This week, the International Coach Federation (ICF) issued its Global Coaching Study 2012. Commissioned last year, the research was undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers and represents one of the most comprehensive researches conducted about the coaching profession worldwide. The survey drew responses from 12,133 professional coaches in 117 countries, representing all the major world regions. Of these, 63% of respondents were ICF members and the rest were non ICF members, thus providing a wide reaching perspective on the profession’s current status.

Some of its most significant findings are summarised below:

Growth of the profession

Despite the economic downturn beginning in 2008 and continuing to this time, the  coaching profession appears to have continued to expand, evolving in terms of the number of coaches worldwide, global revenue and the  demographic location of coaches. Though in some areas such as Western Europe and North America, there are signs of contraction – most probably due to the economic downturn. The ICF membership numbers grew from 11,000 in 2006, to almost 19,000 by the end of 2011. Although the precise number of professional coaches worldwide cannot be confirmed, it is estimated that there are presently  47,500 worldwide.

Location of coaches

The geographic location of coaches are highly concentrated in the high income regions of North America, Western Europe and Australia/New Zealand. These three regions account for 76% of the estimated global total of professional coaches. And perhaps not surprising, the profession is showing more rapid growth in emerging regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean.

Annual revenues

Close to $2 billion dollars are generated in the industry overall. This represents a significant growth over the last five years. Survey respondents with active clients were asked to provide their annual income generated by coaching only. Average annual revenues calculated worldwide were  $47,900 and reflect the diversity that exists in the type of clients served, levels of fees they can charge due to experience and education.   The highest average incomes were from Australia/New Zealand at $66,200 whilst Western Europe averaged only US$52,100.

Total revenues geographically

When determining how total revenues were split in the seven regions, PricewaterhouseCooper multiplied the regional number of active coaches by the average annual revenues from coaching. This showed that Western Europe’s share of global revenue $828 million (42%) is in excess of its share of the number of coaches (38%) because annual revenues per active coach ($52,100) are above average ($47,900).

Trend Indicators

The research also asked some significant questions about growth or otherwise on four key indicators – clients, fees, sessions and revenues. This showed that the slowest growing region was Western Europe, where fewer than one in five coaches reported an increase across all four key indicators. The next slowest was North America; and perhaps in both cases, this reflects the general economic slowdown in these regions.

Personal reflections

The survey brought home to me that the coaching profession is as subject to the economic downturn as any business and that managing to grow in this climate requires determination, resolve and intelligent working.  Also, that alongside our clients, we must focus on what needs to be done now to conserve morale, support our staff to work at their best and manage the current hardships, whilst we prepare for better times.

William Wallace

The latest research on what drives employees and makes them really motivated at work suggests that the organisation for whom they work having a purpose that they can believe in and support, is one of the most significant factors for creating strong commitment and motivation.

Dan Pink, reporting at the RSA has condensed the findings of a research commissioned by the Federal Reserve Bank on what really motivates us, and put it as an animation on YouTube. Follow this link if you’d like to see it; it’s fun and will only take 10 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=youtu.be

A purpose is the reason why you do what you do. Sometimes organisations call this their mission statement. An organization invariably has one, which it expects every employee to live up to. Sure, the employee will do what he/she is told to do, but he is motivated to work for a different reason. He works because he has to support a family; he has to work in order to survive. Although the employee is committed to the work, there is often no alignment between the employee’s mission statement and that of the organizations. Without this critical alignment, there is little motivation for the employee to do more than he should, or to help the organization achieve its greater goals.

The challenge of an executive or manager is helping the staff find a higher purpose in their work. Let the staff see the bigger picture behind the job and the greater good that the work can achieve. If your company is in the business of manufacturing environmentally friendly products, announce any findings of the benefits that your products have achieved. The facts, not the sales pitch. A staff will be thinking how his little contribution towards saving Gaia can ensure the survivability of his children and grandchildren and the people around the world.

If the company deals in pharmaceutical products, point out how lives are saved or suffering alleviated. The higher purpose in jobs in such industries, as in professional jobs like doctors and nurses, is being able to save a dying person, or relieve the suffering of an ailing patient, who could very well be the staff’s next of kin.

