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# Why You Should Consider Using an Executive Coach
Written by **Jim Anderson**
Principal | Lighthouse Resource Group
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Assume that you went to bed, and before morning a miracle occurred so that when you woke up, your problems were solved and everything you hoped for had taken place. How would things be different going forward?  This provocative question is sometimes referred to as the miracle question to clients of executive coaches because it allows them to imagine and visualize how things could be different in their life. Who wouldn’t want to experience such a liberating new reality?
Helping to answer that over-arching question at various incremental levels is typically the starting point for executive coaches as they engage with their clients and begin the journey of self-discovery, expanded vision and increased freedom. More specifically, executive coaches help their clients to get “unstuck” in challenging areas of their life. But what exactly does that mean and how does that happen?
Coaching is the artful process whereby individuals are enabled to move from where they are to where they want to be. Coaching is forward focused and is always centered on moving the coachee onward.  It involves clarifying the present, envisioning the future, setting/achieving action goals and overcoming obstacles going forward.
The most effective executive coaching begins with the development of a trusting relationship characterized by mutual respect, transparent rapport and a sincere commitment toward constructive change. All within the confines of a safe relational alliance between two co-equals that exists for the purpose of meeting the client’s needs, expectations and goals. Attentive, focused listening is an excellent way to evidence support and build an effective coaching bond, but it is far beyond a mere sounding board exercise. There is much more required for optimum results to be achieved. A great coach will challenge the client to engage in personal exploration, self-assessment, and highly committed action planning.
Great coaches have a myriad of skillsets centered on the ability to ask “in the moment” thought provoking questions resulting in purposeful productive activity being taken. Some of these great coaching abilities are displayed by the following actions:
* Show genuine interest and be fully present
* Practice active listening, without interruption
* Ask insightful, open-ended questions that stimulate thought, clarity and creativity
* Inspire a positive mental attitude
* Challenge negativity, affirm and encourage optimism
* Provide accountability, help establish healthy boundaries and measurable goals
* Promote collaboration and interactive communication
* Encourage possibility thinking
* Help to envision the future, improve skills and clarify their life’s purpose
One of the first objectives to help the individual being coached is Awareness. According to the Talmud, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” When someone knows what is influencing or frustrating them, they can address it, but if they have no awareness, they have no control. This is the perfect time to confront fears, inferiorities and false assumptions, while also identifying unused strengths and untapped potential waiting to be synergized for success.
The next step after Awareness is Vision.  Figuratively speaking, ancient script states that without a vision, people perish…they cast off restraint. Vision helps define what inspires you, why you exist, and what your purpose is. A vision is an ideal picture of something positive you can imagine and would like to become reality in the future.  During this phase, it’s good to look at a person’s abilities, passions, life mission, values and strengths. A dream can be transfigured into a vision by grasping the potential for the future while clarifying the present. An effective coach can facilitate this process to help crystallize a life changing positive result.
Moving on, the third step is Strategy.  If this process was likened to a construction project, this phase would be producing the blueprints…the written plan for how the contractors and tradesmen would go about to formally construct the building. The cool thing is that you as the client get to be the project architect; functioning as the visionary designer, the engineer and the overseer in terms of what, why, when, where, and how the building is staged and constructed. You get to make all these decisions and it’s your coach’s responsibility to help hold you accountable to complete the job as planned.
Finally, it’s time to address the final step, which are the Obstacles that are anticipated to be encountered along the way toward accomplishing one’s goals. Typically, obstacles fall into one of two categories: internal or external. Barriers such as habits, fear, negative mind-set, lack of commitment, and resistance to change would be considered internal as opposed to external barriers such as unclear boundaries, balancing time demands and personal accountability, distracting life experiences, difficult people and difficult circumstances.  All of these can present challenges but each of them can be addressed, put into context and re-framed in the most advantageous way by a skilled executive coach.
In the game of life, much like professional sports, the skills of the world’s best players are honed by great coaches.  Thinking back on the “miracle question” posed at the beginning of this article, I think everyone would agree that each of our lives could be better in some ways. In other words, settle for nothing less than your best. It’s inspiring to see how great executive coaches thrive and come alive by helping everyday people become extraordinary contributors to the world surrounding them.
If you would like to explore the possibility of reaping some truly life-changing benefits, I invite you to contact the Lighthouse Resource Group at LighthouseResourceGroup.com and have them introduce you to one of their exceptionally gifted certified executive coaches for a complimentary exploratory discussion…you will be glad you did.
