Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Coaching and Neuroscience

Coaching means supporting someone from "where you are" to "where you want to go"; it is a future-focused practice aiming to help clients determine and achieve specific goals. It is not therapy or other sort of psychological intervention.
 
Coaching draws inspiration from various disciplines including like psychology, positive adult development, career counselling, mentoring and other types of counselling and focuses on effecting change in a client’s current and future behaviour.
 
It is not easy to summarize the final end of a coach-coachee relation, but here are some possibilities:
 
• To attain clarity around the present and the future
• To create a vision and mission to live and/or work by
• To discover how to learn and how to be empowered
• To construct goals and support system
• To renew and energise at every level
 
Research from the more recent decades from neuroscience help to understand more about our brains than ever and as this branch of science discovers more and more about how the brains work, coaching can integrate this knowledge not only to help clients to understand human nature and behavior but also about change and best strategies to get to "where you want to go".

Friday, October 26, 2012

Working with strenghts instead of fear


When looking at business processes and values, sales cycle and other business operations,  HR, competence and leadership development frameworks, it’s easy to get the "big picture" of the approach that drives a company.  And, if that is the case of an "engineering-mechanistic" approach, how to change it to a more effective way?

Organizational learning and development requires proper planning and it will be added value including what research tells us about how people learn and work together.

A good example? The concept of employee engagement and motivation, were  many organizations still practice  “carrot-stick-approach” - often based exclusively on money-type rewards that has been proved to some extend not to be the key-factor attracting and retaining talents. 

Science knows that intrinsic motivation is a key-driver of performance; plus, it is also true that the value systems of younger generations have dramatically changed. These two factors should be addressed when implementing programs for developing organizations, teams and inviduals. 

Understanding mind and brain has the potential to replace complex competency models, assessment procedures and training programs with more  simple but effective principles. This approach may seem "an adventure" but it works and it is based on strengths instead of fear.

During the weekend why not a quick view at John Medina best seller Brain Rules?  Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A new understanding of leadership


It’s time for a new understanding of leadership, no longer refered by an important title or a a position of authority.
People are ultimately inspired by a leader's way of being, that influences others to change their values and thus their performance.
And what is this then ? A person's way of being in the world, presence and behavior that affects how others follow them.
 
Effective leadership has less to do with what people know and more to do with the kind of person one is. Leadership is a journey of development and becoming an effective leader requires a healthy dose of courageous self-honesty, involving deeply personal questions that represent only a few of the many leadership challenges.
 
The good news is that contrary to some beliefs, no one has to be born a leader. Leadership can be developed. It is an exciting journey with few short cuts and it is not an intellectual exercise.
 
Athletes practice and musicians rehearse so that they have the skills they need to excel. Real leadership is more than reading books, learning and applying tips and techniques. It is a commitment to aligning values and beliefs with actions; and that takes commitment and practice.
 
So, are you ready to start?
Welcome!