Another Great Coachable Article

This is another great article on how to be coachable By Yoji Cole

Here are five other tips on how to be coachable and get the most from your mentor:

1. Ask for feedback
To learn who you are as a worker, ask your supervisor for feedback on your work ethic, strengths and weaknesses.

"Ask pointed questions right after you complete a project or important meeting," says Anne Marie Yarwood, vice president of human resources and head of diversity for JPMorgan Chase's investment bank (JPMorgan Chase is No. 13 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list). "During the walk back to your desk and while it is fresh in someone's mind, test their perceptions to learn their suggestions for your improvement. That tells them you want to be developed."

"Have the courage to ask the question even if you don't like the answer," says Douglas. "Have the ability to ask the questions, because often when I'm coaching people or giving feedback, I encourage them to go to a person, such as their boss--break through the fears."

If you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you will not take criticism as a personal affront, says Kym Ward Gaffney, national director of coaching at PricewaterhouseCoopers, No. 4 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list.

"Know how to not get defensive when your leader offers alternative behaviors or disagrees with your approach, because self-awareness is knowing when you become sensitive," says Ward Gaffney. "Be able to suspend judgment; be aware of your strengths and weaknesses; it all signals maturity. It means we can objectively listen to feedback without having the need to be right."

2. Reach out to a mentor who is different from you
A male executive who seeks a mentor who is a senior female executive, or an executive without a disability who seeks a mentor with a disability, for example, will learn more because they're reaching outside familiar territory.

"If your network is not diverse, then you're most likely to get stuck because people in your network will see things like you do, which is affirming but not helpful when you're stuck, "says Yarwood.

She also suggested a method of approaching a mentor who does not share an executive's personal traits. "You might want to think of what you can do for the person," says Yarwood. "Offer to get involved in something they're working on."

Seek the common areas about which people can bond, says Ward Gaffney: "When you are being coached [by] someone who appears different from you, then you make the extra effort to seek points of commonality. Just because someone is physically disabled doesn't mean you don't share some interests. You should look beyond the physical to the core values that you both share."

A method of developing that personal relationship is revealing extra involvement with projects outside of an executive's division, involvement with an employee-resource group or external professional groups. Dr. Cole says taking a mentor to a favorite food spot or event can reveal an executive's interests outside of work. Developing a relationship with a mentor can also be accomplished by inviting "one's coach to a meeting of their LGBT employee-resource group or [inviting a coach to one's] church or synagogue or temple," she says.

3. Know your prospective mentor
Research the senior executive you want as a mentor to learn his or her educational and professional background. The information learned can serve as an opening to ask for the executive's mentoring expertise.

Dr. Cole says this is a great way to open the request for mentoring: "'I've read your biography and certainly know who you are; would you allow me to briefly share my story?'"

"Do your homework to learn who the coach is as a person," says Ward Gaffney. Your research can also help you determine whether or not the mentor is likely to be good for you. Earlier in her career, Ward Gaffney's excitement at being assigned to work with a female leader turned to disappointment when Ward Gaffney discovered that none of the female leader's past mentees were promoted after their time with her.


4. Set up specific expectations
The more specific you and your mentor are about each of your goals for the relationship, the more beneficial the relationship will be to both parties. Yarwood says using broad terms to define a mentoring relationship and not reporting the results will set up the relationship to fail. A common mistake she says is to use broad terms instead of being specific.

"Ask specific questions about where you want feedback or coaching, and when someone has invested time helping you, then let them know the result. That lets them know you're willing to get feedback and act on it," says Yarwood.

"You should always set up a professional-development contract, and that means you are proactively seeking an agreement with your coach that you will create a receptive relationship where you are willing to receive feedback," says Ward Gaffney. "The first thing you can say is that you want to be receptive and you want to have a dialogue with them. You have to establish intentions and actions at the beginning. You're trying to set up mutual accountability."

Mutual accountability gives both parties a framework for formal follow-up meetings at which you and your mentor share in your professional growth. Scheduling formal meetings will ensure that a mentor has set aside time for tutoring and is mentally present.

"[The person being coached] must develop the spirit around which you will receive feedback," says Ward Gaffney. "Consistently and strategically ask for feedback. Don't ask for feedback when the coach is pressed for time. You want to make sure you are letting the coach know you expect feedback. If you don't make time to receive feedback, then it looks like you don't want the feedback."

Make sure your goals include what you can do for your mentor. "This is a business relationship that is expected to benefit both parties. Establish that reciprocity is going on," says Dr. Cole.

Mentoring relationships that focus only on what the mentor can provide dissolve because of a lack of reciprocity, says Dr. Cole: "Any human relationship involves reciprocity." She adds that an executive should involve their mentor in their extracurricular business activities.


5. Show that you learn from mistakes; don't be afraid to fail
It is the demonstration of leadership skills that eventually earns an executive a leadership position. One method to show leadership is by admitting you don't know it all and that you can and do make mistakes.

"I think a good leader is willing to show other people that they don't know everything, that they have frailties and that they're willing to honestly share that with other people," says Douglas. "That opens them up to learning when they admit they don't know everything."

And do not fear failure. "Failure is one of the best ways to grow and learn. Until we have some [failures], we go through life merrily thinking about life one way. Failure is about growth and learning from that," says Douglas.

