SeattleCoach! "Connection. Curiosity. Challenge."
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Photo by Mark Meadows
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My name is Patricia Burgin and I'm a leadership and communication coach for talented people and their teams. And I develop some of them to be uniquely skilled coaching leaders. Microsoft leaders have been a part of our internationally credentialed coach training and development program since our very beginning in 2008 (we'd be happy to regale you with the whole story, just ask). And as we've grown, I've watched you guys grow too, as you've figured out ways to invest in the human and social assets--the growth mindset--required of great companies. And with the introduction of your Leadership Principles, I believe this might be a special moment in the life of your company. |
We have lots of options for developing more Microsoft Coaching Leaders:
- Half-day “Building the Coaching Mindset” workshops for groups and teams: An introduction to the key skills, concepts and presence of professional leadership coaching.
- Our 10-month-long “Coaching for Leaders at Microsoft” (MCB): Thirty seasoned leaders + four quarterly off-sites + customized content + on-going peer groups = a little magic.
- In addition, since our launch in 2008, scored of Microsoft executives have participated with leaders from other great Northwest companies in our lengthier “SeattleCoach Professional Coach Training and Development Program.” We are credentialed as a training company by the International Coach Federation.
- Executive coaching for leaders and teams.
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These are the smart and attractive members of our second round of "Coaching for Leaders" (aka CFL2), which launched on March 26, 2018. Click on the image to hear our end-of-the-day "keepers." |
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The Coaching Leader's Arena
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You know how a great driver in a great car shifts smoothly through the gears--hitting the right one for the right conditions, the right moment? That's how we see the "arena" that great leaders operate in every day--in brief conversations, in meetings, in Connects, with individuals and with groups and teams. Many leaders find that the "southwest" quadrant is their "default" starting point. Then, as they begin to learn about the coaching gear (that "northeast" quadrant), they become better drivers overall. That's what "Coaching for Leaders" is all about. |
These are our areas of focus:
- Developing a coaching culture in which employees become people of greater substance, capacity, engagement and confidence.
- The neuroscience of how human brains organize to engage with others and to metabolize change,
- The personal presence and subsequent influence of each coaching leader (no blaming, shaming or reactivity required),
- The ability to recognize "coaching moments" with individuals, groups and teams and then,
- Partnering on actionable experiments each time we meet, and always,
- Some fun.
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Click on the photo to the right to listen to an interview with Patty's pal & frequent collaborator, Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules. The SeattleCoach faculty team knows what great coaching looks like, when to use it and how it works. Dr. Medina brings a steady flow of research about why brains like it. |
Patty presenting with pal Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules.
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A few favorites: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Carol Dweck. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. Robert Kegan Immunity to Change. Robert Kegan. Brain Rules. John Medina. |
- To learn more about the process of coach training and development with SeattleCoach, click here
- Read the SeattleCoach white paper, "What Happens When Leaders Learn to Coach?"
- Click here for a glimpse of how we see the difference between mentoring and coaching.
- And to get your research fix, every year the International Coach Federation (ICF) does a project with the Human Capital Institute about the impact of coaching on employee engagement, Building a Coaching Culture.
- From HBR: How Microsoft Uses a Growth Mindset to Develop Leaders.
Why we ask coaching leaders to put away their devices while we meet: Simon Sinek sums it up.
A crucial resource for leaders and their teams (with thanks to The Table Group): This is our favorite team-meeting strategy. - How to Develop a "Self-Authoring Mind." Dr. Robert Kegan.
- And for coaches at Microsoft who decide to earn international certification with the ICF, click here to download a spreadsheet.
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Patty, to participants in the Pilot Microsoft-SeattleCoach Cohort: "Do you think Microsoft will make more money, have more fun and do more good because you all have invested this time in becoming coaching leaders?" Their (vigorous) responses: "We'll listen better and take better risks. We'll ask better questions and be more innovative. We'll course-correct faster. We'll argue about the right things, but more kindly. We'll probably stay around longer." |
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"Coaching has a proven impact: add coaching to an initiative and people will focus on that initiative more. Add coaching to training and people learn more, up to 6 times as much in some cases. Coaches are like midwives for change: they know when change is coming, when it’s here, when it needs a nudge, and when it’s happening too fast. As change catalysts, coaches assist with managing the speed of change and smooth transition through change. With our understanding of how the brain works - there is an inbuilt resistance to change, and minimising the stress response, and error detection of the amygdala through actions like naming and normalising – we can make this process less painful. Change can be deeply challenging and emotional change required in organizational transition requires hardwiring of new learning through insight and action. Coaches are the perfect people to have around to facilitate this process." David Rock, Driving Organizational Change with Internal Coaching Programs |
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