Hanna Cooper

Ch-ch-changes...

"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine."  - Anon

People come to coaching looking for some type of change.  Sometimes these changes are external, like finding a new job, or planning for reorganization, but more often the change that people are seeking when they work with me (whether they initially know it or not) is internal change.

But these aren't the kind of changes that typically make headlines, even in our own minds.  Instead, these internal changes can be difficult to define initially:  feeling energized and optimistic again; feeling less frustrated and happier at work; finding mutual respect for colleagues; being willing and excited to take on new roles at work.

People I work with come to coaching because they are carrying the bulk of the responsibility at work (or at home) and want others to help share the load; they are experiencing conflict within their team and just want things to be less tense.  They want to be successful, move forward in their career, and have good respectful relationships at work and home, so they can be ready to tackle big challenges. 

These types of changes may at first seem daunting, but I've seen hundreds of people make exactly these type of shifts for themselves through coaching, significantly improving their work and personal lives and relationships.  What could be better?!

What are you yearning to change?

My Not-So-Secret Agenda

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." 

— Henri Bergson

While the coaching I do is absolutely about helping my clients achieve personal or professional goals, I will be honest with you: I do have a secret agenda (or two) in my coaching practice. 

OK, I'm not actually not that sneaky about it - I let them in on it, and here it is:

1) Good coaching will help you (or your team) articulate goals, overcome obstacles, and make significant change in your life or organization.  Great coaching will not just rearrange the circumstances of your life or team, it will transform it.  As I sometimes say, this stuff is not for wimps.

2) Transformation in coaching comes about via the dual action of cultivating greater awareness, or insight, and harnessing that insight with action.  I like to say that coaching is a two legged animal that moves forward on these two legs: awareness harnessed with action, action that creates more insight.

3) I don't want clients to work with me forever.  I want them to get their insight and meet their goals, and get back out there, clearly knowing and willing to act on what they care about in the world.  I want clients to be able to ask themselves their own coaching questions so that they can coach themselves once coaching with me is over.  I invite clients to see the notes, exercises and assignments they do in coaching as creating the owner's manual on themselves -- a resource that they can use long beyond when coaching is completed.

That's my not-so-secret agenda -- what's yours?

All 88 Keys

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.  And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds. -- R. D. Laing

One of my own personal values is represented by a metaphor that I call "All 88 Keys", representing the 88 keys on a piano keyboard.

What does this mean?  For me, this value is about range, our full expression as human beings: creativity, possibility, many pathways to a goal or an end.

This value is important to me because it's something I want, both for me and for the clients I work with: a sense of operating from our full range.  My experience is that most of us, including me, tend to play within a relatively small and prescribed range, zone, or octave. 

What I want for myself, and for my individual and team clients, is ability to stretch, to reach, even just slightly out of the comfort zone, to be able to access higher and lower points in our own personal keyboard.  The higher or lower notes of life themselves aren't the important thing; the possibility exists in the ability to access them for use in composing our own life's symphony.

--------
What range do you currently allow yourself?
What possibilities might you create, if you reach?

10 Ways to Keep Team Agreements Alive

Make fair agreements and stick to them  -- Confucius

One of the most powerful and useful tools a team can have to assist in developing and maintaining effective working relationships is a set of working agreements - the ways you agree as a team to operate together.

The beginning of a new calendar or fiscal year is a great time to review and refresh (or possibly dust off!) team agreements, as part of examining team goals or aspirations for a new year.

Here are 10 ideas for keeping team agreements alive:

1. Open each meeting by reminding yourselves of your agreements – what they are and why they are important.
2. Toward the end of your meetings, periodically review how you honored your agreements.
3. Choose a particular agreement to practice honoring consciously.
4. Choose a particular agreement to discuss as a group to deepen its shared meaning.
5. Practice honoring these agreements in interactions between formal meetings.
6. When dealing with tough or contentious issues, invoke an agreement to support you (i.e. “I think this might be contentious, let’s really be mindful of “actively listen to each other”).
7. Provide group feedback on how the group is honoring the agreements – focus on one that is going really well and focus on one that is more challenging to honor.
8. If you believe a colleague is not honoring an important agreement, be curious in case you may be understanding the agreement differently.
9. If you notice a colleague is not honoring an agreement, model your agreements in bringing it to their attention; (i.e. if your colleague is struggling to be respectful, model respect in bringing it to their attention).
10. If you realize you have failed to honor an agreement, own your failure and try again.

For more information on team agreements, or other tools for team effectiveness, contact me for a no-obligation, confidential consultation!