What do companies manufacturing security cameras, seat belts, fire extinguishers and circuit breakers have in common? Their products keep us safe and secure. The people who work towards bringing these into our lives ought to be revered as our protectors. Let the staff feel that way about themselves and appreciate the importance of their job in relation to other people’s safety.

An office cleaner might see the sweeping, mopping, cleaning duties as a chore. One day, a pregnant lady stepped on a slippery patch, rolled down the stairs, and lost her baby. Suddenly, the job was no longer a matter of cleanliness, but one that could lead to significant harm if not done well.

A telephone operator thought she had a thankless job on hand. That was until she took a call from a prospective customer and handled the call so professionally that the customer was happy to let the company have a multi-million dollar contract. The contract translated into immense profits for the company, but more importantly, increased salary and bonus payouts for everyone.

A hotel concierge found a briefcase of old books left over by a hotel guest. They were not limited editions, and looked rather worthless. Nevertheless, he arranged for the briefcase to be couriered to the guest, who was already back in his hometown. It turned out that those books were the only memories the guest had of his late father and to him, they were priceless.

A worker in a canned food factory was merely one of the hundred hourly-rated workers, taking charge of a tiny segment of the canning process. Instructions to adhere to health guidelines like wearing gloves and face masks had fallen on deaf ears. This changed when reports on people falling ill as a result of unhygienic ally prepared food in China surfaced. Workers realized that how she/he worked had a direct influence on other people’s health.

All these are stories you can tell. They remind the staff of the need to look for a higher purpose in their actions beyond the call of duties or instructions from their boss. There must be something worthwhile pursuing, something which will
motivate and inspire them, give them satisfaction and happiness, meaning and direction in life. With the higher purpose as a motivating factor, any work can be rewarding and enjoyable.

Penny Sophocleous

Take responsibility for the experience you have and will have throughout the year. Don’t allow yourself to think that it’s other people’s faults for what occurs to you – whether it’s the state of your diary, poor performers at work or the wayward behaviours of your boss.  Believe that you have the power to make it different. Take action to discuss, make requests, challenge and change whatever you would like to change.

Complain to those who have the power to make things different, rather than to those who can’t, (but who will sympathise and empathise with you,) but in whose remit the change can’t happen.

And, if something can’t be changed or it’s outside of your circle of influence, develop the serenity to accept the things that can’t be changed and be at peace about it.

2. Have your own vision

Take time to build a vision of the life and experience you would like to have, in terms of family, social, work, career and personal development. Then, hold the vision whilst you take appropriate actions to have those things happen for you. Mind your own business, as well as your company’s business, which means take time to develop goals and take actions to improve the quality of your family interactions, your friends and social activities. Make plans to see friends you don’t often see and plan for breaks with your loved ones. Take care of your finances and ensure that you’re saving for the future that you’d like to have, rather than spending only on the present you now have. Keep in mind that your family, home and social activities are often more important in providing the emotional well-being you need to be effective in work, let alone the energy, self-esteem and respect to progress successfully into the future you’d like for yourself.

3. Keep work in perspective

Your company got on very well without you before you arrived and will get on very well without you when you’ve gone.  Remember that your time with it is temporary, and therefore it is only about the contribution that you make to it whilst you’re there that will count.  You’re not its whole life and therefore don’t make it the whole of yours. Work-life balance will not be an issue if you get and live this perspective.

 4. Enjoy yourself

Remember that enjoyment is a valid and important clue of what is right for you. You are entitled to have a good time, whether it’s at work or in your family, and feeling good about what you’re doing is fundamental to stability, balance and good performance. If your work is characterised by challenges, difficulties and problems; if you’re beset by negativities and depressions, take time to consider whether you’re

a)      In the right place/role?

b)      Doing the right job?

c)       In the right company?

If your direct boss doesn’t appreciate you and your talents, find another who will. It will save you many sleepless nights, erosion of your self esteem and could significantly improve your financial well-being.

