Are you FEBI certified and know someone that may be interested in becoming a FEBI Certified User? Contact us about our Referral Incentive Program that allows you to earn passive income on the FEBI!!
Join our online community. Share your experiences in leadership and coaching and get advice from other FEBI Certified Consultants. Comment on the latest posts including Dr. Whitelaw's entitled, "What Do You Make of a FEBI with Very High Everything?
"Imagine this: a business book that resonates as much for your personal life as for your professional one. And why not? We want to be whole people, not just whole leaders. But beware: this book is viral! Once you read Move to Greatness, you want your partners -- in business, in life -- to read it too. It offers insights that are smart, that are real, that need to be shared. It's a smart book that is imminently readable!"
- Rebecca Barna (Connecticut)
Winter 2008
Laid Off…Now What?
So you’ve just been told you no longer have a job. Not a good day. Or is it? With Focus Leadership’s Transition Coaching, we can help you turn an ending into a new beginning. With several packages to meet the needs of you or your company, Focus Leadership coaches will help you re-evaluate your strengths and preferences and make the transition to a new career or opportunity. If you work for a company that is currently facing layoffs, help your people land on their feet with Focus Leadership’s Transition Coaching. To learn more click here.
Best Practice: Winning on the Sales Floor...
Jeff is a sales manager who, like most, is struggling in this current economic environment. “I don’t get it. What am I missing?” he asked as we looked at situations when he failed to get his clients to buy. Jeff knew that closing deals was more important now than ever, but he was falling short of the mark.
A former professional bodybuilder who trains like he’s entering the Mr. America competition tomorrow, Jeff’s FEBI report showed an Organizer home pattern and, surprisingly, low Driver. It’s safe to say that the Driver was not missing from his training, so why was it missing on the sales floor, and how could he reclaim it?
While shadowing him during his sales pitches, I noticed this powerhouse of a man, who could bench press 500 pounds, downplayed his Driver around other people. He would be all Driver in between clients, pumped up and moving quickly, but as soon as a client walked in the door, the Driver vanished. Jeff talked softer, moved slower, and seemed to drift through his sales pitch.
What I realized about Jeff was that his bodybuilding, with its meticulous and predictable routine, was as much an Organizer activity as it was a Driver activity. Jeff was able to evoke the Driver in the safe parameters of the Organizer, an example of how home pattern modulates one’s access the other energy patterns. As coaches, it is important to use the comforting energy of the home pattern to guide our clients into the often uncomfortable arena of a least preferred pattern.
Our coaching then focused on creating a safe Organizer framework for evoking Driver energy on the sales floor. The breakthrough moment came when Jeff focused on the emotion of bench-pressing 500 pounds, and could evoke that same energy when a client walked in the door. With his Organizer home pattern in mind, we described the step-by-step process of the sales cycle and simply made that Driver energy a part of that process. Consciously engaging the Driver, Jeff could then get to the point, get his clients excited, and close the deal.
Since Jeff has been able to move into the physical and emotion stance of Driver energy, he’s been winning more sales, and growing more confident. And he still looks like he’s ready to compete for Mr. America!
Do you have a sales team to move to higher performance? Contact us to discuss how we can help transform the energy of your sales force!
Do you have a story from your own work with the FEBI? We’d love to hear from you, and share your experience with our growing community. Contact us if you want to author an article on our blog.
Focus Forward: Upcoming Events...
Focus Leadership will be hosting a FEBI Certification session in the Washington/Baltimore area on April 3rd through the 4th. This is your opportunity to add a world class tool to your coaching arsenal. Click here for more information or to register online.
Dr. Whitelaw will be giving the keynote address at the Advocate Healthcare Symposium in Chicago on April 14th - 16th.
Bridging the Gap: Focus Leadership and the Scholar-Practitioner Model...
How I define myself is constantly changing. I’m not talking about multiple personality disorder here, rather, the different hats we all wear in different facets of our lives. Some of us have a parent hat, or the hat of a music fan, dog owner, board member, or executive coach – and that might be all in one day, (My 20-pound Boston terrier would just as soon I dwell on “dog owner”) Each of these roles can require very different things from us.
