Training & Coaching News from Smart Coaching Training

11/09/2021 By David Rigby

Would you rather improve your competence or transform your mindset?

Do you focus on task or focus on people?

Corporations that help their executives and leadership teams examine their personal world views can reap rich rewards in terms of effective cultural transformation and engaging the younger generation. Organisational Managers have two broad options in how to use their authority to serve the organisation at any given time. They can perceive themselves to be in a managerial mode delivering today’s outcomes within the relative ‘certainty’ of the system as it currently exists and operates or else by stepping back into an uncertain big picture mode of leadership of the future. Their daily performance necessarily combines both operational management of today’s needs along with a more strategic leadership role focused on tomorrow’s needs.

The voyage from Manager to Leader

The voyage of development ‘from manager to leader’ is not an easy one; some people change little during their lifetimes while others substantially.

*Spiral Dynamics and Vertical Development*

Those willing to work at developing themselves and becoming more self-aware can almost certainly evolve over time into truly transformational leaders. .

Are you on a ‘Heroes Journey’?

For the future world emerging, the higher stages of consciousness are being called forth dramatically, with the younger generation coming in at levels far higher than their bosses, creating new tensions in the corporate cultures. Note consciousness is very different from intelligence. Few current leaders are desiring to change the world for the worlds sake however many want to progress on their ‘Heroes Journey’.

We advise and sell many preference profiling tools such as DISC and C-me to help you improve your competence.

Spiral Dynamics

With Psychosocial Adult Development approaches such as Leadership Development Framework and Spiral Dynamics adults start at level one and can progress through a number of levels. The closer you are to the higher levels of consciousness the more able you will be to effect and deliver on change, be an effective director and manage internationally.
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https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/what_we_offer/signature-corporate-training-longer-courses-and-retreatsPsychosocial Adult Development Training

Each stage can be regarded as a level of awareness or consciousness and forms the psychological basis for a critical perception of why we act in a certain way. We can help leaders become better leaders by helping them transform from one level to the next.

To find out more check out our course “Transformational Leadership using Psychosocial Adult Development Strategy ” This is just one of our Signature Corporate Training courses. see then all here . Or simply just ask us at info@smartcoachingtraining.com

02/07/2021 By Jessica Brietenfeld and Simon Grayson

Make Your Team Psychologically Safe

Teams that Trust – Triumph: Why Psychological Safety matters to your bottom line

Remember when you were on a team and really enjoyed it. What were the meetings like and how did the group communicate? Which team did you most enjoy being in? Which team that you were a part of was most effective? Were you more effective when you felt safe to be yourself and express yourself?

Being on a team can be a dream or a nightmare.

All of us have mixed experiences when being part of a team or group or when leading them. What makes an efficient team? Talent alone is nowhere near enough of an attribute to make an effective team. It has been proved through various scientific research that the best teams share ideas.in a safe atmosphere where failure is viewed as progress- when a member of the team feels like it is okay to share an idea without knowing if it will in fact work out. In fact they are willing to share the acorn of an idea knowing that others will help it grow and develop it to something better.

Using one´s strengths

On an ideal team, each person is willing to speak their truth and give feedback when things are good, bad or indifferent. They speak humbly with empathy,,are open to feedback and opportunities to learn and have a desire to improve. Team members are willing to speak up if and when they spot a potential risk. What they spotted may be incorrect, but mistakes are not held against each other. Each team member realises that they need to include, listen and challenge others to be more effective. The leaders of these teams listen in order to learn, grow and develop the team. So that they can do more with less stress.

Think of teams that you’ve experienced, inside or outside of work, that keep quiet, don’t share ideas and avoid speaking up, even when they know the answer or see a problem looming.

Danger- imminent disaster, no?

Imagine a ship where the captain knows they will hit an iceberg but they fear upsetting the owner of the ship and losing their jobs- in case they are wrong.
Imagine a IT guy having had the experience at a previous job of a similar project and knowing what went wrong but not having the safety to share this information because of the hierarchy on the team.
Wouldn’t you want your team to help make you more successful? You must give them permission to fail and to try again.

*Psychological Safety Expert- Simon Grayson*

*Psychological Safety Expert- Jessica Breitenfeld*

The people in these teams can be merciless if someone makes an error The result is that no one speaks up, no-one shares ideas and you became extinct like Kodak film. Leaders of teams like this listen only to correct, react and delegate. These companies become Irrelevant in today’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world without innovative team.which ultimately drives ‘safe’ behaviours that don’t maximise performance, rarely create fresh ideas and never surpass targets. The leaders of these teams listen in order to respond, fix and tell. This team will never fulfil its potential because the team has low Psychological Safety. That sense of not feeling safe and supported within a team or group gets in the way of performance, innovation, learning, and personal success.

