There’s some great leadership research papers posted in the Library of Professional Coaching. Here’s an excerpt from one that’s about complex systems and decision theory by John Bush.

Organizations are complex systems. A system can be considered complex if its agents meet four qualifications: diversity, connection, interdependence, and adaptation. In an organization the agents are all the people who work within the organization. These agents are diverse in that they are individuals with their own unique personalities, experiences, intelligence, emotions, preferences, etc. They are connected with each other by affiliation within the organization for the purpose of achieving the goals of the organization. They are interdependent since the work of each depends upon the other members of the organization. They adapt because each member of the organization is learning, changing, and evolving as a result of his interactions with the other members of the organization.

The process of adaptation is highly dynamic in response to local and global environments. The local environment of an organization is the interactions that occur within the organization; global environments refer to the interactions of the organization itself with other organizations. As organizations are connected and interdependent globally, organizations themselves learn and change and evolve locally, and individual agents within those organizations also adapt. It can be seen that adaption is a highly interconnected dynamic system.

Complex systems are often unpredictable and they can produce large events. They are robust and able to recover from serious damage. Complex systems produce bottom-up emergent phenomena where the results on the macro level are not equal to the micro parts of the organization. This phenomenon of emergence means that not only will the results be larger than the parts, but that at times the results will be different in kind. An example often given is the phenomena of self organization seen in flocks of birds or schools of fish. Emergent phenomena arises bottom-up without any top-down planning.

To understand the process of decision-making in complex organizations we must understand the concept of landscapes. Professor Scott Page in The Teaching Company course, Understanding Complexity, presents a full description of landscapes in complex systems. The idea of the landscape is both a metaphor and a mathematical object wherein the value of a function at a particular point is mapped as an elevation on a landscape. Landscapes are composed of valleys and two kinds of peaks: local and global. A local peak is a point on the landscape from which a step in any direction is a step down in elevation. A global peak is the highest of all the local peaks of a given landscape. In the metaphor a peak represents a high point of value and for organizations, the height of the peak represents the economic success of the organization at that point in time.

 

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/research/decision-theory-in-complex-systems/

I’ve blogged about gratitude before (http://www.suzipomerantz.com/top-5-blues-busting-mindsets-to-combat-the-current-economy/) and I’m happy to share with you this excerpt my colleague Maynard Brusman posted in the Library of Professional Coaching:

A large body of research on positive psychology and happiness suggests that developing an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being.Recent research indicates that people who frequently feel grateful have increased energy, more optimism, increased social connections and more happiness than those that do not. Grateful people are less likely to be anxious, depressed, self-absorbed and greedy or suffer from substance abuse. They are economically better off, sleep better, exercise more regularly, and are more resilient.

As simple as it sounds, gratitude is actually a complex emotion that requires self-reflection, humility and empathy for others. Being grateful requires a shift in mind-set from negativity and blaming others focusing on problems, annoyances or perceived injustices to appreciating and giving credit to others.

Psychological research indicates that the experience of gratitude makes us happy, and that the regular experience of gratitude can actually enable us to elevate our typical level of happiness in a sustained way. It takes regular practice to become a healthy habit.

Gratitude increases well-being because it promotes the savoring of positive experiences.  We stop taking things for granted and notice small things with a sense of wonder and appreciation. Gratitude allows us to get the most from the good things in our lives.

 

READ THE FULL POST HERE: http://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/research/eq-ei/how-to-create-an-attitude-of-gratitude/

Ever wonder about the history of coaching? The author provides the most authoritative account to date regarding the history of professional coaching that is based on an extensive literature review and in-depth interviews with 175 key contributors to the field of professional coaching.  Vikki Brock’s well-researched doctoral dissertation is posted at the Library of Professional Coaching and you can access the full history there.

Over the course of the study, the inquiry shifted from documenting the roots of coaching for the purpose of reducing confusion of what constitutes coaching to: identifying the influences each of the relevant root disciplines have on coaching; documenting the impact the backgrounds of influencers had on the discipline and its practices; looking at what coaching can learn from the evolution of root disciplines that may be relevant to the evolution of coaching; and what supporting factors contributed to the emergence of coaching as a distinct discipline in the late 20th century. Factors explored include: the distinction between practice/tools and theories/models, the multidisciplinary influences on coaching’ root disciplines, the evolutionary nature of socioeconomic influences, the impact of connections between influencers, the concept of postmodernism as a backdrop to coaching’s emergence, and what the future holds for coaching.

My friend and Twitterbuddy, Frank Sonnenberg, has just released the 2nd edition of his amazing book, Managing with a Conscience. Check it out:

In the turbulent, frenetic, dog-eat-dog times of the past few decades, many believed that the only way to achieve success was to be unscrupulous. Acting like slumlords, corporations let their assets deteriorate by exploiting customers, mistreating employees, and squeezing suppliers. What they overlooked, however, was that their obsession with short-term results significantly damaged their company’s long-term performance as well as its competitiveness. Today, it is more critical than ever to put an end to these shortsighted tactics.

