How to Time Block a One-Year Exec Coaching Engagement

We gave a Masterful Coaching Certification class this past week in Boston around my dining room table. It’s based on realizing an impossible dream through 12 catalytic coaching conversations. Executive coaches in the making from Halliburton stood out, as well as coaches of Smith Barney and Bank of America. At one point, we got into a nifty dialogue about how executive coaches, using the MC method, should plan to divide up their time over the course of a one-year coaching engagement with their client.

Here are the four major categories for spending your time:

Spend 25% on coaching the client to come up with an Impossible Future, winning game plan and execute it

The key here is to make sure the client comes up with an Impossible Future that sounds like “Putting a man on the moon,” rather than, “We want to be the best provider of XYZ services in the world.” Hello!? How will you ever know you achieved that? Once you get the Impossible Future down, do a “What’s So” process to assess the gap between the dream and today’s reality. This gap can only be filled when you identify what’s missing, that if provided, could make a difference. Most coaches and clients struggle with distinguishing the difference between “what’s missing that would make a difference” and “what’s wrong.” What’s missing is a new idea, fresh approach, innovative solution.

Spend 25% (or more) on Mastering the Political Chessboard

Coming up with an Impossible Future and game plan may actually be the easy part. Mastering the political chessboard may be the tough part. As soon as you figure out the Impossible Future, take a day to map out the political chessboard (supporters and opposers), as well as to develop a campaign strategy. For example, with respect to your bold vision, think about whether or not you want to let all the cats out of the bag all at once. Abraham Lincoln stole the Presidential election from his rivals because he talked about saving the Union vs. abolishing of slavery. Think about what Truman said: Politics is the art of getting things done. Ask the client: What you could actually get done this year? I suggest taking account of the vagaries of the political chessboard monthly, as things are subject to change. Early supporters have a way of becoming opposers when they feel threatened by change. If you are really up to a big vision, there will be people who want to deal you, your client, and your initiative a death blow, and these people may be hidden in plain view. Watch out for Mr. Mustard, in the drawing room, with the lead pipe.

Spend 25% on helping clients recognize and disperse defensive routines

When a coaching client pushes for an Impossible Dream, each step they take to realize their goal will create both support and opposition. Unfortunately, fierce opposition can cause the coachee to head for the bunkers or reactivate old defensive routines. For example, I spent a year coaching a client in the defense industry with a world-shaking vision that involved Smart Power. However, when some bad apples who opposed the vision started to attack (bully) my coachee, instead of fighting back, my client went into a flight mode which was to “just ignore them.” The bullies took this as a sign of weakness and came on even stronger. I spent a good part of the year getting this person to recognize and disperse this one defensive behavior and to stand up for himself.

Spend 25% on helping the client break the grip and excel beyond their winning strategy

Each of us has a winning strategy that is the source of our success, but at a certain point becomes a limitation. I have discovered that often the winning strategy that has taken us to where we are today (current successes), won’t take us to our Impossible Future. For example, most executives get to the top through a winning strategy of being dominant, being the smartest one in the room, or using force of argument or pressure. This may be effective in clawing your way to the top, but most big visions and game plans require being collaborative vs. being dominant and listening loudly vs. always putting out your infinite wisdom. This shift is a tall order for a lot of execs. We usually open people’s eyes to their winning strategy and how it helps and hinders through the MC 360 interview process. Helping people break the grip and excel beyond their winning strategy remains a focus throughout the year. I suggest revisiting the 360 feedback and especially the winning strategy on monthly basis, in light of what’s happening. Use this leadership declaration to promote new ways of being and shed old ones: I am committed to the possibility of…; I am committed to giving up…

A Race Against Time

Honda has taken a page from my book with a “Dream the Impossible” video series. The videos focus on setting big goals with impossible deadlines.

There are a handful of examples featured in these great videos, including what Honda engineers did when given the job of coming up with a hybrid car that ran on a fuel cell. They were given less than a year to do this, and used the time pressure as a friend vs. an enemy.

Another vignette features two thirty-something, rock stars of talent, film screen writers who were thrilled to get the job of the recent Star Trek remake. Upon taking the job, they received a poster in the mail to be widely distributed in movie theaters... “Star Trek, Fall 2009” (just a few months later). Instead of complaining to the Hollywood producers, they consciously used the incredible time pressure to fuel their creativity and effectiveness.

There are other interesting examples too of setting high goals and racing against time, including a race car team that had to be brought together in a hurry to win a big race, and a champion skate boarder who had to come up with a new trick, the 900, in the breath of time. The series is definitely worth checking out.

Good day! The cold winter months have fueled our creativity at Masterful Coaching. We analyzed all of our coaching clients and figured out that something like 60% of our coaching engagements involved helping a new executive in their first 100 hundred days on the job.

This prompted certain undertakings by us at Masterful Coaching. First, last summer, I began working on a book Your First 100 Days, which will eventually be published by our new company Masterful Coaching Press—incorporated last July.

Second we began building a “My First 100 Days” micro-site for leaders who are looking for: 1) ideas, 2) coaching, and 3) online courses on this topic. This site is now up and running.

The difference between a regular website like MasterfulCoaching.com and a micro-site like MyFirst100Days.net is the difference between a department store and a specialty boutique.

At this site, we will focus on the issues and opportunities new executives face in their job. For example: 1) successful executive onboarding; 2) setting the stage for realizing an Impossible Future; or 3) turning what could be a so-so job into a truly transformational assignment.

By the way, you can download the introduction to the book Your First 100 Days, by going to MyFirst100Days.net and registering.

About a year ago, Masterful Coaching, in cooperation with Defense Acquisition University (DAU), began a 9-month executive coaching certification program with ten people, including university Deans and highly-accomplished faculty members who have military backgrounds.

