Last year, as I was starting to achieve success at owning my own business by doing what I love, I thought that I had reached my ultimate life goal and would be happy for the rest of my life doing what I do now -- traveling to new places to train and helping others achieve their life goals.
I have always been a strong proponent for continuing education and development, via college and professional training classes, but I learned something knew about myself from my students this year -- that I wasn't done learning and growing professionally. Often in my classes, when I ask why students are attending the class, they say that they were told to attend, or that they want to learn how to develop a specific skill, or that they want to be prepared for the next phase of their career. The last reason intrigued me to challenge myself.
This year, I decided that I want to expand my knowledge and research ability in leadership studies to add value to the professional classes that I teach for my business, Rogers Consulting LLC, as well as, to enable my future career goals, whatever they may turn out to be.
I researched which colleges offer a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership degree, and I found that Hood College, in my hometown and where I currently live, offers exactly the program that I want. I applied and found out last week that I have been accepted into the 3rd cohort starting this Fall, finishing in 2021. To make such a commitment -- being in class just about every Saturday for the next three years, as well as, doing significant class and research work -- it had to mean something to me that was more than just a title at the end. I am preparing for my future, maybe authoring books on Women in Leadership, maybe starting a non-profit, maybe teaching at a college full-time, or maybe all of these! Regardless, I am preparing myself for my future, to have choices and skills that I can continue to grow on.
I see many students in my classes that feel stuck in their current jobs, unable to see where their future will take them. I hope that I instill in them that they decide where they will be in the future, not the reverse, and that additional training and skill development is preparing them to achieve their goals, whatever they want them to be. Thank you to all of my students who inspire me to continue to grow and redefine my life goals -- please contact me with your thoughts on this topic!
This month, I trained (new to me) communication classes for Pryor Learning Solutions and I realized that we do not own the good and the bad traits of our personalities when communicating. We understand how we naturally communicate, but we don't realize the differences in others' personalities and communication styles, and we label those who are different than us as "difficult." Most people are not difficult -- we find it difficult to communicate with them because we naturally communicate differently.
Understanding yourself and what makes your personality difficult for others to work with, is the first step in learning to communicate more effectively. Secondly, try to understand others' perspectives in thinking, especially when it is different from your own. Thirdly, when having difficulty communicating and working with someone else, try to communicate in that person's personality style to improve situational understanding and work effectiveness.
It is not easy to change how you communicate or to see a problem situation from someone else's perspective, but it will help you become a more effective communicator. I enjoy helping people own and understand their strengths and learn how to improve upon their weaknesses. I have resources to help, as I am certified in RightPath profile instruction and I will be teaching Pryor's "Communication Skills for Women" in Maryland and Virginia in July -- in my hometown of Frederick on July 9th. Please contact me for more information.
While instructing "Leadership, Team-Building & Coaching Skills" public seminars for Pryor Learning Solutions this month in Pennsylvania, I heard a lot of attendee frustration on how to work with "problem" team members effectively. In this class, we discuss assessing team members' skills and attitude to determine how to coach individuals to capitalize on their strengths and develop their weaknesses within the team.
We re-framed the conversation to how leaders can coach teams to benefit from diversity in team members' perspectives and work through conflict, thereby producing better results as a team than could be obtained individually.
The four methods of leadership coaching that we discussed are:
- Relating to team members who have high skills, but poor attitude, to develop positive attitude to contribute to the team productivity.
- Training high-attitude and low-skilled team members to develop their skills, possibly paired to learn from high-skill team members that the leader is relational coaching.
- Counseling team members with low skills and attitude to determine how to address their training, personal and organizational issues making them a "problem" player.
- Mentoring team members with high skills and attitude to keep them motivated and empower them to develop into future leaders.
Effective team member coaching is the key to building a synergistic and highly-productive team. Leaders who understand what motivates each team member can effectively match individual goals with team and organizational goals. Contact us for training and consultation to develop your coaching skills and maximize your team's productivity.