Margaret says

Selecting Executive Coaches

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:19:00 GMT

This great article by David Burrell contains great information on why it's essential to have a strategy in place for selecting an effective executive coach. Of course David knows that you need to find an expert in this area and hence why he interviewed yours truly for his article.

The message from someone who truly knows this area is clear, our services at Exceptional Talent can assist you in finding the right coaches and mentors for your team and also dramatically improve the ROI of your investment.

Click on the following link to open the article.

Selecting Executive Coaches

How to Manage and Measure your Corporate Coaching

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:18:00 GMT

Executive coaching has evolved quickly over the years. It’s important to consider the type of coach and approach that’s most appropriate for you given the results you want to achieve. Finding the right coach can be the leading edge you need to succeed professionally.

So the new mantra is…Got a goal? Get a coach. Some consider it a field in itself; others consider it a form of consulting.   There are many interpretations for "executive coaching". My preference is as follows…

Coaching is a positive, thought-provoking process of two minds working together with one aim— to advance the subject in their chosen field of endeavour. It is collaborative, challenging and hugely rewarding for the subject as well as for the coach.   It revitalises the subject with unbounded, positive energy to chase that personal or corporate goal, succeed, or be secure in the knowledge that they gave of their best, a reward in itself.

                                                                Margaret Stolmack

However, no matter how you define it, coaching is a useful tool for executives who want to develop as leaders. Rather than debate the definition of coaching, it’s more important to consider the type of coach and approach that’s most appropriate for you given the results you want to achieve. Some executives have difficulty articulating concrete desired results, but a skilled coach broker can help.

Often executives claim they simply haven’t the time to slow down and think things through.

FRANKLY, THAT IS AVOIDANCE!

Coaches come in the form of business professionals, psychologists, trainers, consultants, authors, etc. They come from all walks of life. Some are tough, challenging and direct. Some are sensitive, encouraging and indirect in their style. Some impose a particular process. Some are more flexible. Human nature being what it is, it is likely that a subject will choose, given the option, the line of least resistance and not, necessarily the best coach for themselves.

THIS VERY ACT CAN DESTROY THE PROCESS BEFORE IT BEGINS!

A consultant with expertise in communication may focus on executive coaching that emphasizes presentation skills. A fashion consultant may offer executive coaching with an emphasis on professional appearance. Other executive coaches focus on leadership skills or business strategy.

The approaches are as varied as the professionals who deliver coaching services. It is critical that the selection and matching is undertaken dispassionately, carefully and with the overall success of the program in mind.   The coaching can be derailed, even with an exemplar coach by mis-matching!

Selecting & matching the Coach
Ultimately the most important factor in selecting a coach is the coach’s track record and his/her ability to establish the kind of relationship with the subject that helps achieve results. Senior leaders who have few peers seek out support to discuss business and professional goals of each subject and select and match accordingly. It’s a decision that should not be made lightly. And, frankly, the decision should not be left to the subject. That is like getting schoolchildren to pick their teachers!

Coaching relationships can be structured in a variety of ways. Consider whether you want the subject to work with a coach in person, by phone or both. Know what matters the subject most needs to address. Finding the right fit is everything. The subject will know they have the wrong fit if they feel they’re wasting their time, dread the coaching conversations, or it gets sidetracked on issues that aren’t directly relevant to goals.

A coaching Broker through the TRIAD meetings will short-circuit this.

Coaching issues
With the complexity of issues that challenge executives, there is never a loss for discussion topics between a coach and client. Below are a few of the issues that many of today’s top-performing leaders discuss with their executive coaches:

• Staying focused on top priorities
• Increasing accountability for follow-through
• Building skills in particular areas (such as communication or decision making)
• Dealing with organizational politics
• Thinking strategically
• Handling stress & avoiding burnout
• Managing teams & dealing with sensitive personnel situations
• Influencing others
• Negotiating
• Brainstorming new ideas/creative thinking
• Personal career planning
• Life-work balance issues
• Establishing clear goals and action plans

Success Factors
In addition to finding the right coach, here are a few success factors to keep in mind for those who engage in a coaching process.

• Establish clear guidelines for the relationship and coaching process on the front end. Don’t make assumptions.
• Share feedback. If something is not working, discuss it.
• Acknowledge progress and celebrate successes along the way. This helps build momentum.
• Involve other stakeholders if necessary. In some cases, others in the organization can participate in the process to share input and feedback.

Executive coaching is not for everyone. It’s only for those executives who are highly motivated, who are committed to leadership development and who want to engage in the process. Expect a minimum commitment of six months to a year.

