My colleagues and I are pleased to announce a new 60-hour ICF accredited program on Resiliency Coaching.

From The New York Times:

Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer

By raising levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol, our phone time may also be threatening our long-term health.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/well/mind/putting-down-your-phone-may-help-you-live-longer.html

Simply put, words do matter. In the words of the late Dr. Judith Glaser, “Words create Worlds.”

Leaders making difficult choices should learn whether to listen to their head, heart or gut feeling says Karlien Vanderheyden.

  I took my car to the dealership where we purchased it for an oil change and routine maintenance.  The dealership owners keep a refrigerator full of 4-ounce water bottles – very considerate of them. I finished one and, and getting ready for my second, asked an employee if they had a recycle for the empty plastic bottle. He said no and told me to toss it in the wastebasket.

Over many years as a consultant, trainer, and educator, I have been asked to provide training to build teamwork among employees. I’ve done lots of these training over the years. Recently I had the unexpected experience of working as a team, and this blog will share my surprising learning’s from experience.

Hypothetically, let’s say you go to your medical facility and they advise you that the medical professional you will see today is through medical school (accredited) and has decided not to take the licensing exam. The new medical practitioner will reduce the cost of your visit by 50%. What do you do?

I was listening recently to a podcast and was struck by the statement, “compassion is good for business.” Over the subsequent days, I thought about compassion, how to access it, its role in leadership, and in general, compassion’s value when deeply rooted in our overall humanity.

Every situation is different. Every person is different. Every organization and culture is different. Supervisors, managers and leaders need to be able to assess and determine the correct mode of intervention or support to effectively address the complex issues and relationships within an organization.  Supervision, mentoring and coaching are three divergent methods of support; each has value when applied in appropriate situations.

Put More Play in your Labor Days

By April Armstrong

I am recently back from a weekend “workcation” in Vermont, with my amazing colleagues at the Justice Coaching Center. Our mission? To devise a tactical approach to help hundreds of judicial officers in large court transition smoothly to new information systems with no disruption to the Court’s productivity. By Monday we had the plan.

Recently we were in NYC where we saw the play If Then. The play’s premise is that it follows the lives led, as well as the lives that might have been. So it got me thinking about my professional life and what it is and what it could have been if I had known about and secured a coach. 

Is your System Balkanized?

Complex systems are often comprised of groups with different goals and measures of success. And yet…you have to work collaboratively for a bigger purpose. At any given moment, the interests of one or more entities can challenge, stall, or simply sabotage desired changes or initiatives. Navigating complex systems with different interests, needs and goals are high wire work that can be aided by an outside coach.

The Coach holds the confidences of the group and yet works to challenge the operating assumptions.

Systems’ coaching confronts collective thinking and works to help complex groups to get clarity on the goals and issues, see the current and envision the desired state, explore options and ultimately build action and mutual accountability.

Coaching is a gift. What would it be worth if your system were at its optimal?

Dysfunctional teams are costly, ineffective, and lead to employee dissatisfaction and turnover. Teams don’t just come together casually. Team member selection, structure, agreements, and accountability set the team’s foundation for success.