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Some readers may be aware, there have been some lovely milestones in my family, which were celebrated with much joy and fanfare. The challenge for us all is to take the "normal" events of life and work and make them more meaningful. To be a remarkable leader it is essential to be aware of when hand how you can elevate ordinary and make it extraordinary. My Celebrating Moments breakfast focused on many of the creative and innovative ideas from the book Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath as well as some real conundrums my clients experience when motivating their teams and building strong relationships with customers and stakeholders. Rather than try to give you the 25 words or less version of the book or the talk, I shall provide you with links to excellent resources explaining the key themes, and a few things you can try for yourself. Some great resources: 1. Short 5 minute youtube by Dan Heath on creating Peak Moments https://youtu.be/syA8FyI6G-4 2. Dan Pinks interview with Dan Heath on The power of moments in business, work, and life https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-1-3-20-podcast/id1295773682?mt=2&i=1000408744394 3. Chip Heath explaining the Power of Moments with examples of financial impacts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l03bHVF0Ok For those readers who want more, I highly recommend you buy the book. Things to try at work or home: 1. Take a moment and Think of your greatest achievement/most remarkable moment for 2018. a) Write it down b) Write down how it made you feel make this list of emotions as long as possible, (use the thesaurus if necessary). Allow your self to pause and re-experience the positivity connected to the remarkable moment, smile, laugh or jump for joy. 2. Take Chip Heath and Dan Heath's 7 Days of Memories challenge: https://heathbrothers.com/members/ Finally a big thank you to Evelyn Moolenburgh , without whom I would not have known about the Power of Moments, nor experienced so many fun and challenging moments in my professional life.

Over the last few days my inbox been filled with articles and blogs on the positive exponential impact of changing habits. So I thought I would still share with you two of the articles I have received: 1. How to Get 1% Better Every Day by James Clear. https://heleo.com/get-1-better-every-day/19161/?utm_source=newsletter_the_lift&utm_campaign=10_22_18 2. How To Easily Build Good Habits: 4 Secrets From Research By Eric Barker https://us11.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/show?id=1843073 The main argument in the articles is that if you make little changes every day then over time the changes associated with the new behaviour will have an exponential impact. For example, something as simple as saying "Hello, how are you today? " to every member of your team, and allowing the few time to genuinely listen to their answers (see Celeste Headlee, for tips). Over time it is likely you will notice a strengthening of your relationships, a better understanding of what motivates them, what they are working on etc. Making small changes to your habits can be seem really simple, sticking to them is much more complicated. Often we become despondent as it takes a while for the cumulative impact of any small changes to be evident to you and others. Here are 6 tips to remain motivated to make that change: Align the habit with the achievement of a personal or work goal Introduce Accountability. Tell a friend, colleague or email me Keep a record of when you practice the habit. Catch yourself getting it right, put a marble in a jar, keep a note in your diary What is The Key to Being More Productive? Look at your record and see how often you have practiced the habit; maybe draw a graph Get feedback on the impact of your new habit. Ask your peers, staff or trusted colleague if they have noticed a specific change in your behaviour. (See chapter 7 in Insight by Tasha Eurich for tips) Reward your success.

