LATEST
NEWSLETTER
More With Less
The newsletter for high achievers who wish to have more
impact with less Struggle
IN THIS ISSUE
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
OnFire Coaching Retreats
FEATURE ARTICLE:
More Resilience Less Powerlessness: 10 Things High
Achievers Know About Responding Productively to Adversity
in Business
**********
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
WomenLeadersOnFire™:
Fall Muskoka Retreat
September 20
and 21, 2008
Huntsville,
Muskoka
Calling all
women leaders from the corporate, non-profit, governmental
and entrepreneurial sectors!
It has been
said that progressive leadership is about the increasing
ability of a leader to expand her influence. Expanding
the influence of a leader is accomplished by growing the
leader themselves.
-
So in what
ways do you need to grow? Is it in skill or is it in
character?
-
What impact
do you want to have? How do you increase that impact in
a way that aligns with who you wish to be as a woman and
as a powerful leader?
-
Where do
you struggle? What takes you out of the game?
Knowledge has
little value unless it is applied. Getting real is about
practical learning, self-reflection, clearly setting
goals, articulating a plan, taking action, accepting
accountability, establishing great habits and managing the
use of your time, over time.
Some of the
things you will take away include:
-
Increased
self-awareness and how to leverage this awareness to
maximize performance and fulfillment
-
An
exploration of how to deal with self-limiting beliefs,
fears, and habits that hold you back and stop you from
following through on what's most important
-
Knowledge
and application of proven success habits and avoidance
of factors that lead to underperformance and failure
-
A framework
for the development of a Personal Strategic Plan that
reflects your core strengths, the root cause of your
gaps and organizational outcomes that matter.
Join
Professional Certified Coaches Sharon Miller and Jennifer
Britton in the beautiful setting of Muskoka as we explore
what it means to be, and grow, as a leader.
What’s
included:
·
1.5 day retreat in beautiful Muskoka (2.5 hours
North of Toronto): Saturday(9:30 – 4:30), Half Day Sunday
(9:30 – 12:30)
·
WomenLeadersOnFire Manual and Workbook
·
Lunch on Saturday, and coffee breaks throughout the
weekend
·
A 30 minute one-on-one coaching session
·
A group follow-up teleconference session (1 hour)
after the retreat, and
·
An opportunity to network with other powerful women
leaders in the beautiful setting of Muskoka (priceless!).
*
Accommodation is not included in the retreat pricing. We
would be happy to recommend places to stay near the
retreat location.
Early Bird
rate of $249 Canadian (plus GST) to August 15th,
$349 (plus GST) afterwards.
Other OnFire
programs include:
-
LeadersOnFire
-
TeamsOnFire
-
WorkRelationshipsOnFire
-
SelfEsteemOnFire (added after this latest newsletter!)
-
Stellar
Team Diagnostic Assessment (a product of Team Coaching
International)
For more
information on these and other OnFire programs, please
feel free to visit
http://www.retreat2muskoka.com or contact:
Sharon
Miller: (416) 484-8018,
sharonamiller@rogers.com
Jennifer
Britton: (416) 491-9680,
jennifer@potentialsrealized.com
**********
Call me for
further information on any of these offerings or to
schedule a complimentary one-on-one sample session.
Take advantage of the opportunity to leverage all my
learning and use simple tools that work.
**********
Feel free to
forward More With Less (in its entirety
please)
to anyone you think might be interested. This is how I
grow. Please include full authorship and subscription
information. Thanks!
*********
FEATURE ARTICLE:
More Resilience Less Powerlessness: 10 things High
Achievers Know About Responding Productively to Adversity
in Business
"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the
ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when
it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the
first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a
man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that
he learns thoroughly."
Thomas H. Huxley, scientist, educator
"I love the man who can smile in trouble, who can gather
strength from distress and grow brave by reflection."
Thomas Paine, statesman
Adversity Quotient, or AQ, is the science of human
resilience. It is based on the work of Paul Stoltz,
president and CEO of PEAK Learning, Inc., a research and
consulting company based in California. According to
Stoltz, a high AQ is an exceptionally robust predictor of
success.
Resilience is
the process of adapting well in the face of any
significant source of stress. It does not mean that a
person doesn’t experience difficulty or angst. It does
mean rebounding back from trying experiences.
For people
with low AQ, the typical response to adversity is a
feeling of powerlessness and despair that can go beyond
the real facts. The pattern of their responses leads often
to panic and indecision.
People with
high AQ remain optimistic and resilient in the face of
difficulties, focusing on what they can control and how
they can positively influence what is.
Those in the
middle comprise 80% of the workforce. While they handle
most adversities relatively well, they also have a fair
amount of untapped potential. As importantly, difficulties
wear them down more than they should.
Resilience
involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be
learned and developed. It is based on what Stoltz
describes as your explanatory style, which has four
dimensions:
-
Control –
the extent to which you feel able to influence a
situation positively and the extent to which you can
control your own response to a situation
-
Ownership –
the extent to which you take personal responsibility for
improving a given situation, regardless of its cause
-
Reach – how
extensively you allow a particular kind of adversity you
face to affect other areas of your work and life, and
-
Endurance –
your perception of how long an adverse situation will
last.
So how does
an organization, a team, a relationship or individual
build resilience?
