Top Executive Coaching with Tony Mayo

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. (‘What else could it be?’) I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.

–John R. Searle,
MINDS, BRAINS AND SCIENCE, p 44

Published in 1984. I would update Searle with, “At present, obviously, the metaphor is the Internet, the brain as a complex network of adaptive connections.”

Problem is, the brain is not very similar to anything. Comprehension is further hampered by the fact that “the brain” has no clear boundaries. Its behavior requires a body and an external environment. Not to mention the recursive challenge of the brain being the primary tool used to comprehend itself.

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A foundation distinction of executive coaching, from a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace.

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Bad presentation–or resistant audience?

In November of 2007, I was in San Diego attending a weekend training for coaches. A breakout sessions was led by the author of one of the best-known books on coaching. It is a good book and I was very eager to attend. He gave the ninety minute workshop six times over two days–I was in a morning session on day two.

The author struck me immediately as irritated, aggressive, and arrogant. His opening seemed vague and rambling and his responses to questions were not pertinent. People were shaking their heads and looking at each other. Coaches are a fairly supportive audience but in the first fifteen minutes five of the thirty people walked out, one while the author was responding (elliptically) to his question! I decided to Read the rest of this entry »

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Theory

 

Whether you can
observe a thing
depends upon the
theory you are using.

 

–Albert Einstein

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Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world.
…
The traits that lead people to love their work are general and have little to do with a job’s specifics. These traits include a sense of autonomy and the feeling that you’re good at what you do and are having an impact on the world. Decades of research on workplace motivation back this up. (Daniel Pink’s book Drive offers a nice summary of this literature.)

These traits can be found in many jobs, but they have to be earned. Building valuable skills is hard and takes time. For someone in a new position, the right question is not, “What is this job offering me?” but, instead, “What am I offering this job?”

–Cal Newport, Ph.D.
New York Times
September 30, 2012

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A key benefit of discussing important decisions with your executive coach is the exploration of alternative explanations for observed events. Managers, particularly business owners, have a very distinct point-of-view, a set of filters that leads them to interpret the data differently than their coach, employees, and customers might. A good executive coach will help the manager consider other possible meanings thereby making better decisions and communicating more effectively.

Here is fun example of how the position from which you view events can lead you to the wrong conclusion.

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