This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Gallup.com and highlights how the RDO Equipment Co. grew into a construction and agricultural empire by focusing on employee and customer engagement through radical transparency.Building a Giant in the Heavy-Equipment Industry describes one company’s journey from struggling public corporation to a thriving family-owned business.  Enticed by the prospect of substantial profits in the public sector, RDO soon learned that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side. As the pressure mounted, they decided to stop talking about meeting analyst expectations and start talking about the customer and the culture again.How wide is the gap between the "official" truth and the "ground" truth in your organization?"In RDO’s modern culture, top leaders at the company say they maintain their success internally and externally by adhering to a set of action-oriented core values for business operation. These values include collaborating with employees, building customers for life, creating opportunities and committing to doing what they say and playing to win."Read the full article.The post Fierce Resource: Building a Giant in the Heavy-Equipment Industry appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

June is Professional Wellness Month, and it is time to focus on your well-being. Does this make you jump for joy? Or make you want to evaporate?  We all know health is important, yet, it can be something we overlook.As Buddha said, "To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."So I ask: On a scale from one to ten, how satisfied are you with how you take care of yourself?In a recent survey we conducted with women executives, 70% said they were stressed due to work/life balance. They cited depression, weight gain, and loss of sleep as top health issues related to the stress.Some of the most successful leaders I know always prioritize exercise and/or "me" time. They know taking care of themselves is critical to bringing their best selves to their work.For me, I practice yoga five to six days a week. It has been transformational for me. It allows - okay - forces me to physically step away from technology. Because yes, I was the lady jogging on the path checking her work email. With yoga, I have to disconnect. It is a safe harbor. A place to sit with myself. A place that is familiar yet has a lot of unchartered territory.This week’s tip is to take time to plan how you will take care of yourself in June and put it into action. Will you join a new gym or studio? Take up meditation? Plan some extra vacation time?Make the commitment for the next 30 days.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Take Care of Your Health appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

A martial arts sensei said, "You are always practicing something.  The question is - What are you practicing?"  Darn good question.Whether we are practicing one-upmanship or cooperation, truth telling or lying, mentoring or self-promotion, fluency in three-letter acronyms or plain speaking, anonymous feedback or face-to-face feedback, our practices have an impact on our careers, our companies, our relationships.In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, written during his year in a one-room cabin with few possessions, is this quote."The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life that is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."He was talking about the bigger house, and all the stuff we buy that ends up owning us, keeping us awake at night.  Amen to that!Let’s substitute the word "practice" for "thing."The cost of a practice is the amount of life and, ultimately, dollars that must be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.There is a direct link between our practices and our results and in my work with leaders and their teams, the practice that, when it is missing costs us the most, and when it is present makes the greatest difference, is courage.  Backed up with skill.Courage is a noun that shows up as a verb. It comes from old French corage, from Latin cor, "heart".  We recognize it by what people do.  We do what frightens us, even in the face of perceived or real personal risk. The man who ran into a house that was fully engulfed in flames, to save a neighbor whom he barely knew.  We demonstrate strength in the face of pain or grief. The hiker trapped beneath a boulder, who escaped by cutting off his own arm with a Swiss Army knife.  No anesthetic.While we recognize courage in once-in-a-lifetime, go-down-in-history heroic deeds, it is far more powerful as a daily practice.  Though you might have run into that burning house, your courage may be failing you where it counts most - in your day-to-day interactions with the people who are central to your success and happiness.How can you practice more courage every day?The post The Practice of Courage appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

In survey after survey, "communication" makes the top 3 list: why marriages end, why mergers don’t work, why management has difficulty leading employees through change, why employees leave an organization, why customers stop doing business with a firm. Or, on the positive side, great communication is why marriages work, mergers go smoothly, employees embrace change, employees love their job and their boss, and why customers rave about the customer service where they do business.

The new CEO wanted to hit a homerun at his first all-hands meeting. It meant the difference in capturing their allegiance for the big turnaround he hoped to achieve with their organization. In addition to the approximately 3,000 people seated in the auditorium in from of him, he knew employees would be tuned in to the broadcast from around the world. Although already four months into the job, this would be his first big opportunity to win their confidence as a group that he could handle the job left vacant by his popular predecessor.

Janet wore a smile from the nose down; her eyes bore daggers. If I offered a Friday afternoon off for having finished a big project early, she "wished" it had been last week when she and her husband were headed out of town for the football game.  When I ordered in pizza for everyone’s lunch to celebrate a staff anniversary, she had "hoped" for barbecue.

When senior executives arrive for coaching, they often come with great motivation but guarded perspective. Either their life coach, their director of communication, an important client, or their spouse has given them some direct or implied feedback that their career or organization has hit a roadblock unless they develop more "executive presence" or overcome some other mysterious challenge.

The first day I sauntered into Miss Amos’s English class, I was scared. Not because of the subject or because this was my first day in a big city school—I was startled by her face. My first thought: Did some terrible disease do this to her?

By the time warring factions get to the executive ranks, they’ve already been routed through the normal HR channels, and one or more parties has a life coach or psychologist involved. Whether personality quirks or big egos cause the conflict really doesn’t matter if the problem continues to create havoc for your organization.

Do I need a coach supervisor?   Yes, yes, yes! If your clients keep you awake at night and you find you are getting emotionally involved, if you are concerned about consistently meeting professional coaching standards, if you need ongoing professional development, if you need guided reflection, if you want to get deeper insights into your practice and your clients in order to be the best coach you can possibly be…and much more. All professionals are supervised in their practice. If we are really serious about our standards then this is not an option. The 2009 CIPD Report "Coaching Supervision Maximising the Potential of Coaching" stated that "Coaches see the main benefits of supervision as developing coaching capability (88%) and assuring the quality of their coaching (86%)." Do you know what referral means, how to notice the clues that mean you should be considering referral and then who to go to? Are you absolutely convinced that your ethical and boundary management is all that is should be? All this and more is covered in supervision which is a thinking partnership between two professionals. It is not co-coaching. When choosing a supervisor ensure you have one who is qualified, who understands your needs and can hold the mirror up to your practice. You should be able to discuss anything with him/her that may be affecting your coaching work. S/he should contract with you, agree objectives and agendas for sessions and carry out regular reviews. Some coaches use multiple supervisors for differing aspects, others may have mentors as well. You then need to keep notes and reflect and a journal can help you to organise your reflections. We are so committed to supervision that at The Performance Solution we have reduced the cost to £75 per hour plus VAT to ensure that even those coaches starting out can afford and commit to it. We have a cohort of qualified supervisors available. If you are not in supervision - what’s the real reason and how do you justify ‘going it alone’? By the way, this applies equally to NLPers! The post Do I need a coach supervisor? appeared first on The Performance Solution.