Hi, Marilyn O’Hearne, with the C’s of a successful team, whether that’s at work or at home: collaboration, clarity caring, & CQ. All may be a little more challenging in our VUCCA (Volatile, Uncertain, *Culturally Complex) environment, and I want to partner with you in achieving them, without burning out.
-Collaboration is simply two or more people who may or may not know each other, working towards a shared goal. I had a fabulous experience with that with EthicalCoach in Ethiopia, collaborating with teams of people that I didn’t know before to achieve an inspiring vision. Even my breakout co-leader (later my team co-coach and article co-author) for the two day Summit was someone I had met the day before. Magical! How are you achieving collaboration with clarity and caring?
Trust built through connection and communication is a key ingredient I find in partnering with teams, leaders and coaches. Although our EthicalCoach team was meeting in person for the first time in Ethiopia, our international coaching team had spent many hours connecting together virtually developing both the Leadership Coaching Summit program as well as our team, including learning more about Ethiopian culture as well as each others’.
-I would add “culture” as a 4th “C”, cultural intelligence (CQ) is crucial for success and greatest impact!
I know you’ve heard me talk a lot about vision, how it is inspiring and motivating. Vision works best when it is clearly communicated and each person’s part in reaching that vision and goal is also clear. So that’s where the clarity comes in. It includes having really clear expectations of who’s doing what; hopefully in their area of giftedness and strength, contributing to that shared goal and inspiring vision. Clarifying expectations of roles, communication, decision making, are frequently what we strengthen in the high performing teams I coach.
-Caring for is also an important piece; in coaching we call that unconditional positive regard. It is a basis for establishing trust and being fully present with the clients that we work with. For me that includes leaders, teams and other coaches. I find them easy to care for and care about. And the teams that I have been a part of where that caring is really palpable, really present for me were of course some of my greatest experiences in work. And where that’s lacking, it’s pretty miserable. It sets the tone for the organizational culture and contributes to talent retention. And it is important to demonstrate care for yourself. Yes, even in the midst of rapid change and when you are devoted to your work’s vision and purpose.
-I want to say also that there is a point of “caring too much”. I work with not for profit/NGO leaders, government leaders and leaders in the for profit world and sometimes those leaders can care so much about what they’re doing and the people that they’re serving that they can push themselves and their teams too hard. That (pushing too hard) can result in burnout and decreased motivation, energy and effectiveness. And sometimes this is done without the leader’s awareness. They’re not only not taking their time off, they’re working 10-12 hours a day. And then the people around them think “well I have to do that too, our leader is during that. So that’s what’s expected of me,” whether that’s the leader’s expectation or not. That’s something to watch out for, even for me!
And then we have the other end of that spectrum. It was so fun to coach the leader who already had the SMART goals down and was getting really great results with their team and organization. So the next step for them, if you think about the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, was really at the transcendent level. And their coaching goal in the workplace was to be and act more loving, that caring piece. And they rose to the top of the ranks just as quickly (or even more so) than some of the leaders that I’ve worked with who were working on more specific skill development such as negotiating skills and delegation. It is about being the best team leader you can be.
The four words for the day then are collaboration, clarity, caring and CQ (cultural intelligence). I look forward to hearing from you on how you are living these out in the workplace and at home as well as what challenges you are encountering. And I want to say that I was inspired with the “C”S by David Clutterbuck’s keynote in Ethiopia where he talked about the four “C”s of coaching being: courage, curiosity, compassion and connection. I really enjoy connecting with you and look forward to hearing from you; your comments. Thank you. See you next week!
To our potential, prosperity and peace-we are in this together!
Marilyn O’Hearne, MSW, MCC, LLC
PS This topic comes up in my own coaching-both as coachee and coach! I really enjoy collaborating and am open to new collaborations.
CQ Master Certified Coach, International Coach Federation
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Update of an October 24, 2018 vlog, part of a series designed to increase resilience and resourcefulness in our Volatile, Uncertain, *Culturally Complex, Ambiguous, rapidly changing world
