Author: John Baldoni

Much is written as well as taught about the process of executive coaching. For me, my introduction began with my first career: speechwriting.

Speechwriters are storytellers. They help leaders put their stories into words.

Executive coaches are story makers. They help leaders create their stories to grow their skills as individuals and their capacity as leaders.

Speechwriting and executive coaching are, of course, two distinct disciplines. Speechwriters work with words. Executive coaches work with behaviors. Both are in the self-improvement business. One focuses on words. The other on actions. Both focus on the same goal: authenticity. Keeping it real with honesty, integrity and compassion.

Speechwriters and coaches emulate each other’s professions with how they begin their processes—with good questions! Here are three good starter questions.

What’s happening? Context is essential. Both speechwriters and coaches need to know the lay of the land. How is the organization performing? What does the competitive landscape look like? Placing the speech in the context of vision (what the organization wants to become), mission (what the organization is doing), and values (what holds the organization together) is essential.

What challenges are facing the organization? Even in the best of times, there are clouds on the horizon. As well as rainbows. Asking your client (or her aides) to give a quick overview of organizational strengths, structural weaknesses, opportunities for growth, and threats to the status quo or the future is an excellent way to get a feel for the challenges. Speechwriters can integrate some topics into their presentations. Coaches use this information to know the challenges the executive is facing.

What is our plan of action? Good speeches are calls to action. Good coaching is anchored in action planning. It is the speechwriter’s job to encourage the client to be specific in what the organization will do and what role the audience (stakeholders) will play in it. It is the job of an executive coach to encourage the client to look at what they can improve and be specific about road-mapping action steps.

These questions may spark a host of other questions, but these three provide a framework for discussion that gets to the heart of the matter. They place the speechwriter or the coach on the road to understanding their client better.

Touching the heart

These questions are diagnostic. There is one other element: the heart. We call it empathy.

Empathy is the feeling of understanding another person’s suffering. Leaders need to do more than understand; they need to alleviate. They act with compassion to make things better for an individual and the team. 

Speechwriters who tap into the vein of empathy through stories and examples will enable their clients to come across with a sense of concern for others. Likewise, executive coaches who remind their clients to connect with their people on a personal and professional level enable them to build a strong sense of rapport and commitment.

“We speak not only to tell other people what we think,” wrote neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, “but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.” And to which I add “the impetus to act.”

First posted on Forbes.com 1/07/2022

Say you land a job about which you know little, in a field you know even less about, and in a country different from your own. If you do, you will be emulating the premise of Ted Lasso, a new show from Apple TV+.

The good news is that Ted Lasso, co-created by Jason Sudekis and stars in the title role, is a comedy. The better news is that the 10-part television series is an insightful primer on management and leadership.

Lasso is an American college football coach hired to manage a “football” (soccer) team in England’s Premier League, the world’s highest competitive soccer league. An outlandish premise, yes, but a treat to watch as well as from which to learn. 

You see, Lasso is an everyman who makes up for what he doesn’t know about English football with a deep and profound understanding of human nature, in particular as it applies to creating a team culture. Without divulging the plot twists and turns (and delights), the series reveals vital lessons that every manager would be wise to follow.

Trust your people. Lasso’s right-hand man is Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt). The two have a long history together, and while they do not always agree, they trust one another. The two of them readily embrace the outside perspective that comes in the form of the team kit man, Nathan (Nick Mohammed).

Lay back. To me, the heart of Ted Lasso’s leadership is “laissez-faire.” It is an endearing quality that adds charm to his character while it reveals his faith in people. Lasso sees talent, skill and desire in players that others may overlook. That is the genius of the manager. Look at the best in others and allow them to prove themselves. 

Make tough decisions. Management calls for setting direction and ensuring that the train stays on the rails. Leadership requires making tough decisions about people. Lasso’s natural style is laid back as it relates to people, but he knows that his role is to make the final call. He does it so well that others emulate his example.