The ‘Number One’ factor in team effectiveness

The NUMBER ONE factor in team effectiveness is “Psychological Safety”.
This insight is the result of almost 30 years of research by Amy Edmondson, at Harvard Business School, supported and reinforced by an extensive two-year research programme (Project Aristotle) across 15,000 employees at Google read about Project Aristotle in The New York Times magazine).

At Smart Coaching & Training we measure team effectiveness across four dimensions:

Attitudes to risk and failure:
• the degree to which it is permissible to make mistakes
Open conversations
• the degree to which difficult and sensitive topics can be discussed openly
Willingness to help
• the degree to which people are willing to help one another

Inclusivity and diversity
• the degree to which people can be themselves, and be welcomed for this. The degree that others can be different and the tolerance for it.

*How Psychologically Safe is it to Spill the paint or Spill the beans? Wales, UK Photo by David Rigby*

You can be do the ¨AQai Adaptability Quotient test to see how your team members respond under stress and in change situations and then our coach can help you with a plan to increase your team’s Adaptability IQ score so that it is agile and able to keep up.

We deliver coching support, diagnostic tools and a Psychological Safety Workshop to assess your current level of Psychological Safety and help you plan to improve it

Workshops will train a ¨Yes, And¨ mindset, will have role plays and improvisation LAB Experiences with Serious Games where your team practices the mindset of an adaptive team that supports one another.

Your team practices feedback sessions, how to present information and how to create rapport so they approach the team prepared and with confidence that they are delivering their ideas clearly.

Team that trust – triumph.

See “Make your team Psychologically Safe Workshop” Here and help build tthat atmosphere of trust, trial and triumph with interactive, dynamic training .

17/05/2021 By David Rigby

How your Profile affects your Self-actualisation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow outlines what is known as a Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, representing all the various needs that motivate human behaviour. The hierarchy is often displayed as a pyramid, with the lowest levels representing basic needs and more complex needs located at the top of the pyramid. The five levels are Physiological Needs, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and finally, at the peak of this hierarchy is self-actualisation. The hierarchy suggests that when the other needs at the base of the pyramid have been met, you can then focus your attention on this pinnacle need of self-actualisation. In psychology, self-actualisation is achieved when you’re able to reach your full potential. Being truly self-actualised is considered the exception rather than the rule since most people are working to meet more pressing needs.

But how do you know when you have gotten there? Are you being true to yourself, no longer putting on an act to please others? Do different types of personality achieve self actualisation differently?

Jungian Profiling Tools

There are many profiling tools all based upon the work of Jung. All work on the premise that there are four types of personalities and everyone is a unique combination of all of them.

And they all use different terminology. In detail, all individuals can be classified into predominantly extrovert (active) or introvert (reflective/reactive);

*Childs Play 1 – Altea Alicante by David Rigby*

and also are predominantly logical (thinking/ task orientated) or emotional (feeling/intuitive/people orientated)). Everyone is a combination of all of these but some characteristics are more prevalent than others.

What self-actualisation might look like

What self-actualisation, your full potential, might look like if you are:

Extrovert/logical (Directive)
• Being up to the challenge: successful at all the projects you are undertaking and being in charge on your terms and being recognised for it
Extrovert/emotional (Inspiration)
• Having great relationships and lots of action with many people while being exactly who you are
Reflective/ emotional (Service)
• Everybody is OK in their own right and with you. They are collaborating with you, and everyone is OK with you being who you are, and you are safe.

*Childs Play 2 – Altea Alicante Photo by David Rigby*

Reflective/logical (Competence)
• Everything is in its place, everyone knows exactly what to do and what the steps are and actually follows them and are reliable.

We suport and supply a number of profiling tools and have knowledge of several more. Take a look at this video, which is the first of a series describing the fundamentals, and ask us for more detail.

18/03/2021 By David Rigby & Martin Kubler

How COVID brought us closer together

Hello? Can you hear me? I’m sorry if I’m sounding a bit far away, but I’m currently hanging out with a group of hospitality professionals in Yorkshire while I’m in Dubai. Or was it Stockholm? Or possibly Accra?

There’s little doubt that COVID has wreaked havoc on our industry worldwide. Furloughs in the UK, lockdowns everywhere, limited (if any!) in-outlet dining, cancelled cruises – you name it. I’m not known for laughing challenging trading conditions in the face and shouting “Hey, but look at the bright side!”, but I readily admit that the pandemic has also brought certain positive changes to our industry – the most important one, in my opinion, being that we’ve come closer together.

It didn’t matter where you were

I’ve spend the last 16 years as an expat in various locations that didn’t have an Institute of Hospitality branch and I got used to looking at pictures of meetings, networking events, and celebrations that the Institute and their branches have put on over the years with varying degrees of envy. Then the pandemic hit, everything moved online and suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore where I was based – I could be anywhere.

The Institute of Hospitality’s virtual Thursday Coffee and Conversation mornings provided a first taste of our newfound freedom. Members joined from all over the world and exchanged updates or just engaged in light-hearted conversation to find a few minutes of distraction from the latest lockdown news.