The most
important strategy I’ve learned in studying high
achievement and coaching high achievers is to increase the
self-esteem of the corporation, the team, the relationship
and/or the individual. Self-esteem is a measure of ‘mental
fitness’. Usually we talk only about the self-esteem of
the individual. People may have a positive view of
themselves which makes it easier for them to bounce back
from sub-optimal experiences in relationships, teams and
organizations.
How much more
would be possible if we moved from the personal experience
to the collective experience, and committed to increasing
self-esteem and resilience at those levels?
Below are 10
things High Achievers know about raising the AQ factor:
1.
Resilience is increased when people and
organizations believe they are involved in work that
‘matters’. Create a sense of shared purpose and
significance at all levels (organizational, team,
relationship, individual) that tap into the healthy
aspirations of people. A statement such as being the
number one service provider of financial services just
doesn’t tap into the hearts and passions of the
collective. It’s great for the company but at the
individual level, who cares?
2.
Then set big, challenging goals aligned with a
shared purpose that matters, make written plans of action
to achieve them and then execute them. Putting endless
hours into strategies that fail in execution creates
negativity and reduces resilience.
3.
Have clear standards and values at all the 4
levels, act in a way that is consistent with them, and
call out behaviour that is incongruent. Much of the stress
that people and organizations experience comes from
believing one thing and then doing another, or observing
others behave inconsistently without accountability,
usually because they drive financial results. Somehow
that’s OK. It’s not. It creates stress, erodes the
self-esteem of the organization, and reduces resilience.
4.
People need leaders who speak and act in service of
shared ideals. I would submit that often the self-esteem
of leaders is not high enough to have the courage, energy
and strength to stand up and awaken the ‘warrior’ within.
Instead, they feel scared, anxious and powerless, without
enough self-esteem (internal sense of worthiness),
self-respect (finding your voice, speaking your truth,
particularly when there is pressure to do otherwise) or
self-confidence (belief in one’s ability to do/overcome).
This creates an organization with the same qualities.
5.
Make the quality of relationships within
organizations as important as the quality of the
relationship with the client. We teach people selling
skills and don’t teach them how to be in relationship with
each other. Dumb. Studies have shown that poor
relationships are a significant source of stress within
organizations. Ignoring this reduces positivity which
research has shown negatively impacts productivity and
sustainability.
6.
Treat people, relationships and teams in a way that
haves them believe that they in fact matter. Create trust
and respect. Deal with differences openly and
constructively. Encourage camaraderie. Call out
politicizing, gossiping, stonewalling, defensiveness and
finger pointing. Value differences in ideas, perspectives,
backgrounds, and personalities. Take care of (not enable)
each other.
7.
Say ‘yes’ to adversity. Take a more positive,
constructive view. Many people believe that they should
not have to suffer. However, as they say in Star Trek,
‘resistance is futile’. Accept it. Organizations and
individuals will accelerate their growth if they instead
move through adversity consciously, awake and aware. Read
that last sentence again.
8.
The corollary is let yourself, your team, and your
organization experience strong emotions. Allow people to
ventilate their feelings. In a surprising way this can
allow closure in that people feel they’ve been heard. Then
they are able to go to what’s next.
9.
Make the effort and accept and pay the price to
overcome obstacles. Just do it. People and organizations
get stuck in procrastination because they haven’t clearly
articulated the cost of moving forward. Instead they
awfulize what that means and remain mired in blame and
rehashing the past. When you are clearer on the worst case
scenario, the price that needs to be paid, and the
strengths you can draw on to make your way through, it’s
easier to take even one small step to make sure the worst
doesn’t happen. This creates energy and hope.
10.
Stoltz talks about the very act of noticing your
response to a difficult situation can lead to profound
changes in your ability to handle adversity. Like anything
to do with changing human behaviour, awareness is the
first step. Notice, take a different perspective and
choose a different response. Identify and take steps to
increase your control over a situation or to minimize the
adversity’s reach or duration. As you do this repeatedly,
you hardwire these different responses into your brain.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
1.
What is your plan to increase your resilience? The
resilience of your most important relationships, your
team, your leaders and your organization?
2.
When adversity happens, stop and notice what’s
going on within you. What are you feeling and where in
your body are you feeling it? What are you assuming as
though it’s the truth? What if you assumed something more
empowering and less comprehensively awful? What if you
stopped railing about the essential unfairness of the
situation and took 100% responsibility for the results you
want to achieve?
If not you
then who? If not now then when? Take charge of creating
More With Less and remember,
CoachingWorks!
Sincerely,
Sharon
Miller, B.Comm., CPCC, PCC
CoachingWorks
sharonamiller@rogers.com
(416) 484-8018
http://www.sharonamiller.com
"You have to find something that you love enough to be
able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break
through the brick walls that are always going to be placed
in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling
for what it is you’re doing, you’ll stop at the first
giant hurdle."
George Lucas, Director
“The greatest
revolution of my generation is the discovery that by
changing the inner attitudes of your mind, you can change
the outer aspects of your life.”
William James
Sign me up:
Call for more information and to see if you qualify for a
free sample session and an opportunity to use
simple tools that work.
My business is
built on REFERRALS. Thank you for sharing this newsletter
with others.
If you know
people who would like to receive this letter, please have
them sign up at my website
http://
www.sharonamiller.com
I just love
Feedback.
Let me know what you think of this issue, and what you
would like in future issues.
CoachingWorks
2008. All rights reserved. |