Spark Coaching

29/09/2021

Hopefully you enjoyed our first blog on the hot topic of how to hone your leadership in the face of change.

Today in the second and final blog in the series we are focussing on:

Leadership skill: Learn to Listen

Read on to focus your mind and pick up some tangible ideas when it comes to leading your team by engaging the often neglected skill of deep listening.

How to hone your leadership in the face of change and ambiguity

The last 18 months have felt a bit like a game of snakes and ladders for us all. One minute we are taking strides forward, even climbing a ladder and moving upwards and just when we think we are making headway, there’s that snake! This constantly changing ground has led to frustration, ambiguity, and uncertainty, all of which is exhausting.
Leaders are literally learning what to do when they don’t know what to do.
Even the most seasoned leaders are finding this long-lasting season of change arduous and are looking for unshakeable ways to lead themselves and those they lead through this landscape.
During this season it’s never been as important to listen. Whether it’s a crucial boardroom decision-making discussion, a staff meeting to explore ideas or even in those unexpected conversations in the staff lunchroom.
Leadership Skill: Learn to Listen
By listening I mean to listen to understand and not to reply. I’m talking about deep listening that helps the person who is speaking make sense of what they are saying.
In the West we tend to have an issue with silence, it makes us feel awkward and so we avoid it and try to fill the silence. In Eastern culture silence is valued and welcomed. They treat silence at the end of what they say like another word. They recognise that silence can be an opener. In our rush to fill the silence we can miss so much.
How about the next time you are in a conversation and there is silence you try out the most powerful coaching question in the world, “And what else?”. In this way you show interest in knowing more and you are communicating value to the person and what they are sharing.
Did you know that, on average, we speak at a rate of 125 words per minute; we listen at a rate of 400 words per minute and we think at a rate of 900 words per minute? So, the likelihood that someone speaking is saying what they are thinking is approximately 11%.
As you learn to listen, consider these 5 levels of listening. Look out for them in your interactions and conversations and challenge yourself to listen better:
5 levels of listening:
1. To yourself- be aware of your own thoughts and give yourself time to reflect. Don’t be in a rush to get to the next task or meeting. Take moments in your day to be quiet, relax, rehydrate, and allow your thoughts to follow through; this could be the time you come up with your best ideas. Or take time to stop for that water cooler chat about nothing in particular; this moment of human connection could be the catalyst for solving a problem or answering a question that you’ve been wrestling with.
2. To Content: Most experts agree that 70-90% of communication is nonverbal. That means if we truly want to listen, we need to do more than just listen to words others are saying. We need to look them in the eye and give attention to how they are saying it. Look out for body language and a change in posture; listen out for energy in the dialogue and be alerted to pauses – there is a lot in a sigh!
3. To Context: Context is like the backstory, and we should be humble enough to ask for and be interested in hearing this backstory. It’s listening to more than the details of an event or a moment but taking account of what influenced the moment or the event. It can be as simple as asking more “what” or “how” questions to build a fuller picture and understanding that “why” questions can infer judgement.
4. To What’s Unsaid: As you practise listening better to what is being said and how it is being said and start to ask the right questions to draw out more meaning, you will become a better listener, even to what’s unsaid. Instead of listening at a rate of 400 words per minute, you will discover the 775 words that are unspoken.
5. To Meaning: As you become a leader that listens well you learn skills of applying meaning, even when it is not explicitly communicated. This is an exercise in trusting your gut a bit more and demands a high level of patience and persistence. Deep listeners can cut through the distraction and pull out the meaning in every conversation, meeting, and discussion. For further study I'd highly recommend check out, www.oscartrimboli.com

Leaders, you may be feeling the pain of the ongoing uncertainty that has become the norm of the last 18 months, and you may feel like you’ve slid down more snakes than climbed ladders, but you can learn how to hone your leadership in the face of change and ambiguity. Learning to listen is the perfect leadership hack for this season and is one that will carry you into healthy relationships and a more holistic leadership in the seasons ahead.

25/09/2021

Leaders are you up for a bit of weekend reading? Here's a snippet from a Spark Team Leadership Workshop recently delivered to one of the teams at Ulster University as they return to work on campus.

How to hone your leadership in the face of change and ambiguity.

Leadership Skill: Learn to Cross Over the Edge

What if we give ourselves a break from the energy sucking conversations about an epidemic that threatens our health, our families, and the way we work, to talk about something that we know and can do something about?

As leaders there is one thing, we can be sure of and that is change. Nothing stays the same for very long, for example, innovations in technology are constantly changing the way we work; we must flex to respond to consumer preferences; and organisations are evolving from bureaucratic leadership to a style of leadership at all levels. When we talk about change, we mean a movement from what is known to unknown and to make the move we have to cross over the edge.

The edge is the space between the known and the unknown. It’s that no-man’s-land where we feel very unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but there’s no way around it. We find edges in all walks of life, in fact, as long as we are growing there will always be an edge. Edges tend to be marked by challenges of awareness and not necessarily of ability, that means you don’t need new skills to cross the edge, but you do need to be prepared for it coming. As we prepare to cross over the edge, we cannot ignore the signals that tell us there is about to be a disturbance in the status quo.