Photo by Bud Helisson on Unsplash In the past, promotion was gradual, and employees would get a combination of mentoring, formal training and experience as they progressed through the structured hierarchy to leadership. Accordingly, organisations tended to rely on training, mentoring and formal study to develop their leaders. Now with the rapid pace of change, coupled with the flattening of formal hierarchies, leaders often rise to the top quickly. As such, evidence has demonstrated that these leaders desperately need support and guidance as they travel along this quick trajectory. Fortunately, organisations are recognising the multitude of benefits of Executive Coaching whereby the content and process are individualised and specifically tailored to the Leader. As I touched on in a previous blog, according to Dr Tasha Eurich introspection will not adequately enable us to recognise the impact of our behaviour on others. Executive Coaching is a tool, to not just enhance self-awareness but to hold the leader accountable to effective long term sustained behaviour change. Individual Executive Coaching provides focus, validation and reality testing. It helps leaders think differently, break out of traditional mindsets and be innovative. Through Executive Coaching leaders can also change bad habits and build key relationships with individuals and groups for ongoing positive influence and collaboration. So can a change in leadership behaviour have an impact on the broader organisation? Picture for a moment a leader you have worked for or with who was either average or disastrous. I’m sure you can recall one small thing they did that had a dreadful effect on the business. Now imagine they had decided to actively make a small positive change in their behaviour. This small change could have a substantial impact rippling down through the organisation. I worked with a senior executive who was the top revenue earner for his organisation. His clients said he always exceeded their expectations and they were quick to give him repeat business and refer others to him. However, his colleagues described him as aloof, uncooperative and arrogant, for he made no effort to even say hello to his peers. The coaching process enabled him to see the impact of his behaviour on those around him and the benefits associated with changing his interactions with his peers, colleagues and subordinates. Over time, he began to gradually invite his colleagues to joint marketing opportunities, and to refer business leads to them. This collaborative behaviour resulted in increase in morale, discretionary effort and a growth in business opportunities, and revenue. Previously, Executive Coaching was seen as remedial, a last hope for an otherwise ineffectual leader. Increasingly there has been a shift in perceptions and Executive Coaching is used as a highly effective technique for improving the leadership capability of high performers. My clients have used coaching to become better leaders, to quote an often-used phrase they want to go from “go from good to great”. Specifically, they have gained promotions, reduced staff turnover, managed incivility, decreased conflict, other have motivated their teams, and increased their influence, with peers, clients and key stakeholders. In my 6 month post coaching follow up, my clients often tell me they have not only achieved strategic business goals but also personal goals. In my opinion, irrespective of the pace of technological change, and the nature of business disruption, excellent leadership will be always be a business-critical skill. Increasingly, you will want your leaders to successfully take the path “less travelled by” , therefore it will be beneficial to invest in the leadership capability of yourself and your Executive team. #coaching

Recently I was reminded of the significant impact good leadership behaviour has on others, particularly direct reports. I challenge you to ask yourself the following questions: What impact do you want to have as a leader during the next six months? Why? How will you achieve this? What are your internal and external sources of support? How will you access them? What are your internal and external sources of feedback? How will you access them? How will you measure success? How will you celebrate success? If you are stuck for an answers reread the quote, contact me, or consider the following: Dr Tasha Eurich believes that self-awareness is the meta skill for leaders in 21st century. According to her model self-awareness has two key components: A) Internal self-awareness: this is an inward understanding of values and passions, aspirations ideal working environment, your reactions and the impact they have on others, to be in touch with own feelings and emotions. B) External self-awareness: this is an understanding yourself from the outside in, an accurate perception of oneself from the perspective of others. According to her research having one form of self-awareness doesn’t mean you have the other. To learn more go on line and take her quiz: https://www.insight-book.com/Quiz.aspx. ------------------------------------------ https://thesirdonaldbradman.weebly.com/legacy.html