People started to cooperate and collaborate… new platforms such as www.backtowork.support were born based on our conversations. New ways of presenting and distributing industry news and expertise like the fantastic Hospitality Recovery on LinkedIn Live were tested. If you fancied it and had the time (and, let’s face it, time was something most of us had in abundance during the various lockdowns), you could attend virtual branch meetings and networking events from the comfort of your armchair. One branch even put on a pub-style quiz.

Bringing people closer together

The pandemic has brought us closer together and that’s a good thing. The key, going forward, is to keep the momentum and not let things revert to silos again. The Institute and its members have an important role to play in the process, because we’ve been here, done that, and got the tea cup – in other words, we’ve successfully demonstrated how large international organisations can use technology to bring people closer together, ensure information and expertise flows freely, and collaborations between individual professionals create new opportunities, ventures, and projects

Remember Face to Face?

Don’t get me wrong, now that I’m based in Europe again, I do want to attend one of the Institute’s annual Fellows’ Dinners. It’ll be my first one and I’m sure will be very enjoyable. The goal isn’t to move everything online – there’s much to be said for face-to-face interactions and good old black-tie jollifications. The goal really should be to use technology in the way, I think, it is meant to be used… to bring people together and to make things more inclusive and, very often, faster.

*Cats are for baskets not Zoom calls ©* *David Rigby*

The latter is, in my opinion, a key point. Teams can now meet at the click of a button, regardless of where the various team-members are. You don’t need to take minutes anymore, because you can record things – great for people who aren’t totally fluent in English. Right now, I’m involved in a project that brings together professionals from Russia, the Middle East, and Europe. We communicate in English, but some of us find it very beneficial to be able to watch the recordings of our meetings again, just to make sure they understood everything correctly. You can’t rewind a face-to-face meeting, but you can rewind a Zoom meeting.

I hope some of what we’ve learned during the pandemic stays with us even in post-COVID times. The coffee mornings, for example, shouldn’t stop just because we’re all able to meet again IRL, in real life. How else could I find out how Robert’s hotel in Ghana is doing or what’s going on in the Scottish highlands and islands? Quite apart from being able to see the various members’ coffee and tea cups (someone used a massive Homer Simpson cup in today’s call!) and pets (last week I was in a Zoom meeting and a team-member’s cat blocked the screen for a good 5 minutes).
Walking into a face-to-face meeting later in 2021 or 2022 is bound to be like “Oh, I know, you’re the chap with the Homer Simpson cup!” or “What do you mean, you didn’t bring your cat?”.

A version of this article was first published by the Institute of Hospitality

05/03/2021 By David Rigby

Acknowledging your Mortality

Making it easier for others

I don’t know about you but I have become increasingly aware of my mortality particularly in recent months. Having survived the first lockdowns I am being much more affected by this round. In the first round I knew people who knew people who had had COVID or died of it. This time I actually know and work with people who have had it and also who have died of it. They were in full health one week, and dead two weeks later. So, I got round to thinking what would happen if it happened to me.

If you get ill and When you die

I thought I ought to put a note on my fridge about who to contact in case in emergency. Then I didn’t know who to put. So I thought I better get my act together – and find a representative to represent me, look after me and undertake my wishes.

If you are ill (this can include: suddenly hospitalised, chronically ill, no longer able to make decisions due to dementia etc) you will need to appoint someone to be your chosen representative with power of attorney for when you are incapacitated. They need the authority to access to your computer, bank, house. hospital, enact your living will and inform people. And make sure people know who it is. In each country the rules are different.

*Lifesize Monopoly – Mall of the Emirates, Dubai by David Rigby*

When you die (this can result from terminal illness, dropping dead or sudden death from, for example, a car accident) you will need an executor. The power of attorney ceases when you die. You will need the executor to bury you, enact your will, close your bank accounts, pass on your business, delete you social media. Your executor therefore needs to be told about your death, and others need to know who your executor is.

Choosing the right person

You need someone to have power of attorney, and you need someone to be executor. You will also need a way of having substitutes in case they are not able to act on your behalf. I already have one executor die – and he was 20 years younger than me. You will need their agreement and permission. People need to know who it is.

Hidden Snags

If, like me, you are not living in the country you were born, have no relatives, the country’s language is not yours and the law is in that language, and you haven’t been there that long, then you need to get everything in place as the defaults are unpalatable. You will need a ‘Last will and testament’. If you have assets in more than one country or reside in more than one country you will need more than one Will.

And finally – if you are a person with the power of attorney or executor make sure your papers are in order. I had power of attorney/executor for my father and I could not prove who I was at his bank as my passport had expired.

*Altea Cementerio – Photo by David Rigby*

Generally, when you die it is clear. When you are ill it is not so clear. Someone has to have the authority to decide. People think they are immortal, and would rather not think about it. And then suddenly…

Note: I am not an expert in this. But having set this up I reserve the right to be self righteous. Ask and I will give you more detail, however you should get professional advice.