Believe. In the first episode, Lasso posts a handwritten sign saying “Believe” over the door to his office, which by the way, has a very open-door policy. Lasso does what all great managers do: enable people to believe in themselves. (Yes, you will find such signs in every high school and college locker room, but with Lasso, the message is not a cliché; it resonates with authenticity.) 

Believe begets confidence

Belief in self is what distinguishes the winners from the also-rans. Belief is the cornerstone of confidence, which is essential to leadership. People have to believe that the person in charge is capable of doing the job. That sentiment leads to faith in the leader. And when the leader can turn, dare say transmute, that confidence to the team, great things can occur.

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them,” wrote Ernest Hemingway. That statement can be ascribed to Ted Lasso because the root of his ability to connect with others is his willingness to trust them. He looks at people with an open heart, a willingness to suspend judgment as a means of enabling them to fulfill their role in the team.

Managers who balance direction with guidance, belief with confidence, and purpose with conviction, are those who point their teams in the right direction and watch them soar. Or at least do their very best.

First posted on Forbes.com 9.21.2020

Anyone following the news in the past year or knows of Fiona Hill, the White House advisor for Eastern European affairs. She was called to testify before Congress as a “fact witness” related to the Trump Administration’s interactions with Russia and Ukraine. Her testimony was solid, and she gained positive recognition for her steadfast demeanor and professionalism.

We did not know that Fiona Hill was also acting—not dissembling but delivering her presentation in an ice-cold room. As she told Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Hill had been given a heads up by a woman colleague who said that men in suits liked the room cold so they would not be seen sweating under the lights. That is cold comfort for women, of course. 

The backstory

Ms. Hill’s insights into the presentation, which come from her memoir, There Is Nothing for You Here, provides an inside look at the relations between Trump and Vladimir Putin and the Administration’s handling of the Ukraine issue.

Before she testified in public, she was subject to scrutiny. Immediately, the team of lawyers told her, ‘Well, we’ll need to have someone to do your hair and your makeup, and we’ll need to kind of figure out how you look on the day.’ And I felt, ‘Really? Do they do this for men as well?’” As she explained, she thought she had put such things behind her, but as she concluded, “I always thought when I was younger, like ‘God, I’m not going to be 14 forever, and eventually this won’t matter.’ And you get to be 54, and it still matters, particularly if you’re a woman.”

Years earlier, however, Hill’s undistinguished looks may have given her a front-row seat to history. It was 2004, and she was seated next to Vladimir Putin. Hill was told later that it was because she was not beautiful and would not draw attention to herself. A man, she was told, would be noticed and the subject to speculation about who he was. A woman in her late thirties who was dressed plainly would not.

Steel yourself to speak

These stories, and many more, illustrate the discrepancy between how women and men are treated in public settings. None of her stories are unusual, save for the backdrop of international affairs and history. What is remarkable is Fiona Hill’s strong sense of self. And for that reason, her insight into public presentation has relevance. 

Plan ahead. For presentations, know your audience. What do they expect from you, and what will you deliver? Ideally, you constantly tailor your presentation to the audience, but you may want to hold sensitive topics back until asked in certain situations. 

Know the terrain. Fiona Hill knew the room would be cold, and she took the advice of a woman colleague who told her to plant her feet firmly on the floor as a means of physically grounding herself against the chill. Such a stance also enabled Ms. Hill to stay calm and allow her adrenaline to kick in.

Believe in yourself. Self-awareness is essential to demeanor. What you know about yourself can give you the confidence to stand up to challenges, either verbal or career-wise. In addition, taking stock of your strengths will buttress the negative emotions that may arise in times of crisis.

Fiona Hill has served her adopted country for decades as an analyst and advisor.  When the light of history shone its brightest on her, she delivered a lesson in maintaining composure as well as credibility.

Adapted from Forbes.com 00.00.2021

Listening to the comments of those he worked with, we come away with a picture of Colin Powell that is very much aligned with our impressions of him, but more so now that he has died.

