Regaining the joy of work

I attended the APAC Strengths Coaches Community End-of-Year Gathering today and it was a good time to learn from the strengths experts as they share their experience and the latest insights from their research data.

What caught my attention was that well-being is now the new challenge, and from this slide, we can see how burnout has been now exacerbated because of the pandemic.

And when I showed this to one of my friends, whom I believe is experiencing burnout herself, she asked me a very good question: why do they talk so much about manager support but I don't see it coming?

A company will never be able to prevent their employees from burning out if their definitions of fairness, manageable workload, clear communication, manager support and reasonable time pressure differ from that of the employees'.

Until and unless we can all agree on what is fairness, how much workload can one take, how communication can be better, what kind of support does the employee need and how much time is needed, the employees will be burned out.

The expectations from the managers has been rising especially in these days of remote working because they fear that their people will not be productive otherwise. 

Managers, don't just talk about support and fairness, don't assume you are communicating well. Find time to talk to your people and find out what it takes for them to put in good work and still be satisfied from it all.

Help us regain the joy of work. Don't let us burn out.

Pearlie

My books are like my counselors

One of my favourite Gallup strength is Input. And it has served me very well.

If you have not heard of the Gallup Strengthsfinder, it is an assessment that helps you find out what your strengths are and how you can grow your strengths to be even better than what you are already good in.

My third strength in the list is Input and I really enjoy this strength. Input people are collectors and one of the obvious things I collect are books. 

And with that, when I need to think through and work through some issues in my life, I am always able to find the right books to help me. They are like my counselors; and they are like the right counselors at the right time. 

(And if you would like to know if you have the Input strength to build on it, let me know. I am a Gallup Strength coach too!)

Pearlie

I completed the course on coaching

I've only signed up for two paid courses and this is the second one I've completed.

I've also completed these without any certificates, bringing to a total of six:


I have two more to complete and after that, I think I will take a break from lectures, though there's one on Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul and one on What is a Mind? which I think are too interesting to pass up. Here's learning getting the better of me, again.

pearlie

Completed my practical coaching assignment

I've completed my practical coaching sessions with the final session for my second coachee today, as part of the Coursera Conversation that Inspire: Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change course.

I've started the course back in October and it has been quite a good experience, learning the useful Intentional Change Theory (ICT) model developed by Richard Boyatzis and having very interesting coaching conversations with my coachees.

I've submitted the required written assignment. I will be required to do several peer assessments in the next few days before coming to a completion of the programme.

pearlie

My Coaching Assignment

I began my coaching assignment today as required by the coaching course I am taking under Coursera, using the above Intentional Change Theory (ICT) by Richard Boyatzis. I am obviously incorporating the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool and it went very well. It is helpful to place it in a framework like the ICT.

I am looking forward to my second coachee tomorrow and subsequent sessions for both of them.

pearlie

This will be a busy month...but it is good busy

I suddenly have quite a lot to do in terms of my own learning and development activities. I have been reading the office politics book but I have stalled halfway there.

I have started on a new book: Crucial Conversations, and it is quite interesting, in spite of some bad reviews in Amazon.com.


Crucial Conversation: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High
by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson and Ron McMillen

I have also started on two Coursera courses. Coincidentally, both of them begin on the same day today.

Introduction to Psychology
I was watching the 2-year old lectures by Professor Steve Joordens still available in Coursera a couple of months back and stopped at Week 6 or 7, when I found out that they are offering it again. Now that it started and I begin from the very first lecture, I found out that they are still using the same videos recorded 2 years ago. It really doesn't matter as I can get the working memory become long term memory. The only issue is that some of the links in the old videos no longer work. I hope they would fix it for this round.

Conversations that Inspire:
Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change
I signed up for this and I am really looking forward to it. I have been certified as a Gallup Strengths Coach but I would love to learn any additional skills and know-how to coaching.

I only hope I can manage my time well this month, going through two lectures at one go.

pearlie

I'm now a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach!

I have made it!

It all started on 10th April 2014 when I attended a breakfast talk on the topic "Achieve Higher Level of Performance through Strengths Based Development" where I was really attracted to the Gallup philosophy and concept.

I took the assessment on 17 April 2014, attended the Gallup Strengths Accelerated Coaching Program from 2 - 6 June 2014, passed my coachee evaluations on 14 Aug 2014, took my examination yesterday and received a pass today!

So I am now a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach. And it has just been four months!

The first thing to do will be to develop a profile to post it in Gallup's list of coaches. I am very excited, and looking forward to more coaching sessions for anyone who is interested.

pearlie

Coaching Session #3: This is All Me!

I had another session of coaching with a very good friend this evening, and it was a really interesting and enjoyable one. By the way, she is always enjoyable to be in company with, and now I know why: Positivity is her #4 talent.

Before our session, she texted me saying that her disagrees with her top 5. I replied saying, "Hmmm...interesting. Can't wait for the session. It will certainly be interesting."

And indeed it was.

When we met, she gave me what she thought was her top 5, after going through the materials she printed out.

Her Gallup StrengthsFinder results were:
1. Ideation
2. Relator
3. Significance
4. Positivity
5. Achiever

And she felt she has these instead:
1. Positivity (#4)
2. Achiever (#5)
3. Empathy (#26)
4. Responsibility (#9)
5. Developer(#22)

But after I explained to her what Developer and Empathy were - the rest are her dominant themes anyway - she understood it a bit more. I have basically explained how she thought those were her strengths in relation to her top 5. It was soon clear what she thought she had in Developer and Emphathy were evident in her Relator, Significance, Positivity and Achiever talents.

