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What is deliberate practice? Do you recall learning to ride a bike? At first, you wobbled and fell and wanted to quit. Most likely, someone taught you how to ride – your dad or mom, older sibling, cousin, or neighbor, perhaps. I first learned to ride with training wheels attached to the rear wheel, and as my confidence and competence grew, the wheels came off. Fortunately, my dad believed in me, practiced with me, and gave me feedback and support. Bike riding changed from awkward to effortless as my skill and experience increased. This is the essence of deliberate practice. [...]

“What am I creating?” is a critical leadership question you must ask yourself every day. The answer shapes your personal productivity, choices and actions. The answer to this question also orients your team’s choices—it creates alignment. The primary reason  for organizations to exist is to harness the collective power of the group. WE can accomplish more than I; our collective efforts are most impressive when they surge forward in unison. Alignment produces a multiplier effect that demonstrates that the whole IS greater than the sum of the parts. Teamwork, however, can also be challenging and frustrating. Teamwork requires that we subjugate our needs [...]

How to stop minimizing your coaching work You are expected to coach. Coaching, however, is not the end-all-and-be-all of talent development. And, the value of coaching is often diminished due to seven deadly mistakes. These mistakes are common, costly, and (typically) invisible to the coach. You can immediately improve your work, and bring out potential in people and teams, when you know when and how to avoid these deadly mistakes. What follows is a framework to engage, orient, and apply your very best contribution as a coach. First, let’s frame and define coaching. Coaching accelerates results and learning through trust, [...]

Focus: Focus answers the question, “What am I creating?” We are always creating, either intentionally or unintentionally. As a leader you are to be intentional, purposeful about what you, your team, and your organization focus on. Your thoughts and beliefs and, by extension, the beliefs and thoughts of your team and organization, are reflected in your creation and behavior. This power of focus is what draws you and your organization toward results. It is this power to intend, to deliberately reach for specific outcomes, that pulls you away from the known and familiar and into the journey; the journey of [...]

The question, “What am I creating?” is perpetually answered by our outcome-directed minds. We have no choice but to comply with the inquiry. We do have choice in what we focus on as the answer. Your vision, your mental model, is a response to the question, “What am I creating?” Environment, opportunity, luck, and circumstances are forces and elements that shape and influence us. But we are not merely passive conduits of our environment; we exert an influence on our environment, too. I’ll illustrate this influence with the cycle of manifestation. Imagine a clock face with numbers. Let’s add a [...]