People often comment to me that they are “uncomfortable” coaching employees when it comes to unacceptable performance issues. While this is not uncommon, it often occurs because people haven’t developed their coaching skills and abilities. When coaching, especially around performance issues, it is so important to address an issue when it arises rather than waiting. By waiting to address the issue, you run the risk of making the coaching conversation more difficult. Chances are the behavior will be repeated and will be assumed acceptable.

In order to become comfortable with coaching, I usually offer two simple suggestions to get things moving:

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Being a strategic leader requires that you first understand corporate priorities and future agendas as well as have a clear direction on how you can contribute to it in a value-added way. Being an active supporter of the organization’s strategy is only one element of strategic leadership. There are two other very important elements.

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Recently, I was at a hardware store getting supplies for a leadership development exercise CMOE was creating for one of our workshops. The store was silent. In fact, it appeared I was the only customer shopping. As I approached the checkout lines, I wanted the quickest way to pay and get out of the store. I had two choices that were placed before me:

Choice 1: Go through the self/automated check-out and interact with a computer and scan my own items.

Choice 2: Go through the regular check out and interact with a person.

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When it comes to coaching, most of our efforts are spent with those that report directly to us. This begs the question; what needs to be done when you need to coach your boss on a particular issue? Can you achieve the results you desire and can it really be done effectively? Interestingly enough, sometimes the person who needs coaching the most is your boss, and there are ways you can coach your boss without feeling too much pressure.

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Go back a few years and think about the things you did on a daily basis to get results and achieve goals. Would you say your daily tactics, assignments, projects are the same today as they were five years ago? In most cases people I talk to said no. In my own work, while some of the tactical aspects of my job have remained, almost every other aspect of my job is different. Now, think about what duties your job will require in the future. One year, three years, or five years from now, will you be doing the same things you are doing today? Probably not.

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The Senior Leadership Team is the crux to successful strategy execution within any organization. A great team can take a flawed strategy and turn it into something really exciting, but a dysfunctional team can wreak havoc on the best strategy in the world. In CMOE’s 30 years of experience in helping organizations around the world, we have seen that a quality leadership team is the catalyst that drives change and propels the organization through difficult or seemingly impossible obstacles.

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Recently, one of our clients scheduled a 1-day workshop in Milwaukee, WI, USA. And as usual, our facilitator was traveling to the client’s site a day prior to the planned workshop date. While the weather was clear in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where our facilitator was departing from, the weather in Milwaukee was about to turn ugly. At approximately 3:00 pm, my client called to tell me a big storm was in route that would potentially bring 4 inches of snow to Milwaukee. At this point my client and I began to put into practice some everyday strategic thinking. We laid out a few different scenarios we could do in order to carry out the training.

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