5. Identify your important goals

Each year brings new opportunities and 2012 could be a life enhancing experience for you and those important to you.  In December 2012, what achievements would you like to look back on and say you’ve accomplished this year? Be bold and set aside fear, so you can look clearly at what wishes and desires you may have suppressed and let them surface. Give yourself permission to dream of new journeys you may wish to take, new cultures or places you may want to experience, new relationships you may want to form and new conquests you want to make. Perhaps you can fulfil a major wish of a loved one? Or you have one highly significant, break-through goal you’d like to undertake? Write all of these down as things you’d like to accomplish, and check them off as you do them during the year. Then in December you can review them, congratulate yourself and celebrate their achievements. This will contribute greatly to your self-value and esteem.

 6. Become an inverse paranoid

Purposefully and consistently, chose to believe that the world is plotting to do you good. W. Clement Stone (businessman and philanthropist) saw every difficult and challenging event as something that was meant to help him, empower him and advance his cause. Such a positive attitudinal stance caused him to take positive actions that catalysed even more good things to happen for him. This is possible for you – change your mind today and believe that your success is being plotted by all those people who know you (and even those you don’t)!  Believe that we are all working to support you, to enhance your opportunities and expand your life in positive ways. You will find that your interactions with people will improve dramatically. Such positive expectations will make it easier for all of these good things to happen and for you to be willing to receive them, when they do.

7. Remember to remember to be grateful

We are all gifted with a supreme gift – life and consciousness – and we didn’t have to do very much to get this.  Yet every day, we awake and have another opportunity to breathe, see our loved ones, work and contribute to the benefit of others, be creative, learn and grow. Sometimes we forget how rich these things make us. We forget that all of these important things are mostly free and available to us and our habitual familiarity with them strips away their value from ourselves.  So, remember to remember to be grateful. Some people choose to write a Gratitude journal so they can remind themselves of what they have to be grateful for, others choose to pray or meditate. Whatever tool you use, remember to be grateful in yourself, and you will make your own life very rich.  If you then pass on to others these sentiments, you will make their life rich.

Penny Sophocleous January 2012

Oh, yes?  If the employer doesn’t appraise such routine objectives and provide thorough feedback, what will be being wasted is an opportunity to improve employee engagement, employee contribution and the success of the organisation.   

Every mundane and everyday type of work contributes to the whole quality and standards of an organisation and every employee can be committed to delivering the very best of themselves in doing what they are employed to do.

So, think again.

How is it possible to set meaningful objectives for a really routine job?

How can an individual excel at certain tasks which might be perceived as routine and either simply achieved or not achieved?

Individuals need to understand that they can excel at work, even if they are simply cleaning the floor.  How they might enhance or excel in their achievements should be considered by their manager in order to differentiate between
satisfactory and superb performance.

Reflect on your own experiences when visiting the Reception Desk in any organisation.  The Receptionist acknowledges your presence, signs you in and distributes a Visitor badge. Job done.  Except that it’s not quite as simple as that, is it?

Consider:

• How
  you were greeted?  Did the Receptionist smile?  Did he/she immediately give you their attention?
• What
  was their demeanor?  Did you feel important or just a nuisance?
• How
  efficient or helpful was he/she in ensuring that the person you were visiting knew you were there?
• What
  concern did he/she have for whether you had parked safely and in the correct space?
• Did
  he/she tell you where the cloakroom was or offer you some refreshment?

There is more to this, isn’t there?

Soft skills and how they can help.

Soft skills are all about how things are done as opposed to what things are done.

Think about the soft skills surrounding actions and those behaviors which change an acceptable service into a great one.  What other duties surrounding the simple washing of a floor makes one operative a “better” operative that the next one?  How can we differentiate?

Soft skills include behaviors such as customer service, inter-personal dealings, handling change, team working, and communication.  These are vitally important because your approach to a task makes a huge difference to the recipient of your task.

Here is a simple appraisal form which is based on a document from ACAS. It should help you to meaningfully assess performance in a routine job.

Appraisal For Routine Jobs

Assessment of Performance (tick as appropriate)

If people in organisations were to monitor the mundane, but with the eyes of value and a concern for quality, providing feedback that recognises the contributions of people from this perspective will ensure greater engagement, satisfaction and enjoyment for all employees.