Why are some people energised by pressure, and others debilitated? The more we progress in our careers and the more complex the world of work becomes, the more regularly we need to deal with the unexpected. Irrespective of the specific coaching brief, there is an underlying expectation (self or externally imposed) that my all clients are expected to perform at their best under pressure. A great example was a CEO who was being bullied by his direct report but didn't want to make a formal claim, or leave his job. He told me still wanted to complete a major project involving delicate and complex political negotiations, and leave a legacy and a thriving organisation for his successor. At the six month post coaching follow up, there was a spring in his step, based on his recent achievements he had accepted a board position, been nominated for a significant international role and was re-embracing his leisure time with his family and friends. Have you ever wondered why some people thrive in these circumstances yet others freeze, flee or burn out.. what is their secret? Are they more experienced professionally or better prepared technically? Do they have excellent 'support' teams internally and externally? Is their expertise in life long regular habits to manage their physical, and psychological well being? Perhaps their job is driven by a deep purpose not just a passion? Maybe they wear lucky socks or listen to music, or practice other 'rituals' before an important event? Do they know when to persevere and when to quit? Have they perfected realistic optimism? Based on the literature and my professional experience, the secret to thriving under pressure is a complex combination of all of the above, that is nuanced to one's individual circumstances. As readers you may have wished for a useful tip to apply right now. However, my favourite subject at University was individual differences, I am fascinated by what makes people different and I thrive when coaching individuals, this biases me towards asking more questions rather than providing answers. As you know I try to provide you with a picture to either attract your curiosity and open the blog or that connects to the theme. Regular readers will be aware that in the warmer months in Sydney, typically between September and April, I enjoy a quick swim in the ocean. Last week, despite it being a very cold day, I found myself parked at the beach, and decided to put on my headphones listen to some music and take a stroll barefoot on the sand. As I felt the sand under my feet, the Autumn sunshine on my face, and smelt the salty air, I was drawn to wet my toes in the icy water. As I hurried back to the warmth of my car, smiling and sending photos of my feet to some friends and colleagues, I felt invigorated and inspired to look for my next work challenge. So please take a moment, and email your thoughts, what helps you to thrive under pressure? You may also want to watch the trailer for one of my favourite movies about perseverance Eddie the Eagle. As always please be in touch if you or anyone in your network would benefit from executive coaching. ------------------------------------------ Please contact me for references #pressure #coaching #thriving

My clients regularly talk to me about conflicting demands on their time and strategies to ensure they are focused and gain a sense of accomplishment. In a previous blog I mentioned Steven Coveys techniques and provided a link to a worksheet on my web page. Over the weekend I read an excellent article which links a weekly prioritisation process to personal values, and giving to others which go a step further to increasing motivation and a sense of accomplishment. The process is best described in an interview between Adam Grant and Clay Skipper. "I'm curious how you engage with the "Cult of Productivity". I imagine you're pulled in hundreds of different directions, and yet you're still unbelievably prolific. So I'm curious how you manage to make sure that the things you're doing aren't things you're doing just to do them—that you're doing the things you actually want to be doing, or making sure that you're getting the urgent things done. I've gotten comfortable with a couple of shortcuts that I use to try to navigate this problem. I try to start every week with three things that I want to accomplish that I care about. And then three ways that I want to help other people. And that's the compass for the week. I'll plan my whole schedule around those things. Sometimes I find that I overshot dramatically. I could only accomplish one thing and be helpful in one way. But I try to have the three and three front and center, so I evaluate everything else that comes in through the lens of, "Is this going to stand in the way of the major things that I'm trying to get done this week, and the major ways that I want to show up for others this week?" And if the answer is yes, I'm either not going to do whatever comes in or I'm going to schedule it for the next week, or the following week. I used to feel frustrated because nobody ever achieves as much as they plan to. There's this whole body of research in psychology called the "planning fallacy" on how we dramatically overestimate how much we're going to get done in a given day or week. To the point where, [when] software engineers estimate how long it's going to take them to code something, a lot of tech companies of take that estimate and immediately multiply it by four. We don't breakdown all of the depth, or we forget about the moments when we don't know how to solve a problem, or when we need to take a break for lunch, or when our motivation is going to falter. There's all these hurdles that we have to jump over that we don't factor in to our time estimates. I used to get frustrated by that. I have all these goals and I'm always falling short of them. And I've changed my view on that. I still feel that frustration, and I still fall short of my "what I want to get done" goals much more often than I hit them. But instead of just feeling frustrated by that, I have a second reaction, which is then saying, "I know from experience and from evidence that that frustration is now going to motivate me to be more productive." Instead of feeling "Wow, I am a total failure again, and I never get anything done in the window that I plan, why am I not more efficient and productive?" I say "Wow, this