Company Sponsored Coaching Programs
Many more companies now recognize the importance of promoting coaching within their organizations. Many have formal coaching programs that include internal and external coaches. Organizations that sponsor coaching programs need to be diligent about connecting the benefits of coaching with business results in their organizations. Without a results focus, organizations run the risk of promoting coaching for its own sake – a "campaign for coaches," instead of solutions for executives.

Coaching is simply a means.... Corporate initiatives that mandate or roll out a coaching program too broadly jeopardize the effectiveness of the program. Often those who need coaching most are least likely to be open to the process, but top performers are always looking for a leading edge. Finding the right coach can be the leading edge you and your top talent need to succeed professionally.

Margaret Stolmack: 0412 350 145

Managing Stress

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:13:00 GMT

Many people, once they discover they are very stressed and are unable to go on, consult their family doctor, who may prescribe drugs. People take such drugs thinking they are a magic panacea, but often they find the drugs render them quite ineffectual in their lives or do not have the desired effect. This may be because the drugs suppress the emotions that need to come out.

For stress to be managed, and for us to be able to control the amount of stress that we can deal with in our life, we need to find balance. We need relaxation, and we need a personal retreat to get away from the world. We also need to realise some fundamental truths about ourselves. Because, in addition to physical relaxation, which is very useful, you also need mental relaxation. Most people need specific instruction in both if they are to relax effectively.

How you think about something determines how you will feel about it and how strong those feelings or emotions will be. If you have been feeling bad for a long time, it is usually the result of how you have been thinking. If these emotions are unreasonably strong and last for a long time, it will be because your thinking has been unreasonable. The way to make your emotions more acceptable is to make your thinking more acceptable.

Engaging your staff through Coaching & Mentoring

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:31:00 GMT

Would you like to have staff members who were more engaged, more aware of themselves, those around them and the needs of the business?

Staff who will assume more responsibility for their actions?

COACHING WILL DELIVER THIS THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY!!!

The more engaged your staff the more intellectually and emotionally committed they will be to your organization and its success; the more likely they will be to go the distance.
Ergo, the dollars pile up!!!

In the workforce fewer than 20% of workers are engaged, 60% are in neutral, neither engaged nor disengaged and 20% are in the danger zone of disengagement!!!

Having a structured mentoring program or a developed coaching culture keeps employees engaged and helps halt the drift from job to job! They feel valued and generation ‘Y’, more than any previous generation need to feel valued.

You hear guru’s say ‘people are our greatest asset’! That’s not true…engaged people are your greatest asset. Improving the discretionary effort, even by a tiny amount of your staff members and watch the wondrous results that emanate!

COACHING allows leaders to

Reflect on the leaders of tomorrow and prepare them for the challenge ahead!
Sustain momentum – both theirs and others in the organisation!

Coaching as a Tool in CHANGE

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:24:00 GMT

…Harness the opportunities…

…Limit the fear…

Overview.

Organisations around the world are spending billions of dollars each year on training staff to deal with change in their professional and personal lives.

Reinforcement and feedback.

It has been suggested that as little as 8% to 12% of trainees translate new skills and knowledge learned at training courses into measurable performance improvement or shifts in behaviour.
Essentially this is because most training programmes do not allow the trainees to put those skills into practice and, additionally, do not offer any formal feedback process and/ or ongoing support reference or reinforcement.

Almost inevitably, when the initial fervour of the training dissipates, there are no support mechanisms, no booster shots in place, hence the trainee instinctively reverts to previous behaviour patterns. This is not to be confused as recalcitrance, just instinctive animal behaviour faced with non-reinforced change.

A Coach who has been through the training programme with the trainees or has been briefed on the content therein can be a resource for the trainees should they encounter hurdles in implementing their new skills.

The Coach can also structure a programme with the trainees, both individually and/or as a group whereby the skills can be reinforced and the mechanism by which feedback conduit to senior management is facilitated.

Managing fear and exhilaration.

The nature of change being what it is challenges people and depending on the personality type the reaction can range from euphoric exhilaration to abject terror.

For the organisation these extremes of behavioural reactions are equally challenging, equally real and must be managed carefully and sensitively.

One personality type will react in such a way as to ‘over the top’ and get carried away or become obsessed with the skills learned. He may get a false sense of his role or ‘station’ in the organisation. He must be harnessed and the enthusiasm used for positive outcomes. Unbridled the trainee can be a source of consternation amongst colleagues to the detriment of the organisation.
The opposite personality type will be equally challenged by the change and react in a fearful way. He will be fearful of what it means for him and his colleagues. Am I going to lose my job? Are my colleagues going to lose their jobs? Does this training mean more work for me? How am I going to cope?