A general. A warfighter. A peacemaker. A diplomat. A mentor. 

Retired admiral James Stavridis, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Powell’s sense of civility and grace. Our impression of generals is too often that of bold, brash and take charge. Powell did the latter well, but he did it with a worldview shaped by his background and his service as a frontline combat soldier. 

No one hates war more than soldiers do, Stravridis said, quoting William Tecumseh Sherman and applying it to Powell. Having seen the cost of war up close and personally in Vietnam, he sought to avoid it. But, if it were inevitable, as seen in the first Gulf War, it must be waged vigorously and with the end in sight. 

Sadly, no exit strategy was in sight, as Secretary of State in 2003 made a case for war in Iraq because it was believed that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, at least by the Bush administration. None were found. Powell advised President Bush against the war and later came to regret his role in it and admitted it publicly. “I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world,” Powell told Barbara Walters on ABC News, acknowledging that his presentation “will always be a part of my record.”

Working the system

Fortunately, Powell contributed much more. He was a pragmatist. As a diplomat, Powell understood how governments work and how governance needed to be in place. 

Powell was a people person. Richard Haass, a friend of more than 40 years who first worked with him at the Pentagon, recalls seeing then Col. Powell make phone calls every morning, something Powell referred to as checking the “trap lines.” Haass explained that Powell was seeking information. 

Information was a currency Powell could use to understand the bigger picture. And when used appropriately could lead to greater understanding between individuals and even government agencies. “Anybody who becomes a senior officer had better have some political instincts or you’re going to get ground up,” Powell told the New York Times. “We are a political nation. It is not a dirty word.”

Powell was proud of being the first Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black Secretary of State. Quite a leap for the son of immigrants from Jamaica. Yet, as John Meacham noted on Morning Joe, Powell said his race should not matter. What should matter is a commitment to service and the competency to do the job well.

A mentor to many

There is another side of Powell that amplifies his humanity. Powell was a mentor to many young women and men in the military and State Department. Stravridis recalls that when he was named the NATO Commander, the first person he went to see was Powell, who had once held that position. Stavridis told him to remember to do his job and remind himself that he was not Charlemagne. That is, keep humble and understand you can only do so much as an American general in Europe. 

Lloyd Austin, the current Secretary of Defense, said, “I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor. He always made time for me, and I could always go to him with tough issues. He always had great counsel. We will certainly miss him. I feel as if I have a hole in my heart.”

Colin Powell—soldier-statesman, mentor-leader—left a leadership legacy to remember.

First posted on Forbes.com 10.18.2021

When the Michigan Wolverines, losers of eight consecutive games to archrival Ohio State (17 of 19 in this century), beat the Buckeyes in Ann Arbor. It was head coach Jim Harbaugh’s first victory over Ohio State since becoming head coach in 2015. Many Michigan fans (including this one) wanted him gone, but Harbaugh remained, despite a significant salary cut. 

One group that wanted Harbaugh to stay was his players. They did not quit despite being underdogs. Speaking after the game, star defensive end, Aidan Hutchinson, said “These [Ohio State] guys have been disrespecting us, stepping on our jerseys, talking about hanging 100 on us, doing all the rah-rah, doing all the talk,” star defensive end. “But we were about it today.”

“Today” actually began nearly a year ago, as quarterback Cade McNamara explained in post-game comments. “We’ve been playing these dudes, really, since January. Every workout, every practice, every game, everything we put into this season. It got leaked that we had upon our board, ‘What are you doing to beat Ohio State?’ That was something we kept in the back of our minds.”

Believe in yourself and your team

Harbaugh was what all great leaders who accomplish goals do: get their people to believe in themselves.  This feeling of being dominated is soul-destroying, so leaders must instill both purpose and pride in those they lead. 

And here’s how they do it.

