Category: Mentoring
Mentoring: An Investment in the Future
Think for a moment about a person who made a significant difference in your career. Perhaps it was a boss, another key leader in your organization, a revered family member, who provided time, advice, wisdom and/or introductions. A wise mentor of mine told me as I was getting a new program off the ground, “The more attention you get about this from the outside, the more respect you’ll get for it on the inside.” I have passed that wisdom on many times! Mentoring is shown to be one of the most effective and efficient ways in developing emerging talent in an organization and increasing retention of key staff. Here’s a quick reminder – enjoy!
Getting Along with Millenials at Work
| “How to Work with Millenials” is all the rage these days. As you can see from this great article, good management of people of that demographic is a lot like good management of everybody else. We all want to feel valued, be recognized for our contributions, have enough flexibility that our lives are not out of control, and see how what we are doing now can contribute to our career goals. I suggest we all apply these principles below to managing Millenials, and incorporate them in our management of all our team members.
Enjoy! |
Executive Coaching Group, Alexcel, Selects The Maue Center President as Member
The Alexcel Group, an elite group of world class executive coaches has selected Carolyn Maue, President of The Maue Center as member.
{Pittsburgh, PA/Orlando, FL, May 2, 2017} Carolyn Maue, President of The Maue Center was recently selected as a member of The Alexcel Group, an elite international alliance of highly experienced consultants and executive coaches. “Only those executive consultants who have a proven track record of achieving results for clients and who meet Alexcel’s stringent professional standards are invited to join our alliance. All Alexcel coaches and consultants work as experts in their areas of specialization and we manage our engagements personally instead of delegating our projects down to other team members. And because our executive consultants run independent businesses, we are nimble and offer clients excellent service without a lot of overhead. Our members are world class leaders in executive development, team building and organizational development. We help you achieve sustainable success through leadership excellence. Executive coaches and consultants of our international alliance are located in Europe, Asia, and throughout the US,” according to the group’s website.
Dan Feldman, President of Leadership Performance Solutions and Managing Director of Alexcel Group noted that, “Carolyn’s demonstrates tremendous strengths as a coach and consultant and creates new synergies for our group. She embodies the three pillars that Alexcel Group’s 34 members rely upon among each other to deliver the highest caliber of service– building community, sharing knowledge, and collaboration. Our team can leverage Carolyn’s tremendous value to become an even greater resource for our clients.”
Gay Fogarty, Ph.D., Leadership Development Coach, Founder and Managing Director at The Fogarty Group sponsored Carolyn’s consideration with the Alexcel Group. Gay states “I was thrilled to be able to nominate my colleague and good friend for membership in Alexcel. One of the hallmarks of Alexcel is the on-going exchange of knowledge and experience by this International Network of highly vetted, experienced and well qualified Executive Coaches and Leadership Development Consultants. I am certain that Carolyn will have much to add to this amazing group with her diverse background of providing high quality and valuable services to both executive coaching and organizational consulting in corporations and non-profits.”
Carolyn Maue established The Maue Center in 2004 and serves as a trusted resource to leaders in envisioning the future for their organizations, and in building the leadership skill and capacity of leaders through leadership coaching and leadership team development. A successful entrepreneur and communicator, Carolyn is an expert in dealing with “people” issues in the workplace, consistently yielding positive change for the organizations she serves. The Maue Center supports forward-thinking executives to guide leaders in growth strategies to increase their effectiveness, and to increase their ability to use power with wisdom to positively impact their teams, organizations, and communities. Carolyn’s mission is to “Change the World One Leader at a Time,” knowing that strong leadership inspires those around them to be the best they can be.
Carolyn and The Maue Center consultants are excited and honored with this prestigious membership. The company will leverage these connections to continue to provide the highest caliber of leadership development and coaching.
Value Your Team
| Hello! As a leadership coach, I believe that a leader’s most important responsibility is to build capacity and develop others, through teaching, encouraging, mentoring and modeling. This article sums it up well with good reminders. Enjoy! |
Carolyn’s 7 C’s for Dealing with Difficult People
Hello! I have had several executive coaching clients lately who are struggling with negative people in their organizations. This, as you know, is not uncommon, unfortunately. Through the years, I have come up with a list of action steps, as we often feel so powerless when we are dealing with people whose behavior and attitude are toxic. I call it:
“Carolyn’s 7 C’s for Dealing with Difficult People”
- Be Clear. Have your facts ready and know what you want to say and ask for. Stay objective and stick to the subject.. One of the ways negative people maintain their power is that they say things that surprise and sting. As with most human behavior, once we analyze the situation, we realize that there are patterns, and we can plan for them. When less surprised, we can keep our balance.
- Use the power of Conversation. “The conversation IS the relationship.” (Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations).- Sometimes it helps to have a “heart to heart”conversation with this type of person and let them know how much their behavior impacts us. We just need to remember that it may not change their behavior (in the long run) but we have drawn a line in the sand and articulated out loud how much it means to us. The truth is powerful.
- Count to 10 before responding when tension is high. (This includes email.) Don’t press “send” when you are upset! And keep emotions out of email. And walk away and breathe before responding when they say something particularly ridiculous.
- Conjure up your Courage to do the right things and say the truth. Speaking the truth about this type of situation sometimes means we need to take it higher –to our boss, the person’s boss, to HR. This type of person can cast a dark pall over a work group, and it is our responsibility as leaders to advocate for a healthy culture.
- Create an image in your mind of this person that increases your empathy. Remember that they have a mother. They were a kid once, too, etc. And remember that negativity is often rooted in pain, fear, and powerlessness.
- Cushion the relationship with diversions: food works well. So do stories, art, and laughter. Keeping it light is really important here, and showing others that there are way more important things than swimming in these negative waters. Bring in bagels, go for a walk, get people to tell jokes. It can be a great counter-weight.
- Know how to use your Charm. When we walk in our own power and truth, and foster the great relationships we can build with our team and peers, our light outshines frustration and negativity. Remember to remind yourself of your strengths and gifts, and walk down the hall with them on display! Good luck!
In Their Element
The power of watching leaders “in their element” – I had the opportunity to see the talented Karen Lightman, Executive Director of MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, host and facilitate a full day workshop at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Being there to observe her greeting members, facilitating discussions, meeting many people in the industry, and pulling it all together in a one day conference gave me a much greater awareness of her talent, her challenges and the environment of her work. And attending CES is an experience! My mind was expanded seeing the technological future and how the use of sensors to provide in-time as well as big data to health and fitness, automobiles, home management, and virtual reality is already changing the way we live.
The Value of Mentoring Women
Mentoring women has been shown to be a key element in the success of women in the workplace, providing advice, support, guidance and access to networks to women at various stages of their careers. I had the privilege this week of hearing Jada Grandy’s eloquent and impassioned keynote speech on the importance of mentoring at the Robert Morris University Women and Transformational Leadership Symposium. Jada is a Senior Vice President & Regional CRA Strategies Director of Fifth Third Bank. I felt honored as she acknowledged me as one of her mentors. Jada spoke of some of the key ways in which her various mentors have helped her in her life and career, which are often a part of the mentoring relationship: professionalism, integrity, image, advocacy, communication, work life “integration,” negotiation skills and networking. She encouraged the college students in the audience to seek out mentors, and passionately requested professionals in the audience to volunteer as a mentor. Programs like the ones at Robert Morris U. provide the structure and resources to assure the success, stability and continuation of mentoring relationships. I’ll be exploring mentoring in future posts!