This month, I had the opportunity to participate in two professional development events, a course called "Coaching from a Systems Perspective" developed and facilitated by colleagues from the Society for Organizational Learning, and a two-day coaching conference entitled, "Coaching in Medicine & Leadership." I came away from each experience with many new ideas, insights and perspectives that, over time, will become integrated into my practice.

 

The richness of these experiences was a reminder that investment in learning is never wasted, even if the immediate payoff is not obvious.  I feel especially blessed to be in a profession where ongoing learning is a requirement and where there's an immediate opportunity to pass that learning onto others.

 

In addition, yoga is a constant source of learning and I've taken the risk of sharing some of those lessons as well. 

 

Hope you enjoy these reflections! 

 

 For back issues of this newsletter, you can find them in the archives.   

Thanks for your interest and support. 

Deborah

I've written before about The Power of Full Engagement and Toughness Training for Life (June 2010). Both of those books have made a real difference in how I live. For a summary of the model, check out colleague and fellow CTI graduate Heidi Duskey's summary of The Power of Full Engagement: Power of Full Engagement Summary 

 

This weekend, I had the opportunity to hear Jim Loehr speak at a coaching conference in Boston. Although much of what he talked about was familiar, he framed his topic in a way that got me thinking differently about what the essential components of a leadership development curriculum might be.

 

He started with the premise that leaders need to take care of their health. Citing Peter Drucker, who said, "Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help orchestrate the energy of those around you," Loehr stated that the currency of high performance is human energy. And one fundamental component of human energy is physical health. The other three components in their model are emotional, mental and spiritual. 

   

Johnson & Johnson bought the Human Performance Institute, a company Loehr co-founded, several years ago with the intention of strengthening their wellness and prevention platform. The Human Performance Institute is a provider of training programs, including its Corporate Athlete course, designed to manage energy to create and sustain high performance. Human Performance Institute's technology of managing energy is measurement based and grounded in the sciences of performance psychology, exercise physiology and nutrition. In buying the company, Johnson & Johnson's thinking went like this: The best way to influence a culture of health is to target executive leaders. Leaders can create healthy workplaces which then influence the workers which then influence their families and thus their communities and the world.

 

Loehr cited some rather startling statistics pertaining to executive health and healthy workplaces:

• 40% of the executives who sign up to participate in programs offered by the Human Performance Institute are technically obese.
• In companies with a strong culture of health, employees, on average, are 3 times more likely to report taking action on their health.
• Yet fewer than 26% of employees believe their company has a strong culture of health.

What are some of the consequences of workplaces that lack a culture of health?

Not surprisingly, here are some of the effects:

• Poor health of workers
• Increased costs
• Productivity losses
• Low employee engagement
• Turnover & burnout

 

Loehr stated repeatedly that health is a business imperative.

 

While he did not outline a specific agenda for creating workplaces with a strong culture of health, he did assert the need to create a new story that emphasized balanced well-being as the next frontier of organizational leadership.

 

 

For more resources related to what Loehr referred to as 'the energy crisis," go to  Human Performance Institute. There are some interesting videos and white papers that go into much more detail on the data behind this argument.  

The Saturday morning in August before Hurricane Irene passed through our area, I woke up feeling unsettled and slightly anxious. A restless energy was palpable in the atmosphere. As I prepared to go to yoga, I worried that I wouldn't be able to settle into the practice.

 

In her introduction to Saturday's class, Kendra, the teacher, acknowledged the impending storm and said she had changed the theme of the class accordingly. She referenced a Hindu concept, Lila, that means "play," "sport," "spontaneity," or "drama" and refers to the creative act of the Divine. As experienced by human beings (this is my interpretation) Lila can seem random and unpredictable. The energy of a tornado or a hurricane. The energy that can both destroy and clear the way for new things.

 

She asked, "What do you do in the face of Lila? What do you do when you feel the world is an unpredictable place where anything can happen?" Great question! Her answer, of course, was to practice yoga. That gave us yoga practitioners some comfort since we were, in fact, practicing yoga. But for those who don't see yoga as their solution to the experience of Lila, what are some lessons from the practice of yoga that might be more broadly applied?

 

Courage: Not fearlessness! Rather, the willingness to extend oneself, to say, "I'll try" when one really wants to say, "I can't."

 

Recognize that there's no such thing as balance: What we call "balance" is a constant flow of minute adjustments to maintain equilibrium. It's not something fixed and static.

 

Flexibility within boundaries: Too much flexibility and we overextend ourselves; too many boundaries and we become rigid.

 

I don't profess to know much about the thousands of years of philosophy and wisdom that underpin the practice of yoga. All I can report is that practicing yoga the Saturday before the hurricane brought to mind several important lessons that have relevance both on and off the mat and that I've revisited numerous times since that unsettled August day.

The "Coaching in Medicine & Leadership" conference on October 21 and 22 was, as always, a rich experience. Here are some of quotes I found especially worth reflecting on:

 

"The ordering principle in the human being is purpose. We are a mission-specific species." Jim Loehr

 

"Mindsets are assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others that guide our behavior...helping people change mindsets can increase resilience." Robert Brooks

 

"Leadership has to do with genetic expression, not genetics. Part of the reason we hang onto the belief that genetics determines leadership is because so few people get the support to realize genetic expression." Richard Boyatzis

 

"If a person is not ready to take responsibility for themselves, don't even start coaching." Edward Phillips

 

"After each meeting with someone, ask, 'Did this person gather strength from me?'" Robert Brooks

 

"Many of the things we invest time in will give us negative ROI. At every moment of consciousness, you are choosing what to direct energy to: Be very careful what you invest in." Jim Loehr