Change can instil real fear and anxiety about the future. Much of this type’s energy is spent coping with what is already happening to him at the moment, sometimes to the point where he feels he is just ‘keeping it together.’ He may fear the change will destabilise him, make him look foolish, even challenge the very nature of who he is.

If change in itself or even the increasing pace of change threatens or exhilarates the trainee then we can be certain that subordinates, more than likely, are sensing this and are feeling some anxiety too.
The Coach can profile the personality types of the trainees before going into the training and can reasonably identify the extreme types who could ‘overdose’ on the experience or those who will be ‘challenged.’

Structured coaching or mentoring can then be devised for those identified trainees within the post training reinforcement and feedback sessions to facilitate maximum benefit for the organisation of the training.

Summary

Leaders in today’s business world are facing more challenges of momentous proportions than at any time in our history.

The windows of available time to make critical decisions are compressed and support infrastructure an increasingly diminishing resource.

It is, therefore, increasingly more difficult to provide the time and support needed for subordinates in dealing with their very real problems and challenges in meeting the absolute necessity of facing and embracing ever increasing change at an ever increasing pace.
In summary, up, down and across organisations there are people dealing with significant change at a rapid pace. This is combined with limited support and formal training that by its very nature often stops short of providing a facility to deal with reinforcement of skills learned and no structure to provide feedback to senior management.

The combination of rigid and structured training programmes, ever increasing change at an ever-increasing pace, no formal reinforcement and feedback mechanisms can be incredibly threatening without the safe haven of a resource to nurture the trainees through the process.
The most valuable resource of any organisation is the people who populate it. These people want work environments where they are respected and valued as individuals, where they can learn and contribute, where they can feel they can be most useful and will be treated as adults. They want to feel good about and have the chance to themselves by openly bringing their unique skills and intelligence to their work. They want to be proud of their work, of where they work and whom they work with and for.

Fear undermines this, leaving people feeling belittled, cynical, obtuse, disenfranchised and, understandably, self-protective. Fear makes people feel smaller and less capable than they really are.

Executive assimilation: how to settle in a new hire

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:17:00 GMT

In a recent Global Talent Management Survey it was found that leading companies continue to invest time and resources in tapping into the external labour market to supplement their executive ranks. Companies have improved their hiring processes, by using techniques such as behavioural-based interviewing, extensive reference checking, psychometric testing and simulations aimed at better predicting the likely success of a candidate in a particular role. All this is important in achieving better hiring outcomes.

However, while a robust search and reference taking process is necessary for successful hiring, it is not sufficient to guarantee success of the new hire. It is a new hire's early experiences with a company that are key to determining whether they are successful in the new role. Surprisingly, many companies seems to leave executive on-boarding (settling the executive into his or her new role in the early months of their appointment) to chance, and as a result experience failure rates in excess of 50% when it comes to retaining new executive talent.

Where companies go wrong with executive assimilation

Experience suggests that there are a few key areas where companies run into difficulties. Many organisations do not compile the information collected through the recruitment process in order to use it to identify likely development needs and to form the basis of a development plan for the new hire. Often a lot of the data collected through the recruitment process remains with human resources instead of going to the hiring manager. Another issue is that candidates often don't receive corrective feedback soon enough and ineffective patterns and behaviours become entrenched. There seems to be an absence of candour – particularly in relation to the more senior recruits. In addition, some managers expect new hires to own their own assimilation, assuming that they can navigate and adapt to the new organisation alone. A further problem can be a poor understanding or misalignment of expectations. Finally, problems can arise when new hires fail to establish networks within the new company.

What best practice companies do to successfully on-board their executive talent.

Research suggests that companies with robust assimilation practices can experience a success rate of 95% or above in retaining new executive hires. It is clearly worth getting right, so here are some key principles:

1. Leverage information gathered during the search and selection process to create development programs.

Best practice companies apply a rigorous approach to interviewing and reference checking, going well beyond referees listed on CV to include current and former managers, subordinates, peers, suppliers and customers. This can provide a wealth of information which can become a valuable input into an early development plan for a new hire. It can identify both the new hire's areas of strength as well as their development areas. The best recruiters ensure that information gathered through the recruiting process is transferred to the hiring manager.