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  The play on words of this title could be loosely translated as the global oneness and totality that can be achieved by combining a variety of backgrounds and belief systems; in short…. unity in diversity. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines diversity as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements, the state of being [...]
  Following the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 4 years ago, employees have faced a daunting seismic shift in the workplace, amplifying the challenges of establishing the optimum balance of their professional and personal lives.  Wide-spread economic downturn, work force layoffs, cost of living inflation, inter-office social isolation because of offsite/remote working conditions, global wars, and natural [...]
  A S.C.O.R.E.S. analysis is defined as an innovative strategic planning technique to identify an organization’s Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Risks, Environment and Systems. From a high-level perspective, this technique can provide innumerable advantages to achieve a wide range of organizational goals. SCORES can improve a company’s competitive advantage, maximize its organizational efficiencies, open the doors [...]
  The world’s population, including the United States, is getting older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy at birth of the average person in America has increased from 76.7 years in 2000 to 78.7 years in 2018. Across the globe, the number of people aged 60 and older is [...]
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# Ethics in Statistics
Written by **DC Campbell**
Statistics are a set of analytical tools, and like any tool, they can be used for good or bad. A hammer can be used to help build a home, or it can be a weapon. Statistics can educate, but far too often, it is used to manipulate.  Today, the abuse of statistics is rampant in media, whether it is political, advertising, or health. Statistical manipulation works because people consciously or not, use numbers to help make decisions. We like to know that most people are making the same choices we make.  There is comfort in numbers, just as there is comfort in conformity.
True, we have come a long way from the years when the large cigarette maker, Philip Morris launched an ad campaign with the slogan: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” How many impressionable teenagers then quietly concluded that if all those doctors preferred Camels, then it must be a good choice for them as well?
Of course, Philip Morris never told their customers that the doctors were all given free cartons of Camels, and then asked them what cigarettes they smoked. Statistical manipulation. Ethics out the window.
Think how this could also work to separate us into groups, so as to manipulate people against each other. Say some guy named Beef was found to have increased his steak meals from 12 per year to 24 per year. Statistically, we can say he increased his steak meals by 12 per year. Equally correct is that he doubled his steak input. Both are correct. But ‘double’ adds a more powerful connotation that could lead others to think Beef was a gross overeater. The impression we might now have is that Beef is well on his way to obesity.  At this point, we have rapidly crossed the statistical bridge, and are now in the land of impressions and judgements. Something must be wrong with Beef, for doubling his steak meals when so many are going hungry.
By now, we may even have a name for Beef and others like him who doubled their steak input to 24 per year. What better name for that group than Doubles. We already know something is wrong with them, so our minds are now fertile soil for the rest that is to follow. When a TV reporter says Doubles are a selfish group, gouging down steak when others go hungry, we agree. It becomes easier to agree when the next reporter says that, since cows generate methane, Doubles are the cause of climate change and therefore should be arrested to save the planet. Of course, it then becomes easier to justify shipping all Doubles to reeducation camps.  Our last one hundred years of history teach us that the loss of individual freedoms is always accompanied with a treasure trove of manipulative statistics.
But wait. There’s more. The very people who generate hate for Doubles by manipulating statistics, also use it to elevate themselves as the defenders of truth.
They loudly proclaim, with self-righteous indignation, “We like steak too, but we did not double our input of steak. We care about the planet more than Doubles do. We only increased our steak meals by 25 percent a year. We are four times more caring than those Doubles. What a rotten anti-social group they are!”
Since they only increased their steak input by 25 percent, we will call them Quarters. It easy to like these Quarters people. They really care. And their friends in the media repeat their statistics for public consumption. The cast is set. Quarters are good caring people. Doubles are bad people.
But let’s examine the Quarters statistics behind their 25 percent masks. They are correct, their steaks increased by 25 percent, but that was from 48 to 60 steaks a year. The 25 percent disguises the actual amount that Quarters eat, more than twice the amount that Doubles eat. In their minds Doubles are still the bad guys. Therefore, society should punish Doubles.
This may be a simple illustration, but it shows that when statistics are used to deceive public opinion and protect hypocrisy, ethics go out the window.
So, to promote ethics in statistics, it is left up to us as individuals to first acknowledge that much of what we read and hear in media today is designed to manipulate public opinion, not educate. We must do our own research and arrive at our own conclusion. The next time you hear ‘1,000 doctors said’,’ or ‘200 generals wrote’, or ’we must pass these laws because’, then it’s time to be alert. You are about to receive deceptive statistics. But don’t blame statistics. Blame the manipulators. They are the ones lacking ethics.