Marion J. Howell

As an Adler trained executive coach, and certified Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Emotional Intelligence facilitator as well as a CODI certified organization development practitioner, Marion leads the executive coaching work within Iris Group. Marion's intuitive capacity to see and draw out the very best in people has made her a much sought-after confidante, guide and mentor to leaders from all walks of life. She is a passionate advocate for the integration of objective data and feedback with a deepening sense of authentic self-awareness that enables people to transform their perspective so that they can see and pursue opportunities that may have been obscured by the misplaced emphasis on self-imposed constraints.

Marion has an extensive background in the high technology sector and understands the unique stresses and challenges that result from highly cyclical markets, constant organizational realignments, and dramatically shifting accountabilities and expectations. Having navigated these waters herself on many occasions, and having journeyed with others, she brings both empathy and deep truthfulness to relationships. As she would quote often, she tries always to 'speak the truth with love'. She also has extensive experience in the volunteer sector and has a tremendous heart for supporting and encouraging women who have experienced abuse, depression and deeply held issues of self-esteem. She has gently, lovingly and firmly guided many to find a renewed sense of value, purpose and passion.

Marion frequently works with strategic leadership teams, seeing coaching as the implementation and integration mechanism for transformational change. As one client said, "All the changes around me felt unfair, almost a personal attack, until Marion helped me to shake off my self-imposed constraints and see change for what it really could be: my opportunity to seize control of my life and ride the waves of change where I wanted to go. I will be forever grateful for a life changing relationship."

Two of my favourite pieces of advice from Marion:

1. Your Sweet Spot with respect to work: Find what you're good at, what you're passionate about, and what someone will pay you to do.

2. You get to choose what you believe.

Marion's list of symptoms of depression or burn-out:
1. lack of motivation
2. irritability
3. trouble concentrating
4. feelings of isolation, pulling back from famly and friends
5. loss of interest in favourite activities
6. trouble sleeping
7. fatigue
8. low energy
9. thoughts of death or suicide
10. feeling worthless or guilty for no reason
11. hopelessness

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Transactional versus Transformational Leadership
According to a study done by Judy Rosener on "Ways Women Lead" (Nichols, Nancy Reach For The Top: Women and The Changing Facts of Work Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press) typically, more men tend to see or find themselves in transactional styles of leadership, where job performance is viewed as a series of transactions or interactions with people above or below one on the hierarchy of power, where good service is rewarded and poor service is punished. More women typically tend to view job performance as getting subordinates to make the organization's well-being their own goal as well.

The transformational leader will

Exercise Transactional Give an example of transactional leadership from your own experience either as an employee or a boss, or perhaps from your experience as a customer in a store overhearing a manager speaking to an employee. Post your answer in the Moodle Discussion Group.

In our first week together, we meet Mr. Hugo, who asks his employee to do two things:

In a downtown Toronto office, the boss, Mr. Hugo, asks his assistant,

"On your lunch hour today, would you please return this blouse? I bought it for my wife's birthday but it doesn't suit her. And get back early, please; Campbell is coming at two to go over his account, and I have some calculations that have to be done first."

Exercise Transformational Re-write Mr. Hugo's part in this skit to have him act in a more TRANSFORMATIONAL style of leadership, with the aim of being better at one of the four characteristics of such a leader, above. Give your reasons for writing what you did. Post your answer in the Moodle Discussion Group.

 

Guiliani's Six Principles of Leadership

One of my major concerns in this course is that students not come to believe that I think only women's ways of doing things are valid. Here below is what I consider a great list of leadership characteristics, from a man who led a city and a country south of us through a horrific time. An article in the Globe and Mail Careers section (April 2005) reviewed the six principles of leadership recommended by former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, Mayor of New York when the World Trade Centre was bombed.

Firm Beliefs Be clear in your mind what your beliefs and principles are and about what motivates you. Guiliani says, "people need to know where they are going and why, and they look to the leader to provide that."
Positive Outlook Be an optimist; face the truth of the situation and move quickly to find a solution
Courage Everyone feels fear but a good leader overcomes fear to do the job that has to be done
Relentless Preparation Know your subject thoroughly and prepare for the worst
Teamwork Know one of the main purposes of teamwork: to help individuals fill in the gaps. No one can know everything or do everything. Learn to delegate to your team
Communication Be able to express to others what you know; be a teacher and a motivator

Exercise Rudolph Guiliani Using one of Rudolph Guiliani's principles of leadership, give an example from management, either real from your own experience, or imagined, of how a manager would follow Mr. Guiliani's advice well. Post your answer in the Moodle Discussion Group.

 

Getting What You Want Through Good Leadership
According to Mario Moussa, co-author of a book on leadership titled The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, the old idea of wooing, which almost a romantic connotation, is important in persuading a target audience. The Globe and Mail, reviewing that book in November 2007, lists some tips on getting people on your side:

Choose Your Target
Polish Your Idea, finding the right approach
Tell A Story, to keep people engaged
Personalize It, Vividly, giving the person something to relate to
Question the Obvious, making your target think in new ways
Demonstrate (show, don't tell)
Use Emphasis, whether raising your voice, rapping the table, or other means
Pose A Challenge in a paradoxical way
Get A Commitment: in Marketing we call it Ask for The Sale

Management vs Leadership: Non-Compartmentalizing

Marcus Buckingham in his book, The One Thing You Need to Know, contrasts management and leadership: to excel as a manager, you have to know and treat each of your employees as a unique individual but as a leader you have to be able to rally everyone toward a common goal. In some ways, women are already ahead on this path, as they typically tend to blend rather than compartmentalize their lives and their jobs. So that which has sometimes been seen as a weakness in women (she can't separate her job from her home life), may well turn out to be a strength. Good managers, of people and jobs and personal life, need to be able to see the whole larger picture.

Buckingham also recommends for personal success the simple formula to find out what it is you DON'T like doing and don't do it any more. I discovered through my first years of teaching that I hated lecturing; so now I do less and less of it. Take a look at your own life, as student, worker, partner, child, whatever role you wish, and try to discover where there are things you don't like doing and what you can do to change the situation.