Dear subscribers,

Welcome to the most recent edition of Reach the Top Connects.

In this issue, we focus on the responsibility — and privilege —you have to develop your company’s star managers into global leaders.

As you’ll read, one of the most effective tools for developing key personnel is to pair them one-on-one with an experienced and trusted advisor who can help them define and attain their goals.

If I may be of help coaching or facilitating a leadership development program or workshop for you or your people, please call me at 724-935-1397 or contact me via email at donna@reachthetop.net

May the coming year be a time of personal growth, insight and authenticity.

Donna Billings

P.S. As 2006 begins, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on all that you’ve experienced in 2005. To give you a structure, click on the Reflection icon and follow the directions for this powerful exercise learned at a recent retreat I attended on the Isle of Iona, Scotland.

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”

Warren G. Bennis

Invest in Leadership

Coaching can help you identify and develop strong leaders who will help your company thrive in the global marketplace

It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in. It doesn’t matter whether your company employs hundreds of people or less than 10. What does matter is that you make it a priority to identify employees who have solid leadership skills — then train and develop them to advance and position your company for ongoing success in a global environment.

Identifying your best leaders
Coaching can help you achieve this goal. How? A professional coach can help your company identify people who posses essential global leadership characteristics, such as:

Creating a leadership development program
Once you’ve identified your company’s star performers, a professional coach can help you create and implement a leadership development program that shapes and strengthens the leadership characteristics mentioned above and aligns them with your company’s strategic global initiatives.

What does a leadership development program look like?
A good program consists of subsequent phases that build upon the coaching concept — namely pairing each leadership candidate with either a dedicated, internal coach who has achieved impressive career milestones within your company or with a qualified professional coach.

This type of leadership pairing is a powerful development tool because it engages people one-on-one in an ongoing, confidential relationship where accountability is key. Over time, as a manager and his or her coach develop a relationship, the manager is able to glean the coach’s knowledge and experience — then incorporate the information into his or her own management style. The result is new, meaningful leadership behavior that empowers managers to challenge assumptions, think more strategically, and inspire and engage their people.

A leadership development program may also include:

• 360-degree surveys that provide a realistic view of each manager’s performance measured against established competencies. These types of surveys may give birth to individual business projects that challenge and develop a specific leadership skill.
• Assessment events that may include interactive simulations, as well as feedback from peers, coaches and independent consultants. An assessment event may be capped by formalized leadership development plans that include measurable goals.
• Strategic skills programs tailored to a person’s development plan and learning style. A program may include internal or external seminars, book learning, additional coaching and/or participant involvement in cross-functional teams. The goal is to provide the right tools for honing leadership skills.
  
  Likewise, if managers show aptitude for particular leadership skills, they may be asked to share their expertise with other individuals or departments.
• Participant presentations to peers, an “officer champion” or key stakeholders. These presentations illustrate what each person has learned over an established period of time, how that knowledge impacts his or her people, customers and investors — as well as future plans for continued coaching and leadership growth.

What’s the benefit?
If your business is to be successful in the global marketplace, it must be driven by leaders who can:

• Adapt to dynamic change easily
• Make important decisions without the benefit of fact-based analysis
• Work across cultures
• Embrace diversity
• Inspire and engage their people

Chances are, these individuals already occupy key positions within your company. A leadership development program can help you identify and develop them to their full potential — and bring value to investors, customers and employees alike.

For more information about how I can help your company create and implement a leadership development program — or serve as a professional leadership coach — please dial 724-935-1397. You can also find a complete list of Reach The Top Workshops, on my website www.reachthetop.net including “Situational Coaching™.”

Take a few moments to center yourself. Breathe out as deeply as you can. Breathe in as deeply as you can. Be aware of the ebb and flow of your breath for a few moments until you’re centered within yourself.

Take a few moments to review the past year of your life. As you reflect on this time passed, notice all the events that happened. Notice how you experienced yourself at different times and in different circumstances during the past year. When were you at your best? When were you at your worst?

Be aware of the different activities that happened: the births, the deaths, the letting go, the holding on, the nurturing, creating space, the releasing, the empty spaces.

As you reflect on this past year, remember moments of:

• Letting go
• Waiting and emptiness
• New birth and new beginnings
• Budding promise
• Growth and strengthening
• Flowering
• Harvestings
• Completion
• Resting

Give thanks for the year of your life with all of its diverse activities.

To help you learn more about the benefits of executive leadership coaching, here are a few resources I recommend to my coaching clients:

The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching.
Edited by Howard Morgan, Phil Harkins, and Marshall Goldsmith.
Leadership coaching is vital to today’s most successful organizations. In fact, around half of the top companies for leaders now assign coaches to their most promising employees. And more organizations are catching on every day.

This book is a landmark resource that presents a variety of perspectives and best practices from today’s top executive coaches. It provides valuable guidance on exactly what the best coaches are now doing to get the most out of leaders, for now and into the future.

The Situational Leader
By Dr. Paul Hersey
This book presents a practical framework to developing people and increasing productivity. Based on a proven, easy-to-apply model that has already trained over ten million managers in more than 20 countries, The Situational Leader is for managers, parents, supervisors—everyone involved in the difficult and delicate task of influencing others. Note: also see Situational Leadership® The CORE.

Leader as Coach: Strategies for coaching and Developing Others
By David B. Peterson and Mary Dee Hicks
Coaching improves the bottom line because it goes to the heart of what makes people productive. The five high-impact strategies outlined in this book will help you form strong partnerships, accelerate learning, and make a solid investment in people’s growth and development.

Development FIRST®: Strategies for Self-Development
By David B. Peterson and Mary Dee Hicks
To stay competitive, you need to develop new capabilities quickly and efficiently. Development FIRST® outlines five proven, practical strategies to help you integrate development with your responsibilities and goals so you can do your job better, now and in the future.

About Donna Billings and Reach the Top

My firm works with key leaders, helping you define and identify meaningful work, craft strategic career development plans, hone and develop your leadership and management competencies, including embracing cultural diversity — and eventually help you phase into retirement.

My leadership coaching and development practice is called “Reach the Top.” We all climb many mountains over the course of our lives — some are physical, some are mental, some are emotional. Sometimes we are successful. Sometimes we are not. Through coaching and leadership development, we help you reach powerful, new heights as you traverse whatever life transition you’re now experiencing. Together, we will form an alliance that is mindful of where you are on your journey right now.

To supplement my coaching practice, I am affiliated with the Center for Leadership Studies, one of the premier leadership training organizations in the world. We are committed to helping people develop their inherent potential as leaders and to helping organizations succeed and prosper.

A publication of Reach the Top and Donna Billings. To reproduce or reprint information contained in this e-zine, kindly contact me at donna@reachthetop.net.