And so we moved into naming and claiming her top 5 by going through her report.

I made a mistake in using her Insight Report rather than her Top-5 report, which I usually use in my first coaching session. I only noticed it halfway but the good and interesting thing was, it became the highlight of the session.

By the time she finished highlighting what she felt represent her in the report, she has highlighted E.V.E.R.Y S.I.N.G.L.E sentence! She was embarassed by it, but I assured her it is a good thing. It meant that she was able to identify and claim them as her talents. Moreover, when I asked her to share a success story after going through each of the top 5, the stories were top notch, especially the one on Ideation. It was brilliant.

The session was supposed to be an hour long, but I spent two hours with her.

Excellent. Three coachees done, three more to go.

pearlie

Coaching Session #2: What a set of talents!

In my effort to get accredited as a Gallup Strengths Coach, I need to coach six people and receive good evaluation from them. I have stepped up in my coaching appointments, as the initial few who agreed to want to be coached weren't so forthcoming in even setting a date to meet.

As such, I even managed to get three appointments set for today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, which is absolutely wonderful.

I just completed one a couple of hours ago, and in the short time it was arranged, my client was only able to complete the assessment this morning, and she had not shared it with me until I reached her place.

But with one look at her top-5, I went, "Wow!"

As much as all the Gallup themes are neutral, there is no one theme better than the other, her combination of top-5 is pretty impressive.

They are:
1. Strategic
2. Futuristic
3. Analytical
4. Relator
5. Achiever

I must say four of those are what every corporate professional desires to have. And these talents serve my client well, being the wife of a business professional. She assists him in the business and spends her time also managing her kids' and their education.

She has big realistic dreams, she knows exactly which is the best to strive for, she knows how she can get there, she makes sure she achieves it in phases, and it is all for the success of herself and her family.

Our first coaching session lasted one and half hours today, and I am certainly looking forward to our second session next month.

pearlie

The power of asking questions

Coaching is different from counseling but they are same in one way: coaches and counsellors do not give advice, but prod and ask good questions to help the clients find and own their solutions.

Here is what Tony Stoltzfus says in his book Coaching Questions: A Coach's Guide to Powerful Asking Skills on why ask questions:

Why ask questions, anyway?
What's the benefit of using coaching questions instead of advising or telling in a mentor or consultant role? Quite simply, questions hold the power to cause us to think, create answers we believe in, and motivate us to act on our ideas. Asking moves us beyond passive acceptance of what others say, or staying stuck in present circumstances, to aggressively applying our creative ability to the problem.

Questions also redefine relationships between people. When I am advising, mentoring or consulting, I'm the expert. My role makes me your superior (at least in knowledge). But when I'm asking you for your ideas, I'm a peer. Questions honor you as a person and communicate your value as an equal.

And because this asking approach changes the relationship, it also changes you. Have you ever left a conversation thinking, "Boy, that conversation was one-sided! The whole thing was about him." My wife calls that a lack of "conversational generosity". We all hate it when others can't stop talking about their own thoughts and ideas—but we're blind to how often we do it ourselves.

The coaching approach forces your conversations to become less about your thoughts, your input, and how you can steer the dialogue around to the answer you think will work. You start listening—really listening—to the other person. You decrease what you say, so that others can increase. And that's where the magic happens: the more you listen, the more you see how capable they are, how much they can do with a little encouragement, and what wonderful individuals they are. The more you ask, the more you love.

pearlie

Difference between coaching and mentoring

Someone asked me what the difference is between coaching and mentoring. I was not able to give a definitive answer.

But now that I check Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring by David Megginson and David Clutterbuck, here they are as quoted:

Coaching relates primarily to performance improvement (often over the short term) in a specific skills area. The goals, or at least the intermediate or sub-goals, are typically set with or at the suggestion of the coach. While the learner has primary ownership of the goal, the coach has primary ownership of the process. In most cases, coaching involves direct extrinsic feedback (i.e. the coach reports to the coachee what s/he has observed).

Mentoring relates primarily to the identification and nurturing of potential for the whole person. It can be a long-term relationship, where the goals may change but are always set by the learner. The learner owns both the goals and the process. Feedback comes from within the mentee — the mentor helps them to develop insight and understanding through intrinsic observation (i.e. becoming more aware of their own experiences).

pearlie

Good book on sports coaching?

Ever since I attended the week long training on coaching several weeks ago, as well as reading the autobiography on Andre Agassi, I have an interest to find out more about sport coaches. I am intrigued about what they do and how they do it, to make successful sportsmen.

So I went hunting for any good book on sports coaches and found this one:


The Score Takes Care of Itself
by Bill Walsh

I was looking at a few titles but only this one was available for purchase in Kobo. I checked the reviews in Amazon -- it is one of the rare ones with a good number of reviews where almost all of them are at 4 and 5 out of 5. Only one review was a 1, but it is an unqualified review, about the price of the Kindle copy rather than about the book itself.

So I bought a copy and began reading it. I must say it looks very promising and I am certainly looking forward to spending time with it. And I shall reserve my comments, albeit initial ones, to a book review after I complete it.

pearlie