What's Your Word of the Week?

• By Scott Eblin
• May 6, 2013
• comments

The ancient Greeks had a word called praxis which is the root of our modern day English words, practical and practice. Aristotle described the end goal of praxis as action. When he wrote about praxis, one of his points was that if you want to be a certain way, start acting that way.

The idea of praxis came to mind when I was in a class last weekend and the teacher suggested at the beginning that everyone hold the intention of being gentle with themselves. At a break, I was talking with another student who commented how differently she approached the learning with the concept of being gentle with herself in mind.

That simple concept of holding a state of being in mind while you go about your daily actions can change the results you create as a leader.

For instance, I remember a conversation I had several years ago with the members of a local chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. By definition, members of YPO are high achievers who have a successful track record of getting results. In my session with them, I walked them through the Life GPS® process of personal strategic planning. Two of the three ...

4 Tips for Talking with the CEO

• By Scott Eblin
• May 2, 2013
• comments

Does the thought of a brief conversation with the top executive in your organization stir up the butterflies in your stomach?   If it does, you’re not alone.  It’s basically a form of corporate stage fright that lots of people experience.

Over the years, I’ve had lots of conversations with both rising leaders and those that are already at the top of their organizations.  The ones that are well intentioned want the same thing – the information and engaged people they need to lead a successful organization.  That common ground can set you up for a brief but meaningful conversation with your CEO when the opportunity presents itself.

With that as a starting point, here are four tips for talking with the CEO:

Do Your Homework – If you want to have a substantive conversation with your CEO, you need to do your homework regularly.  That means paying attention to what’s going on in the broader world and drawing some conclusions about what all of that could mean to your organization.  It means paying attention to what’s going on in other parts of your organization.  It means understanding the performance of your organization and what drives that performance ...

How I Learned to Stop Judging Myself

• By Scott Eblin
• April 29, 2013
• comments

The best coaching question I was ever asked was about 15 years ago when a woman who was coaching me while I was a corporate VP asked, “What would it take for you to stop judging yourself?”

That question hit me like a ton of bricks because it cut to the quick of my perfectionism and feeling like I never measured up to my own expectations. I’d like to be able to report that I was immediately transformed by the question and it was all sunshine and roses from there.  That wasn’t the case, but, by raising the question, my coach succinctly framed something for me to work on for the next fifteen years.

Last week, during a yoga class, I realized that I still have opportunities here. You could say that I have a way to go before I perfect not being a perfectionist. Guessing that I may not be the only person reading (or writing) this post who’s a perfectionist, here’s an update on how I’m doing and what I’m noticing.  There might be a point or two here that will resonate with you.

So, as I’ve written here several times ...

3 Ways to Know What You Need to Know

• By Scott Eblin
• April 25, 2013
• comments

A big part of my job as a coach is delivering colleague feedback summaries to my executive coaching clients. Sometimes the feedback is hard for them to hear. I have sympathy for them. I was once a corporate executive and, in one particular case, got some blistering 360 feedback that had me licking my wounds for a month or two before I finally gathered up the gumption to act on it.

My own experience with tough feedback makes it relatively easy for me to ask my clients having the same experience, “Would you rather know or not know?” The best leaders would rather know. They understand that you can’t fix it if you don’t know about it.

Top people often don’t get to hear what they need to hear. For valid or imaginary reasons, the people in their organization often are afraid to share tough or bad news so they hold back on speaking the truth or spin it when they do. The result is problems that could have been avoided or corrected, disengagement and clueless leaders.

To be an effective leader, you have to choose to know. Here are three ways to make sure you get ...

Presence in Boston When It Mattered Most

• By Scott Eblin
• April 22, 2013
• comments

What a week it was for the city of Boston. It’s hard to believe that the citizens there went from the attack at the Boston Marathon to a citywide lockdown as police hunted for the surviving suspect to the celebratory singing of Sweet Caroline with Neil Diamond himself in an afternoon game at Fenway Park all within the span of five days. When I wrote about the resilience of Bostonians last week, I had no clue just how resilient they would prove to be.

There are so many leadership lessons to be learned from the Boston experience. The medical personnel and first responders on the day of the blast were amazing. Every victim who initially survived the explosions was saved. (Read this story by Atul Gawande for example after example of mindful leadership in Boston’s hospitals.) The coordination between local, state and Federal agencies was equally impressive. Their leaders kept everyone focused on a common goal. The public officials like Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Boston police commissioner Edward Davis were role models for leaders who need to keep people informed in a high stakes, rapidly changing situation.

There was a lot of mindful leadership in Boston last ...