August 20th Coaching Tip: Reach Out On Birthdays.
Today is one of my favorite advisor’s birthdays. I wanted him to know that I deeply care about him, so yes, I was that person who wished him a happy birthday at 8am sharp. And he laughed, and came back quickly and stated, “you were the second person to wish me HBD.” I’ll take it, he and I both know that he’s important to me, and I’m equally important to him.
And then, for some reason, I reached out to one of my coaching colleagues to wish her a happy August birthday. Although her birthday isn’t until Aug. 30, she’s my work-sister with an August birthday. Welp, wouldn’t you know, my gut was right. She responded by saying, “thanks for the HBD wishes. Your intuition is amazing. My father passed last night, and so now I’m dealing with that. I know you lost your father a couple years ago.” Oh my, I wasn’t expecting that message back from her, although she had mentioned that her father had been declining quickly the last couple years. I’m just so grateful that the good Lord had me reach out. Just hope that I can be there for her as she grieves the loss of her dad; my dad died in Sept. 2023 unexpectedly. Keep reaching out.
August 21st Coaching Tip: Understand Your Impact On Others.
Today in one of my coaching sessions, the leader was mentioning how excited he was about a new bi-lingual woman that he’s mentoring and aligning to his team. He had some questions about how to align her to his team and I had some questions, too. For example, he has two other young people on his team that he’s also developing. My questions revolved around the “how”: How will you mentor and develop all three of them? How will you communicate how they will be held accountable and compensated? How will you be viewed as fair, maybe not equal, but definitely fair? How will you document what you’re doing with each of them, so that if you have others who want to join your team, you can quickly share with them how you mentor and develop talent?
Don’t underestimate how important it is to communicate the impact on the person you’re developing, as well as to the others. People are naturally impacted by the amount of time you spend with them. Leadership is hard and it’s your responsibility as a leader to be aware of your impact on others.
August 22nd Coaching Tip: Lakeside Birthday Tradition.
Took the day off, again. It’s a priority for me to take off my birthday, and it’s a ritual that I’ve been doing since I started working at Caterpillar in 1986. At my 40th birthday, our family all gathered at a small hotel that was lakeside in Monticello, Indiana. We brought four jet skis, food, and had a blast. At my 50th birthday party, I rented a lovely, large home on Lake Wawasee, Indiana, for a group of friends to come and stay, and then my family also came a few days later. From there, we started a lakeside tradition, and now we celebrate my birthday and a number of other important dates annually.
This year was no different; we had 19 show up for my birthday party at my brother’s lakeside home in Cicero, IN. We sang karaoke for four hours, ate like kings and queens, and had a yummy, Costco (Italian chocolate six layer) cake with optional scoops of gelato. So, peace out and enjoy your birthday. We sure had a blast all weekend!