Shirley Huntington

When asked, this same question as part of a 20 year long survey into natural talents, strengths development and performance excellence in the workplace, less than a 1/3 of the 10 million individuals surveyed felt that their talents are in play every day. When people answered that they “strongly agree to using their talents and strengths daily”, they worked in a high performance business with low staff turnover, higher productivity and higher customer satisfaction scores.

Identifying natural talents has been largely ignored in the workplace and personal development realms and in its place we have become obsessed with trying to fix weakness and shortcomings. Most training programmes focus on teaching new knowledge and developing new skills.  Is this the right course? Or should we be focusing upon identifying people’s natural talents and then assisting them to develop these into real strengths, helping them to become better at what they are naturally best at, and to attain near perfect performance.

We have challenged ourselves with these questions, and have developed a programme that does precisely this – identify strengths, then build on them.

So what is a natural, innate or raw talent?  It can be simply defined as a person’s enduring naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour. These talents can be easily observed in the performance of the natural salesman, in some of the harmonising ability to create empathy and trust with anyone, or the highly talented strategist, or the person with the genuine command presence, or the inspiring person who constantly exudes belief or the person with innate analytical strength in abundance.

Building upon the bedrock of an innate talent, a constantly utilised strength can be developed to provide consistent near perfect performance. When witnessed, we are led to ask of them, “how come this person is always that good?” A well known business guru states it succinctly; “Most people think that they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong …. And yet, a person can perform only from strength”.

In our experience of conducting strengths development workshops with our clients, we have seen the dramatic impact derived from assisting managers and professionals identify and discover their often untapped innate talents. They then craft ways of investing more time in practising and using these talents in their workplace activities. Then, multiply the effectiveness of their talents by adding the complementary skills and knowledge that dovetail them into strengths. The results of this approach are often dramatic improvements in self-satisfaction, enjoyment, greater self-engagement and motivation, performance and productivity increase.

The fundamental key to strengths development is not to focus on employees’ weaknesses; what they can’t do, what they don’t like or want to do, or activities that give them no satisfaction. Rather it’s to Discover what is right with people (their natural talents) and then support them to develop what’s innately good, to build outstanding strengths.

William Wallace

“When you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively,
then you are listening not only to the words,
but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed,
to the whole of it, not part of it”

“Oh, yes.  I pride myself on being a good listener”.

We all like to think of ourselves as good listeners, don’t we?  Well if we’re all good listeners, why then do we so often complain about the listening skills of others?  How frequently do we find ourselves talking to someone about a matter which is important to us and, whilst we speak, we are thinking, “This person isn’t listening to a word I’m saying.  Look at his body language.  See where his eyes are focusing.  How incredibly rude he is.  What a waste of time this is.  I bet I could say complete gobbledygook and he would still have that look on his face, pretending he is listening to what I’m saying.”

With experiences such as this, how can we be sure that we ourselves are good listeners? Here are some self assessments we can make to re-assure ourselves that we are not falling into disrespectful and lazy behaviours.

Take a moment now to evaluate your listening skills.

We often listen differently depending on our current role and who we are talking with. How do you believe the following people would rate you as a listener  – on a scale of 1 to 5?  (5 = best)

Yourself                                                ——-

Your Customers                                   ——-

Your Boss                                             ——-

Your Colleagues                                   ——-

Your Best Friend                                   ——-

Brick Wall                                 Average                                Excellent Listener 

How did you do?  Have you found that you listen more carefully to one group of people and not another? What does this kind of behaviour say is important to you?

Let’s take this a step further and look at listening habits.

Review the following list of poor listening habits and honestly consider how often you exhibit the tendency.  Give yourself a rating as appropriate of an “F” (frequently), “S” (sometimes), or “R” (rarely).

• I pretend I’m paying attention when my mind is drifting off.
• I cut people off or finish their sentences because I know what they’re going to say.
• When someone is speaking to me, I look around the room to see what else is happening.
• I shuffle papers on my desk or start doing some other task when someone talks too long or too slowly.
• When someone is speaking, I plan what I will say next.
• When a person speaks too quickly or uses words I don’t understand, I let it go and listen only for what I do understand.