2. Ensure new hires receive specific feedback early in their tenure.

A number of clients have begun a process whereby they put new hires through a full appraisal process at the six-month mark in their tenure. Our approach combines a competency based interview with 360° feedback. The findings are then synthesised to create a report that describes strengths and areas for development. One-on-one feedback is then provided to the individual executive as well as to the hiring manager and this discussion forms the basis for a development plan. It is highly effective in quickly identifying any potential issues before they become entrenched.
At GE all new hires participate in a formal integration workshop after three months with the company. Someone from outside the business unit is brought in to assess the executive on how they are progressing. Feedback is collected from direct reports and is delivered to the executive with the direct reports in the room. This is done to reinforce early the importance of candour in the GE culture.

3. Manage the expectations of new hires to ensure they are realistic.

Best practice companies go to great lengths to ensure that new hires understand the “warts and all” aspects of the culture before they join and they ensure that the new hires have realistic expectations about what they can likely achieve within certain timeframes. By doing this they avoid the damaging peaks and troughs in attitudes new hires can experience. In a new role any experience of success or perceived failure can tend to be amplified in the minds of the new recruit. As a result it is important to ensure that they are fully informed before joining so that they know about any particular challenges a company culture may entail. Also, they need to keep some perspective about their own abilities and potential contribution in the shorter term. For example, at Shell they discovered that there was often a gap between new hire expectations and reality. Often new hires assumed that they would gain immediate global exposure and experience whereas in reality the experience could be that strong internal networks could be hard to enter.

4. Create a network across all new hires.

It is critical that in a new recruit's early days with a company they feel a sense of being part of the organisation. In a company that does a lot of hiring this can come through forming relationships with other new hires. For example, Shell runs on-boarding workshops six-months into a new hires appointment. The company brings all of the external hires together from around the world. The workshop agenda includes discussions about the company's global challenges and long-term agenda. It also includes sessions about expectations of leadership behaviours. The new hires make private pledges to each other regarding their individual development plans. These workshops result in greater global exposure and network building. They also broaden the individual's outlook and put into context any early successes or failures they might have experienced. In addition, over time it builds cooperation across the company as colleagues more easily collaborate with people that are familiar to them.

5. Provide early and meaningful exposure to the CEO and the CEO's direct report.

At American Express all new executives have a pre-booked series of meetings with the CEO and direct reports within 30 days of arrival. In addition at the annual New Leader Orientation Summit, which is attended by all new hires, they have an opportunity to interact both formally and informally with the CEO and the direct reports. All these interactions are to some extent guided in that the new hires are given an agenda to prepare before these interactions. This increases their confidence and the probability that they will be able to project themselves effectively with the senior management team. As a side benefit it enables senior executives to hear fresh perspectives from people new to the organisation.
Indeed none of the above practices outlined are rocket science, however, it is alarming to consider how many companies fail to do most, if not all, of these things. It is encouraging that companies are continuing to identify ways to improve the rigour in their recruiting processes and raising the bar in terms of their expectations of third party providers in this area. It is, however, intriguing that they tend to drop the ball once they have secured their ideal candidate. In our view it is not just a matter of making the right hiring decision but also ensuring that that hiring decision is made right by the subsequent successful on-boarding of the new recruit.
A Global Talent Management Survey highlighted the key HR issues companies are currently grappling with. While executive on-boarding is clearly an important area, I am struck by the extent to which it is overlooked. With so much at stake, and the relative simplicity associated with fixing the problem, it would appear to be an area of opportunity for many companies.

Self Esteem

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:26:00 GMT

Among the thousands of definitions of Self-esteem the one that has the most resonance with me is as follows…
“…healthy or authentic self-esteem comes from self-trust in your own being to be life affirming, constructive, optimistic, responsible, trusting and trustworthy.”
“…individuals who accept responsibility for their own actions, have integrity, take pride in their accomplishments, who are self-motivated, willing to take calculated risks, able to handle criticism, are loving and lovable, stimulated by worthy and challenging goals and take control of their lives.”
Self-esteem is more than just ’feeling good about one’s self’ it is a particular way of experiencing yourself. It involves emotional intelligence (EQ not IQ) evaluative reasoning and developed cognitive skills. It also involves a disposition to act in accord with the way you have deemed appropriate and not how tradition or consensus necessarily demands.

High self-esteem is not the euphoria or buoyancy that may be induced by a victory, a compliment, a drug or a love affair. Similarly, low self-esteem is not the feelings induced by bad things happening.

To some extent we all have the elements and display them to varying degrees in different circumstances.

