Executive Coaching, High Performance Teams, Leadership
Accountability is essential for high performance.
It is a social contract between people. You are accountable to someone for something. The someone could be an individual or a team. The something is a result.
Accountable means ‘count-on-able.’ You said it. You delivered it, just as you said you would.
‘Responsible’ is a synonym of ‘accountable.’ One definition of responsible is ‘being a source, cause, or agent of.’ In other words, if I am responsible, I can be counted on to originate the action(s) needed to produce the result(s).
Every job is comprised of an accountability: some specific result(s) you are count-on-able for producing within certain time frames.
People sometimes struggle with holding others accountable, fearing that those others will resent or dislike them and accuse them of being ‘confrontational.’ To be an effective leader or manager, your accountability is to hold people accountable in a respectful and clear-cut manner, despite your concerns for being liked.
Trust is often talked about as missing or weak in a team or culture. A necessary element of trust is that people know they can count on each other. Another definition of ‘responsible’ is ‘trustworthy.’
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If accountability is not as strong as you would like with your team or organization, Barry Pogorel Inc. can help make accountability present and powerful.
Leadership
The Covid challenge brings new requirements for leaders that may seem counterintuitive
I would like to introduce you to a client of mine who is an extraordinary human being. I had the privilege of coaching Dr. Frank Licari, his administration, and faculty, to help create a new model of dental education. Dr. Licari is Dean of the College of Dental Medicine at Roseman University, Salt Lake City.
I have found that an essential attribute to being a leader is authenticity. Authenticity includes honesty, which gives the leader clarity about the objective state of things so she/he can take appropriate action, and it includes vulnerability which allows for a human connection and for others to trust the leader. At all times, and particularly in times of great challenge like today in dealing with Covid, it takes courage and discipline to be authentic.
I would like to share with you a few thoughts Dr. Licari wrote for leaders facing this challenge.
Dr. Licari makes these critical points for us to consider:
“The True Test of a Leader The past months have placed a number of difficult challenges to leaders that most would not have had to encounter over their entire career. The test of a true leader is not only to persevere through these challenges but to continue to inspire others to excel despite an uncertain future.”
“Honesty and Vulnerability Leadership has never been about always having the right answers…What we expect of our leaders is an unwavering veracity of truth…Which means many times your best answer may be: ‘I don’t know’…leadership requires honesty and honesty requires you to be vulnerable. Vulnerability separates the leaders that are mediocre from those that are great.”
Dr. Licari generously acknowledged the difference that transformational work has made for himself, his faculty and administrators:
“Leaders are not born but rather developed…Developing my insights into unlocking leadership’s potential in engaging effective teams to take on bold challenges that make a difference, started with the work of Barry Pogorel and his unique approach to revolutionizing organizations. Barry’s work goes beyond developing your skills for individual growth to fully engaging and empowering your leadership team to create a new future that will actually make a difference in the lives of everyone in your organization. “
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If you would like to discuss these ideas further, or explore how I might contribute to you and your organization, it would be my pleasure to speak with you. We can set up an appointment by email.
Executive Coaching, Leadership
For a Leader in a hurry (what leader isn’t?)
Our executive coaching series picks up the pace for those already moving very fast to cover a lot of territory.
They barely have time to ask themselves three critical questions…
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- Why have an executive coach?
- What is the value to me?
- How do I select the right coach for me?
Why have an executive coach? Consider these possibilities:
- You have a challenging issue you are dealing with, and you’re looking for a resolution, such as:
- You are overwhelmed with your workload
- You are having difficulty dealing with someone, such as a partner/report/boss
- You have a team that is not functioning at the level needed
- You have an intractable problem
- You are seeking to develop yourself as a leader—your skill, ability, effectiveness, productivity. You aim to be a great leader.
- You want to surpass your own performance beyond anything you’ve ever done before.
- You would value someone to think and plan with, someone outside your company, outside the culture, who will listen—and who can provide objective, intelligent insight and thought-provoking dialogue for new perspectives and new thinking. A strategic confidante.
