Category: Trust and Candor

Paula Meadows on attending Coaching for Greater Effectiveness

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Hello,

My name is Paula Meadows and I was blessed to attend the Coaching for Greater Effectiveness!  I have worked with Notre Dame for about 5 years, but have been in management for over 25 years in other businesses.  I felt I had a pretty good grasp on how I handled crew and co-workers.  During my time in the class, I was finding out how much more I could grow as not just a manager, but a better leader.
The biggest thunderbolt for me was how much I was not listening.  Even though I was doing my job as a manager, I realized I was making quick fixes by commanding and worrying about how it may affect the crew, later.  After going through the class, I started to relate differently.  I took the time to listen.  This is a challenge in its own because my line of work is very fast paced.  I noticed the crew was enjoying the fact that I was being mindful of their concerns and ideas.  Some come up with some great ideas.
I wish I could say that it has been smooth sailing.  When you are trying to change the direction of a ship, it takes time and patience.  Again, because of the class, I learned to ask myself open-ended questions about my challenges.  I kept finding that my approach was the key.  Soon, my coaching techniques were becoming more and more beneficial.   The crew is more responsive in a positive way.  Including with each other.  One of my toughest situations was trying to bring together the day and night shift.  During the summer they work together and sometimes there can be a bit of a civil war.  Using the tools that were given to us from the class, I put them to work.  It is working!  As I was typing this up, I heard a crew member wish everyone a good evening.  This person normally just walks out without a word.  Victory!!
For those of you about to take the class, I will say don’t expect overnight results.  It starts with changing your methods.  This is by no means a fairy wand that will magically make your work life perfect.  What it will do is make you a more successful leader.  Start to set off a more positive vibe.  When you take advantage of this class, you will learn to communicate better, stop micromanaging, lead with a nurturing manner, yet with a vision and most importantly, you will grow.
Remember, leadership is not magical, it’s sets of skills that you must learn and practice.

Building your Coaching Snowball – Notre Dame Research Coaching Lunch

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In an effort to continue the coaching momentum in our division and inspired by the Sharpening Your Coaching Skills event held on Sept 12, Notre Dame Research (NDR) held two coaching lunches for our managers this winter. During these lunches, we had an invited speaker and a couple of activities that gave managers the opportunity to further practice their coaching skills in addition to a very special give away at the end of the workshop (like the ND Courage rock).

We kicked off the lunch with an invited speaker – Kristen Morin from OIT.  She shared her coaching journey and talked about the initial struggles and successes she’s had.  Our NDR managers greatly appreciated hearing about another manager’s point of view and experience with turning what she had learned into action.

After her talk, I introduced a special theme for the day – a snowball. In addition to being a perfect theme due to the weather, snowballs, like coaching skills, need to be built in order be effective.  Good snowballs are not made with one handful of snow. Instead, snowballs take many handfuls of snow that need to be shaped and packed. Good coaches are not made with one training sessions. It takes multiple attempts, successes, failures and learning from others to build a good coaching skill set.

In the first practice activity, I asked each table to reflect and share best practices that they have used to continue their coaching momentum. At the conclusion of the table discussion, I asked the larger group what to share an idea they heard that they will start doing.

Me asking for “coaching struggles” via scraps of paper (snow) balled up.

In the final activity, I posed coaching scenarios to managers (based on their own struggles) and asked them to “coach me through it” by blurting out powerful questions that they would ask if they were approached with the problem.  I provided “stuck cards” on each table for inspiration should they have trouble thinking of a question.  You wouldn’t believe how quickly open ended questions asked by the audience turned into “advice giving,” but I think this was also powerful for others to see that it is a habit many of us have when people approach us with a problem.

I closed out the lunch by giving all participants a snowball that they could take with them.  I hope they use them at their desk as stress reliever or maybe as a reminder for them to push forward, coach and build their coaching snowball. If you are looking to have a similar activity in your area or division and have any questions about what we did at NDR , please feel free to reach out!

Andrew Brown

Operational Effectiveness, Assistant Program Director

Notre Dame Research

abrown20@nd.edu

Snowballs that were given away along with “Stuck Cards” used during the

Sensitivity to your teammates’ work-life balance is essential for solid relationships built on trust and candor (by Lori Bush)

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(Photo by Matt Cashore)

Do you ever feel judged by your peers because your work/life balancing scale seems completely lopsided compared to theirs? For me, work is my life. I know, now you’re thinking of the movie The Shining and the words that were typed over and over again: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”  Don’t get me wrong; I love being around my family and friends, who fill up my tank of joy, but my career encompasses much of my time and I am okay with that.

I must admit though that this is an area I’ve struggled with when interacting with others at work. The thought of tipping someone else’s work-life balance scale or even the appearance of that expectation tends to be the stress that gets to me most. Although I enjoy working at night in front of the television and sending off emails in rapid fire, I know for others this can be seen as an unwelcome intrusion into their personal time and can even lead to a feeling of inadequacy if they don’t respond promptly.

Going through Coaching for Greater Effectiveness, students learn that if you want a high performing team with meaningful relationships, you need to have both trust and candor. If someone on my team feels inadequate for not responding to my email at 10:00 at night, I haven’t been an effective coach.  I need to be sensitive to my team members by letting them know I do not expect responses outside of normal business days/hours and then prove they can trust that statement by my subsequent actions.

The weights we put on our work-life scale are different for each of us and we must listen to our co-workers’ voices on what works best for them and the people depending on them. Building a foundation of trust begins by respecting your teammates’ decisions when it comes to their well-being.