What do your scores tell you about your listening skills?

Listening Barriers

Part of being a good listener means having to identify and overcome obstacles both internal and external. Review the following barriers to listening and consider what you do, or could do to overcome them.

• You are in a noisy workspace with visual distractions.
• You are tired and/or stressed and/or in a hurry.
• The person to whom you are talking speaks very quickly or has an accent which is difficult to follow.
• You have pre-conceived expectations about what the other person is going to say.
• The person to whom you are talking uses emotionally charged words or statements.

Spend some time thinking about what you can do to improve your listening skills.

What will you do?

How will that make a difference?

How will you know if you have been successful in improving your listening skills?

Shirley Huntington
Senior Psychometric Consultant

In DDI’s research on Global Leadership Forecast 2011, it was identified that organisations with the highest quality leaders were 13 times more likely to outperform their competition in key bottom-line metrics such as financial performance, quality of products and services, employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Leadership quality was also responsible for higher retention of employees and more committed and passionate leaders.

However, during 2011, more than 27% of UK organisations decreased their leadership development budgets by more than 10%, compared to only 13% of the global sample of companies. This is worrying, as according to the thousands of leaders that DDI surveyed, the leading determinant of leadership quality within an organisation was due to the effectiveness of their leadership development programmes. This conservative control of budgets may be due to the slow recovery of the UK economy from recession, compared to other global economies, but is worrying for the future success of UK businesses.

In our research, the greater development programmes focus on the classroom, (this being the most cost-effective methodology) the least effective, whilst coaching, especially by an external professional coach is the most effective.  The one-to-one coaching route is obviously more expensive, as it allows for extended learning over a longer period of time and reflection processes enabling integration and sustainability. Thus results achieved via one to one coaching, outdoes any results achieved through classroom, mentoring, web-based or e-learning.

For an organisation wishing to measure the relative benefits of development programmes in the classroom or one to one coaching, the following areas provide some excellent areas for assessment.

1.   Personal benefits –

These are performance benefits for the executives personally, in their roles; things that they were doing or approaching differently to better effect, as a perceived benefit from coaching.  Top ranking benefits cited by more than 50% of executives included –

• Increased interpersonal skills including negotiation and collaboration skills, awareness of others’ perspectives, relationship skills, stakeholder management / influence and driving change in the organisation
• Improved self-management including awareness of self and impact upon others, personal organisation and time management, prioritisation and focus, confidence / congruence and strategic thinking leading to faster and more accurate decision making
• Better leadership behavioural style including improved performance in other areas stated above, resulting in improved performance in resolving potential and actual conflict situations, improved vision and shared object setting

2.   Organisational benefits –

These are positive impacts upon the executives’ surrounding organisation (whether the surrounding organisation be a team, department or in the overall company).  The executives’ personal improvements had generated benefits or increased effectiveness in their organisations. Top ranking benefits cited by more than 25% of executives included –

• Increased  team effectiveness including team performance, improved team morale and cross collaboration
• Improved stakeholder management including better relationships with the board, line managers, peers and direct reports resulting in increased employee engagement and performance
• Better work and organisational strategies including better business  decisions and strategic choices
• Improved operations including better resource management and allocation and better working climate

3.   Business / financial benefits –

These benefits were less easy to assess than the previous two areas, because of the funnel effect of personal improvements derived from the coaching, becoming intertwined with other variables and in a number of cases business data was not available.  However, in cases where business data was available, the study highlighted that the average financial ROI, was between 250 times and 315 times the investment in the coaching programme. The most marked business performance benefits cited were –

• Increased organisational productivity / performance (cited in 27% of executives’ cases)  
• Staff Retention cost savings (cited in 20% of executives’ cases)
• Increased cost efficiency including process cost efficiency, efficiency in the speed of change of projects and revue up / cost down – more for less   (cited in an average of 16% of executives’ cases)
• Direct cost savings including revenue targets gained or saved and mitigation / changes of investment (cited in an average of 14% of executives’ cases)
• Direct impact on increased revenue / sales (cited in an average of 5% of executives’ cases)

The results of all good coaching programmes show distinct linkages between the coached ‘improved executive’, the improved leverage of the team and organisation and overall financial performance improvement.