The idea for the program originally came from John Young, Undersecretary of Defense for AT&L, who at the time was in charge of a budget of close to $300 billion dollars. Mr. Young saw Masterful Coaching’s involvement as a way to significantly improve the performance of the Pentagon PEO’s and program managers. “Get Defense Acquisition programs delivered on time and on schedule” was the mandate.

Mr. Anderson, President of DAU, a former flag officer in the Air Force, made the Executive Coaching Certification Program a top priority, seeing it as a way to establish a coaching culture at the Pentagon. He not only engaged me in an executive coaching relationship, but saw to it that both Deans and top faculty members were enrolled as Masterful Coaching Certification candidates and ready to participate 100%.

The requirements were rigorous, starting with each of the 10 candidates enrolling two high-level Pentagon program managers, many of whom were former Generals, Admirals, as well as SES’s or Senior Executive Officers. It also involved each executive coaching certification candidate agreeing to spend up to 400 hours on their coaching commitments over the next year.

Each coach and coachee then joined together in going for an Impossible Future that represented playing a bigger game, as well as the need to bring about transformational change in their area. The commitments usually involved dramatically improving the performance (cost and schedule) of key Pentagon programs, like the Joint Strike Fighter.

We met for four days in a classroom setting at DAU, in Fort Belvoir in Virginia, simulating a flight school atmosphere based on study and practice. The participants would study one of the12 Masterful Coaching Catalytic Conversations and then practice it with their clients in real situations, in real time, with real goals.

They were supervised in this process by their flight school instructor, either myself or Master Level Coach, Carl Kaestner, through a series of coaching calls. We would start these coaching calls with comments like: “Tell me about your coachee’s Impossible Future,” or ask something like, “How are you going to make the 360 process a transformational experience?”

One of the interesting aspects of this group is that all the executive coaching candidates had leadership backgrounds, and well-developed coaching and counseling skills to begin with. Yet as many of the participants told me, “I love the Masterful Coaching Method, because it gave me a flight plan and allowed me to take my coaching skills to a whole new dynamic level.”

Said one Dean, “What’s different about the Masterful Coaching approach than most coaching programs is that it provides a methodology to instill a higher vision, while impacting urgent and important bottom-line results. Shifts in thinking and attitude are brought in through the back door.”

I was thrilled when after about 6 to 7 months into the program, one of the Deans told me that the program had been transformational particularly around realizing that you don’t have to be at the top to be a change insurgent. You can mount a change insurgency from wherever you are.

Said another participant, “I used to work in the Pentagon, and though I had a fairly high level job, the way I was thinking about things made me feel fairly disempowered. I also was like the gold fish in the water of the Pentagon bureaucracy, that couldn’t see the water. Now as a Masterful Coach, working with a top PEO, I am able to stand outside the system, yet at the same time impact it. I feel like I am finally empowered to make the difference I have always wanted to make.”

To find out more about the Masterful Coaching certification for your Corporate University, HR group, or internal consultants, contact Susan Youngquist at Susan.Youngquist@rhargrove.com.

Unlike the Rest of the World Which is Geared Toward Delivering a Basic Service to the Public

There it was…Eeeyewww! In the process of brushing my teeth and rinsing out the foamy white toothpaste, I noticed the dreaded blood-red streaks indicating a gum condition. It was then that I decided to do what in dentistry is called a Deep Cleaning, the usual cure for this condition.

I first checked with my local dentist and was told that the procedure would cost $1775. Wow!!! To clean my teeth and gums! I decided on the spot to check with the dentist in China, which I would be visiting shortly thereafter.

Once in Shanghai, a family member with pull took me to a local dental hospital which was a real symphony in cultural differences. There were throngs of people everywhere lining up in front of a window that looked like the ticket booth of a movie theater. There people were getting appointments for that day (not weeks from now), as well as paying bills for the procedure to be done. Instead of having to fill out the usual 5 pages of forms, I was simply told to come back at 11:45 for the deep cleaning.

In the West, dentists usually go through the three step process: cleaning, x-rays, and a quick exam with a pointy metal stick which culminates in “displaying the case” or THE LECTURE. You are going to have to spend $5000 to $10,000 for root canals, crowns, periodontal work, or lose your teeth! This is in large part a scare tactic designed for the dentist to extract as much money from you as possible.

When 11:45 rolled around, I showed up at the hygienist’s cubicle. She was obviously very professional. She asked me to sit down and began the procedure with the latest high-tech equipment, a combination of pressurized water and ultra sound. About an hour later she was done and my gums have not shed a drop of blood since.

Amazingly, the total cost of this procedure was $40 USD. Even if you take labor cost and currency differences of the Chinese RMB to the dollar into account (1 USD = 6.67 RMB) and multiply the cost of $40 by 6.67RMB, it comes out to only $266. The Chinese save people money in other ways as well. For example, no private offices, no secretaries, no answering services, and no insurers to pay.

The experience of going to the Chinese dental hospital made it vividly clear why USA healthcare costs are so out of whack. They are set up for doctors, dentists, and hospitals to make huge profits, rather than to simply make sure that the general public receives the necessary dental and medical services they need.

If you think my experience was based on limited data points, consider the fact that Juris Ozols, a friend of mine, was told by his local dentist in New Hampshire that he would need a root canal and crowns for a cost of about $1500. He decided to fly home to his native Latvia where there is a government run healthcare program.

“The USA healthcare system is largely based on BS-ing, and lies,” he told me. The reason for such a strong statement? An examination by a top specialist in Latvia revealed that Juris didn’t need a root canal and crown at all. All that was required was to close a crack in a back tooth by filling with some ceramic material. The total cost to Juris was $200.