1. What are ten signs of low self-esteem?

You think a lot abo ut yourself and analyse why you are the way you are.
You are stressed.
You do not like adversarial situations.
You do not smile a lot.
You may be a loner.
You are tired a lot.
You have difficulty with trust.
You do not take risks.
You create negativity around you.
You constantly blame yourself for the errors of others.

2. Ten ways to build your self-esteem

Be on time for everything.
Be clean. Groom yourself. Nurture yourself. Give to charity.
Think creatively to find only positive things to say to yourself.
Keep your conscience clean. Find someone to trust and confess, regularly.
Take responsibility for something and develop that to yourself.
Put your needs down in clear simple language. Clarity is important.
Share something with someone every day.
Do what you say you will do. This quickly builds trust.
Tell the truth. Deal in facts only.
Try to find a special place where you can be at peace for five minutes, daily.

3. What you will feel when your self-esteem begins to grow.

You will not think about yourself so much and will do less self-analysis
You will start to have extended periods of just feeling good .
You will start smiling.
You will have more energy
You will be friendlier as will others with you.
You will start to draw people to you
You will be more trusting and trusted.
You will start to take risks
Inwardly, you are honest and positive with yourself
Success, small or large, will come to you in some shape or other.

4. The Margaret Stolmack Program for Self-Esteem

The program is drawn from Margaret’s writings in:

Coaching Skills for Managers –CCH Australia Pty Ltd, 2001,
is multi-layered and involves a mixture of Coaching, Mentoring, Workshops, Marketing & Peer group networking. The elements can either be selected independently or woven together to suit the specific needs of the individual and groups.

Importantly the process is soundly based in adult learning processes and has a tailored measuring tool to monitor progress through the program.

The program will develop Support networks for the participants, building a group of confidantes who are on the team.

It will challenge participants on their emotional strengths and understanding, raising awareness and clarifying insights.

We will identify personal strengths, weaknesses, and work on them.

We will find a coach and or a mentor.

We will delve into personal needs, professional needs, address the imbalance of work and play, set goals around relationships, finances, career and social difficulties. We will challenge but not offend. We will challenge but in a supportive way. We will get on the team.

We will explore the 4 pillars of personal strengths:

Values

Needs

Beliefs

Goals

We will discover how our self-esteem sits, precariously, on these pillars and relies on them for support.
We will discover that higher self-esteem is the effect of progress in a number of areas of personal growth and discovery

Taking control of ourselves
Clarifying our needs
Determining and setting personal goals to pursue that are in accord with our current situation and values
Putting honest effort into achieving those goals or being conscious of our progress toward achieving them.
High self-esteem is a by-product of pursuing personal goals that are in line with our value and needs.
Research will be presented to show that when people perceive the gap increasing between their ego ideal and self-image they experience stress.
Our coaching will show 4 ways in which self-esteem can be raised:
Achievement or mastering something
Increased power, influence or autonomy
Being valued, respected, liked or loved
Acting in line with our values or beliefs

5. Conclusion

People with low self-esteem do not have a clear image of themselves. Their vision is distorted like a fun parlour mirror.

The image they see magnifies their weaknesses and minimizes their assets.

The result of seeing such a distorted vision of themselves is an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy, because they compare so unfavourably.

Paradoxically, their vision of others is far more accurate inasmuch the strengths and weaknesses are seen in sharp focus and the self-image is so flawed by comparison.

People with high self esteem, on the other hand, have a crystal clear vision of themselves. Strengths and weaknesses are acknowledged and accordingly developed.

A qualified Coach can be a means by which a client can draw a accurate self image picture that will not allow under or over estimation, thus allow the process of self development to commence from a sound footing.

Creating momentum for change through pivotal groups

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:21:00 GMT

Creating better performance in organisations cannot be achieved by command. Better performance involves cultural change, and this is strongly influenced by the behaviour of pivotal groups in the organisation. The momentum for change is created or hindered by the ability of pivotal groups to change.

Pivotal groups are groups that have an impact on the organisation’s productivity and performance that outweighs other factors. In the book that crystallised the concept of the learning organisation, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge talked about pivotal groups as being the core group of people who determine the way the larger group operates.
Pivotal groups may differ between industries. For example, for a manufacturer whose revenue derives heavily from new products, research and development staff are a pivotal group. For an insurance company whose revenue is affected by the effectiveness of call centre interactions, the call centre workers are a pivotal group.

