CONSULTING & How Great Coaches Ask, Listen, and Empathize #HarvardBusinessReview

by Ed Batista, Harvard Business Review, 2/18/15.

Historically, leaders achieved their position by virtue of experience on the job and in-depth knowledge. They were expected to have answers and to readily provide them when employees were unsure about what to do or how to do it. The leader was the person who knew the most, and that was the basis of their authority.

Leaders today still have to understand their business thoroughly, but it’s unrealistic and ill-advised to expect them to have all the answers. Organizations are simply too complex for leaders to govern on that basis. One way for leaders to adjust to this shift is to adopt a new role: that of coach. By using coaching methods and techniques in the right situations, leaders can still be effective without knowing all the answers and without telling employees what to do.

Coaching is about connecting with people, inspiring them to do their best, and helping them to grow. It’s also about challenging people to come up with the answers they require on their own. Coaching is far from an exact science, and all leaders have to develop their own style, but we can break down the process into practices that any manager will need to explore and understand. Here are the three most important…

Read more at … https://hbr.org/2015/02/how-great-coaches-ask-listen-and-empathize

EVALUATION & 5 Common Questions Leaders Should Never Ask #AppreciativeInquiry

by WARREN BERGER, 7/2/14

“Questioning is undoubtedly a valuable leadership tool. Asking the right questions can help business leaders to anticipate changes, seize opportunities, and move their organizations in new directions.

But how you question is critical. Questions can be great for engaging and motivating people , but they can just as easily be used to confront or blame, and can shift the mood from positive to negative. “We live in the world our questions create,” says David Cooperrider, a professor at Case Western Reserve University and a pioneer of “Appreciative Inquiry,” which holds that questions focusing on strengths and using positive language are far more useful to organizations than questions with a negative focus.

So what are some specific questions to avoid? Based on conversations with Cooperrider and several other leadership experts for my recent book, here are five examples of very common questions leaders may ask that can have the unintended effect of leading people in the wrong direction. With simple tweaks, the same questions can be used to engage people, rather than discourage them.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Whose fault is it?”

“Why don’t you do it this way?”

“Haven’t we tried this already?”

“What’s our iPad?”

Read more at … http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/5-common-questions-leaders-should-never-ask/?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow