I don’t sit in it when someone drops by to talk. I don’t take power naps in it. I use it only for thinking.

This chair doesn’t think for me, but it does speak to me every now and then. If I’ve gone a few days without sitting in it, its presence subtly reminds me that I’m not devoting enough time to the all-important task of thinking.

When we fail to make thinking a priority, we develop what author Gordon MacDonald calls “mental flabbiness.” This may not sound like a life-threatening condition, but some ways, it can be quite dangerous. Here’s how MacDonald explains it:

“In our pressurized society, people who are out of shape mentally usually fall victim to ideas and systems that are destructive to the human spirit and to the human relationship,” he writes. “They are victimized because they have not taught themselves how to think, nor have they set themselves to the lifelong pursuit of growth of the mind. Not having the faculty of a strong mind, they grow dependent upon the thoughts and opinions of others. Rather than deal with ideas and issues, they reduce themselves to lives full of rules, regulations, and programs.”

You can’t be an effective leader with a mindset like that—it’s just not possible.

Fortunately, there is an antidote to mental flabbiness: making time to think. I realize this can be a daunting assignment for people whose schedules are already bursting at the seams. And yet, when we don’t make thinking a priority, we’re actually sabotaging our own creativity and success.

Think about it. One of the highest commodities in a person’s life is a great idea. A great idea has transforming power. It can take you places you may never have dreamed of going. But great ideas don’t come out of nowhere. They begin as thoughts. So it stands to reason that the more time we spend thinking, the more great ideas we’ll have.

The good news is that it doesn’t take hours of thinking each day to generate ideas and stay in good mental shape. You can accomplish a great deal in a few moments of concentrated, intentional thought.

Let me give you two examples of how this works in my life. Every morning, I devote three minutes to what I call “big-picture thinking.” I look at my schedule for the day and ask myself one simple question: What’s the main event? Of all the things I’m going to do, of all the people I’m going to see, of all the experiences that I’m going to encounter, what’s the main event?

You can’t prioritize your day if you don’t see everything in your day. That’s why I practice big-picture thinking in the morning. I have to pick out my main event early, because whatever it is, that’s where I had better be at my best. I’m human, and I don’t always hit the ball out of the park. Sometimes I don’t hit the ball at all. But at the main event, I had better hit a homerun. Big-picture thinking helps me achieve that goal.

At the end of the day, I spend another five to 10 minutes doing what I refer to as “reflective thinking.” I go to my thinking chair and spend time reviewing my whole day. I ask myself questions such as, “Who did I see today? How did I add value to those people? What lessons did I learn?” Reflective thinking doesn’t take long, but it’s an incredibly valuable exercise because it turns experience into insight.

Can you imagine what would happen in your life if you practiced big-picture and reflective thinking? You would stop wasting time on things that don’t really matter, which would give you more energy for the really important activities. You would be more organized and efficient. You would experience less stress. Most importantly, you would also take more away from each day that would enable you to lead better the next day.

The best way to start this process is to designate a specific place to think. It doesn’t matter if your “thinking chair” is in your den at home or your office at work. It just has to be a spot where you can do nothing but think for a few moments twice a day.

The bottom line is this: If you find a place to think your thoughts, you’ll have more thoughts. If you find a place to shape your thoughts, you will have better thoughts. And if you find a place to stretch your thoughts, you will have bigger thoughts.

All this, from just three minutes in the morning and five to ten minutes at night. As you can see, the results far outweigh the time investment.

No matter how successful an organization is today, it must never overlook the necessity of developing the people who will lead tomorrow. But what can today’s leaders do to get their eventual replacements ready for more challenging roles? Quite a lot, actually.

The Thinking Chair by Dr John Maxwell

We shape ourselves to fit this world

and by the world are shaped again

The visible and the invisible

working together in common cause

to produce the miraculous

I am thinking of the way the intangible air

passed at speed round a shaped wing

easily holds our weight

So may we, in this life, trust to those elements

we have yet to see,

or imagine and look for the true shape

or our own self by forming it well

to the great intangible about us

It makes good sense to create and achieve a healthy corporate strategy and culture.  But often too strong a focus is placed on short-term gains in business, the goals of maximizing profit and consequently shareholder value, with little regard for the long term consequences.  The focus of this article is on the benefits and necessity of introspection (regarding key values and beliefs) by those in leadership positions, as well as a real commitment to live these values in daily interactions with all stakeholders.

Corporate Culture – Shared Values

Leaders overlook corporate culture, both as a source of competitive advantage and as a central role player in enabling organizations to create and sustain this advantage.  Corporate culture influences an organisation’s business conduct in the sense that it drives behaviour towards customers, both internally and externally.  It is specifically this aspect of customer service delivery – and the effect this has on long-term business relations – that distinguishes those companies that do achieve long-term sustainable results, from the rest.  Deal and Kennedy’s (1982: 22) research shows that companies gain strength and prosperity when their employees have upheld ‘shared values’.  Values become shared when reinforced, especially if this is done by the leaders/managers of the organization.

Sustaining Performance and Competitiveness

Corporate experience teaches you that shared values lead to a preferred way of doing and being which ultimately results in a definite culture (i.e. a collective way of doing and being).  A strong culture recognizes and reinforces certain behaviours in similar ways to conditioning, i.e. people display behaviours which are rewarded positively and shy away from those behaviours which result in negative recognition.  All individuals need recognition.  When made to feel good about specific behaviour people will tend to repeat it, thus reinforcing the resulting culture.  Bellingham (2001: 18) suggests that shared values facilitate a process whereby individuals feel they can contribute to the vision of the organization.  He sees shared values as a helpful benchmark against which corporate decisions can be evaluated.  Bellingham also believes that values inform strategy and establish purpose. Roger Harrison (1995: 200) explains that culture is the key to understanding service – ‘the service that the organization offers, both internally and to its customers, is a reflection of that combination of values, preoccupations, social structure, norms and mores which we call organization culture’.  He suggests that ‘walking the talk’ is what matters most – it is not sufficient to simply believe that customers need to be seen as kings.  As most companies are faced with a need to improve competitiveness, a natural consequence is a stronger focus on customer service, linked to incentives aimed at motivating staff towards behavior which promotes this.  Experience shows that companies have a better chance of being customer re-oriented when led by someone who not only sees economic sense in being customer-focused, but also treats their customers exceptionally.  Cultures are maintained through the messages that are sent, by leaders, as to ‘what good looks like’, i.e. behavior which is accepted and expected.  Informed decisions need to be taken as to ‘how we should do things differently so that the customer can be more satisfied’.  Goals need to be set for the new behavior which once displayed, should be rewarded.

Alignment of Leadership Teams

Leaders who make time to contemplate and choose a facilitative organizational culture and who engage all stakeholders in the company’s mission, experience significant benefits around effective partnerships and teams and develop a focus on what is good – and not on that which only makes money.  These types of companies win the hearts, minds and loyalty of employees and customers.  As a leader a few helpful questions you could ask yourself are:

• What values would you be proud to see exercised in your business through your leadership style?
• How would you achieve these?
• Which values will instill the type of organizational culture that you want in your business?
• What strategy would you use to ensure that people’s benefits are aligned with the way you should treat customers, both internally and externally?
• How would you ensure that these beliefs are shared?
• How would you unlock the potential for alignment?

The first challenge for leaders of organizations is:

• To consciously decide what you want your preferred culture to look like;
• To then compare it to your current culture;
• To ascertain how big a gap there is between the ideal and the reality.  It is wise to use a valid and reliable tool to do this.

Secondly, conscious choices have to be made to determine which leadership and management practices would best facilitate the mobilization of the stakeholders in the organization towards the preferred culture.

The third challenge is to agree and commit to the consciously chosen values and leadership practices and a team.

The fourth and biggest challenge is for every member of the leadership team to engage in some introspection and make the necessary belief and behavioural adjustments to ensure that this is sustainable and authentic.  The truth about walking the talk, as Carolyn Taylor (2005: xiv) puts it, is that ‘you can’t fake it’!  It’s about who you think you are, the values that you endorse as a leader and the embodiment of those values that you pass on to the next level of leaders/managers to ensure alignment in behavior.

Coaching for alignment

According to Hudson (1999: 9-10) ‘values and purpose are most often the province of mature people who have been around long enough to transcend their intellectual skills and acquire trust in a coaching relationship, reaching out to a society of leaders and specialists’.  This statement underpins the choice of coaching as the means through which to facilitate the search for shared values and meaning.  Through being exposed to a variety of viewpoints, small-group discussions may provide the optimum conditions to nudge people to change.  Hudson believes that these intimate conversations create the type of climate which offers mutual support and transcends differences in beliefs and opinions.