Establish the purpose. People want to believe in something greater than themselves. For the Wolverines, it was to establish (or re-establish) a winning tradition.

Set the goals. Goals are the milestones that anchor purpose. They vary from year to year, but they demonstrate progress and a recommitment to the purpose.

Support the effort. Good leaders provide the resources teams need to succeed. I recall an Army officer telling me how you can break the spirit of a junior officer by giving him big goals and no support. He was not advocating this, of course, merely illustrating how purpose and goals are not enough. Teams need training and budgets to accomplish their objectives.

Teach resilience. Spend time listening and learning from your people. Ask them what they need. Challenge them, yes, but encourage them, especially when the chips are down and the goals seem out of reach. The road ahead is seldom straight; at times, it may even head backward. Leaders show how to deal with adversity.

Maintain composure. When things get tough, people look to their leader. So if he is acting jittery and distracted—or worse, upset and angry—people feel the tension. After all, just like confidence, nervousness is contagious.

Play the game

Doing these things are no guarantee that confidence will be shared. Leaders who believe in themselves must find ways to encourage their teams to do the same. So often, we have seen this with sports teams. Coaches, like Harbaugh, set the framework and support, and when wins occur, they defer praise to the team. And rightly so. Coaches don’t play the game. Players do. 

Football is not life. But lessons learned to encourage people to believe in what they can do, how they can do it better, and how they can take pride in their efforts and celebrate the results.

After the game, Harbaugh said, “My favorite saying of all time is ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ and the will was very strong with our team. The way it feels now just feels like the beginning.” 

Time will tell, but right the will to win is rooted in the confidence of having beaten their archrival for the first time in nearly a decade.

First posted on Forbes.com 11.28.2021

You know you made the right decision. 

And the decision was well made.

The problem is the results were not.

So now you’re on the hot seat.

People are clamoring for your head.

What do you do?

Apologize!

Every good apology has three operative elements: acknowledgment, acceptance and amends.

Acknowledge the wrong. First, say you are sorry for what occurred. People may be suffering. Acknowledge the pain and the loss. Make it known you understand their pain. Demonstrate empathy by showing compassion.

Accept the consequences. Shoulder the blame. Make it known that you hold yourself accountable and will work to rectify the situation. In the wake of the failed invasion in the Bay of Pigs, President John Kennedy, just four months in office, said, “Victory has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan.”

Make amends. People are disappointed, frustrated, and maybe even disillusioned. They don’t want speeches; they want actions. Talk about what you and your team will do immediately. Get working on the problems and take corrective measures.

No excuses!

Keep in mind an operative principle of apologies. It’s not about you. It’s about them. A leader who discusses everything he did to avoid the mistake may tell the truth, but those suffering do not want to hear it. Instead, they want to know that the person responsible for the error is focused on making things better.

Good apologies all contain one key element: no finger-pointing. A senior leader often makes an apology, even when she may not be directly responsible. But as the top person, it becomes your job to own the situation. So you don’t point fingers. Instead, you swallow your pride, and you take the heat.

Anyone can make excuses except those in charge. “Never ruin a good apology with an excuse,” said Ben Franklin.  You can provide the backstory, but when you do make it clear that you are not excusing yourself, you are merely giving context. Own the decision and its consequences.

Doing this will make people recognize that you have something we all want: a backbone. By making amends and correcting the situation, you create a path forward for your team, your organization, and maybe your reputation.

Move forward

No leader makes the right calls at the right time. But great leaders make things right when things go wrong. As Winston Churchill once quipped, “Success in life is the ability to move from one mistake to another without losing enthusiasm.” Defeat is not the end unless you let it define you. 

There are, of course, mistakes that require the leader to step down. But, in the grand scheme of things, those occasions are rare. When they involve moral transgression, removal from the position is a good thing. When they include mistakes in judgment, regard them as “teachable moments.”

Apologies are but the first step toward creating a better future. Forget this at your peril.