Across all industries, the executive team in an organisation is a pivotal group. The people in this group have more effect on the performance of the company and the morale of its employees than other factors – for better or for worse. This is true partly because of their decision-making power and partly because of their influence on employees’ behaviour.
Creating higher performance therefore requires the executive team, as a pivotal group, to examine their behaviour and determine what they need to change about themselves. It is on this basis only that wider, sustainable organisational change will take place.

An agenda for improvement
The process of generating organisational change begins with the pivotal group examining their current behaviour. In many cases, organisations exhibit the following characteristics:

separate business units operating as silos, with little communication between them
an attitude of doing “just enough”
feelings of constantly being under pressure
lack of accountability
lack of honesty
lack of discipline
feelings of leaderlessness
political intrigue
lack of creativity and trust.

At the same time, people in organisations may be loyal and hard-working, and also feel that the company does have some shared, positive values. The task is for the pivotal group to examine how much they contribute to characteristics that are less than ideal, and to determine how they can change.

The learning agenda begins with articulating a positive picture of what the pivotal group could be. The picture would address the kinds of issues identified above. The question that comes out of this process is: how do we, as a pivotal group in the organisation, need to change?
Managers need to undertake this exercise as a group, addressing their own circumstances. This exercise is based on the prior realisation by the managers that the organisation will not perform effectively unless they themselves learn to work together as a group. An example of an agenda created by a management group which undertook this process yielded the following features:

Learn to cooperate and collaborate, not compete.
Commit to change ourselves and our behaviour.
Build integrity within the group by acting honestly, trust each other.
Learn better implementation techniques, garner support.
Take an inventory of the skills and talents available and use them.
The best teams are not embarrassed to rely on the individual skills of members.
Use positive, polite language around each other and encourage others to do the same.
Learn to celebrate together in a genuine way.

The impact of the pivotal group
Because of their position in the organisation, the behaviour of senior managers has a disproportionately large impact on the culture. Leaders are role models and their behaviour is seen as an endorsement of that kind of behaviour. Leaders are inherently influential because people imitate them. Therefore, if the leaders are lazy, intolerant, disrespectful, selfish or dishonest, employees will take the message that these behaviours are “the way things are done around here”.

If leaders, as a pivotal group, wish to project a positive vision, then it has to be reflected in how they conduct themselves. Conversely, if leaders try to enforce a vision they do not reflect, they will find their efforts unsuccessful. Employees will reject the vision and learn ways to give effect to their rejection – by leaving, sabotage, lack of effort or withholding ideas.

The question for leaders is, what do they wish employees to see? What is the leaders’ ideal? Jim Collins, author of Good to great, speaking about organisational leaders, said that greatness “is largely a matter of conscious choice”. The choice to be a great leader is made by looking honestly at your current performance, seeing what is not ideal, choosing to make changes and stopping behaviours that are destructive.

Leaders also need to see what their strengths are. What are the qualities that enabled you to get where you are? What do you have to offer the company that is of value? What are you good at? What can you be better at? Jim Collins observed that companies that became great invariably did so by developing managers from within their ranks. The secret was in their commitment to development, not in clever recruitment decisions, buying in talent.
Leadership learning as the basis of change

Peter Senge emphasises that development requires leaders to commit to continual learning. But by learning, he does not simply mean accumulating more knowledge or facts. He means enhancing our capabilities, including our very capacity to learn – he calls this “generative learning”.

There is risk involved in learning. If organisational change is not based on commanding others to change but on demonstrating change in ourselves, then leaders have to commit to personal change. As Daniel Goleman indicates in Working with emotional intelligence, this is not easy. Habits die hard and learning new ways can be intimidating. Making mistakes as we try to change is also difficult – it is always tempting to go back to our old practices.

Learning involves experiment, practice and discipline. Jim Collins emphasised that great organisations were not created overnight, but emerged after long periods of consistent effort that was held together by a common vision and values. Collins also emphasised that there were few “heroes” in great organisations – their strength lay in collaborative effort. Members of pivotal groups in these organisations supported each other and worked together.
Creating a positive culture requires effort by individuals to commit to personal change and learning, but the whole executive team has to be united in the effort and they have to support and challenge each other. Success is built over time as employees see that positive change is happening and the example of leaders is consistent. Trust, commitment, loyalty, energy and innovation are all outcomes of the consistent, positive behaviours of the pivotal group.

References
Collins, Jim, 2001, Good to great, Harper Business.
Goleman, Daniel, 2000, Working with emotional intelligence, Bantam.
Senge, Peter, 1994, The fifth discipline, Currency.