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Posts tagged ‘promotion’

Aug 7

Why You Need A Coach On Your Career Team

First, the good news. It is now commonplace for C-Suite residents to be provided an executive coach to help them navigate the high altitude world they inhabit.

Now, the not-so-good news. If you do not have a ‘C’ in front of your title, you are probably on your own when it comes to career development. This is not good business, but it is reality for most mid- to upper-level managers.

Finally, the best news. You can make a modest investment and rediscover your strengths, passions, areas of opportunity, and action plans to develop new skills that can give your career the boost it needs.

What Is Coaching?

Leadership and other coaches combine many of the best concepts from management theory, psychology, philosophy, sports and spirituality to facilitate positive life changes. Although there is some similarity, coaching is not therapy, mentoring or consulting. It is a strengths-based approach that empowers you to use your energy and insights to propel your life to new heights.

What A Coach Can Help You With

Leadership, career transition and life coaching are three popular types of coaching, although there are many others. Many people come into leadership coaching to address issues such as how to:

Becoming a leader is synonymous with

  • Clarify your career goals
  • Manage difficult relationships
  • Manage conflict
  • Become a better leader
  • Enhance work/life balance
  • Decide whether to change careers

What to Expect

Coaching sessions are values-based, goal-oriented, and focus on today and the future. Coaches realize that everyone has the ability to increase professional effectiveness and personal happiness. To find the right path for your success, a good coach:

  • Listens without judgment
  • Asks powerful questions
  • Investigates your underlying beliefs
  • Helps you clarify your values
  • Partners to help you develop action plans
  • Provides support and encouragement

It’s your career. Adding a coach to your career team can help you discover what is holding you back and how to move forward. You can gain insight into how others see you, how you see yourself and discover how to unlock your unique strengths to become a better leader.

If you would like to schedule a free 50-minute one-to-one phone call to discuss whether you would benefit from having a coach on your career development team, please call me at 815.985.4229 or fill out the contact for below.

Gregory Alford, MS. Psy., is founder of Accelerated Coaching & Consulting, LLC, and specializes in business, leadership and life coaching and consulting.

 

Jul 18

Want A Promotion?

For decades psychology and sociology researchers have used the Five Factor Model (FFM, also called The Big 5) to study what dimensions of personality positively correlate with workplace success.

The Big 5 are (you can take a free Big 5 test here):Some people regard discipline as a

  • Openness (or intellect)
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extroversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism (or emotional stability)

Why Conscientiousness Often = Success

The two dimensions proven to have the strongest connection to success at work are conscientiousness and extroversion. In Monday’s blog, I will cover extroversion, so the focus for the moment falls squarely on the broad shoulders of conscientiousness.

Conscientiousness is the predisposition to be disciplined, organized, goal directed, thorough, efficient, deliberative, and able to delay gratification. In the office, these are the people who have spotless desks, are reliable, and get desired results. Over time, they gain the trust of both leaders and followers. This allows them to keep stretching the goals of teams or organizations to reach goals that would have initially seemed far fetched.

Conscientious leaders excel at juggling multiple projects and priorities. The best keep team members focused on shared goals. Given the rapid pace of change and high expectations, it makes sense that people who create value and trust through goal attainment are picked for promotions or remain in executive positions.

How To Develop Conscientiousness Behaviors

If your desk is a mess and you struggle at times with projects hitting your inbox in rapid succession, there are behaviors related to conscientiousness that you can adopt to increase your effectiveness.

Find and consistently use a system to stay organized. This can be a white board, checklists, sticky notes, electronic calendar, spreadsheets, color coded filing system, or whatever keeps your mind uncluttered and tracks progress

  1. Understand the goal
  2. Understand why the goal is important to the organization
  3. Explain numbers two and three with everyone who needs to know, repeat often
  4. Communicate expectations and progress regularly

By keeping you and your team in front of projects, you are much less likely to be derailed or run over by new projects or competing priorities.

Caveats

Without emotional intelligence, conscientiousness may not move the needle of personal or organizational performance. And, when work is artistic or social (such as sales), creativity and spontaneity are often called for rather than a by-the-book approach.

Still, for most of us, behaviors associated with conscientiousness will take you a long way toward reaching your goals.

Gregory Alford, MS. Psy., is founder of Accelerated Coaching & Consulting, LLC., and specializes in business, leadership and life coaching.

Jul 14

Grow Your Self-Confidence

Just as there are no born leaders, no one is born born with confidence. It comes with experience and practice. As adults, we experience life events that make us feel confident. Perhaps you helped your child understand a life or school lesson, reached an important work milestone, or completed a DIY project on your home.

40% (1)While none of us feels confident all the time, cultivating confidence and living more confidently can improve our lives in many ways. A confident person feels comfortable within themselves. They live their values and beliefs, make decisions easier, respect others and are grateful.

What Self-Confidence Provides You

  • Openness to new experience
  • Positive energy
  • Calmness
  • Influence
  • Action orientation
  • Future focus

The other side of confidence is doubt. While doubt can be healthy in small doses, too much creates indecision and the loss of self-efficacy. When we remain in an indecisive mindset, our progress falters and our goals slide out of reach.

You can increase your confidence simply by making decisions. Nurturing the habit of decision making builds confidence by moving you from a state of inaction to action. Inaction drains you confidence and sense of empowerment. Action generates progress and feelings of accomplishment. Even if your decision turns out to be incorrect, simply learn from the experience and continue to move forward.

A second habit is to take a few moments each day to visualize past accomplishments that gave you confidence, and re-experience those positive emotions.

Avoid or minimize your exposure to negative people. They drain your energy and have little or nothing to add, other than why you can’t or shouldn’t take action.

Finally, develop self-care habits so you feel your best. This can include exercise, mediation, hobbies, volunteering or spending time with family and friends.

Cultivating these habits will recharge you and give you more energy to live with greater self-confidence.

Gregory Alford, MS. Psy., is founder of Accelerated Coaching & Consulting, LLC., and specializes in business, leadership and life coaching. Learn more at http://acceleratedcoachingandconsulting.com.

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