Working With Others

Yesterday I saw the most recent Minnesota Film Arts offering -Frederick Wiseman’s documentary, La Danse.  This film is a close-up portrayal of the Paris Opera Ballet from rehearsal to performance.  There is no narration.  Instead this is a cinema verite look at the ballet company.  It is certainly worth seeing, although as the comments to the New York Times review note, it is badly in need of editing and the choice of the featured ballets was – well – bizarre.

There are two things that even those uninitiated to ballet will notice. First, the physical demands of this art form are brutal. You see the rehearsals and the attention to detail in putting together a dance that during performance looks effortless. And you also witness dancers with their feet taped and their legs wrapped in ace bandages repeating segments of a dance over and over even when totally fatigued.  Then there is an extended discussion of about the life span of a ballet dancer and a provision in the pension laws of France that provides retirement funds to a dancer at the age of 40 because the demands of dancing professionally at this level prevent men and women from careers as dancers beyond that age.

Second, in a world of stars, what struck me after watching this documentary is that without a cast of thousands, the principals are nothing. You see everything from seamstresses meticulously sewing costumes, and janitors cleaning the performance hall after the audience has departed to the development staff trying to figure out how to pamper large scale donors to the company.  And then you realize why a ticket to the Paris Opera Ballet is $475!

How many people do you count on in order for you to do what you do for a living?

I had a wonderful initial coaching session with a new client yesterday morning at 7:30AM. Even though it is really challenging to get out of bed on these dark Minnesota winter mornings, I do enjoy the morning hours and meeting at a local coffee shop (that was the client’s choice) helped jump start the day. Nigel (not his real name) developed four clear and actionable goals and we got off to a great start.

It is not unusual to do a coaching session on a Saturday morning – I always accommodate the client’s schedule as best I can. What is a bit unusual is how this engagement came about. Normally, I’ll get a call from some one in human resources or from a senior leader in an organization to check out my availability to coach usually a senior manager or executive around some specific issue as part of their development. This time I received an email from one of the participants in one of my recent management development workshops. She wanted to know if I would be interested in putting together a “coaching package” for her husband that she could give him as a Christmas present.

As most you know, I’m am a minimalist and when it comes to gift giving, I am always in favor of the gift of an experience in lieu of stuff. So I thought this was a grand idea and told her that moving forward would depend on the fit between what Nigel was seeking as an outcome of the coaching and what I was skilled in providing. Nigel’s goals focused on leadership development, work/life balance, and generally getting better at working and playing well with others. He also had data about himself we could use (MBTI® and StrengthsFinder 2.0). His needs were directly in my area of focus, so I put together a coaching package of three 90 minute sessions and we just had our first one.

So if you are looking for an idea for a Christmas gift, think about giving the gift of an experience – a membership at a museum, tickets for a concert or the theater, and yes, even a series of coaching sessions. If you decide to give a series of sessions with a professional executive/life coach as a gift, here are several things to consider. If the answer to each of these four questions is “yes”, you may have discovered a great gift-giving option!

Is there a specific focus for the coaching?

In this case, Nigel had some very specific goals that he wanted to address as part of his personal and career development.

Is the person for whom you are giving the gift open to this experience?

While I know it is the thought that counts, your potential recipient may say that they’d rather have a root canal then meet with a coach.

Is there a good fit between the person getting the coaching and the coach?

Giving this kind of gift takes a little pre-work such as that initiated by Nigel’s wife. So while it may not be a surprise, it can be very meaningful if there is a good fit between coach and coachee. I was fully prepared to be the one to say that maybe Nigel would be happier with a different coach.

Is the price reasonable?

This is where the sage advice of caveat emptor (buyer beware!) applies. What you are looking for is a three to four session “package”. There are some coaches that will use this opportunity to create a lifelong (and expensive, to you or the person receiving the coaching) relationship. So be clear on what you are purchasing.

So do you still have some Christmas shopping to do?

This obtuse title needs a little explanation. One of my favorite novelists is the late Canadian writer Robertson Davies. Perhaps his most famous work is the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business. The author explained the book’s title as a theatrical term – a character essential to the action but not a principal, “called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style.” In the spirit of full disclosure, Davies later admitted that he invented the term. However, I think it is a great term and my total immersion in the Minneapolis theater scene triggered a memory trace of Davies’ and the fifth business role in any production.

I also believe it has some applicability to organizations. In any organization, we typically know who the “leaders are because they are the ones with the titles – the principals as Robertson Davies would say. However, there are others in the organization – “characters that are essential to the action – whose absence would be extremely obvious. They are the ones who don’t just get work done. They are so tuned into the organization and how things work that they can really make things happen.

For example, I recently facilitated an off site leadership team meeting. We had an extremely successful session that would not have been nearly as productive if the person assigned to handling all of the logistics and meeting arrangements with the hotel were not there. Not only did Mary have things running like clockwork, she brought the whole event in under budget!

So take a minute to think about the people who play those fifth business roles in your organization and send me their story.

As I mentioned the other day on a recent post on Working With Twenty Somethings, I spent last weekend at The Fourth Annual Solstice Film Festival in Minneapolis MN. While I was underwhelmed by many of the offerings, another documentary that I thought was incredibly well-done was the award-winningBicycle Dreams.

Bicycle Dreams, directed by Steve Auerbach, is the story of the 2005 Race Across America – a 3000 mile bicycle race from San Diego, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. The synopsis from the official website reads:

They are seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime is transformed in an instant when tragedy strikes the race. These voyagers discover what is truly at stake as they pedal on, praying for the deliverance only the finish line can bring. By journey’s end, some are saved, others are lost, but all learn that the fuel that takes a soul toward its own true destiny is desire. … Top riders finish in under 10 days, riding over 300 miles per day and sleeping only a few hours per night. Amid the sleepless grind, riders must endure the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, the agonizing climbs and descents of the Rockies, the driving winds of the Great Plains, and the twisting switchbacks of the Appalachians before the final sprint to the finish line in Atlantic City. With little prize money at stake, the fundamental goal of the race is simply to finish, a challenge half of all riders fail to meet.

I have seen a lot of documentary films. This one is without question in my top 5 of all time. See it.

What I do want to address is the concept of individual contributor. In most organizations, this is the place where everyone starts. We have no direct reports. Our manager, who hopefully is competent, gives us assignments. And while we may work on a team, we deliver results by doing the work ourselves – alone. Bicycle Dreams and the Race Across America it documents is a story about individual contributors – those “seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days”. However, what becomes crystal clear is that while one individual is pedaling the high tech machine called a bicycle across deserts, mountain ranges and tall grass prairie, they are not alone. In each case, a sizable support team accompanies the racers in a large RV and provide medical, physical, mechanical, nutritional, and emotional support along the way. Each cyclist needs – no, is totally dependent on – his/her support team to succeed. And what is amazing is that the race is not necessarily won by the fastest racer, but by the fastest racer with the best support team.

So after seeing this movie, I began thinking about whether or not individual contributors in the workplace actually go it alone. Are the individuals who receive the highest performance ratings totally independent or – like the riders in the Race Across America – are they dependent on others for their success? Before I share my point of view, I’d invite comments from others. What do you think?