
4. What actions must the coachee be committed to take to improve?

Ideally, the coachee should periodically solicit feedback on his or her performance in terms of skills and behaviors from direct reports, peers and customers using a validated and reliable assessment tool. At a minimum, a coachee should solicit performance, skill set and behavioral feedback from his or her manager. The coachee should identify his or her critical skills and behaviors that are strengths and can be leveraged to achieve organization goals. He or she should also identify skill sets and behaviors that need development; and should create an action plan with a time line to shift development needs to strengths. The action plan should include metrics to measure progress. Finally, going forward he or she should periodically share progress with the manager, direct reports, peers and customers and solicit additional feedback from them to sustain progress.

5. What are ways in which a coach can help a coachee improve and prepare to take on greater responsibility?

Initially a coach will meet with the coachee to begin to understand the coachee’s situation, i.e., his or her organization role and challenges, leadership style, values, and life purpose (life compass), and to formally agree on the coaching services to be provided. Through direct observation the coach will assess coachee skills and development needs; challenge coachee actions and thought processes; and help him or her reconcile observed tendencies, skills and behaviors against performance feedback. The coach will help the coachee interpret multi-rater feedback, i.e., from the manager, direct reports, peers and customers, and develop action plans and measures to maximize strengths and address development needs. The coach will help the coachee identify interim goals and actions to be accomplished and holds him or her accountable for their completion. The coach will help the coachee identify the developmental experiences that will best address their development needs and prepare him or her to take on greater responsibility. The coach will help the coachee measure and plan the communication of progress against the goals of their improvement plan. The coach will identify and offer additional information and resources to help the coachee learn and progress. Finally, the coach serves as a confidant to the coachee – the specifics of what’s said between coach and coachee are confidential.
6. What are the critical elements required for a successful coaching relationship?

First, a successful relationship requires a certified coach who’s knowledgeable of organizations including, their strategy, structure and general operations. Second, if sponsored by a manager, a successful relationship requires a manager who is actively involved and committed to the success of the coachee. Finally, success requires a coachee who proactively solicits and owns the multi-rater feedback received about his or her performance, skills and behaviors; who wants to be coached; who is committed to improvement; and who is committed to personal development through continuous learning.
7. Why is coaching important?

A coach helps the coachee make the requisite improvements in the skills and behaviors valued by the organization and prepare for greater organizational responsibility. Through the coaching process the coachee will develop and execute an improvement plan that demonstrates confidence, improved performance and command of the skills and behaviors required for organizational success.

The Corbett Group provides leadership and executive coaching support services individuals and organizations.

Bob Corbett