Worldwide coaching magazine may 2016 by Ton de Graaf

Worldwide Coaching Magazine May 2016

In-depth Knowledge, Outspoken Opinions

Loving Your Life

Loving Your Life. Worldwide Coaching Magazine: In-depth Knowledge, Outspoken Opinions

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Ton de Graaf, Chartered Business Coach™ Write a Letter to the Editor

“Know Thyself” was written on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are”, and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.

Art design: Milk & Cookies

Illustrations: Maaike Maas

Lay-out: Studio Maaiemui

Coaching is more than a set of tools and techniques. To be a successful coach you need a highly refined combination of advanced knowledge, technical skill, intuition, self-awareness, and business and entrepreneurial acumen. Our mission is to promote the powerful and positive impact executive, business and life coaches are having by educating and inspiring the coach and client community worldwide. We offer an inside view on the methods, techniques and theoretical underpinnings that put coaching at the forefront of best practices for achieving deep structural change in people’s lives.

If you are able to “Know Thyself” as objectively as you can, do you like what you have become? Are you able to love yourself? Loving yourself does not depend on your situation or outside factors in your life. You should not wait for life to be better before you love yourself. It is particularly hard to love yourself when you feel guilty for something in your life. For instance, if you have been in an accident and now your life is a mess – but don’t let yourself go into a self-hatred self-berating mode either. Life tests us and I know you can still tap into self-love somewhere in there; even in extreme situations. And if you are able to love the person you have become, are you then able to love the life that you are living? In this edition we focus on that exact question and offer many insights on how to improve your life to make it one that you can truly love. And as you very well know: coaching helps :) I know I love you! Enjoy reading!

Cheers, Ton de Graaf, Chartered Business Coach™

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Visit our website!

In this edition: Loving Your Life By Grant Soosalu

Loving Life By Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Loving Life â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a Mindfulness Best Practice By Julia von Flotow

Stop Sinking Into Codependency By Lyn Christian

The Risky Business Of Apologies By Patricia Wheeler

What I Learned from a Near-Death Experience By Marshall Goldsmith

What Could I Possibly Achieve? By Leon VanderPol

Three Reasons to Love What You Do Before Doing What You Love By Arman Sadeghi

The Propensity to Pursue Executive Coaching By Dr. Shauna Rossington

Finding a Route Back to Work After a Long Career Break By Antoine Tirard and Claire Lyell

The Impact of Titles on Talent Performance By Prof. David Clutterbuck

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Loving Your Life! By Grant Soosalu

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.â&#x20AC;? Arthur Rubinstein

Are you and your clients deeply loving your lives? Are you living the most vibrant and enchanting lives you can? 4

In our society we often talk about ‘Love’ as if it is a ‘thing’… treating it like a noun or an object. We talk about ‘having’ love, or not ‘getting’ enough love, or being ‘in’ love, as if love were a container or room, or a pool in which we are immersed in love. The reality is that love is a verb, it’s a process, it’s something that you do. And this is a powerful and liberating understanding, especially from the perspective of Coaching. Being aware of this is really important. It allows you to realise that love is a skill; it’s a process you can learn more about and that you can then coach your clients in. And as we’ll explore in this article, scientific studies are showing that this is something you’d really do well to guide your client’s into giving a deeper focus and added attention to, otherwise they may not bring as much loving into their lives as they need in order to get the happiness and success they desire. The field of neuroscience has also recently uncovered some pivotal insights you can utilise to help facilitate your clients into a life and a ‘self’ worth loving and then coach them into living that to the fullest. It has been discovered for example that our brains exhibit neural plasticity — ‘the brain that thinks changes itself ’. This means that by exploring and taking on new ideas, beliefs, attitudes and understandings you can change the structure of your brain(s) and ultimately change the structure of your life. Putting a focus on loving can literally change brain structure into that of more loving brains. This is truly an exciting insight!

Through a process of directed learning and behavioural practice you can induce neural plasticity that produces changes in gene expression and that in turn alters the strength of synaptic connections and leads to the growth of new connections. Leading your life through the filter of Loving Now, as you may have read in my many articles in this magazine, recent Neuroscience findings have also uncovered that we have complex, adaptive and functional neural networks - or ‘brains’- in our heart and gut. Called the cardiac and enteric nervous systems respectively, these adaptive neural networks display amazing levels of memory and intuitive ‘intelligence’ and there’s a growing array of evidence that these multiple brains are deeply involved in the control and processing of numerous functions and core behavioural competencies. By combining these Neuroscience findings with behavioural modelling research, a number of key insights have emerged that have profound implications for behavioural change.

Research from the field of mBIT (multiple Brain Integration Techniques) Coaching has shown that 'The Heart Leads'. What this means is that if you want wisdom and optimal processes of change in your life, you need to lead via the heart-brain and its competencies. And one of the key competencies and functions of the human heart of course, is Love (in its many and various forms and manifestations). Now, let’s take that idea and apply it to the notion of LifeDesigning... LifeDesigning is a coaching process that I've been developing (and living and teaching) for over 20 years, and I'm writing about in a new book that I hope to have completed and available soon. It's based on the idea of 'creating a life of success and happiness by design, and not by accident!' It utilises techniques, insights and methodologies from the fields of NLP, Positive Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, TQM (Total Quality Management), Agile System Design and mBIT. And if you realise that your life is 'the life you lead', and you want to take control to design and lead your life to greater purpose, happiness and success -- and that the heart leads -- then you had best coach and create a life of success by leading your life with and through love -- by Loving your Life! It’s pretty obvious really, but not something that most coaches have traditionally put a lot of focus on. Nevertheless, this insight is quite profound, and it is certainly backed up by the majority of the world’s spiritual and wisdom traditions and is now being validated by emerging neuroscience. You can best lead your life to success and happiness through a focus and filter of loving.

“If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.” Daisaku Ikeda

This insight is also certainly backed up by science. One of the longest running studies on human happiness and success, the Harvard Grant Study, begun originally in 1938, has been involved in the longitudinal study of 268 Harvard sophomores. The director of the study, Dr. George Vaillant, has concluded that, “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points… to a straightforward five-word conclusion: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’ ” In other words, the warmth of relationships and loving connections throughout your life have the greatest positive impact on your life satisfaction, happiness and success, across all measures. The take home message as a coach therefore: if you want to guide your clients into achieving satisfaction and success, then you need to facilitate them into the skills of loving their life – of putting a stronger focus onto loving and connecting with themselves and with those they work, live and interact with.

