Leading Comments

Leading Comments / October 2001

Mission

I am grateful for the three hundred and twenty five subscribers (as of this writing) to Leadership Opportunity. Your support means that we can move together closer to a way of viewing and being in the world that is integrating, generative and supports our evolving integrity – learning to align our theory and our action. Also, I wish to express my gratitude to the many kindnesses, suggestions and offers of support Leadership Opportunity has received.

The mission of this e-journal is to be a practical guide to the application of an integral perspective to the challenges of leadership in business and life and to the effective relationship between executive/business coaches and their clients.

The Executive Program
www.theexecutiveprogram.com877.901.COACH

Executive Coaching and Executive Development with a STRATEGIC Focus

  • Focus on performance and developmental coaching systems
  • Create structured developmental plans NOT loose coaching that goes everywhere and nowhere!
  • Program 360º degree conversations that matter to clients AND sponsors of the executive coaching.
  • Develop executives strategically through leadership coaching systems

Create strategic developmental opportunities with valid assessments

  • Learning Styles Inventory and Skills Profile
  • ProScan/TeamScan
  • Myers-Briggs Step II
  • Reiss Profile of Motivators
  • Emotional Competence Inventory

Coaches trained in Executive Coaching and Executive Development

“Our coaches come ready to work with you to provide complete solutions to your performance and developmental needs. They’re well versed in state of the art individual and organizational development. We’ll be a catalyst to help you improve emotional intelligence into your organization at the executive level.”

Virtual CEO www.virtualceo.com

  • Discover your organization’s high impact-underperforming areas quickly.
  • Validate and implement strategy focused plans that are integrated with executive coaching and strategic leadership issues

B-Coach.com www.b-coach.com

Summary

Michael Useem, “The Leadership Lessons of Mount Everest,” Harvard Business Review, 79, 9, October 2001, pp. 51-58.

Leadership on Mount Everest? Sure. Why not? Michael Useem recounts the events of a program he organized: Wharton School MBA students, graduates and managers’ trek in the heights of the Himalayas in search of lessons of leadership.

“We made the trip to Mount Everest not because it could teach us things about leadership that we couldn’t have learned elsewhere but because the lessons there would have a far greater urgency.”

From this experience, four essential principles of leadership emerged:

Leaders should be led by the group’s needs.
They noted that leaders must subjugate their own needs to the needs of the group. This issue was highlighted when they had an audience with a Buddhist monk who offered them two principles of leadership:
Leadership is built by serving.
When leaders truly serve and subordinate their private welfare to that of all others, their authority often becomes unquestionable.
Inaction can sometimes be the most difficult – but wisest – action.
Climbing was risky and in the high altitude sickness may take the form of dizziness and disorientation. One executive experienced that, pushed on with the encouragement of the team, but his illness grew more intense. It took considerable discussion before the executive decided to return to lower elevation with the help of a Sherpa. The lesson? “.although leaders need to help people go for the highest achievement of which they are capable, they must also be keenly aware of the hazards ahead and take the necessary–and sometimes unappealing–steps to avert too grave a risk.”
If your words don’t stick, you haven’t spoken.
Failure to communicate sets the conditions for others to act–or not act–in a way that could be detrimental to achieving goals. There is a difference “between telling people something and delivering the message so that it really sticks.” In business this is a prime cause of failure to implement.
Leading upwards can feel wrong when it’s right
“Leadership is not just about mobilizing those below; it’s also about marshaling the people above. After all, everyone is fallible, and even the most experienced CEOs and other top executives have blind spots. Our responsibility, then, is to help them avoid the pitfalls that they haven’t seen. Of course, leading upwards often feels wrong because of the hierarchical culture prevalent in most companies, and it requires tremendous diplomacy and tact to avoid a political blunder that can derail or end a promising career.”

Like the trek on Mt. Everest learning, mastering and implementing leadership is an ongoing journey.

Practice Building Intensive Workshop

If you are a helping professional ready to be serious about building the practice of your dreams…this is for you.

As a mentor coach I notice that most helping professionals do not have the practice they want, most coaches are NOT coaching full time even though they want to, and I am determined to do something about it!
There is no quick fix. This Practice Building Intensive Workshop requires your time, attention, and commitment for a full three months.

As CEO and Founder of LifePartnerQuest I have over 20 years experience in practice, have developed a successful worldwide organization, and have mentored hundreds of coaches and therapists in achieving their practice goals…Interested?
This will be an intensive, intimate, highly supportive experience, limited to groups of 6.
Cost: $425.00 for 3 months, or $150.00 per month

For information or to register, contact me directly at David@LifePartnerQuest.com
Act now to begin building the practice of your dreams!
David Steele, MA, LMFT
CEO and Founder of LifePartnerQuest Relationship Coaching Resources http://www.LifePartnerQuest.com/coach/dsteele.htm

CoachThee.comIf you are a professional coach, you should consider joining the Coach to Coach Network (C2CN) a virtual peer-to-peer community of 700 coaches throughout the world.
Coaching content is what the Coach to Coach Network (C2CN) delivers through its weekly infomediary newsletter, a public link to your coaching practice website, coach2coach communication opportunities and useful reference materials for your coaching practice housed at the members-only “Coachthou” website.
For more information, email your questions to John Agno, C2CN Newsletter Editor, at johnagno@signatureseries.com or visit the links page on his website at www.coachthee.com

Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to consider this e-publication in a world of data overload. For leaders, collaborators, consultants, academics and coaches alike; I welcome you to some ideas and a dialogue that may benefit us all. I hope you will contact me soon with your idea, reference or article. Suggestions on improvement are welcome.
Russ Volckmann, PhD, Coaching Leaders in Business and Life
Email: russ@integraleadershipreview.com
Tel: 831.333-9200, FAX: 831.656-0110
Dedication
Dedicated to Chris Newham with deep appreciation.
Disclaimer:
This material is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Financial, Legal and Professional information is not Financial, Legal and Professional advice. You should see a Financial, Legal or Professional in the area in which you live if you need advice.
You are welcome to share the contents of this e-publication. Please provide source information, includingwww.integralleadershipreview.com.
Thank you.