Teams are crossing over edges all the time. Some are easily crossed, and others remain a lingering shadow impacting the team system. As leaders of the team, we should be acutely aware that team members respond to change differently. Not everyone crosses over the edge in the same way.

There are 3 fundamental response styles of adapting to change:

1. Leapers enjoy change and are the first to cross over the edge. Adapting to change quickly, Leapers tend to be enthusiasts and can quickly see the need for change. You know the ones who love new technology or new ways of doing things.? The strength of the Leaper in your team is that they are great advocates for change, they relish it even if it’s not perfect. The challenge for the Leaper is to look before they leap so that they don’t make costly mistakes. Leaders should be aware that Leapers can get bored easily and will constantly want to move on to the next new thing.

2. Bridge Builders will not be in the first group of those to cross over the edge, they tend to cross over the edge later once most of the kinks have been worked out of the process. Willing to cross over the edge, Bridge Builders will need good rationale for the change and a plan for an orderly change. The strength of the Bridge Builder is their thoughtfulness, and once convinced about the crossover, will improve the change process making it easier for others to follow. Leaders should make the most of the Bridge Builders in their team as mediators between the Leapers and Tradition Holders to come.

3. Tradition Holders tend to resist change because they highly value the status quo. In their mind, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. They are often viewed as obstructionists; however, their role is critical to any change. They are sceptical of quick fixes and want evidence that any change is going to be worth the time and energy it demands. Protecting the standards and values of tradition, the Tradition Holders are often the ones that hold the critical know-how that is not written down in any procedure but remains important to the functioning of the organisation. Leaders should use the questions of the Tradition Holders to quantify the cost/benefit ratio of any change.

As you read the descriptions of these 3 responses to change, I bet you are going through the members of your team and placing each of them in a group. But don’t get too comfortable with your assessment as it’s important to remember that response style is context specific, and your team could surprise you in any given situation of change.

An individual can be influenced by the team – if they are all leapers that can lead to instability; if they are all bridge builders that creates an atmosphere that lacks creativity and nimbleness but if they are all Tradition Holders things will never change!

The best thing you can do as a leader of a team facing change, is to learn to cross over the edge from the known to the unknown with awareness. Be aware that the edge is coming and give good warning; be aware that not everyone crosses over the edge in the same way; be aware of how you can tap into the strengths that each team member brings to the change process; and be aware that sometimes empathy and reassurance from you can go far in building a team that weathers change well.

Blog 2 of how to hone your leadership in the face of change and ambiguity will follow soon with the leadership skill: learning to listen.

Allison, Spark Coaching

24/09/2021

⭐️ Many thanks to Angela Scanlon, Director of Employability at Ulster Uni for this wonderful testimonial. I really enjoyed delivering my workshop on coping with change in the workplace. Look out for my blog series on this very topic..... Ulster University - Careers At Ulster

04/08/2021

Summer Sparkology

Take a few minutes to consider this idea:

Growing pains are a necessary part of the process of growing and changing. Lean into and accept the pain to see the growth.

28/07/2021

Summer Sparkology
Grab a coffee and think about this....
Sometimes those who succeed in their chosen field seem to be brimming with confidence BUT sometimes action leads to confidence. Act first and the confidence will come.

21/07/2021

Summer Sparkology

Take a few minutes to consider this idea:

The decisions we have made in the past do not have to define who we become. We can change and we can rewrite our story.

07/07/2021

Summer Sparkology ☀

Take a few minutes to consider this idea:

Contributing to wider society and giving energy to other people and projects is an effective way to push back against those feelings of imposter syndrome that say "I am not enough".

30/06/2021

Summer Sparkology ☀️

Take a few minutes to consider this idea. The average human has between 2000 to 3000 thoughts per hour! It is important to remember that not every thought needs to be given value.

23/06/2021

Summer Sparkology ☀️

As we head into the summer months we at Spark Coaching would like to invite you to take a few moments at the start of your working day to focus on your emotional well being.
It is possible to change the course of your day by changing the way you think. So why not take a little time for yourself and check out our summer series of resilience enhancing strategies

16/06/2021

It has been a busy month at Spark Coaching and one of the highlights was my involvement in the Ulster University - Careers At Ulster Future Skills Week Event. It was a real privilege to host two workshops Launch & Learn versus Plan & Perfect and Developing Strong Leadership from the Inside Out.
Normally I work alongside Industry high performers to help them build resilience and overcome mental barriers to success. However, during Future Skills Week I really enjoyed engaging with the students at Ulster whose enthusiasm and insightfulness show that there are exciting times to come for NI Industry.
In the Global Covid Context the shoring of emotional resilience will be central to every organisation. Watch as I explain to the students at Ulster some easy steps towards authentically believing 'I am enough' 👇 🍿

In this workshop, Spark Coaching Executive Coach Allison Hutchinson will bring insight and help you hack one of the biggest limiting beliefs to developing st...

11/06/2021

Testimonial

Spark Coaching has been partnering with Nitec Solutions since 2017, spearheading proactive leadership development with their workforce during a time of significant transition.

Nitec Solutions operates as a one-stop-shop to SMEs, acting as a complete outsourced IT department. They are recognised as a Microsoft Gold Partner and a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Amplify Synergy Partner.

Nigel Mulholland, MD, outlines the tangible benefits that the ongoing relationship with Spark Coaching has made in their organisation and to their workforce.