- You are in transition from one job to another or one company to another. You’d like to discuss and gain clarity on your next career move. You want to clarify your career path and make it happen.
- You’ve been stuck in some way about something and you want to get into effective action and deal with it.
How do you select the right coach for you?
Here is a quick guide to selecting an executive coach:
- Interview at least 2 candidates.
- If you have a referral from someone you know you can trust, that’s great! If not:
- Check your gut—do you like the person?
- Do they “get” you?
- Do you like their approach/method. Does it make sense?
- Is there a lack of B.S.: do they seem straightforward and honest, do they listen, do they stay on point?
- What is their track record? Do they talk about results or anecdotes and stories. You want results.
- What do they promise you? What can you count on them for? Ask them.
Like any great performer: an athlete, a dancer, a musician— and for a leader in a hurry— powerful coaching can immeasurably increase your performance.
If you’d like to interview me as one of your candidates, it would be my honor. And… remember to ask me about my approach called “Transformational Coaching” which is specifically designed to produce breakthroughs in your performance.
Ready to use this guide? Call me at (310) 730-6355 to find out more about Executive Coaching for yourself.
Executive Coaching, Leadership
Welcome to our series: Executive Coaching . The Inside View with Barry Pogorel
Promoting from within has its own pitfalls for all concerned, especially so for senior management, charged with leading a company full of uniquely gifted and challenged people.
Must those pitfalls trap you? This case study may echo one you’ve seen up close… or lived yourself.
A CEO’s Dilemma
The Chairman of a global company contacted me. He said that he was looking for the company’s next President.
His top performing executive had asked for the job. This man was his most effective EVP, however, at the same time was a significant liability. The executive produced outstanding results in developing new business. When developing a project, however, he would do whatever it took to make it happen internally.
Although many people appreciated him, and were even in awe of him, they also feared him. He would threaten, cajole, pressure, force whomever and however across the company to get what he wanted. He moved quickly, decisively, and was frustrated and impatient when others didn’t do the same or had objections or issues with what he wanted. Finally, and this was the last straw, he told the Chairman that if he wasn’t made President in short order, he would leave the company and go to a competitor.
The Chairman told me that if he promoted this man, many people in the company would call and say, “Are you out of your mind?!” The Chairman asked me if I could “make him into a president.” I said that that depended on whether he was coachable and willing to deal with the issues the Chairman and others saw and wanted resolved. I proposed to meet with the man and find out.
In our first meeting, I instantly liked him. I could see that his commitment and brilliance was dimmed by his forcefulness and impatience. He told me he was interested in executive coaching and was open to discovering how he could function differently. He expressed genuine excitement to have the opportunity to develop himself as a leader. Although he didn’t entirely agree with the Chairman’s assessment of him, he saw there were some points that were valid. We began to work together.
Can You Tame a Talent from Rough to Ready?
In the course of our coaching sessions he discovered something profound in looking at his past. Oftentimes the biggest barrier to achieving what we most care about is our own past and the life-altering decisions we’ve made (and now are unaware of).
In looking at the origins of his impatience and forcefulness, he remembered a morning when he was a child. His mother sat him, his brother and sister down and cried for a few moments, and then said that she and their father were going to divorce, that their dad had a new job in England and would be living there. He recalled being shocked, scared, and confused. He also remembered thinking to himself: “I don’t have a dad anymore. No one’s going to protect us. I have to do things all by myself.” He became a solo force in the world. To others, this manifested as a one-man, independent power with great impatience to get things done.
This was the origin of his bull-in-a-china-shop behavior.
Some insights are merely theoretical. Other insights gained through self-reflection are deep and life-altering. This insight produced a breakthrough and he felt released. His effectiveness in producing results was undiminished, while at the same time he began collaborating with people, listening to others, inspiring and moving people into action rather than threatening/forcing them.
A Revolutionary Result:
Within 6 months, the Chairman appointed him President.