The Components of Loving your Life My own research on Loving your Life has shown that there are many, many components and strategies involved in bringing more loving into your life and also for creating a life worth truly loving. These include such things as: ✤ Learning how to be more flexible and to lovingly learn from the valuable feedback that the world provides you ✤ Embracing a love of learning and change so you can let go of old dysfunctional patterns and easily replace them with more generative and loving behaviours and responses ✤ Creating empowering and well-formed beliefs and learning how to stand up courageously for them in your life ✤ Letting go of angering and other negative emotions and instead replacing them with compassion, courage, calmness and joy ✤ Forgiving yourself and others for not being perfect and moving forward with gutsy courage to live your dreams ✤ Lovingly embracing your sensuality and celebrating and supporting yourself in nurturing ways ✤ Allowing your creativity to flourish so you can live more amazing and positive learning adventures in life ✤ Celebrating and savouring positive and wonderful things about yourself and your life as it is right now ✤ Learning how to accept yourself fully and to fill your heart, mind and life with wonderful self-confidence-ing ✤ Learning that you choose how you feel and how to embody wise and generative feelings Connecting deeply with your soul and spirit and beginning to live a more generative and creative life of transcendence, purpose and meaning 9

This article cannot dig deeply into the strategies, skills, science and distinctions of these components of loving your life; because of size constraints it can only really bring your awareness to the importance of leading from the heart through a focus on love. However, if you are interested in learning more or digging deeper, then please take a look at my book, Loving your Life! (www.lyl-book.com) where you will find deep explorations for how to coach yourself and others in loving your life more amazingly and wondrously. The Loving your Life! model provides a series of explorations and meditations on bringing the human spirit alive. It shares ideas, strategies and techniques for loving yourself and loving your life more fully and more wondrously. It’s based on both science and ancient wisdom. It’s simple yet profoundly powerful. The LYL book is also both a guide and a tool for helping you focus on aspects of loving yourself more. It will help you open your (or your Client’s) heart to parts of yourself that you can support and love more fully. It’s like a spotlight that you can use to enlighten aspects of your self-ing — the processes of authoring and creating a deep and generative ‘self ’. At the same time it teaches you how your mind and body works by explaining these aspects in terms of recent advances in the fields of multiple Brain Integration Techniques (mBIT), Positive Psychology and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). 10

Ultimately, by using the LYL model and the explorations within it, you can enhance your life and take it to new levels of meaning and purpose. It’s really all about ‘Loving your Life!’

“Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

Grant Soosalu (M.App.Sc., B.Sc.(Hons), Grad. Dip. Psych, NLP Master Practitioner, Certified Master Behavioral Modeler) Grant Soosalu is an international leadership consultant, trainer and writer with backgrounds and expertise in Leadership, Coaching, Psychology, NLP, Behavioural Modelling and Applied Physics. More info: http://www.mbraining.com Grant can be reached at grantsoosalu@gmail.com

Loving Life, Ah, If It Could Only Be That Simple By Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Loving oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life is not easy these days. Between the ever changing world economies, to professional and personal demands, loving our lives for all the good things happening to each of us, very often takes a backseat to those daily demands.

Years ago one of my coaches shared this observation “People do not love themselves.” Through my executive coaching practice, I would have to agree with him and add this observation as well “People do not know truly know themselves.” Possibly part of the reason people do not love themselves is because of all the negative conditioning from childhood. Most of us remember all those Nos that turned into Don’ts. Many of these Nos or Don’ts warnings came from our parents who were concerned for our welfare. Additionally, explaining to a toddler why touching the hot iron or stove is dangerous is not logical and more importantly quite ineffective. Don’t touch the iron with a stern voice is far more effective. This negative conditioning leads to part of the reason why people do not know themselves. Over the last 10 years, I have documented that 97.6% of my executive coaching clients through the Innermetrix Index Profile do not know what they do well. These same clients with 93.2% accuracy know what they do not do well. How can you love yourself when you are focused on what you do not do well?

When we fail to understand what we do well, we lose opportunities. We end up working harder by focusing on what we don’t do well. Also we may turn non-talents into weaknesses and again redirect our efforts to what we don’t do well. Then there is that issue of ego. Too strong of an ego is dangerous. So people overcompensate and have weak egos. This leads to lower selfesteem. My father said “The squeaky wheel gets oiled first. If you are not proud of your accomplishments, of your life, how can others appreciate what you have done?” He said there are many ways to pat yourself on the back without boasting or being an ego maniac. Another aspect of loving ourselves comes from this simple activity of reflection. What would happen if we invested 5 minutes a day reflecting upon what has happened especially all the good things? Would we be more appreciative of our lives?

Finally, to truly love ourselves requires connections to other people. as well as in my humble opinion. to a higher being. Daily I attempt to send a written note to say thanks or just hello to keep my connections real. Also, each night I pray and thank my God for all the good that has happened to me during the last 24 hours. Loving ourselves requires us to be willing to walk the path less taken; to be willing to take that leap of faith in ourselves. Maybe it is also good to remember the Little Engine that could who said “I know I can, I know I can.”

By trailblazing through conventional learning and business practices, heurist, writer and speaker Leanne Hoagland-Smith quickly demonstrates through ACE© how to advance people (talent) and operations (management) to that next generation of revenue growth for individuals and SMBs. She seeks forward thinkers who are stuck in the current status quo and want to stay ahead of the flow. Call her at 219.508.2859 CST or visit www.processspecalist.com to learn more.

Loving Life â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a Mindfulness Best Practice By Julia von Flotow

To love is an action word, a verb. When it comes to loving your life what does it actually mean? What is required to enable an act of giving and/or receiving love? How do we know it, recognise love of life, as an experience? 17

When we can answer these questions to our satisfaction, we will have the basic understanding required to make loving our life part of our daily practice so that we can experience it directly and share it with others, thereby fundamentally enriching our lives and the lives of others. While dictionaries focus their definitions of love as a noun, it is only when we reframe love, as verb, that we empower ourselves and by doing so, invite the experience of giving and receiving love to be an integral part of our everyday experience. For me, to love means to care; to care meaning to attend to, abide with, accept, embrace, honour and celebrateâ&#x20AC;Ś.all of these ideas cultivate presence and require attitudinal commitments that invite action â&#x20AC;&#x201C; action that is affected by subtle shifts in awareness, attitude and attention.

Process improvements are the way to go – beginning with awareness of what is working. Here are some coaching questions that can point you in the right direction: • • •

What is it in your daily life that makes you love it? What is it that enables you to notice, attend to and abide with – ie savour the moment? What happens when you do? What action can you take that would enable you to love your life even more?

To discover the answers to these questions is a reflective practice that mindfulness coaching facilitates. To create the conditions for an enhanced experience of loving your life and giving yourself permission to express the love you feel for being alive and living life as a creative expression of your life purpose is to Master the Art of Living.

Julia von Flotow is an executive coach, mindfulness instructor, executive coach and founder of the Kaizen Leadership Institute, Toronto, Canada. www.kaizenleadershipinstitute.com Her 12 step program to becoming an authentic and mindful leader has helped hundreds of independent professionals and business owners live happier lives and build more sustainable businesses. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at julia@kaizenleadershipinstitute.com. 19

â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you want a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or thingsâ&#x20AC;? Albert Einstein

Tool kit An in-depth opinion about a gadget, device, strategy, etc. suggested as support for coaches to do their work even better.

