55: Become Your Own Coach with Jennifer DiMotta

You may have heard the idea of manager as coach before. It’s one of the core ideas I subscribe to as a manager - that we should coach our team members to unleash their potential. But what about coaching yourself? Is that even possible? This week’s guest, Jennifer DiMotta, is the Owner and President of DiMotta Consulting LLC where she takes her 20+ years of triple-digit growth success and transforms it to easily digestible strategies and plans for clients, particularly in the luxury direct to consumer market. Jennifer speaks on Women Leadership and has developed a method which she calls Six Steps to Becoming Your Own Leadership Coach, a proven method of developing your leadership skills for personal success. Jennifer and I walk through the six steps, dig into the process and examples, so you can apply the approach to yourself or you team members.   Read the related blog article: How to Coach Yourself   Join the Modern Manager community to get 2.5 hours of free coaching from Jennifer when you start the 6 Steps to Becoming Your Own Leadership Coach program. Join by June 30, 2019 and get two special gifts - a Modern Manager mini-notebook and a Meeteor meeting notebook to help you distill meeting outcomes.   Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and mini-guides delivered to your inbox.   I need your help: What's challenging about being a manager? Share your experience here: www.mamieks.com/new-course   KEY TAKEAWAYS: Step one is to become more self aware. Through a series of assessments, you can get a better understanding of your strengths, preferences, and potential areas for growth. Two great assessments to start with are Strengths Finder and Myers Briggs Type Indicator It’s not about trying to change who you are, but rather develop in areas that will serve you and your team. Leaders come in all varieties. There are many attributes of great leaders. The key is to figure out your strengths which you can build on and what specific qualities you want to develop. Step two is to create a vision of what leadership qualities you desire. Reflect on leaders whom you admire - what about them do you appreciate? Step three is to create SMART goals which describe the goal, the behavior you’ll adopt, when/where you’ll do the behavior, how you’ll measure success, and when you’ll pause to reflect on progress. Step four is to find an accountability partner who can speak honestly with you, help hold you to your goals, and be your cheerleader. It’s critical you respect this person so that you can really hear what they say. Research has proven time and again that when you have an accountability partner, you’re significantly more likely to achieve your goals. Meet with your accountability partner in whatever format and frequency works best for you. Step five is to reflect and celebrate progress along with small and big wins. Reward or treat yourself to help stay motivated. Step six is to encourage others to develop themselves and offer praise and thanks.   KEEP UP WITH JENNIFER