Out of our work together, my clients gain the key insights required to liberate them from whatever is constraining or limiting, and they achieve what they aspire to.
Your comments and questions are invited. about this post or any issues you’d like to see in the series.
You may also want to visit “How to Choose the Right Executive Coach” for a winning approach to selecting the right coach for yourself.
Leadership
The more clearly a leader can see objective reality, the more effective that leader will be in dealing with it.
To separate out “the facts” from interpretations, opinions, prejudices, assumptions, points of view, “what everybody knows,” as well as separate the facts from one’s hopes, fantasies, wishes, and
“what should be.”
This kind of rigor in dealing with external objective reality begins with a rigor in dealing with one’s own internal reality. That is, to be honest with and about oneself in all one’s affairs.
From dictionary.com – Genuine (Adjective)
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- not fake or counterfeit; original; real; authentic
- not pretending; frank; sincere
- being of authentic or original stock
How does one develop being genuine?
We must start with the already-existing state of being human: it is often not one of being real, genuine, honest. I suggest that if we give a straightforward look at ourselves, we often feel less than honest or genuine. We strive to be liked, to win, to avoid looking foolish. We want to be well thought of. And in those pursuits, we often sacrifice being real. Honesty can seem so much less important that these other pursuits. And in not taking seriously our own realness, we miss the enormous power, clarity, and peace available.
Being genuine feels vulnerable. It can include feeling embarrassed at times. Being honest can mean admitting we were wrong, or that we failed at something, or that we made a mistake. And in telling the truth about these things, it at first seems threatening, dangerous, counterproductive. And for sure, counter-intuitive.
Vulnerability like this takes courage.
It takes an actual commitment to take on being genuine with self and others.
Being well-intended, reading inspiring quotes, feeling strongly about it….make little or no difference. Just as it takes commitment to develop stamina or learn a new skill, it takes commitment to master being honest and real. It is not a momentary decision that transforms one, but rather an ongoing commitment—more like taking on a project—to be genuine and when you are not, catching yourself and then being genuine in that moment.
This kind of honesty builds trust with others, lets you see clearly what is, and gives a sense of peace since there is nothing to hide. You discover yourself.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
– e.e. cummings
Your comments and questions about Leadership Transformation #4 above, and our earlier posts about Leadership Transformation are very welcome.
You’ll also want the “The Six Leadership Keys” for executives.
Call Barry at (310) 730-6355 to ask about getting yours, free, from our Edgevantage Guides series.
Leadership
In a Harvard Business Review article, Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria wrote: “Despite some individual successes, however, change remains difficult to pull off, and few companies manage the process as well as they would like. Most of their initiatives—installing new technology, downsizing, restructuring or trying to change corporate culture—have had low success rates. The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail.”
Although written in 2000, asking executives today, the statistics seem to be about the same. The costs of this are staggering. What is at the root of this failure rate? What is missing?
It is the third transformation needed to be a powerful leader: becoming someone whose word is their bond.
In business and life, there are always situations, changing conditions, problems large and small. This is part of the fabric of business and life. There are a multitude of difficult circumstances and good reasons why something can’t/didn’t happen. And leaders are in the business of making happen what was not going to happen.
Here’s what George Bernard Shaw had to say about this:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him.
The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself.
All progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-from Maximums for Revolutionists
How do you become an “unreasonable” leader?
Quoting Michael Jensen, Professor Emeritus of the Harvard Business School:
Doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it.
The essence of being “unreasonable” and making happen what otherwise would not happen, what is often inconvenient, uncomfortable, and uncertain, and what sometimes may even seem impossible, is being someone whose word is their bond—in particular in the face of one’s own self-doubts, considerations, and one’s own “reasons why not.”
And such a leader asks the same of those they lead.
This is the lever that moves the mountain.
Want the “The Six Leadership Keys” for executives?
Cal Barry at (310)730-6355 to get yours, free, from our Edgevantage Guides series.
