Page 103 - Appreciative Leadership

76 Appreciative Leadership

• It really validated me and gave me confi dence.
• I took more risks because I knew how I worked at my best.

• It shined a spotlight on me at my best.
• I saw the direct correlation between my strengths and the tasks
ahead of me.
• I became a better team player.
• It helped me reframe a life issue in a way that I could succeed.
• It was liberating. It freed me to do things I had put off .

Knowing that there are many reasons to engage
PAUSE in appreciative coaching, reflect now on how you

might benefit from appreciative coaching.
Would you like help discovering your strengths? Are you
in a career or life transition? Do you want help enhancing
your Appreciative Leadership capacities?
And think about how your team members might benefi t
from appreciative coaching? Is it time that you became their
appreciative coach? When will you begin?

Linking Strengths to Business Results

As many of the benefits of coaching point out, there is a direct rela-
tionship between the illumination of strengths and business success.
Appreciative leaders attend to the alignment of strengths among
people and with the business plan, department goals, and the overall
organizational vision. When Dr. Michelle Carter was asked to serve as
interim vice president of marketing for a Fortune 500 company, she

was tasked with one specific objective: to create a marketing plan for
the business in Europe and Asia within 60 days but to do it in a way
that would ensure full buy-in by the department directors. Believing