First posted on SmartBrief on 8.20.2021

No one wants to relive 2020. It was a year of pandemic, racial strife, economic crisis and climate catastrophes. This year, 2021 promises to be better; people are being vaccinated, jobs are returning, and a degree of congregant life is returning. Social injustice remains a scourge, but there is an awakening and renewed need for and action with diversity, equity and inclusion.

Amid this hope, if we close our minds to 2020, we will be doing ourselves a disservice. We experienced a world turned genuinely upside-down. If we shut our minds to what we experienced, we will have missed a great lesson. It is a lesson forged in loss of proximity, jobs and health. We cannot forget, nor should we, what we experienced as a culture and as individuals.

Lessons to remember

And so, we need to grieve. Millions around the world have died. Many millions more have lost jobs. Some even their identities as people who work and contribute. We must commemorate these losses in our memories and keep the memories of loved ones close to our hearts.

We need to be resilient. Good news. We are. We did not endure the suffering of this past year by lying down. We stood tall as possible and continued working when possible, educating our children, and most of all, caring for the sick. We, as a people, answered the call. Our losses have transformed us. We are resilient.

We need to act with empathy. What occurred with disease and hardship was a discovery that viruses do not distinguish between rich and poor, though the latter are more at risk. We re-discovered our humanity, the very fabric that binds us together as humans. Caring for one another is innate.

And we need to celebrate. We have endured a year that was something unprecedented. We survived. We made it. That is no small accomplishment. Our joy in what comes next should not blind us to our losses. Instead, it should remind us of their sacrifice. 

Challenge for leaders

Leaders can serve as beacons of hope. Reminding us of the past but pointing toward a better future. The values we held in January 2020 will be the values that help us create the “new normal.” It will build upon what we have learned and is enriched by the sacrifices we have made.

In the final battle scene of Saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks), lying mortally wounded, pulls Private Ryan (Matt Damon) close and says, “Earn this.” It was the captain’s last order; make the sacrifice of war worth it in your future life.

Our challenge is the same. And we can earn it with our example. Let us work together to make our future more prosperous, more generous, more compassionate. That would be a fitting tribute to a year of trouble and tribulation. We have endured.

We suffer together. We persist together.

We will emerge, let’s hope, a better people.

But if we are, it will involve personal change.

Each of us is doing what we can.

Adapted from themes of Grace Notes: Leading in an Upside-Down World.

First posted on SmartBrief.com on 5/28/2021

John Baldoni: Grace Notes Promo

The other day, right before the Fourth of July weekend, the ice maker in our refrigerator died. The weather was hot, and the gin and tonics were ill-suited to warmth. 

Days later I called a repair service, noting lightheartedly that not having an icemaker was hardly a big deal. The service rep lowered her voice, saying that I would be surprised at how many people regard having a broken icemaker as a catastrophe. “If not having an icemaker is the worst thing to happen to me this year,” I quipped, “then it will be a good year.” The service rep laughed in agreement. 

Too often, we get distracted, annoyed even when things, little things, don’t go our way. It’s easy to become frustrated, and in doing so, we forget just how fortunate we are. A flight delay. A missed dinner. A dying appliance. These annoy us, but in the grand scheme of life, they are trivial. In years to come, such inconveniences are not likely to be remembered.

Gain perspective

We must put life into perspective. Easy to say. Our irritation blinds us to reality.

We have endured a year and a half of disappointment and delusion—as well as exclusion and isolation. And we’re still here. The pandemic persists, but we are coming back slowly to a different form of life. Not the same, but different. In some ways, it is richer because of what we have experienced.

We have been tested, and we have survived. Not everyone did. More than 600,000 Americans died. Millions lost their jobs. Three million women exited the workforce. Those are tragedies. They are benchmarks of actual loss. Annoyances come and go. Losses live as scars in our memories.

