Coach Dan's Blog

  Good morning! As you're setting your goals for the day, why not include something quick and easy that may just help you improve your leadership and communication skills. Almost all of us interact with others throughout our day, and each of those interactions is an opportunity to reflect, gain insights and learn. What if... at the end of each meeting or call today, you paused for 60 seconds and reflected about that interaction? (Any of the following questions would work, or create your own!) ❔ After we concluded, what impression about me did they walk away with? ❔ On a scale of 1-10, how clear was I with communicating my intentions? ❔ What new thing did I learn about that person just now? ❔ What new thing did that person learn about me just now? ❔ What one thing might I do differently in my next interaction? Taking a brief pause and reflecting in the moment can be a powerful way to identify opportunities for improvement throughout your day. Commit to pausing and reflecting for ...

  I was recently asked by someone I met, "Isn't a coach really just a trainer?" My response was quick - "While a coach sometimes trains on new skills or knowledge, they also facilitate, mentor and challenge teams to improve the way they work." Looking back, I would grade myself a "C-" on that answer. I WISH I had said... "A great coach works with you to achieve your goals. They bring experiences, perspectives and tools to help you and your team accelerate performance. It's not always about faster... but it IS about better! A great coach helps you and the team identify ways to improve and then challenges you address them WHILE working to achieve the teams goals. They know that there are many different ways to make improvements, and have a "toolbox" of processes, frameworks and techniques to help identify and make them. That said, they don't just want to teach you a skill (or framework, or process) - they want you to use your skill...

There are no shortcuts to transformational improvements - but starting with small changes today can lead to big results in the future! Long term, meaningful improvements come from small, thoughtful experiments today. ✔️ Remind yourself - what's your long term goal? ✔️ Ask yourself - what's one small thing I can accomplish today to bring that goal closer? ✔️ Reflect - what did I learn from my small change? Commit to trying one small thing differently, then assess the results - You will get closer to your goal every day.  

The key to unlocking your team's full potential? Balancing the 3 Es - Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Engagement. While many organizations focus solely on efficiency, measuring and optimizing for results, this approach can lead to limited long-term value. By inspecting and balancing the 3 Es, leaders can enable cross-functional teams to achieve their full potential indefinitely. Don't limit your team's success - prioritize effectiveness and engagement alongside efficiency.

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If y'all have been paying attention, I often refer to our transformations, or any change really, as a journey. I like that word because it involves the idea of something that takes time and is full of possibilities. Something that could be exciting and full of adventure. It's a little bit mysterious because of the distance and time involved. Anyone who has traveled much at all knows that, even with the most perfectly charted course, the unexpected can, and often does, happen. You can let it derail you, or you can embrace the challenge and take what you can from the experience. The word "journey" to me says there are things to learn and see and experience along the way, and those things along the way can be just as exciting and valuable as reaching the destination! On any journey, there will be forks in the road, and we have to decide which direction we're going to go. Today, I'm sharing with you all that I've decided on a path that takes me away from...

 We've all heard that question (or some variant) in our head - often delivered in that ominous tone that our brain reserves for occasions when it truly wants to undercut our self-confidence - "OMG - what if I screw this up?"  "What if what I say falls flat?"  "What if this doesn't work?"  "What if I don't achieve my goal?"  Even the most confident of individuals can have those unsettling moments of fear when taking steps into an unknown situation.  It's completely natural of course - fear is a hard-wired mechanism that starts in the part of the brain called the amygdala which is designed to keep us alive (yes, I googled it.)   It also doesn't help that our work environment doesn't always look at failure as a benefit to the individual, team or organization as a whole. Wait - what?  Failure as a benefit?  Coach Dan has completely flipped his lid this time!  Maybe, but not because of this line of thinking.   Companies innovat...

  As I was doing some exploring this weekend, I came across a great article that resonated with me on so many levels.  I'm sharing an excerpt of the content here with you along with some thoughts to consider as you continue your agile journey!  The full article can be  found here  if you're interested.   Ownership? When the work is complex, when teams have to grow continuously, and when employees have to find creative solutions every day to really help customers, something special is needed to be successful. When every situation, challenge, and customer is too unique, people need to be empowered to think and decide for themselves. Ownership ensures that they think outside the box to come up with innovative solutions that really help customers. In case of unexpected problems, difficult challenges, or when things go wrong, ownership ensures that teams feel responsible to solve this. They don’t have to wait for others to come up with solutions. When they feel ...

In the spirit of growth and learning - I spend time every week exploring new ideas, reading and learning about agility and leadership.  I came across a report published by McKinsey and Company in October of 2018 entitled Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st-century organizations .  It really resonated with me, so I'm shamelessly copying and pasting an excerpt to our blog.  If you want to read the full report, you can find it here - but I put the part that really stood out as relevant to me below.  It's absolutely worth a read, and perhaps some reflection time if you're serious about being an agile leader. Shifting from reactive to creative mind-sets Changing our mind-set—or adjusting it to the new context—is no easy task, but developing this “inner agility” is essential in releasing our potential to lead an agile transformation. It is clear from the work of Robert Kegan and many others that leaders of agile organizations must...