Managing with a Conscience presents a better option for improving long-term success, restoring traditional values, and injecting trust and integrity into all business practices and relationships. This new edition of Managing with a Conscience clearly defines nine factors critical to success. They include building an organization with passion that focuses on major priorities, reinvents itself every day, devotes itself to service excellence, adapts well to change, responds with speed, maintains a flexible structure, taps unlimited resources through networking, and puts integrity back where it belongs, right beside the bottom line.

Managing with a Conscience was written to help reanimate the values that count and to demonstrate how to improve performance through integrity, trust, and commitment.

About the Author

Frank Sonnenberg, a marketing strategist and partner at Sonnenberg & Partners, has written four books, published over 300 articles, and appeared on CNN as “a nationally recognized expert in the field of marketing.” Frank served as the National Director of Marketing for Ernst & Young’s Management Consulting Group for over a decade. He and his marketing firm have consulted to some of the largest and most respected companies in the world.

IndustryWeek named the first edition of Managing with a Conscience one of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year. Salon.com named Frank’s blog among the top 100 in 2009. Trust Across America named Frank one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders of 2010. In 2011, Social Media Marketing Magazine (SMM) selected Frank as one of the top marketing authors in the world on Twitter. He has served as an expert panelist for Bottom Line Business, as the marketing columnist for The Journal of Business Strategy, and on the editorial board of The Journal of Training and Development. He is active within his community and has served on several boards.

This has been a very exciting month at the Library of Professional Coaching!

We re-launched our new platform to make the highly vetted collection of coaching-related materials available to you at no cost and in ways that are much easier to navigate, access, and download. (Can I hear an “AMEN”?)

In our first week since the re-launch, we had visitors from 43 countries!

And now, we are DELIGHTED to announce that our newest sponsor is…(…drumroll, please….) the International Coach Federation, the largest existing international association for coaches with over 17,000 global members!  Woohoo!

We are honored and proud to have the ICF stamp of support, and we are rolling around in gratitude for all our generous sponsors and angels, without whom this unique and needed online library resource would not exist!

If you know anyone who serves/supports coaches, trains coaches, creates tools for coaches, or writes books relevant to coaches or their clients, please encourage them to consider sponsoring the Library of Professional Coaching — it will get them unparalleled international exposure and we have many very reasonable options for every budget starting as low as $75.

CALLING ALL AUTHORS: If you have written articles, case studies, tools, essays, dissertations, or research reports relevant to the profession of coaching, please submit them directly to the new site anytime!

See you at the Library!

Woohoo!  Break out the champagne! It’s re-launch time!

We are super-excited to share with you the wonderful news regarding the Library of Professional Coaching. Thanks to the contributions of our angels and sponsors, we just re-launched and are now celebrating the new platform that is sleek, streamlined, organized, easier to access, easy on the eyes, and best of all no charge for you to use! Visit now and tell all your friends! LibraryofProfessionalCoaching.com

We have new categories and subcategories to explore, and you can more easily download as well as submit articles and book chapters. You can also become a sponsor to take advantage of the great SEO exposure (the site gets 1,000 – 5,000 organic search hits per day). There are currently over 150 articles loaded and we have more rolling in each day, so check back often!

Visit now and tell all your friends! LibraryofProfessionalCoaching.com

Call for Case Studies!

If you have written and own the copyright to any case studies related to coaching in any of the sectors listed on the new site, please submit your articles HERE as soon as possible!

WE ARE ON TWITTER!  Follow us here: @LibraryProCoach

WE ARE ON FACEBOOK!  Like us here!

Do you suffer from any of the following frustrations?

-Do you have a lack of FUNDS to grow your business?
-Are you so tied up with the mundane day to day activities you
have to perform in your business that you don’t have TIME to
really grow your business?
-Are you frustrated with your TEAM, who you can’t really trust and
who don’t really care about your success?
-Do you wish you could seek the advice of other business owners who
have overcome the difficulties you face?
-Are you sick and tired at wasting money on buying marketing
courses that you don’t/can’t apply?

My friend Barry Plaskow experienced all of these issues over his
career.

He admits that he only overcame them through the good fortune of
meeting some real business experts who honestly wanted him to
succeed.

Now he has created a membership where you get live training from
Barry and his mentors + a load of ongoing resources at no cost.

http://nanacast.com/vp/98574/112395

I’ve personally seen some of the training sessions, it’s
simply top class and there is no sales pitch.

Moreover, there is a real business community being built around
this idea, which you want to be part of.

I look forward to seeing you over there.

http://nanacast.com/vp/98574/112395

For me the best part of this entire idea is their
interactivity with you. They want to know your business obstacles
so they can create expert training to help you overcome them.