By - Lyn Christian MCC, CFCC, CCmBIT Coach

Stop Sinking Into Codependency The most reliable path toward becoming a better coach and a better person is tending to one’s own personal evolution. Because professional coaches are inherently giving and supportive individuals, it’s critical we share our generosity, our caring without sinking into codependency. Sometimes we care too much about the work we do and the client’s we work with, ignoring our own emotional or social state of being. In truth, many of us could use an emotional checkup from time to time to ensure we sustain healthy connections to self and others; to ensure we aren’t engaging in “helping relationships” that support or enable another person’s addiction, poor mental health, immaturity, irresponsibility or under achievement. It’s important to remember we can never deeply and honestly care for others unless our sense of self is strong, our autonomy as individuals is sure-footed and our relationships are sound and supportive. If you (or those you coach) are a “human magnet” for people who need too much, this set of presentations by psychotherapist and trainer Ross Rosenberg might serve as a tool for maintaining relationships of mutuality and reciprocity. Ross explains how setting boundaries can strengthen our caring, patient, altruistic personality traits and keep us on track.

In this first video, Rosenberg helps elucidate codependency and gives credible insight into renaming it as Self-Love Deficit Disorder (S.L.D.D.). http://youtu.be/ZF7QpvrxGrQ

Next, this radio interview presents a functional understanding of S.L.D.D. and what fuels this disorder. http://youtu.be/lh3Pq2JOSIU

And finally, Ross addresses how to “free oneself” from codependency and the four stages of recovery. http://youtu.be/mMPaKJfrZrA

Lyn Christian has been called a “woman of courage” and “the

coach’s coach.” She holds a degree in education from Brigham Young University, Master Coach Certification from the International Coach Federation, and coaching certificates from Franklin Covey and Marshall Goldsmith’s elite executive coach training. Lyn also is a CCmBIT coach. She is the founder of SoulSalt and can be reached here: lyn@soulsalt.com 22

The Risky Business Of Apologies By Patricia Wheeler As humans, we are all prone to making missteps, errors and sometimes behaving badly. We’ve all done it, some more publicly than others. The tendency is often to lay blame on others or justify our actions, as if we can somehow shift the spotlight from our own behavior, we’ll be in the clear. We see this all too frequently with public figures, within the corporate realm and sometimes in our own teams. The problem with this strategy is that it doesn’t work. Failure to apologise not only doesn’t help the problem, it makes it more likely that the offended party or parties becomes even more offended. Think about it….have the people that caused the financial crisis fully apologised? 23

As my colleague Mark Goulston says, “To err is human. To take full responsibility, face it and pay all the consequence is divine.” So if apologies are so good, why don’t we offer them more often? Simply put, because we feel that apologies are risky. We may worry that if we apologise, we’ll lose face, lose credibility, jeopardise our job or even be sued…..therefore it may somehow feel safer to point the finger toward someone or something else. Here’s a case study…the most impactful apology I’ve ever received. Several years ago my mother experienced stomach pains. Her physician, one of the best specialists in the city, ordered the usual tests and treated her with medication. The pains continued; she returned to his office and surgery was recommended, which she had. After discharge the pains recurred, stronger than ever; she was rushed to the emergency room, where it was determined that her physician had initially misdiagnosed her. She had further surgery; unfortunately she was unable to withstand the stress of two surgeries, fell into a coma and died several days later. Several days after her second surgery, her physician approached me, almost tearfully, with an apology. 24

“I apologise,” he said, “this is my responsibility.” He should have done one additional test, he said, that required sedation and an invasive procedure, but he did not want to impose the pain of the procedure on her, feeling at the time that his diagnosis was correct. “I am truly sorry and I will never make that mistake again.” What struck me at the time and continues to stay with me is that this doctor was willing to take the risk of telling the whole difficult truth, and that taking responsibility for the situation was more important to him than the very real possibility of a malpractice suit. I forgave him, and I believe my mother would have as well. Real apologies have positive impact that, in most if not all cases, outweigh the risk factors. Ask yourself, when does an apology feel heartfelt to you? When does it seem empty? Think of a time when you heard a public or corporate figure apologise and it rang true and think of a time when it didn’t. What made the difference?

Here are a few guidelines: Is it from the heart or the risk management office? If your apology reads like corporate legalese, it won’t be effective. Is it unequivocal? Too many apologies begin with “I’m sorry, but you were at fault in this too.” An attempt to provoke the other party into apologising or accepting fault will fail. Is it timely? If you delay your apology, perhaps wishing that the issue would just go away (trust me, it won’t), its effect will diminish proportionately. Does it acknowledge the injury and address the future? In other words, now that you know your words or actions have caused injury, what will you do going forward? While we can’t avoid all errors, missteps and blind spots, we can at least avoid compounding them with empty words, blaming and justification. - Copyright 2016, Leading News

Patricia Wheeler is Managing Partner of The Levin Group, a global leadership advisory firm. With more than 25 years of coaching and consulting experience, she works with leaders around the world who must innovate and deliver exceptional business results within an environment of rapid change and increasing complexity. You can contact Patricia here: patricia@leadingnews.org 26

What I Learned from a Near-Death Experience By Marshall Goldsmith

A number of years ago, I was flying to Santa Barbara, California. Suddenly, the plane took an enormous dip. The pilot immediately came on the speaker system and announced, “We have a minor problem. The landing gear isn’t working. We are going to circle the airport until we run out of fuel so we can land more safely with the wheels up.” Needless to say I was afraid for my life! In this seemingly eternal moment, when I thought I might die, I pondered my life. I asked myself, “What do I regret?” The only answer I could come up with was that I had never adequately thanked the many people who had been good to me in my life. I told myself, “If I ever get back down on the ground safely, I will thank these people.” This is not an uncommon thought. Research shows that the number one regret children have when their parents die is that they never told them how much they appreciated all that their parents had done for them. The plane landed safely (believe me, I thanked the pilot and crew) and when I got to my hotel room, the first thing I did was write gushy, mushy thank you notes to at least 50 people who had helped me in my life. 27

That was the moment I became a connoisseur of gratitude, a virtuoso at thanking. I’m always thanking people now in my e-mails, letters, seminars, and life. The last thing I say on most phone calls is not “goodbye” but “thank you.” When it comes to gratitude, I’m a radical fundamentalist. I’ve even gone so far as to make a list of the top 25 people in both my personal and professional lives to whom I owed thanks. I had special certificates printed up with their names embossed in gold lettering saying, “Thank you. You’re one of the top 25 people who have helped me have a great life.” I realise this is a bit extreme, but I make no apology for it. I have a lot of deficiencies, but gratitude is not one of them. I regard gratitude as an asset and its absence a major interpersonal flaw. I’m proud to say that I give myself an A+ in gratitude. The Gratitude Exercise No matter how far along you are in life, think about your career, think about your personal life. Who are the people most responsible for the person you are today, for your success? Write down the first 25 names that come to mind. Ask yourself, “Have I ever told them how grateful I am for their help?” If you’re like the rest of us, you may fall short in this area. Write each of these people a thank you note.

