Business and Executive Coaching: Increasing workplace efficiency

Business and Executive Coaching is used to empower groups and individuals to enhance productivity and effectiveness. Coaching methods may differ, but approaches tend to focus on developing existing strengths, mitigating potential weaknesses, employing a system of “best practices,” and maximizing available talents and expertise. In short, both business and executive coaching employs the greatest use of human and occupational resources to achieve goals. This most often applies to the competitive world of business, though other applications in a broad range of professions and industries will also benefit.

And yet, the two terms – “business” and “executive” – are not necessarily synonymous: There are differences between business coaching and executive coaching. Each serves a vital purpose.

Business coaching has to do with the process and direction of instructing a business on getting from where it is today to where it wants to be tomorrow. Business coaching is largely a strategic course of action that focuses on people and/or processes. This most often regards things like team productivity and efficiency, but the overall focus can apply to such things as business expansion, turn-around situations, new product and service launches, and fundamentals concerning profit growth and market share.

Executive coaching, on the other hand, is most often a one-on-one mentoring relationship between an uppermost senior executive and a professional coach. The goal and purpose are typically to counsel that senior executive on any number of issues. This might include matters concerning company profitability, guidance through a particular set of circumstances, skillset training for that executive, and more. Executive coaching can also involve a team of senior business executives, such as senior managers or directors of a given company. Read more at original source...


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Career not Job?

Job ? Career? Calling?

A man came upon a construction site where three people were working.
He asked the first, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am laying bricks.”
He asked the second, “What are you doing?” and the man replied: “I am building a wall.”
As he approached the third, he heard him humming a tune as he worked, and asked, “What are you doing?”

The man stood, looked up at the sky, and smiled,
“I am building a cathedral!”

Research by Amy Wrzesniewski has focused on how people derive meaning from their work, which can broadly be categorized in three groups: the experience of work as a job, career or calling.

People who view their work as

a “job” see it mainly as a means of income.

A “career” is work framed as a stepping stone along an occupational trajectory.

A “calling” occurs when someone believes in the meaning of the work they do, regardless of pay or prestige.

Somewhere along the line, we started to see career-oriented as the only valuable approach to work. Ms Wrzesniewski’s research suggests otherwise. And my experience makes me wonder why we stress “career-oriented” so strongly.

If we see value in all three, employees, managers and companies can benefit. Imagine a well-balanced team, or workforce, where we have a mix of people who are happy where they are and keep adding continuity, experience and value; people who want a career contribute to the team for a while and then add different value to the company in another role; or a person with a calling can be inspired to dedicate most of her life to this particular job or company.

This article gives you information about the three approaches to work; and some suggestions for how managers and individual contributors can receive and offer value with any of them.

Job
I’ve generally found that if a person says work is a job, we think less of them. We expect them to lack dedication. But is that true? If I have a job that is satisfying and enjoyable, but it’s not the most important thing in my life, can I do a good job? Of course I can. Will I refuse to ever work an extra hour, give creative input? Of course I won’t. We seem to relate a Job orientation to lack of willingness to work. Those things are unrelated.

Hiring managers make the mistake of thinking someone who stays in a role for a long time, or whose five-year plan doesn’t include significant advancement somehow doesn’t have enough to offer. Sometimes this might be your best hire. I worked in a large corporation where the sales team were supported by a team of people whose responsibility was to generate leads. They were encouraged to have a career orientation. In fact, the hiring manager was proud of the fact that she told interviewees they wouldn’t “have to” stay in the job too long. That immediately told them the job wasn’t a good one; and encouraged them to always look for an “escape”. So the department never built up any accumulated experience. Every member of that team was a perpetual beginner. In general, the sales team did NOT feel well-supported. There were some great people on that team; but they never stayed long enough to form a true partnership with the people they supported. Career orientation can be too much of a good thing. Click here to read more…

Contact Details:
Mustang PPD
13-4211 Millcroft Park Dr,
Burlington, Ontario
Zip Code: L7M 3Y9
Business Phone: 416-220-9671
Business E-mail: aileenmcnabb@mustangppd.com

Learn a Flexible Management Style

Ever struggle with how to manage someone?
Ever discover your style isn’t perfect?!

Well, ever tried ’round penning’ a horse?  This exercise helped a sales manager evaluate her management style.

An EAL (Equine Assisted Learning) participant’s job during this exercise is to get a horse to circle the perimeter of the pen, following their guidance. Sounds easy, right?

There are a few challenges that present themselves when round penning. Firstly, a participant is alone during this task. This can prove intimidating for people who are new with large animals. Secondly, each horse has unique behavioural quirks that can help or hinder the person guiding them, depending on their personality. Some horses are hard to move forward, others are hard to slow down. In all cases, the goal of this exercise is to reach a point where the horse walks at a person’s shoulder, at mirror paces.