A novel lesson

The novelist J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Hobbit, “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.” For him, this statement was true. Tolkien was a young officer in what his generation of Britons called The Great War. He fought at the Battle of the Somme. After the war, Tolkien returned taught medieval literature at Oxford. He also raised a family and told his sons stories that would become great novels of fantasy in time. Fires and dragons do die out, leaving in their wake the possibility of renewal. 

So, take a deep breath.

Exhale slowly.

Remind yourself of your blessings

Take another deep breath.

Exhale slowly. 

Smile in gratitude.

First posted on Forbes.com 7/23/2021

“United we stand” seems an odd notion

In our time of division.

We speak now more of what divides us

than what unites us. 

Division is what brought us to now.

We separated from an Empire to become a Republic.

We separated races so one could serve another.

We separated into North and South for Civil War.

Division has led to distrust, disharmony, and dispute

Always simmering, on the surface and below.

Division may be our heritage, but it is not our destiny.

We are a nation built upon an ideal.

That freedom is not an aspiration but a foundation.

We fought to preserve that foundation against threats, foreign and domestic.

Freedom earned is freedom preserved.

It, however, cannot flourish we deny the responsibilities freedom demands.

Respect. Justice. Liberty.

No country offers the bounty we have.

In terms of resources and opportunities.

Our motto is E pluribus unum.

“Out of many, one.”

Our strength lies not solely with our might.

It is rooted in our dreams, our duties, and our determination.

United we stand.

Happy Birthday, America! 

First posted on LinkedIn on July 4, 2021

Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. 

Making the complex understandable was a specialty of Dr. Feynman. Even though seriously ill with cancer, Feynman signed on to the committee investigate the Challenge space shuttle explosion in 1986. In testimony before a congressional committee, 

Feynman dipped  O-ring composite material into a glass of ice water to demonstrate how cold makes rubber brittle. It was an O-ring failure that triggered the explosion.

Feynman was a brilliant scientist, yet unlike so many scientists, he was a gifted teacher and beloved by his students at the California Institute of Technology. In addition to physics, he shared life lessons. Here are eight classes he wrote that have become widely known and have implications for students of leadership. (Feynman’s words are in bold.)

Work hard. Discipline is essential to mastering your craft. It takes years to learn it.

What others think of you is none of your business. Don’t become distracted by opinion and hearsay. Focus on your job.

It’s OK not to have all the answers. Very important. Leaders are not know-it-alls. When you flout how much you know, you realize that no one cares. No one likes a show-off.

Experiment, Fail, Learn and Repeat. Leadership is often a matter of experimentation. Leaders base decisions on assumptions they believe are correct. If results do not equal expectations, it is important to try again.

Knowledge comes from experience. There is no shame in failing; shame comes from disregarding the lessons learned from failure.

Imagination is important. Leaders need to make it safe for people to think big. Encourage people to pursue ideas as a means of adding to the greater whole.

Do what interests you the most. Teams only move forward when the goals inspire them. The pursuit of big goals is true in sports as it is in life. Think big and act bigger.

Stay curious. Curiosity keeps a leader’s imagination fresh. A curious leader is engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and its application to problems in need of a solution.

Two principles

Following these lessons apply not merely to nascent scientists but are sound principles for leaders to follow for two reasons. One, they keep the leader’s ego in check and remind her that failure is part of the human condition, humility is essential, and the pursuit of knowledge takes commitment. Two, they remind the leader that it is his responsibility to foster curiosity and enable people to try and try again. Failure comes from having put yourself out there. Organizations only grow when leaders and followers alike are willing, as Feynman encouraged, to “experiment, fail, learn and repeat.”

Leadership by nature is not a set of aphorisms. It is both practice and art, as well as an example. Rules such as those by Feynman and others remind us that it is also a quest, a journey that requires self-learning that applied well leads to self-knowledge and, ultimately, the self-confidence necessary to lead others.

Thank you, Dr. Feynman.

First posted on SmartBrief.com 3/26/21