If an organisation wishes to increase the quality of its leadership, is it not intelligent to use the most effective methodology to do it by?

Penny Sophocleous
 

In a recent major research study by DDI, the Global Leadership Forecast 2011 conducted with leaders and HR professionals around the world, it was discovered they are dissatisfied both with the quality of business leaders in the UK and around the world, the quality of HR professionals and the effectiveness of their leadership development programmes.

Over 2,600 organizations across 74 countries provided perspectives on the current state of leadership in their organizations and their future talent-related needs. The study drew data from 1,897 HR professionals and 12,423 leaders.

Some of the key findings are:

The study identified a lack of satisfaction about the overall quality of leadership in their companies, with only one in three rating the quality of leadership in their organisations as very good or excellent. HR professionals were more critical with only 1 in 4 satisfied with the quality of leadership in their companies.  Perhaps even more concerning is that only 18% of HR respondents feel their companies have the quantity and quality of leaders they will need to run their companies 3 to 5 years out.

There was low satisfaction with the effectiveness of leadership development. Only 35% of HR professionals reported that the quality of leadership development that they were delivering to their leaders was high. In spite of spending an estimated 14 billion dollars on leadership development worldwide, the quality has not changed since 2006. The study also showed that only 1 in 3 leaders feel they are getting value from the development they are receiving.

Future Skills required

The study highlighted that the necessary leadership skills for the future will differ from past skills. The top 3 critical skills that are needed are Driving and managing change, Coaching and Strategy Execution, which are the same as previous years, with two new ones to make up the top 5 – which are Identifying and Developing Future Talent and Fostering Innovation. UK leaders saw that the next 3 years would require leaders who can Make difficult decisions and Drive their organisation’s strategy as secondary skills to Driving and managing change. Innovation in all countries was seen as the fuel to staying competitive but UK leaders saw themselves as only effective in this by 38%. Whilst the critical skill of Identifying and developing future talent will require more leaders and managers to be talent scouts and to actively nurture such talent for future capability.

When asked how well leaders are using these top five skills, the worrying response was that almost half of global leaders rated themselves ineffective in all these 5 critical skills.

However, the good news that UK leaders rated their skills as effective compared to their global counterparts in two of the three areas identified as critical for their future organisational success (i.e. Driving and managing change and Coaching and developing others). And they scored themselves more highly across all the skillsets, excepting Fostering Creativity and innovation and Improving employee engagement.

To improve the quality and effectiveness of leadership, development efforts should focus on the most critical skill gaps – future skills identified as most critical and those skills in which leaders were least effective – where the pain would be felt the most in the coming years. It is therefore important that the most effective methods are used to develop these skills.

The most used methods related to the quality of leadership development were formal workshops and coaching from managers. UK organisations reported using formal workshops and training more often than other organisations. Coaching from internal mentors is more widely utilised by UK leaders than by leaders worldwide, and reflected the fact that the UK sample had a large percentage of senior-level leaders who more frequently network with and seek the advice of internal mentors.

UK leaders rated the effectiveness of coaching with internal coaches (other than their manager) and coaching with external coaches much more highly than the global sample, whereas web-based learning and virtual classrooms were more used by leaders around the globe.

Penny Sophocleous
Chief Executive

Corporate Alchemy Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1707 871539
Fax: +44 (0) 1707 882224
Email: penny@corpalc.com
Web: www.corpalc.com

© Penny Sophocleous
© 2011 Corporate Alchemy

One of the most important factors for success in business, with clients, colleagues, bosses, organisations and even in the market place is Trust.  When your organisation becomes trusted, your brand is known and trusted for a specific set of qualities. Trust in your brand ensures repeat business and an excess goodwill that bolsters and maintains sales even in poor economic environments. A reputation of trust delivers real economic benefits.