It’s the next best thing to having a world class personal
consultant on your team.

http://nanacast.com/vp/98574/112395

If you lead or coach in organizations, you’ve undoubtedly run across the process improvement system known as Six Sigma.  I remember 10 years ago when I was coaching leaders in the law department of DuPont, they were working to apply Six Sigma (typically a manufacturing process improvement system) to the work of the legal department, and it was fascinating to learn about the strategies and approaches embedded in that system.  Want to learn more about it?  Visit these blogs, and for a longer list of 20 Essential Six Sigma blogs, visit the Bschool link.

1. Six Sigma: This blog declares itself to be the best resource about everything Six Sigma. While you’ll have to decide whether or not that’s really the case, there certainly is no shortage of information on it here, with just about everything you need to get started on hand.
2. Six Sigma Blogs: Visit this blog to read the latest news stories related to Six Sigma and other great management strategies.
3. iSix Sigma: Here you’ll find a variety of bloggers who can provide humor, insights, information and guidance on all aspects of the Six Sigma philosophy.
4. PEX Blogs: The Process Excellence Network’s blogs can help you learn not only about Six Sigma, but also how it’s been combined with Lean management strategies to make it more effective than ever.
5. Six Sigma Basic: Those who’d like to learn some of the basics of Six Sigma will be well-served by making this blog a regular read.
6. Discover 6 Sigma: From the basic tools required to use Six Sigma to the science behind the latest advancements in manufacturing improvements, this blog covers a wide range of helpful issues.
7. Lean Six Sigma Blog: Combining aspects of Six Sigma and Lean, this blog offers up a host of amazing resources and inspiring articles to help you in your management journey.
8. LSS Academy: Another Lean Six Sigma blog, this blog may be just what you need to get motivated to become a better leader and manager.
9. Improvement and Innovation: Learn new ways that you can change how your company does business that can improve outputs and lower costs with the amazing stories featured here.
10. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: If becoming a better manager is one of your goals, give this blog a read. You’ll learn about a variety of strategies, including Six Sigma, that can help you be better at what you do.

Ever wonder if you were doing the right things that align with your personality and  natural style?  I just took this profile that is based on the premise that there are only 8 possible ways to create true wealth, and each of these ways has certain rules.  When followed, those rules produce optimal results.  But how do you know which path to wealth is most aligned to your natural character? And once you know which path is best for you, what are the steps to take?  What I love about this profile is that it takes the guesswork out of it.  Find your flow and stop working so hard!! Wealth Dynamics is the only personality test that tells you exactly what strategy you should follow to build wealth. See for yourself!

Here’s a little video of the designer of the profile talking about it, which I find SUPER helpful:

TalentKeepers’ annual survey, Talent Engagement and Retention Trends, allows organizations to participate and share their cost, causes, and consequences of disengaged employees and benchmark their results against industry norms.

Maitland, FL, January 21, 2011 –(PR.com)– When senior leaders understand what front-line employees want from the organization, their leader, co-workers, and what motivates them in their job, they can effectively breakdown key factors that either drive employee engagement or influence employees to consider options outside the organization. According to TalentKeepers it’s important for organizations to uncover the cost, causes, and consequences of disengaged employees and implement powerful strategies that help increase operational effectiveness.

For over a decade TalentKeepers has conducted a survey called Talent Engagement and Retention Trends to allow organizations to confidentially share employee engagement and retention factors that impacted them over the last 12-months. On average, over 500 organizations within every major industry complete the brief annual survey. One of the critical benefits for participating is that organizations have an opportunity to benchmark their data against industry norms.

“HR Executives are typically tasked with uncovering key factors that influence employee engagement and reporting their findings back to the Executive Team,” explains Christopher Mulligan, CEO for TalentKeepers. “Many times organizations gather data just from within; however when Human Resources also includes industry norms in their discussion and benchmarks the organization against others, buy-in increases for initiatives that require attention because senior leaders value a broader perspective.”

Coaching executives and enhancing their knowledge will improve organizational performance metrics in sales, service, and productivity. TalentKeepers’ encourages all organizations to participate in the short, complementary survey because it gathers key items that have a direct correlation on employee engagement as well as survey takers receive privileged access to research results, white papers that are broken down by industry, and webinars.

“As a global talent management provider, we find it’s important to continuously check in with all types of organizations. We collect the pain points others are faced with on a daily basis as well as share recommendations that we know will work and make a difference to the bottom line,” comments Mulligan. “Executives love to receive meaningful data that will help take the organization to the next level.”

The Talent Engagement and Retention Trends survey is available now. For more information, or to obtain access to the survey, please contact Kerri Weber at kweber@talentkeepers.com.

About TalentKeepers®
TalentKeepers® has spent the past decade researching the reasons why employees choose to join, stay or leave a company. By optimizing co-worker, employee, leader and organizational activities that keep talented employees motivated to help their company succeed, TalentKeepers has become one of the most well known and trusted names in the human resources industry. For more information about TalentKeepers, please go to www.talentkeepers.com.

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