is really frustrating and this frustration sucks and I don't like feeling it. But it's probably what I need to feel right now in order to propel me into a better mode of working." I've tried to move away from productivity as the end goal. I still have ideas of what I want to accomplish in a particular window because that helps me stay on track and gauge my progress. But mostly productivity is a means to an end, not an end. I think the worst way to be more productive is to set your sights on being more productive. What you want to do instead is to focus on a reason to be more productive. Who's going to benefit from this project? Why did I start this project in the first place? I try to reconnect with the motivation for doing it, what's fascinating about it, what's meaningful about it. And then the productivity kind of naturally kicks in." Let's all begin today by writing down the answers to these two questions: 1. What are the three things that you want to accomplish this week that you care about? 2. What are three ways that I want to help other people? If you want increased accountability email me your answers and I'll send them back to you in seven days time. As always please be in touch if you or anyone in your network would benefit from executive coaching. Reference: https://www.gq.com/story/adam-grant-productivity-interview #productivity #accomplishment #helping #coaching

Social psychologists found that when people were exposed to an unfamiliar face they made judgements about attractiveness, like-ability, trustworthiness, competence, and aggressiveness in about a matter of seconds. Yet we know establishing genuine trust in a relationship takes time. It is essential for leaders to forge trusting relationships with their: team colleagues; stakeholders; customers; and whomever they report to. Over the last few weeks the theme of building trust has emerged in my peer supervision conversations, the podcasts I have been listing to and the articles I have been reading and therefore I thought I would share some of these excellent resources with you. As always when reading the literature, please think about what best fits with your personality, workplace and professional circumstances. How to Trust People You Don’t Like – Work-life Podcast with Adam Grant. In this podcast Adam Grant speaks to Astronauts on the International Space Station who live in capsules together for months. As well as leaders in other workplaces and researchers who all share fresh insights about handling conflict and building trust. https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/worklife-with-adam-grant/id1346314086?mt=2&i=1000407661245 Cecily Cooper who studies trust in work setting believes it is based on the following: Character Competence 2. Asking questions to get to know people really quickly: Here are some of the questions referred to in the podcast above. https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/08/is-there-a-shortcut-to-bonding-with-a-romanti/?utm_source=%22Barking+Up+The+Wrong+Tree%22+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d594c75b13-close_4_8_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_78d4c08a64-d594c75b13-58299685 3. Create Psychological Safety According to Amy Edmondson you know you have trust in your team when you have psychological safety “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.” You can listen to her YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 Or read this article: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/amy-edmondson-on-psychological-safety-2015-11?r=US&IR=T 3. In 2012, Google embarked on an initiative — code-named Project Aristotle — to study hundreds of Google’s teams and figure out why some stumbled while others soared, the secret as you will find in this article was in psychological safety. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html 4. Four Strategies to Increase Trust across Your Organization: In this article/ Video Cecile Cooper Explains that Trust is a two-way street, because engendering trust as a leader means first trusting your team. She provides practical steps to build trust and maintain it. http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/trust-project/videos/cooper-four-strategies-to-increase-trust-across-your-organization.aspx 5. Other ways to quickly deepen ties between people: Chapter 11 of The Power of Moments, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath provides some excellent tips on how to quickly deepen ties between individuals. http://heathbrothers.com/the-power-of-moments/ Listen on Audible or read it, if you have time the whole book is fascinating. Those of you who have worked with me know that the foundation of all my coaching is trust. However the context and aim of coaching, my professional ethics, and being external to the organisation are some of the variables that provide me wth unique foundation upon which to build this trust. As always please email me to discuss your executive coaching needs. ___________________________________________ Willis, J, & Todorov, A. (2006) First Impressions Making Up Your Mind After a 100-Ms Exposure to a Face,Psychological Science, 17,7 592-598 #trust #coaching #leadership

The Australian Summer holidays are basically over, we have had Australia Day, the tennis finals, school is back and we are all more or less settling into our routine. Take a moment and answer these two questions before you dive back into work: 1. What are you hoping to achieve in 2018? 2. How will you make sure you remain energised? As always please share your answers with me, and be in touch to discuss how executive coaching can help you in 2018. Finally a big thank you to my husband for the photo of the magnificent Australian beach where we swam with turtles.