For me, one of those hats is that of a consultant for Focus Leadership. This role requires that I learn from others who have been successful and apply that practical knowledge. It also requires learning from my own mistakes and successes. In this business role, I need to speak the language of business. My clients don’t want to listen to me discuss how a study managed a particular confounding variable, or how that variable inflated a statistically significant study result. But we can talk all night long about how they can increase their bottom line with a proven method. I sometimes forget what hat I have on but my clients - or the clunk in the conversation - will always remind me.
Another hat I wear is that of a student who is working on a PhD in Organizational Psychology. Talk about a different language - it’s like going from English to Swahili. As a scholar, my language must be scientific, precise and polished. The two magic words in academia are “validity” and “reliability.” If your study is lacking either then back to the drawing board. When talking to my peers in this setting, the last thing they want to hear about is an untested theory that starts with, “I know from experience.”
So how can we be effective wearing these different hats with their conflicting languages and demands? I think the answer lies in the deeper integration that makes them less conflicting. I’m certainly not the first to make this claim. Some call it the scholar-practitioner model, others have called it the scientist-practitioner model. Whatever you call it, this approach synergizes the practical knowledge gained from experience with the analytic knowledge gained from academic scrutiny. As I take on challenges both as a scholar and as a practitioner, this approach is my roadmap.
I imagine you, too, find yourself wearing many hats. If your main hat has you steeped in business, I would encourage you to step back and reflect on the flurry of your world with the perspective of the scholar or the objectivity of the scientist. If your main hat is that of researcher, you might immerse yourself in the proving grounds of practice. By bridging the gaps, we’re more likely to synergize differing roles, making us more able to synergize differences in our world and add greater value. Bridging the gap has prompted me to blend the scholar, practitioner, scientist, music-lover, executive coach, husband and – oh, I think it’s time to go feed the dog.
Invest in Leadership Now...
but don’t take our word for it…
Publication: Fortune (Jan 19th, 2009 issue)
Title: "How to Manage Your Business in a Recession"
Author: Geoff Colvin
Section header: "Keep investing in the core"
"For virtually all companies, a critical part of the core is the continual development of employees. Yet it's remarkable how many businesses cut training and development in a downturn. The best never do."
"It's hard to be upbeat about a recession, but it truly is an opportunity. Marathoners and Tour de France racers will tell you that a race's hardest part, the uphill stages, are where the lead changes hands. That's where we are. When this recession ends, when the road levels off and the world seems full of promise once more, your position in the competitive pack will depend on how skillfully you manage right now."
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Publication: Ignites (January 5th, 2009 issue)
Title: “Leadership Programs Shine in Gloomy Markets”
Author: Hannah Glover
“Companies looking to cut costs by slashing education budgets would be wise to spare leadership training budgets the ax, analysts say.
With the industry reeling from layoffs and reorganizations, many people are finding themselves taking on new roles and responsibilities. But simply because someone is successful in a particular position, it does not necessarily mean that person will be able to lead others. Without proper training or preparation, companies may not be getting all they can from their staff, analysts say.”
“A lack of leadership can be especially damaging in times like these, when employees are riddled with uncertainty about their companies’ future and security as well as their own, says E. Ted Prince, founder and CEO of the Gainesville, Fla.-based Perth Leadership Institute. “The current economic crisis is fundamentally a leadership crisis,” he says. “People failed to foresee the problems and failed to do anything about it.”
“Leadership is not an innate skill,” says Michelle Thompson, director of leadership and professional development at Janus. “During this time it’s just as important to keep these professional programs.”
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Publication: HR.com (September 20th, 2008)
Title: “Investment in Leadership During a Recession”
Quote credited to: Steven Meredith, Global Knowledge Director at Talent Intelligence
"Our research and insights, from advising Global Fortune 500 level companies, indicates that it is more important than ever for organizations to invest in their leadership during recessionary periods so that the business not only survives but emerges stronger than the competition".
"By not aligning talent to the business strategy, market conditions and forward direction of the company the practice of making do with the existing leadership team is a dangerous approach. By not continuing to focus on investing and building a talent rich readiness organization the company is exposed to a thin pool of talent that will be truly tested in the current market conditions. By not having effective integration processes the risk of failure of appointing any new executives in to key roles in such an environment is increased dramatically. By not filling planned or unplanned critical positions quickly and accurately the ability for an organization to sustain optimum performance and respond to changes in the market is significantly hindered".
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