This isn’t just an exercise in making yourself and other people feel good (although that’s a worthwhile therapeutic venture). Writing a thank you note forces you to confront the humbling fact that you have not achieved your success alone. You had a lot of help along the way.

More importantly, it forces you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. After all, when you thank people for helping you, you’re admitting that you needed help in the first place – which is one way to pinpoint your deficiencies. If you didn’t need to improve in a specific area, you wouldn’t have needed another person’s help. Think of it as a thank-you note’s side benefit; it helps you identify your weak spots. As I type this, it occurs to me that telling people to write thank you notes is obvious, almost trite. Yet, I’m always amazed at how neglected a practice thanking is. None of us can ever do it enough. - Originally published at www.MarshallGoldsmithFeedForward.com

Marshall Goldsmith was recently recognised as the #1 leadership thinker in the world and the #7 business thinker in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers 50 ceremony sponsored by the Harvard Business Review. He is the million-selling author or editor of 31 books, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, MOJO, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. You can contact Marshall here: marshall@leadingnews.org

Coaching Wisdom Essays, Ideas and Explorations on multiple Brain Integration Techniques (mBIT) Coaching. Sometimes you come across new research that is so exciting that you to want to shout it from the rooftops. As that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t very effective if you want to reach the global coaching community, Grant Soosalu graciously agreed to write a series of articles about mBIT coaching in the Worldwide Coaching Magazine. Since these articles are so important, we decided to combine them, add new articles to it and make this available as e-book. I am convinced that the research presented in this e-book will trigger you to explore the new field of mBIT in its full depth. This new research is already changing the way we look at our own behaviours and those of our coachees and will continue to have a profound impact on our lives.

Get your copy at Amazon.com or lulu.com 30

What Could I Possibly Achieve? By Leon VanderPol

It’s no secret that this world has a lot of problems and many of these affect a great percentage of the population. In reality, when even one person is affected by anything, all are affected because we are all one. Whatever we do—our thoughts, decisions and actions—will always affect the collective. The idea that “what I do is my business” is just a fallacy. All the good and all the bad we do always affect others. 31

Many people I meet in the coaching world are growing in this awareness, and they feel a strong impulse to do something meaningful, to contribute with a solution to any of the multitude of problems that affect this world.

more resources— I could do even more for the world. Nothing could be further from reality.

However, these impulses are seldom transformed beyond the desire into concerted, long-term action.

When you experience the desire to do something to improve any situation, to serve others with care, compassion and love, don’t ask what you need to make this happen.

It is low self-esteem and a real lack of faith in their ability to make it happen that is the main obstacle for the nascent impulses. Many feel the desire to work for world peace, but quietly they ask themselves: what could I possibly achieve?

Instead, try to discover the way to do this work with what you already have.

Others get caught up in the busyness of life, struggling for time and energy and the call of financial security. Others say to themselves: if only I had the right tools—more power, more money, more influence, 32

The creative impulse to create a better world exists within you to be expressed, and you can be sure that everything you need to do it has already been provided to you.

problem or the circumstances of your life discourage you.

Everyone receives the talents that should be invested in order to obtain dividends according to their individual skills and potential.

You may not be able to share the truth that lives within your being with the entire world, but you can tell your family, your neighbours, and your coworkers. If you are experiencing the impulse to make a difference you are an ambassador from on high in this world, and it is expected that you do your work right here, where you are, with all the talents and capacities you have now.

The only question is, do you believe it? Do you see it?   We have to stop waiting for the situation to be perfect. Stop waiting to obtain everything we think we need. Explore within yourself and find the way to express your greatest creative impulses. Any effort toward this glorious goal always produces positive results. Don’t let the apparent magnitude of a

The great problems of this world will not be solved by a person or an organisation, not even a nation. We need the spiritual, moral and intellectual elevation of the majority of humanity to once and for all end the fear and all the distorted ways of perceiving and behaving it engenders.

Each one of us can participate in this magnificent endeavour if we choose to do so. The attainment of an age of greater peace, love and wisdom on this world will always be a work for all; a global responsibility that is born in the hearts of each individual, and will forever be a contribution from each one of us. May the love that is there in your heart forever eradicating the shadows of this world! All of us have been blessed with this duty and this right to participate in the creation of our own reality. It is just a matter of choice. What do you choose to achieve?

Are you ready to make an even bigger difference in the world? Join Leon VanderPol, founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching and coaches from around the world who are ready to step onto an even broader playing field of possibility at the first annual COACHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RETREAT! September 25~October 1, 2016. To learn more visit www.coachsretreat.com

The Coach's Retreat is happening find out where! Are you ready to say YES to a week in paradise focused on a project or life question calling for your attention? Imagine a full week dedicated to supporting you to relax, to connect with your deepest sense of self, your boldest creative aspirations, and a community of like-minds from around the world who have come together for the purpose of discovering what life wants to create through you. Learn more about the exciting vision at www.coachsretreat.com This retreat could be for you if you… are ready to create what you’re called to, have a project or a powerful question needing your attention, are ready to step onto an even broader playing field of possibility in your life and work, are looking for a learning experience or community that will support you in your creative ventures, need a splash of exotic adventure to inspire your life and work, The Coach’s Retreat is not a business building program or a training…it is a learning journey in a retreat setting. The retreat has been carefully designed to help you connect with your deepest vision, gain clarity on how to make it happen, and make progress in bringing it to life…all within a community of fellow coaches and social change agents. Join Leon VanderPol founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching, and coach trainer and retreat leader Scott Masciarelli this Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2016 in magical Bali! To learn more visit www.coachsretreat.com!

Three Reasons to Love What You Do Before Doing What You Love By Arman Sadeghi

Do what you love. Go after your dreams. Pursue your passions. Those are just some of the things we hear as young kids growing up. While many things change as we get older, this is one of those that never seem to change. 36

The advice from everyone around us, including those who love us, the books we read, podcasts we listen to, and just about everyone who gives us advice, is to do what we love. However, before we take this advice and start applying it, let’s consider just a few things. For most people, “doing what they love” isn’t always the same in reality as it is in theory. One of the first things that happen when people pursue what they love is that they discover that what they thought they loved isn’t much different from the last thing they were doing. Within about a year or so after starting it, most people end up having approximately the same level of happiness as they did when they’re doing the thing they thought they didn’t love. In fact, study after study has shown that changing the circumstances in an individual’s life rarely results in a change in their level of happiness. What that means is that there is an order of operations to how things must be done. In this case, step one is to love who you are and what you do. Step two is to go after all of your dreams and everything you have ever wanted.