Tell your mentor what you've learned. "Always indicate you're learning and willing to stretch yourself because then people see you're not stuck in your comfort zone and seek continued improvement and to stretch your skill set," says Ward Gaffney. "If after receiving feedback, you crumble, people will say, 'I'll never coach that person again. We should critique ourselves but not so that we critique ourselves out of action."

These are great tips on how everyone can be coachable.

To your success!

Lori

Lori McDowell
Internet Ceo Moms
Helping Moms Work From Home since 1999!

Coachability Quiz?

Last Week,I posted an article about how coachable do you think you really are. Today I found a Coachability Quiz that will let you know how coachable you really are.

I believe that most people are coachable but they're not always coachable at every point in time.
Sometimes people want change (or others around them want them to change), but they may not be currently open to changing their beliefs, behaviors and actions.
If that's the case, coaching won't work, and it's better to wait until you're more open to change to try coaching. Here's a quick quiz to find out if you're currently ready to benefit from coaching.

Select the number which comes closest to representing how true the statement is for you right now. Then, score yourself, using the key at the bottom of the page. Your coach needs for you to be at the place in life where you are coachable. This quiz helps the coach - and you - to discover how coachable you are, right now.

The scoring is the follwoing: 1 2 3 4 5, 1-2 Less True Statement and 3-5 More True Statement

I can be relied upon to be on time for all calls and appointments.

This is the right time for me to accept coaching.

I am fully willing to do the work and let the coach do the coaching.

I keep my word without struggling or sabotaging.

I'll give the coach the benefit of the doubt and "try on" new concepts or different ways of doing things.

I will speak straight (tell the truth) to the coach.

If I feel that I am not getting what I need or expect from the coach. I will share this as soon as I sense it and demand that I get what I want and need from the relationship.

I am willing to stop or change the self-defeating behaviors, which limit my success.

I am someone who can share the credit for my success with the coach.

I have adequate funds to pay for coaching and will not regret or suffer about the fee. I see coaching as a worthwhile investment for my life.

Total Scoring Key
10 - 20 Not coachable right now.
21 - 30 Coachable, but make sure ground rules are honored!
31 - 40 Coachable
41 - 50 Very Coachable; ask the coach to demand a lot from you!

Congratulations. By taking the time to conduct this brief self-test, you have just taken a small step towards exploring if having a coach in your corner is the next best step for you.

Survey courtesy of and copyrighted by Coach U Inc., www.coachu.com @2001, Coachville.com


Hopefully this helps!

Have a great day and to your success!

Lori

Lori McDowell
Internet Ceo Moms
Helping Moms Work From Home since 1999!

Are you Coachable?

Are you coachable? This is a great question! To be successful in any business, you have to be coachable. Let's face it when we start a business we do not know all of the answers and we need to look to our mentor or whoever for advice.

Let us look at he definition of coachable which is from the Webster Dictionary:
The state or condition of being coachable or coachable - Able to be coached effectively.

The following article is from Management Craft, which can help put you on the right track of being coachable.

Are you Being Coachable?

Want to have a breakthrough? Breakthroughs happen when we let them - which for most of us, rarely occurs. Our habits, hang-ups, assumptions, and lack of self-confidence get in the way. I call this collection of internal mental responses coachability.
Coachability is the extent that we hear and utilize outside input and influences. To produce breakthroughs, we need to be coachable.

Here's what it looks like when we are coachable:
We do not get defensive when people offer alternatives or disagree.
We invite and appreciate feedback.
We ask peers, team members, managers and others to offer coaching - yes, we think being coached is a GOOD thing!
We think about, process, consider, and occasionally use ideas we get from others.
We stay on a learning curve - keep challenging ourselves.
We know and can openly discuss our strengths and weaknesses.
We handle failures well (hostestly, constructively, quickly getting into action to solve).

And when we are being uncoachable:
We don't listen and an invisible barrier goes up when others offer ideas.
We get defensive - we need to be right!
We do all our own thinking - only the weak ask for input!
We are not interested in being coached.
We are neither aware of nor willing to talk about our weaknesses.
We intrpret suggestions as criticism - we take everything personally.
We dismiss the ideas and assistance of others.
We can improve our coachability by:
Adopting a belief that to achieve our goals, we need to be highly coachable. When we are coachable, success comes easily and quickly.
Change how we define “looking good” or “doing a good job.”
Reverse our belief that we need to be right to be a success. We will create more success if we focus on getting results and utilizing many ideas and perspectives.
Recognize that there are times when we are more coachable than others. For me, 3pm to 5pm is the time I find toughest to concentrate unless I consume vast quantities of chocolate. This would be a bad time to seek input or coaching (unless the aforementioned chocolate had hit my bloodstream, then it would be fine).
Ask for coaching. Ask for ideas. Ask for input. Get into dialogue about the things that matter to you.

A few things to consider about coachability:
We are all coachable some of the time and uncoachable some of the time.
Some of us are uncoachable most of the time - yikes! (and a joy to work with, I am sure).
You can go from being uncoachable to being coachable in an instant. Breakthroughs can occur in a moment.

How coachable are you - I mean right now? Be honest with yourself because if you want to succeed being coachable is very important.

To your success,

Lori

Lori McDowell
Internet Ceo Moms
Helping Moms Work From Home since 1999!
www.MomsForGreen.com!