Background

Have you ever been a frog?  I have. 

I’ll bet you have too, and you didn’t even know it. 

I could be one right now, all over again, and simply not have recognized it.  That’s the trouble with being a frog in hot water.  Sometimes, the temperature comes up so slowly you don’t jump when things change around you. 

Hot water floods today’s corporate environment, but you should think of this as more than just a negative business or job performance situation.  Here, hot water represents the energy of all potential learning opportunities:  from good bosses and bad, positive situations and negative, winning times and losing.  The water always teaches if you remember to jump. 

This blog shares what I have begun to learn about how to jump.  So that regardless of the what’s in the water, you take advantage of it.  Ultimately, jumping represents professional development and career growth, both for you and for those with whom you work.  We are at our best when we’re jumping!  

Though almost cliché, development matters, and without question, development of others has brought me the greatest satisfaction in my career.  I remember most clearly those conversations that have centered on coaching.  I am most proud of the notes, emails and gifts that I received from those with whom I have built development plans.  I have found that while business accomplishments fade from my memory rather quickly, successes created with people last.  Think of it another way:  would you need a resume to catalog the meaningful moments you’ve had with the people in your career?

For me, learning how to recognize development moments and how to construct a good coaching conversation has been a long journey.  Beginning with Information Resources some 18 years ago, I have lived the development practices of Kraft Foods, SC Johnson, and now Jarden Corporation.  I have worked with 12 different managers and read more articles than I can remember.

I would tell you my key learning can be summarized in 3 points:

1.     Organizations declare specific values and competencies that ultimately prove quite similar, but often without enough specifics on the process.

2.     Individuals approach development quite disparately, but often without the discipline devoted to other deliverables.

3.     Information on coaching abounds, but often overwhelms application with theory.

When pushed, I would also tell you that my most important learning is this:  it only takes one good moment to change how you view coaching and development thereafter. 

In my case, it took just one conversation with a boss who had a process.  Howard Brandeisky, then a VP at Kraft, took the time to gather insights into my job performance from both his observations and those of others, and then created a structured, relevant and objective conversation.  A conversation that laid out both opportunities and strengths, and how between the two, I could navigate them within my career. 

Howard created a moment.  His methodology did not rely on complexity.  It did not require and extensive amount of his or other’s time.  Creating impact requires neither.  But when pulled together, that conversation clearly stood apart from countless other mid-year and year-end evaluations.

Since that first jump with Howard, I have reinvented not only the way I learn, but also the way I help others learn as well.  It did not happen overnight, nor did it really start to gel until I was at SC Johnson.  Given that I hadn’t been much of a coach at all in the past, my doubts about whether or not people would accept my coaching moving forward proved my biggest obstacle.  Turns out, the past didn’t matter; it mattered that I stayed committed.  Beginning your journey requires only that you have the courage to act and that you declare your intent. 

My intent:  create moments, recognize frogness. 

With that, let’s jump in!