If you as a person are trusted, you are recognised for being of a certain character with specific sets of qualities. This trust is built because of previously demonstrated behaviours, competence and delivered work. People will then want you to work with them, for them, or as part of a team because of the trust they have in you.

Trust equals confidence.  If people trust you they will have confidence in you and your abilities to undertake a task, be hired for a new role, or be appointed as the preferred supplier in a business contract. When people have confidence in you, they won’t be looking over your shoulder to check how you’re doing something. When they’re confident about your abilities they will give you new assignments, that provide opportunities to grow and develop.

In the workplace, there are certain behaviours that will either add to trust, or undermine the trust accounts that you have built up with people. Below are 10 things you can do to ensure that you don’t erode the trust that people have in you, and build even better levels of trustworthy behaviours.

1. Give thanks and recognition. People are more likely to think well of you and give you their support if they think it will be appreciated.

2. Explain your thinking. This is respectful – other people are not mind readers. Once your colleagues have got used to the way you think, they’ll trust your judgement, even if you do not have time to explain.

3. Listen carefully. When your colleagues are wanting your help or wishing to communicate with you, give them your undivided attention, and summarise their remarks to show you have absorbed what they have said.

4. Manage your moods. Consistent behaviour builds a sense in others of reliability. They know what they can rely on with you.  Inexplicable elation can be just as disconcerting as stroppy silence.

5. Communicate and keep them in the loop. Make sure people know that you have delivered on a promise, and give warning as early as possible if you have to let them down.

6. Listen to criticism. Sometimes people don’t know how to complain or identify what’s wrong without it coming across as a ‘rant’.  Be willing to consider that they’re not really complaining about you, but often about ‘things’. Show that you are willing to hear them through and discuss with them what needs to change. Even if sometimes that is you.

7. Help out in a crisis. Volunteer to help when others are encountering a crisis. Demonstrating that you are willing to help, even if you are not responsible for what is going wrong builds up the trust account. Others may then be more willing to help you when you need their help.

8. Don’t keep changing your mind or springing surprises. Consistency and reliability are a strong platform for generating trust. Changing appointments, actions that you’d previously agreed with others, dates for meetings etc, erode trust. Springing surprises, even pleasant ones – will cause people to wonder what you are going to do next.

9. Don’t bluff when you don’t know. Nobody knows everything, admit it if you do not know the answer. Volunteer to find out the answer when appropriate and say you’ll get back to them.

10. Persevere. It makes time to build trust. Make the effort and excellent results will follow.

Penny Sophocleous
Chief Executive

Corporate Alchemy Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1707 871539
Fax: +44 (0) 1707 882224
Email: penny@corpalc.com
Web: www.corpalc.com

© Penny Sophocleous
© 2011 Corporate Alchemy

‘Sometimes 360 feedback raises more questions than it provides answers’

‘The multiple choice Q&A format does not always seem pertinent to the feedback I want to give’

‘The most useful bit in the 360 report is the anonymous verbatim comments at the back’

These are typical reactions we receive to the normal online 360 feedback approach. Most people agree that the process is extremely valuable but want to know a bit more. They would like specific examples of those behaviours which were effective and those that weren’t.

One of our consultants was recently involved in a slightly different approach to 360 feedback, which was undertaken with senior managers who were seeking to build on their leadership strengths.

How does it work?

• The participant selects up to 8 ‘raters’ and provides their contact details.

• The consultant contacts the raters by phone and conducts an interview around the participants’ strengths and areas for development. These interviews are entirely confidential, so that while the information is compiled into a report, no specific feedback is attributed.

• The consultant meets with the participant to review the results, provides a written report and coaches them around ongoing development.

And the results

Everyone was very appreciative that this apparrantly less formal process led to much more valuable information and feedback. Participants could see much more clearly what they needed to do to make immediate changes to behaviours and thereby impact others constructively.

‘I have been told before that I can come over as aggressive. For the first time I really understand what I am doing that comes over as aggressive, which makes it so much easier to change’

‘It was wonderful to learn that the efforts I have been making around time management have been recognised by my team’

‘I was amazed to learn what a difference such a simple change in my behaviour would make. I have been really encouraged by the results.’