There are three very important reasons why this is the case: 1. If you are unhappy with what you do now, you will be unhappy when you make your dreams a reality. It has been shown that approximately one year after either winning the lottery or having a catastrophic accident in which an individual is rendered completely paralysed, both people go back to approximately the same level of happiness as they had in their lives prior to winning the lottery or becoming a paraplegic. This fact points to one simple thing, and that is our happiness is not determined by outside influences in the long term. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true that in the short term, more money, an attractive mate, a better job, a sense of freedom, or something else could bring us happiness. The human mind maintains a beautiful equilibrium and we consistently go back to our equilibrium set point, regardless of the outside influences. This is much like the thermostat on a heating and air conditioning unit. Regardless of the outside influences of the sun beating down or a blizzard blowing through, a thermostat can maintain the temperature inside a home. While in the short term, the sun may heat up the house slightly or the freezing winds may cool down the house, the thermostat will always kick in and bring us back to equilibrium.

Therefore, to have a warmer or cooler house, it is not necessary to pray for more sun or snow. Instead, we must focus on finding the thermostat, learning how to use it, and changing our set point. Regardless of the outside influences, we can always get back to a newer, happier set point that will allow us to thrive. Before trying to do what you love, love what you do. 2. This used to be what you love. It is easy to look at what we are doing today that makes us unhappy or simply not happy enough, and think that changing it will make us happier. When people say, “follow your dreams” and “do what you love,” there is something inside of us that makes us believe there is something better out there. It reminds us of all the things we want to do that we are not doing. In that dreamy state of thinking about these things, our mind has a beautiful way of pushing away the negatives and hiding the potential reality of this new path, and instead only focusing on the positive. Like a teenager who wants to be a rock star, we think of our dreams. In that moment, we don’t remember that being a rock star involves spending most of our lives on the road. There are many days and hours in busses, with long hours practicing and recording in a studio. We forget the pain of having our latest album and our life’s work scrutinised by the media and even our own fans. We forget that even the best pieces of art are met with criticism and negativity. As we continue in our dream state, we don’t consider the reality of our potential new endeavours. 39

If you think long and hard enough at the things in your life that make you unhappy today or things that are simply not good enough, you will realise that many of these things used to be our dreams. For most people, their relationship is the easiest place to look. For just about everyone I know, the relationship they are in now at one point was a dream. But for some, that dream turns into a nightmare. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to remember however that this used to be the dream. Therefore, as we close our eyes and dream about our next endeavour or our next mate, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to remember that there is no guarantee this new dream wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end up in the same place as the last dream unless we drastically change the way in which we do things. This means taking responsibility for our happiness, as opposed to thinking that outside influences are going to change things. Be happy with who you are and what you have and then pursue everything that you want.

3. Be the best version of yourself now. I have coached thousands of people in just about every aspect of life, but nothing has allowed me to see human beings for who they really are better than working as a business coach. When you work people and see the ins and outs of every aspect of how they run their business, you really get to know them and who they are as individuals. What I have observed is that most people in business who are struggling often are looking ahead at a time where they will be out of this current business. They often blame outside circumstances on the realities of their lives. Many blame the economy, their customers, their employees, the laws, and even God. Nevertheless, the most successful people in business take responsibility for the current status of their business, regardless of outside influences. They understand that they alone control the destiny of their business. While outside influences can attempt to change their reality, they are more powerful than any outside influence. Wherever you may be in life and whatever you may be doing, the key is to focus on being the best version of you today, taking whatever situation you are in, and focusing on growing as an individual so that you can be at your personal best. By learning to be at your personal best and not focusing on always running away from the current situation, your mind and body will be prepared to help you battle whatever comes your way in the future. 41

I have presented this content in front of thousands of people as a keynote speaker and to individuals on a one-on-one basis. In most cases, it is initially met with a bit of resistance because it goes against everything that we have been taught since we were young. However, I want you to think about it for just a moment and consider how your life would be if what I am saying is actually true. If what I am saying is true, doesn’t that mean that you don’t have to wait for all of your dreams to come true to be happy? Wouldn’t it be nice to be happy today? Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the things you dream of and all of the feelings you wish to have today, without having to wait months and years?

Focus on loving what you do and more importantly, loving who you are. Once you have accomplished this, get absolutely focused on everything that you want and pursue your dreams like nothing before. I would never suggest that you should not follow your dreams. In fact, I think very strongly that everyone should follow their dreams. I simply feel that there is an order of operations to everything in life. When it comes to happiness, it is about loving who you are and what you have before pursuing everything that you have always wanted.

Arman Sadeghi is the founder of Titanium Marketing, and other companies in a variety of industries that include marketing, recycling, coaching, photography, wireless, consulting, and the restaurant industry. He combines a unique background in neuroscience and entrepreneurship to see business in a way that is truly revolutionary. Arman is the author of â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Business Bible: A 10-Step Revolutionary Guide to Conquering Your Businessâ&#x20AC;?, and a peak performance speaker who speaks across the globe on various topics including business, marketing, health, fitness, motivation, sales, and balance in life. You can contact Arman here.

Of all the years I’ve attended WBECS, this year is truly going above and beyond more than any other. As a result over half the sessions sold out after just 10 days. Fortunately, now they have solid data on show up rates, they have been able to extend capacity from 3000-3500, so some limited space is now freed up. More than 14,000 coaches have already joined and the feedback I have received personally from the coaches in our network has been quite exceptional.

Click here to register for WBECS 2016 at no cost! This year’s line-up is truly impressive, so I know that you are going to love the summit and get excellent value from the free sessions. The upcoming Pre-Summit sessions are going to be packed with value, and you can even dive deeper by joining Implementation Mastery Sessions for many of them, so be sure to register now: Click here to register for the sessions before they fill up again! I know you are going to love the value! Cheers,

Ton de Graaf, Chartered Business Coach™ Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Worldwide Coaching Magazine

***Coaching Research*** The Propensity to Pursue Executive Coaching variables of self-efficacy and transformational leadership By Dr. Shauna Rossington, DBA, LMFT with Dr. Adrienne A. Isakovic, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, HRMP

Two dominate variables, which have been linked to successful, sustainable, and innovative businesses are transformational leadership and leadership self-efficacy. However, nearly 60% of companies face leadership talent shortages (Crainer, 2011). Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why.

Leadership coaching is a strategy to address the deficit of effective leaders, and leaders who seek coaching indicate improved selfefficacy and transformational leadership. According to the research literature and theorists, leadership coaching provides a new path for learning and self-awareness to an individual’s growth and development. Unfortunately, a paucity of information exists about leaders who take responsibility for their own development, and McCall (2010) posited no substitutes exist for teaching evolving leaders how to take charge of their own advancement. Therefore, the objective of this research study was to (a) enrich the substantive theory building and empirical research on selfefficacy and transformational leadership by (b) assessing the leaders’ self-efficacy and transformational leadership, and(c) to ascertain if a relationship exists between these variables and the propensity to pursue executive coaching. Theoretical Framework Coaching continues to grow faster than research and Gregory, Beck, & Carr (2011), recommended an integration of theory and practical application of organising frameworks. Control Theory (CT) posited humans take an active role or responsibility toward one’s behaviour, where CT attempts to control the state of some variable, often the pursuit of accomplishing a task by controlling their behaviour.