While this exercise is completed, facilitators offer their guidance as needed. Some participants require more encouragement to get their horses moving. Some are naturals out of the gate, and are left to their own devices

One day, during the recap session of this exercise, a confident sales manager was the first to speak. She said she learned something that amazed her and would change her management style going forward.  She mentioned that her approach to leadership in the work place is typically hiring people and allowing them to do their jobs. Since she hires capable people, she had thus far assumed that her input was not necessary.

She was both amazed and inspired at the instructor’s selective involvement with their participants.

The leadership style that the sales manager embodied is known as laissez-faire, while the style embodied by the facilitators is referred to as participative. There are three generally cited styles of leadership, the third being autocratic. While each style has its own advantages and disadvantages, participative leadership (also known as “democratic” leadership) is generally thought to be the most effective at creating a healthy work environment.

Here’s why.

First, let’s start off with the manager’s style of instruction: laissez-faire. A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of employees. While highly experienced employees can thrive under this type of leadership, new comers and young workers may find themselves struggling. A lack of regular feedback can ultimately lead to poor production and a lack of control over a work environment. Visit original source...


Contact Details:
Mustang PPD
13-4211 Millcroft Park Dr,
Burlington, Ontario
Zip Code: L7M 3Y9
Business Phone: 416-220-9671
Business E-mail: aileenmcnabb@mustangppd.com

Trump and Spicer: How to Misuse Presentation Props

Props are a great presentation tool.

Both Donald Trump and Sean Spicer recently used props in presentations. Donald Trump’s prop was probably effective, at least among his supporters.  But in my opinion it was misleading and therefore not honest.  We don’t want to be dishonest in our presentations, or sales processes even unintentionally.

I believe Sean Spicer’s use of a prop was both misleading and ineffective.  It’s unlikely he intended either of those results.

Props can help a presentation in several ways:

1.They can make a point concrete.
2.They can have an emotional impact.
3.They can be effective metaphors.
4.They can inject humour into a presentation.
5.They focus the audience’s attention and interest.
6.They are memorable.


My favourite presentation skills vendor is Corporate Visions.  In their list of top five selling techniques that work, here’s number 5:

  5.Using 3D Props (Corporate Visions)

There are many ways to tell a story. But one extremely effective – and underutilized – technique is to use 3D props. Props break the pattern of what’s expected – and can make the prospect sit up and pay attention. Props make a metaphor or analogy tangible. Props create a physical reminder and can continue selling even when you’ve left the room.

Mr. Trump

In President Trump’s speech to congress on February 28, he effectively used a powerful 3D prop – People.

Four of Mr. Trump’s guests were family members of people who, authorities said, were killed by immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Regardless of the fact that immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans (Pérez-Peña, 2017), no families of people killed by Americans were guests.  If they had been, their numbers would have been proportionately much greater than Mr. and Mrs. Trump’s chosen guests.  Now this can be taken as a political opinion; but here it’s meant as an evaluation of a powerful presentation tool – props.

When you use props in your presentations, you will naturally use those that are likely to be most effective.  That just makes sense.  And from Trump’s perspective, his props (guests) probably did just that.  But I believe it gave an inaccurate visual to the audience.

Was Mr. Trump’s use of a prop inaccurate to the point of misleading?  And how dangerous can that be?

Well, there’s the possibility of hate being generated against immigrants.  Fear is a powerful motivator, as is a ‘common enemy’.  The presentation of these guests as props could contribute to a view of immigrants as the enemy, and potentially even hate crimes.  Mr. Trump would not have intended that.

Even if a prop is accidentally inaccurate, the results can be significant.  The poor use of a 2D visual aid, or prop may have had a significant causal effect on the Challenger disaster.  Information designer Edward Tufte has claimed that the Challenger accident is an example of the problems that can occur from the lack of clarity in the presentation of information.

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger (OV-099) (mission STS-51-L) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight,
leading to the deaths of its seven crew members, which included five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialists. (from Wikipedia).

From Tog on Software Design

The Challenger: An Information Disaster:

Why did the space shuttle Challenger explode? Many people assume it was because of poorly-functioning O rings on the booster rocket. However, those O rings didn’t send that ship up on a cold winter’s morn. Continue reading here...


Contact Details:
Mustang PPD
13-4211 Millcroft Park Dr,
Burlington, Ontario
Zip Code: L7M 3Y9
Business Phone: 416-220-9671
Business E-mail: aileenmcnabb@mustangppd.com