Recently, I was privileged to attend a professional development day with a group of mediators who were, on the most part, much older and more experienced than me. The work they do everyday is extremely complex, and their success or otherwise has far reaching implications for multinational and national organisations, governments and society as a whole. Despite their capability, their humility was astounding, and they all still grappled with moments of feeling incompetent. It was as though the old saying was playing out “the more you know the less you know”. A few days later I was listening to a podcast on sales. In passing, the presenter mentioned how he had perfected his cold calling sales techniques during his very first commission based sales job. I would estimate he would have been about 17 at the time, hungry for an income and immune to the emotional effects of rejection. (D’Urbano, 2017). It seemed that it was his youthful naivety that enabled him to push through situations which a person 20 years his senior would find confronting and soul destroying. I began to wonder, is it better to be a novice or an expert? According to Dreyfus & Dreyfus, (1986) and Peterson (2012) in all ‘professions’ there are Five stages of expertise: 1. Novices: Focus on accomplishing immediate tasks, based on clear rules. 2. Advanced beginners: Use rules as guidelines, applying them in new situations, but not able to handle exceptions or unforeseen problems. 3. Competent performers: Form conceptual models of what they do; can handle more complex situations based on experience; typically rely on heuristics or surface features. (“good”) 4. Proficient performers: Have experienced a wide variety of situations and challenges; see the big picture, monitor their own performance, and interpret underlying principles to adjust behaviour based on the context; can handle relatively novel or complex situations. 5. Experts: Identify and solve problems intuitively, with little explicit analysis or planning; see underlying patterns effortlessly and adapt principles to generate and apply appropriate solutions, even to complex and unique situations, in such a way that they generate consistently superior performance. (“great”, “mastery”) It is the expert level that intrigues me the most. A lot of research into expertise focuses on chess players. De Groot (1965, p. 306) believes that “A chess master does not search for a good move, he sees it”. Other researchers note that we learn more from reflecting on our experiences than from experience itself (Dewey 1933, Rodgers, 2002), which is something that is only possible when our work becomes intuitive (Didierjean and Gobert 2008). A colleague reminded me that there are some very arrogant experts and perhaps the humility and self-reflection of the experienced mediators was a testament to the type of person who is attracted to this career as well as the expertise of the practitioners. Alternatively, the self-reflection and modesty could perhaps just be a lovely characteristic of the individuals in this professional development group. References: de Groot, A.D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess (1st ed.). The Hague: Mouton Publishers. Didierjean.A., & Gobert,. F (2008) Sherlock Holmes: an expert's view of expertise British journal of psychology 99, 1-164. D’Urbano, J. (20/7/2017) Pick up the phone and Sell. Flying Solo PodCast. https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/114-pick-up-the-phone-and-sell/id885670815?i=1000390094479&mt=2 Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over machine: The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. New York: Free Press. Peterson, D.B (2012) Advanced Coaching Accelerating the Journey from Good to Great, May 12,– Closing Keynote, 2nd International Congress on Coaching Psychology. Sydney, Australia Rodgers (2002) Defining Reflection another look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking. 104,4, Teachers College Record 842-866. https://deathtothestockphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/Death_to_Stock_Photography_RideorDie_5-1024x683.jpeg #Novice #expert #coaching #executive #humility

Recently, in my role as Chairperson of Women in Superannuation and Finance Leadership in Conference, job sharing in senior positions, perhaps even CEO, was raised. The idea of a joint CEO was not new. Audrey Page & Associates currently have a shared-CEO position and in March 2017 when Scottish financial groups Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life announced a possible merger, discussion centered around the idea of the new business being led by two CEO’s. In September 2010 “The Job Share Project”, was launched in the UK. It was founded in conjunction with Centrica, DHL, Deloitte, RBS, KPMG, Freshfields & Herbert Smith and supported by Cranfield University, Lancaster University Management School and Leeds University Business School. There was a realisation that global corporations operate round the clock and depend on their staff to be available and responsive to their