Literature Review Executive Coaching In a comprehensive literature review by Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson (2001), the history of executive coaching is noted as barely traceable and a hard date for the commencement of executive coaching does not appear to exist. The word coach emerged in the 1500s into the English language to describe a particular horse drawn carriage. The origin of the verb to coach refers to a highly regarded person getting from where he or she was to where they wanted to go. Over the centuries, the term moved through several avenues from sports coaching to academic coaching and to the evolution of executive coaching. Predominately, western societies implement executive coaching. The United Kingdom reports 70% of companies use coaching, where 44% of employees report using coaching, and 93% of companies in the United States. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) reported an increase in membership from 1,500 in 1999 to 10,000 members in 2006 across 80 different countries. Van Genderen (2014) asserted executive coaching is the fastest growing profession for the development of corporate success. According to the ICF, coaching offers the definition as an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses, or organisations. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.

Self-Efficacy Bandura (1986), a social cognitive theorist, first introduced the concept of self-efficacy. Social cognitive theory includes grounding in the conceptual understanding that human beings are vigorously committing to their development and actions. Bandura (1997) postulated self-efficacy refers to a judgment of one’s own ability to perform a specific task within a specific domain. Thus, self-efficacy is the aspect of self, which refers to how sure (or how confident), the individual is that he or she can successfully perform requisite tasks in specific situations, given one’s unique, and specific capabilities. Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership is a leadership style, which incorporates relationships and the dynamic interplay between the followers and the leader of a group. Transformational leadership inspires followers to be the best they can be, to accomplish their goals, and values what followers need and want. By focusing on the follower’s values and aligning those values with an organisation’s value this outcome may further the mission of an organisation.

Research Design A quantitative study with a descriptive correlational design and linear regression analysis was used for this study with established self-efficacy and leadership instruments, which contain quantitative data to assess if a relationship exists between the variables. Applying a correlational design approach suits the needs of this study because the purpose is to examine if significant relationships exist between three sets of identified variables. Population and Sample The target population for this research study was executives in leadership positions (CEOs, COOs, VPs, CFOs, and executive management), which was accessed through SurveyMonkey®’s database. To avoid social and research exclusion, this study did not exclude gender or industry, but was limited to the United States. The study used a purposive sampling of executives. A standard email notification was used to notify respondents, that he or she had a new survey to take and the invite was a random group selected through an algorithm process. SurveyMonkey®’s solicited 186 responses with 110 of those responses being fully completed.

Instrumentation / Measures The instruments used in this research study were selected because of their established reliability and validity measurements. The new general self-efficacy scale (NGSES) and the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) are established instruments. Participants received a survey, which incorporated the assessments NGSES and MLQ, to include a follow-up Likert-type scale question to ask how he or she self-rated their self-efficacy and transformational leadership (low, neutral or high), and then how likely he or she was to pursue executive coaching (Strongly disagree-Will not pursue executive coaching, Disagree â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Might consider pursuing executive coaching within the next 3 months, Neutral, Agree, will definitely pursue executive coaching within the next 3 months, Strongly agree â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will pursue executive coaching immediately). Data Analysis This quantitative correlational study used SigmaXL to run the descriptive statistics, correlations, and linear regression analysis. Minitab software was utilised to run the Cronbach alpha scores for the reliability and normality testing to reduce the risk of Type I and Type II errors of the instruments for this research project.

Results

Demographics Male: 56.76% self-reported as male (N = 63) Female: 43.24% respondents self-reported as female (N = 48) Ages: 18-30 - 22.52% (N=25) 31-40 - 33.3% (N=37) 41-50 - 19.8% (N=22) 51-60 - 21.6%) (N=24) 61-70 - 2.7% (N=3)

Position: CEOs - 47.7% (N = 53) COOs - 15.3% (N=17) VP 7.2% (N=8) CFOs - 7.2% (N=8) Executive Management – 22.% (N=25)

Number of Employees >100 46.85% (N = 52) 101 – 1,000 30.63% (N=34) 1,001 – 10,000 19.82% (N=22) 10,001< 2.7% (N=3)

Research Question 1: Does a relationship exist between self-efficacy and transformational leadership? There is a significant relationship between transformational leadership and self-efficacy. These findings support Mesterova, Prochazka, and Vaculik (2014), which stated the two variables are positively paired, contribute to each other, and contribute significantly to effective leadership. Research Question 2: To what extent does self-efficacy predict the propensity to pursue coaching? There is no significant relationship between self-efficacy and the propensity to pursue executive coaching. This was a surprising result to this researcher. A possible explanation for this finding is the purposive sampling of just highlevel executives and their self-efficacy was assessed. The composite variable for actual self-efficacy was 4.5 (on a scale of 1-5) indicating a high-level of self-efficacy as self-reported by the respondents. The non-significant relationship between self-efficacy and executive coaching may indicate high-level executives feel quite confident, secure in their abilities, and do not feel the need to pursue coaching to enhance or develop their already existing level of self-efficacy. Additionally, the results of this research underpin Nease, Mudgett, & Qui単ones (1999)research study where participants with robust self-efficacy would exhibit decreases in feedback acceptance. 52

Research Question 3: To what extent does transformational leadership predict the propensity to pursue coaching? There is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and the propensity to pursue executive coaching. The overall composite combined variable score for transformational leadership was high; therefore, transformational leaders may always feel a need to improve their abilities, promoting relationships, and enhancing their followersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; abilities despite their high scores. Transformational leadership, in definition, is a continuous growth path and one actually never arrives at full transformational leadership. Therefore, the results of this study support the characteristic domains of transformational leadership by demonstrating a desire to pursue executive coaching for continued growth. Research Question 4: What is the relationship between self-efficacy, transformational leadership, and the proclivity to pursue executive coaching? The research indicates a small, only 10%, but significant likelihood when combining transformational leadership and self-efficacy, that an individual will be inclined to pursue executive coaching. Additionally, this result indicates transformational leadership may be a possible moderator on the variable self-efficacy, as selfefficacy as a standalone variable will not propel an individual to pursue executive coaching. 53

Conclusion First, to the industry of executive coaching when soliciting possible clients, transformational leadership is a construct, which leaders may be willing to explore, enhance, and continuously develop. Additionally, combining the assessments of transformational leadership and self-efficacy may influence a leader to pursue executive coaching. Furthermore, organisations, HR departments, and Board of Directors can administer the MLQ (5x) separately or combined with the NGSES and may see a willingness for the leader to pursue coaching to develop and enhance these skills on a deeper level. Leaders do appear to want to take charge of their own development and will pursue executive coaching if given the opportunity to assess their transformational leadership and selfefficacy. For access to Shaunaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full dissertation please click here.