A proposed process

During successful implementation of the process described above, a coaching process was implemented which fostered agreement among the members of an executive team of a set of shared values and consequent leadership behaviours.  To achieve this, a combination of group and individual coaching sessions were offered.

• Group coaching through which the shared values of the executive team are confirmed.  Group coaching also helps in exploring the leadership practices which might better reflect the preferred corporate culture.

Every leader reflects upon, chooses and practices more of those leadership behaviours which endorse the team’s shared values.  Individual coaching sessions increase understanding of this alignment process and ensure support.

Conclusion

Benefits of the coaching-approach in achieving alignment in values and leadership practices are:

• Group coaching ensures agreement of and commitment to the leadership practices needing reinforcement.  This again results in team members taking collective and individual ownership and responsibility.  Group coaching, followed by individual coaching, works and is a powerful tool.
• A code of conduct is agreed by the team which acts as a charter to foster ongoing commitment and is a visible sign of mutual goodwill towards the process.
• As individual leaders make progress through being coached, they start displaying the preferred leadership practices more and more during team meetings.  Team members become more supportive of each other’s attempts.  They display more facilitative leadership behaviour and the team bonds become stronger; and

Both internal and external stakeholders observe and experience the benefits of an aligned leadership team.  They experience higher trust levels, better communication and most of all, a leadership team which collaborates and enjoys its working role and the business results which follow.

Author – Unknown

Be Prepared as the potential client

What do you want to see as a result of the coaching intervention? 

 Spend some time with yourself thinking through where you are now and  where you would like to be.   What would it feel like and look like for you when the outcomes have been achieved – can you describe this in observable terms.  You need to be clear about this as a starting point, however you and your coach may change those initial outcomes through mutual agreement once you have had a few coaching sessions.

What is your budget for coaching?  

A coach may quote you a per session fee with a minimum number of sessions or a fee for a package of a number of sessions over a time period, e.g. 10 sessions over 6 months.  Ideally you should be seeing your coach every 3 weeks with telephone access freely available. So be aware before you start on your search for a coach that there is a financial commitment required as well as a time commitment.

How to find a coach 

If a coach is recommended by a satisfied client this is first prize – there is nothing more powerful than word of mouth referrals.  Coaching and Mentoring Association of SA (Comensa) has a list of members which is not yet available on the website www.comensa.org.za but they can be contacted for details of coaches. International Coach Federation www.coachfederation.org has a number of South African coaches registered on their website. Remember that coaches who belong to these bodies have undertaken to subscribe to the values and ethics of the controlling body and that would give you the client an understanding of what you can expect.

What to ask the coach when you interview for their services

• What qualification does the coach have that puts them in the position to walk your path with you?
• Are they affiliated to any coaching body either locally (Coaching and Mentoring Association of South Africa – COMENSA) or International Coach Federation?
• What is the profile of the coach in terms of life experience and relevance to your life issues?
• Charging high prices does not equate to skill.

Once credentials are established, have a cup of coffee to establish whether the chemistry between you is conducive to the very personal and confidential relationship that should develop.  Do you feel comfortable with the coach (and vice versa). Coaching is built on mutual trust and respect and if these are absent there is no basis for relationship.

How do they do their coaching, what is the approach? Where would you have your meetings? How do they track your progress?

What can you expect from them in terms of reliability, meeting times as well as duration, accessibility, confidentiality, fee structures.

What will you be expected to do as the client?

Once you have found your coach and all your questions have been answered be prepared for a special time in your life.

Coaching relationships are for a finite period of time and should not be indefinite as they are not about becoming dependent but interdependent.

The coaching relationship is one of two tracks.  One is the path of the client and the other is the path of the coach and the two run together with both parties embracing the work and the learning.

Working with the right coach is an empowering experience, it is a voyage of discovery about yourself and as the client you should walk away with greater knowledge of who you are and how you get in your own way.  Having discovered this you are able to be generative in your own growth and will have a greatly enhanced ability to handle life and work challenges as a result of your coaching experience.

Written by Sharon Jansen, Executive Coach