clients' demands 24/7. This pioneering research investigated the feasibility and best practice examples of job sharing with a particular emphasis on transactional, client facing and leadership roles within global organisations. Interestingly, back in the 80’s the Australian union movement thought job sharing would be equally beneficial for women with children as well as for older workers (Benson 1982). Many CEO’s report that it is lonely at the top. Whilst they have boards, senior executive teams, advisors, committees and so forth, the buck stops with them – and they are ultimately tasked with making the final decision. Ultimate accountability for business success falls with the CEO. The CEO needs to continuously make complex decisions based on ‘data’ from multiple sources. Data will be screened, processed and interpreted, alternatives developed and analyzed and a choice is made in regard to the strategy/approach in a conscious and unconscious manner. At all stages of this decision making process the CEOs’ perceptions, self-awareness, self concept, and even concentration will greatly influence what information they decide is relevant to their decision (Robbins et al 1994). Whilst decision-making models, rules and codes of ethics work in part to mitigate these effects, the question remains: are they sufficient in ensuring that the ‘best’ decision is made? Perhaps then, group decision-making is superior to individual decision-making? Traditionally, to mitigate the risks of individual decision-making, committees are formed and boards are consulted. Such strategies are based on the idea that groups bring diversity of thought, more information, increased legitimacy and acceptance of a solution. In addition, the ‘devils advocate’ in the group can potentially mitigate the likelihood of ‘group think’ (Janis 1982). However, anyone who has sat in a meeting knows they can be time consuming, there is pressure to confirm, strong personalities can dominate and responsibility may be ambiguous (Robbins 1994). In reality, a mixture of group and individual decision making is preferable. However, the increasing speed in which business change is occurring, group decision making is not always practical and accountability is essential. Therefore could job share be a middle ground? In the words of Michele Jackson and Tricia Shaw the co-CEOs of Audrey Page & Associates “We have each other to work things out with – a built-in trusted adviser. So we can test those major decisions or strategies with each other and typically come to the table with a well thought out approach”. I’m sure there are many readers who think that there are some roles that will never be suitable for job sharing because the role is “too complex” or the clients “too demanding”. I’d like to provide an example from a senior paediatrician who works at a Sydney hospital who was talking to a group of management consultants. She remarked: ‘You guys think your job is so important and your clients can’t wait to speak to you and you need to be on call 24/7. My clients are very sick and dying children and we know how to work flexibly. We have a handover process and we job share because no doctor can work 24/7.’ (Durkin 2017). I honestly hope that in the near future, when Anna Green and her colleagues at Boston Consulting Group, repeat their study into the Gender Gap in the Australian workforce, true flexibility and job sharing will be the norm and they will see a significant increase in the number of women in middle management, senior management, CEO and board positions. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, as it was through a conversation with him following the conference that the topic for this blog emerged. References: Benson, J. (1982) Trade union attitudes to job sharing in Australia and some lessons for the UK. Industrial Relations Journal 13, 3, 13-19. Durkin, P (2017) Epic fail on gender diversity. Australian Financial Review (on line 11/5/17) http://www.afr.com/brand/boss/epic-fail-on-gender-diversity-20170418-gvn0hz#ixzz4hrhRYV85. François, N, ( 2017) The Power of Two - Our Co-CEO's Path to Parity! #PledgeForParity. http://www.audreypage.com.au/whatsnew/the-power-of-two---our-co-ceo--s-path-to-parity---pledgeforparity Green, A., Alhadeff, M., Akhmetova, Z, & Tracey, C. (May 2017) What’s Working To Driver Gender Diversity In Leadership? The Boston Consulting Group Janis, I. L. (1982). Groupthink (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin http://www.thejobshareproject.com Robbins, S.P., Waters-Marsh, T., Cacioppe, R & Millett, B (1994) Organisational Behaviour. Concepts, Controversies and Applications. Prentice Hall Rose, J.D (2011) Diverse Perspectives on the Groupthink Theory – A Literary Review Emerging Leadership Journeys, 4 1, 37- 57. Regent University School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship Trapp, R. (2017) Can a CEO job-share work? Forbes 20 March. www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2017/03/20/can-a-ceo-job-share-work #Jobsharing #women #twoheads #diversity #leadership