Dr. Shauna Rossington holds a Doctorate Degree in Business

Administration with an Emphasis in Leadership, A licensed Marriage and Family Child Counselor, she has been the Executive Director of Mountain Circle Family Services, Inc. for 15 years, created and founded the world renown Boston Qualifier Marathon, Running with the Bears, and Founded Redwood Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services in 1995, Mother of two great kids, and loves to ride her road bike, run, and ski. Shaun can be reached here: srossington@mountaincircle.org or visit here: http://www.mountaincircle.org/home.htm

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Bertrand Russell

Finding a Route Back to Work After a Long Career Break By Antoine Tirard and Claire Lyell

Resurrecting your career after a long break is not easy. But stories of those who went through the transition can teach us how to better navigate a way back to work.

No one wants to have to choose between staying on their career path and tending to urgent personal needs that may crop up. But that’s the essential situation faced by countless professionals, given how difficult it has become to return to work after even a couple of years away. In addition to degrading employees’ quality of life, this blind spot in the business world costs companies dearly due to the premature termination of far too many promising careers. It’s also a major setback to gender equality. Nearly half of all women who leave work to raise children don’t go back, which is especially troubling as women constitute 95 percent of those who take a career break for childraising or family caring. This statistic was related to us by Julianne Miles, cofounder of a revolutionary firm called Women Returners, which exists to facilitate the return of women to the workplace. Sadly, those who successfully resurrect their careers after a hiatus are the exception rather than the rule, but we interviewed executives who have done it to find some tips for returners. It never seems to be as simple as picking up where they left off, but the coping strategies they developed made their careers even stronger.

The elusive “second career” Argyro had no intention of leaving her job as general manager of the Greek subsidiary of a major travel retail company, until she learned she was pregnant with her first child. This came at the same time that her company was being acquired. Her reluctance to be in the post-merger structure, as well as to sacrifice time with her baby led her to part ways amicably with her employer, but she was not planning a long break. However, another pregnancy prolonged the gap. She mulled starting over with a “second career”. This reflection showed her that what she most enjoyed was “creating beautiful teams of talented people and helping them grow”. So, she did a second degree, this time in Strategy and HR Management, while still pregnant for the second time. After a failed attempt to return to work after baby number 2, Argyro managed to get back after number 3, once she had realised that she needed to use her consulting experience as the lever. She spent one year happily developing her abilities, after which she was called by a London-based multinational spirits and beverage company, to work as HR Director for Greece. From there, she quickly advanced to roles of increasing seniority within Europe. Reflecting on her career and life journey, Argyro says her husband’s support has been crucial. He is a very participative parent, and things are equitable between them. They work as a partnership, and balance and development are a priority for both of them.

Full-time fatherhood Tim also made a choice to value parenting over corporate life, though in a very different way and order than that used by Argyro. One evening, he came home from a long business trip to Africa, to find a little note on his bed from his nine-year-old daughter, asking that he attend a “meeting” with her ASAP. The next day, she explained, “Daddy, how can I love you if I never see you?” Tim resigned only ten days after this bombshell, fortunately in the knowledge that his wife had been offered an opportunity to take a role in the European headquarters of P&G. Moving to Geneva in itself was not a big challenge, but his new role as full-time father took more getting used to. While Tim was occupied with several other projects at the time, such as a role in a small start-up and designing and building a house, he describes his role of father as occupying 90 percent of his time. As his daughters grew bigger, Tim’s question became, “Can I mix the important parts of being a dad with the world of work?” Serendipitously, he was contacted by a consultancy firm and he took on a project, which led to another, and now he is helping them to develop their business. This is facilitated by a very actively present grandmother, who supports and helps out willingly.

Tim says his experience as a full-time dad made him a better decisionmaker. He says he is much better at identifying and setting priorities, and bringing the right mix of emotion and practicality to any choice he faces these days. When quizzed on how this works out for the couple, he is unequivocal: It only works if the two are perfectly aligned, and it helps tremendously if there is capital already saved so as to avoid a drastic drop in lifestyle. As he says “nobody is deprived, but we do control our spending in a way we would not have done a few years ago”. Defeating the odds Shortly after 9/11, Mui Gek, a Singaporean national with a successful career in retail leasing, and her French husband decided to move together to his native country. She aimed to use her experience to enter the French luxury goods industry, starting out by studying the language and earning an MBA in a local business school. It was a mammoth task for Mui Gek to find a job in a tough market, as a visibly and audibly very foreign person in a provincial French city. She created from scratch an extensive network, from her immediate friends, MBA teachers and family. Her tireless efforts netted a job with a family business, overseeing a large project to explore the Chinese market for shopping centres. 60

While pregnant with her first child, Mui Gek and her husband decided she would take a break to have the baby and to figure out her next move. However, less than two years later, they found themselves with a toddler and newborn twins. When the twins were coming up to two, she started to feel it was time to return to work. Yet again, networking skills came to the fore. This time, it led to an introduction to none other than Antoine Tirard, the co-author of this article, who was at the time recently appointed as head of talent at LVMH. Mui Gek’s mix of skills was unusual, to say the least, and not one that neatly fit with any particular vacant job in the luxury group. Her difference was that, beyond her obvious real estate and retail experience, she had doggedly stayed up to date on workplace issues, on fashion, luxury and more. This was the clincher. Eight months later, she received a call from LVMH who had decided to create a new role as the company felt their real estate strategy lacked coordination, and an expert hand with negotiation and diplomacy skills could be a great asset. She got the job. Networking furiously to make friends and allies and using her unique blend of knowledge, passion and persuasion helped her create a hitherto unheard-of collaboration between previously hostile, competitive brands, and she has been offered increasingly interesting developmental roles.

8 Tips for Returners 1. Clarify your goals – take stock and use your time to explore what you want to do and where you want to be in ten years’ time. 2. Update your skills and knowledge – stay current in your field, upgrade your credentials, invest in relevant training, do volunteer work to learn or hone skills. 3. Use creative job search strategies – classic job search tactics won’t work; headhunters will ignore you. Mine neighbourhood or local job opportunities, investigate ‘returnship’ programmes. 4. Network in depth – reactivate and broaden your professional and personal networks for feedback, support, advice and leads. 5. Seek family support – secure financial, mental and emotional support from your partner, agree how you will rebalance or switch times and roles, look for help from participative parents. 6. Boost your confidence – be clear about your strengths. Emphasize the value you can bring to an employer rather than your time away. 7. Be prepared to compromise – Get ready to adjust your standards of living. Consider part-time, inter-im or freelance work. 8. Build resilience early on – be prepared to navigate multiple career breaks and non-controllable events. Learn to develop a flexible attitude.

