Elaine Holland – Unlocking the Power of Human Psychology for Effective Action and Leadership

Today we’re talking to certified executive and personal development coach Elaine Holland about the power of human psychology as it relates to a highly successful, purpose-driven life.

Elaine offers simple, easy-to-follow steps on how to accomplish your goals with tenacity and organization. Elaine has spent years working with the executives of huge corporations to create an empowering culture in their teams.

She found that she was always most interested in the people part of the equation, which is how she got into coaching individuals. She describes her job as showing people how to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go.

Overcoming the Issue of Not Enough Time

After over 8,000 coaching calls, Elaine has found that the number one theme that blocks people from accomplishing their goals is that they don’t have enough time.

She explains that people ask themselves the wrong question, which is “what do I have to do?” This can quickly become overwhelming.

Instead, Elaine teaches clients to ask themselves better questions and follow this five-step process:

1. What do I really want?

Make it specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART).Then break those accomplishments down into 90-day increments so you can measure the evidence of what’s been done on a quarterly basis.

2. What is my purpose? How will I feel when I reach my goal and what will I believe about myself?

3. What do I need to do to get to my result?

This is your massive action plan, and you must creatively brainstorm all the ways you can get there.

4. What is the 20 percent of this list that will get me 80 percent toward my goal?

Prioritizing the items of your action plan keeps it from turning into just a big to-do list.

5. Block the time on your calendar accordingly to get those key items done.

Focus on doing just the two or three things on list that will get you to your goal the fastest, using the 90-day focus.

How To Make Feedback Work

Elaine wrote a book called Making Feedback Work that takes a close look at how leaders are being perceived when they give feedback and how they can make their feedback as effective as possible.

Elaine breaks the conversation down into these steps:

1) What was the specific behavior that provoked the feedback?

2) What’s the impact of that behavior?

3) What do you want to see done differently in the future? She points out that most people start with number two, which puts people on the defensive.

A laundry list of additional tips can be found in her book, but here are a few more key points:

-Separate feeling from fact.

-Have empathy for the person receiving the feedback.

-Be direct and don’t sugarcoat the message.

-Stay open and be willing to hear from the person.

-Make sure the ratio is correct:

Give five elements of positive feedback for one negative. Elaine explains that effective leaders need to train themselves to “catch” their team doing something good. When asked about the personal practices and beliefs that help her maintain a high level of performance, Elaine shares the following tips: 1. Keep a daily gratitude journal. Link your gratitude practice to an existing daily habit, e.g. morning coffee or tea, so that you are consistent. 2. To deal with challenging situations, maintain the prevailing belief that “life happens for me, not to me.” And then ask yourself, “What’s good about this?” 3. When you learn a lesson, ask yourself the following questions: What does it mean? What did you learn? Where else in my life is this showing up? How will I share what I learned with someone else?

Make sure to check out…

CoachElaine.com Making Feedback Work The Primes