As a leader, you are surrounded at all times by people who need something from you.

• The Boss and the Board expect you to have the answers to their questions - a well thought out strategy and a finger on the pulse of overall performance .

• Colleagues look to you to create a trusting environment for innovation and collaboration, to provide focus and direction.

• Direct reports and subordinates need you to hold up the vision, champion the values and inspire them to deliver their best, unique contributions.

But from whom do you get what you need?

The answer is so simple, it is surprising how few avail themselves of the solution.  Not surprisingly, those who do rank among the most successful and intelligent leaders in the business world.

Look at Oprah for example.
She has a coach to advise her on what to eat, a trainer on how to exercise.  She relies on professional coaching on how to feel good, experts instruction for how to look good, and gurus guidance on how to be good.  You can bet she also has at least one executive level business advisor she trusts as a sounding board for her business leadership and strategy ideas.

But, divulging your dietary defects, or fitness flaws is just not the same as entrusting someone with your private thoughts and sensitive information about your career.  Who can you trust with your half-formed ideas, your next big business strategy, your struggles with your executive team, and the truth about where you think you may be falling short.

It may seem difficult to imagine finding such a trusted advisor.  You can be sure you won’t find this person inside your organization, not amongst your customers, and probably not even on the golf course.

Consider the benefits of bringing in an outside advisor - an Executive Coach

• Gain confidence in your strategic plans. Run your ideas by someone who has boardroom experience but has no vested interests in anything but seeing you succeed.

• Be completely candid and unguarded.  You don’t have to worry about office politics, your professional image, or damaging the confidence of your team when you confide in someone who is on your side, but on the outside.

• Get to the heart of important issues quickly. Cut through the fog that comes with being engulfed in the day to day work your job requires.

• Get your own personal ’staging’ ground.  Enjoy a private ‘practice’ space where you can test new ideas and develop new skills - where you are free to look bad, sound bad, and fall flat - with no negative ramifications whatever.

• Finally get the leverage to work ‘on’ the business and not just ‘in’ the business

Access expertise beyond your own.
Your trusted advisor, your executive coach, also has something you do not; years of experience in organizational development, leadership development, and a whole set of ‘coaching’ skills giving them the power to draw out of you a level of power, insight and performance you didn’t think was possible.

Today’s Leaders Can Make Team Collaboration Inevitable
No matter how talented the soloist, you can’t play a symphony with just one instrument. Can you imagine The Four Tops, minus three members? Or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an oboe solo? How about if Glenn Miller’s orchestra playing ‘In The Mood’ with a single saxophone?

As a CEO, or Executive with Leadership responsibility, you understand the magic that can happen when talented people get into a room together to collaborate. But, creating this elusive dynamic on demand in an organization that spans the globe with thousands of employees - there should be a Grammy for that!

Billions of dollars are spent every year just on the technology that attempts to bring people within organizations ‘into a room’ together so that collaboration and innovation can happen. But, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every organization has different challenges.

You have most likely already noticed what conditions allow first collaboration, and then innovation, to occur in your area of responsibility. Have you also noticed the conditions that prevent it? In my experience, a leader may have the most success by focusing on creating the environment that ‘allows’ collaboration to happen naturally.

Surely one of the worlds foremost experts in the technology of collaboration, Cisco has found that non-technological solutions can be just as important in creating the conditions that foster team collaboration. Take a look at this surprisingly simple collaboration solution involving musical chairs, as it were.

How can you turn your creative music from solos into full choruses?

(Share your ideas and best practices by commenting below!)

Think back to the time one of your bosses showed you they truly cared about you or something you had just done.  Remember how that felt and perhaps what you were motivated to do as a result.

So often in our fast paced world we focus mainly on the deliverable, the end result to be accomplished and forget to acknowledge the underlying value of the person completing that good work.  This in no way means Polly Anna sap dripping on everyone around us!  It does mean, however, that unless we are intentionally conscious about showing respect and appreciation, a major influence motivator is overlooked.

Put in place a sequence of actions that satisfy this:

Consistently look for the attributes and contributions of others.

Acknowledge that they are real and true, worthwhile and praiseworthy.

Show or express appreciation for them in specific terms.

Formally reward them.

In a summary, remember the 3 E’s:  Encourage, Expect and Endorse the Best ! (pg. 107 Legacy Leadership:  The Leaders’ Guide to Lasting Greatness)

Tough Times Require Authenic and Frequent Communication.
That statement is a no brainer - right?  Yet in client companies all over the nation, Leaders are telling me they are spending more and more time with a select team of direct reports working to figure out their path through the chaos.  This in and of itself is more than necessary — it’s required to constantly chart a life saving course through the ice field.

At the same time, what message are leaders sending who spend most of their time behind closed doors?  Without an intention and system in place to provide constant communication to all employees rumors develop and run wild.

Given people WILL talk, effective leaders influence that communication by frequently and clearly sharing what they do know of a situation and what steps are being taken to address most pressing challenges.  A clear message that leaders are aggressively looking for ways to manage effectively through the downturn is critical.

It’s the straight talk of reality — how thing are and what is being done to address them — that motivates other leaders and employees to more actively step up, get engaged and even offer solutions senior leaders overlooked.

What is your best experience of a leader who truly communicated effectively in a time of crisis? Feel free to use the comments form below to share your thoughts.

Daily rallies, fixed smiles, shaking hundreds of hands and making promises without authority to execute on those promises are over.  The globally awaited real work begins and will not stop 24/7 for the next 4 years.

What do You belive are the most critical leadership behaviors President O. must exhibit now?

I believe there are 2 foundational requirements.  First he must continue to select and listen to advisors who have experience, intellect and even opinions different than his. Constantly he must be challenged to think more broadly and critically than we are used to doing.  To reclaim a leadership spot at the global table, in times when no one leader knows “the” answer to world challenges, his ability to listen, question, assimilate and decide is front and center.

Secondly, a strength wants to be modulated.  President Obama has a fast CPU — his ability to process information and reach conclusions quickly is obvious.  With this strength comes the possibility of both missing critical information and being irritated by those who do not have this skill.  Will he be patient and attentive to other world leaders whose experience and wisdom he needs if they don’t exactly match his style….

Think about your viewpoint a moment — what do you say are the 2 most critical leadership behaviors the world needs to see from Obama? Feel free to use the comment field below to post your views.

This week I find myself thinking about all the friends, clients, colleagues I’ve worked with this past year.  From each interaction I’ve come away with jewels, that if I’m mindful, will challenge me to create even better relationships in the New Year.

As you consider your journey this past year, who influenced you the most?  In what way will you create an even fuller life for yourself using the jewel that person gave you?

“Whether we like it or not, whether we plan it or not, we all influence others. Whether we influence is not in question.  How we influence is.“   Legacy Leadership: The Leaders’ Guide to Lasting Greatness    2008 CoachWorks Press

Remember a specific time, as a leader, things worked extremely well for you. Think about the people involved and their skill sets.  Consider the environment or culture in which you were working.  Recall if the process was difficult or easy for you.

As you bring these to mind, identify the one most critical component that made the outcome so successful.  My hunch is that you have a particular way of approaching a challenge that is repeatable in numerous situations. Are you truly conscious of, and intentional about, fine tuning that compentency to lead effectively ALL the time?

A great resource in helping identify and leverage your strengths is www.CoreClarity.net . Knowing and using my core strenghts intentionally has helped me build an international practice with other effective leaders that brings great satisfaction and numerous rewards.