Getting better We are aware that the people profiled above are some of “the lucky ones”. They have been supported by family and comfortable finances, however difficult this balancing act may have been. The balance is a lot harder to find if you are on your own and there is no loving grandma around to babysit–- a reality faced by millions. But generally, hope is improving for anybody in this situation. A growing number of financial institutions and professional service firms —including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, RBS, JP Morgan, and Lloyds Bank— have introduced ”returnship programmes” for high-calibre professionals who are ready to return to corporate life after having hit the pause button. So far, Goldman Sachs in the US reports offering permanent positions to fully half of their returnship participants. More recent data on UK returnship programmes suggest that retention rates may be even higher. Clearly, there is much to be gained and to be done: both for corporations who could undoubtedly make these returns easier, and for the returners themselves, who must battle history, tradition and tough circumstances with courage every single day. Claire Lyell grew up in a multi-lingual, multi-national setting, acquiring a number of cultural layers along the way. Her career has included blue chips and startups, CEO and consultancy roles, across 17 countries, 4 continents and 8 languages. Claire founded Culture Pearl in 2011, combining her passion for writing with her business experience. She has a particular passion for working with coaches! She can be reached at culturepearl@me.com

Antoine Tirard is an international talent management consultant, trainer, and coach to large global organisations. He has extensive experience working with senior business and HR executives to create integrated talent management strategies, and to design, develop, and execute talent development programs. More info on his LinkedIn page.

The Impact of Titles on Talent Performance By Prof. David Clutterbuck

How you think about your job â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what it contributes, how it adds value, how it links with and supports other roles â&#x20AC;&#x201C; has long been associated with motivation and performance.

More than 25 years ago, I invited all the staff in my company (an employee communication boutique of around 40 people) to choose their own titles, based on their aspirations for their job roles.

We debated whether this should go on my business cards, but opted in the end to use it internally only.

While we didn’t measure the results in any systematic way, it was clear that there was a positive effect on engagement and a clearer focus on what was important in each of their roles.

It’s gratifying, therefore, to read a short article in the latest Harvard Business Review, based on an Academy of Management Journal article a couple of years ago*.

The one person, who wasn’t allowed to choose their title, was me, as the chairman.

I was quite pleased by the title the staff awarded me – Grand Master of Chaos.

However, each team and function used their new titles with pride.

Experiments in a US hospital chain found that asking employees to design their own job titles had a positive effect not just on how emotionally exhausted they felt at the end of the day, but also on the amount of psychological safety they felt and how appreciated they felt their work was.

* Grant, AM, Berg, J & Cable, DM (2014) Job Titles as Identity Badges: How Self-Reflective Titles Can Reduce Emotional Exhaustion 65

One of the authors of the original article, Daniel Cable has also experimented with asking groups of employees doing the same job, asking them to collectively agree a job title that they felt accurately described what the role was trying to accomplish. Again, there was a strong positive impact on job satisfaction and employee engagement. Cable recommends a two stage approach. First, the employee(s) should reflect on the purpose of the job (who it serves and how); and on how they relate to it (for example, what special qualities they bring to it). In the second stage, the employee(s) generate creative suggestions to capture the essence of their reflections, both from themselves and from invited others.

Changing job titles has been a management tool for centuries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly in the cynical context of motivating someone by making them feel more important, while not actually giving them more authority or greater reward. Engaging employees in the re-titling process is very different, however. It places them more in control, makes the process more authentic and more meaningful, and releases energy. Given that job roles are constantly evolving, along with organisational structures and customer needs, there is a practical case for reflecting on and reviewing job titles at least every couple of years â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if only to refocus attention on the question:

Why and how do we do what we do?

Professor David Clutterbuck is a leading international authority on leadership and developmental dialogue. David is visiting professor at the Mentoring and Coaching Research Group, Sheffield Hallam University (MCRG), at the coaching and mentoring faculty of Oxford Brookes University, and at York St John University. Blogsite: davidclutterbuck.wordpress.com E-mail:david@davidclutterbuckpartnership.com Website: www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com

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Worldwide Coaching Magazine

Ton de Graaf is one of the very few executive coaches in the world

who is designated by the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches as a Chartered Business Coach™ (ChBC™). He is the owner of Quest Coaching Netherlands and the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Worldwide Coaching Magazine. He coaches and inspires the next generation of international corporate leaders across the globe. He can be reached here: editor@worldwidecoachingmagazine.com or visit: www.tondegraaf.com

Leon VanderPol is the founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching.

He is the creator of the Deep Coaching Intensive coach training program, a personal and professional development program designed to help coaches and holistic practitioners have the depth of skill needed to support people through periods of inner transformation and awakening. Visit him at www.centerfortransformationalcoaching.com to learn more about this life-changing program.

Julia von Flotow is an executive coach, mindfulness instructor, executive coach and founder of the Kaizen Leadership Institute, Toronto, Canada. Her 12 step program to becoming an authentic and mindful leader has helped hundreds of independent professionals and business owners live happier lives and build more sustainable businesses. More info: www.kaizenleadershipinstitute.com or E-mail Julia

Lyn Christian has been called a “woman of courage” and “the coach’s

coach.” She holds a degree in education from Brigham Young University, Master Coach Certification from the International Coach Federation, and coaching certificates from Franklin Covey and Marshall Goldsmith’s elite executive coach training. Lyn also is a CCmBIT coach. She is the founder of SoulSalt and can be reached here: lyn@soulsalt.com 68

Arman Sadeghi

is the founder of Titanium Marketing, and other companies in a variety of industries that include marketing, recycling, coaching, photography, wireless, consulting, and the restaurant industry. He combines a unique background in neuroscience and entrepreneurship to see business in a way that is truly revolutionary. You can contact Arman here.

Grant Soosalu (M.App.Sc., B.Sc.(Hons), Grad. Dip. Psych, NLP Master Practitioner, Certified Master Behavioral Modeler)

Grant Soosalu is an international leadership consultant, trainer and writer with backgrounds and expertise in Leadership, Coaching, Psychology, NLP, Behavioral Modeling and Applied Physics. More info: http://www.mbraining.com Grant can be reached at grantsoosalu@gmail.com

Claire Lyell grew up in a multi-lingual, multi-national setting,

acquiring a number of cultural layers along the way. Her career has included blue chips and startups, CEO and consultancy roles, across 17 countries, 4 continents and 8 languages. Claire founded Culture Pearl in 2011, combining her passion for writing with her business experience. She has a particular passion for working with coaches! She can be reached at culturepearl@me.com

Yael Blum is committed to the heart of the matter, that essential point

where values, dreams, wisdom, courage, love and leadership collide to catalyse a course of action that nourishes people and planet. As an inspiring and experienced leadership development consultant, certified executive coach, systems thinker, and AI enthusiast, Yael fulfils her mission to support the development of extraordinary leaders and social entrepreneurs worldwide. For more information visit 69 www.intwoit.com or E-mail yblum@intwoit.com