Keith E. Webb's Blog, page 3

To Know Why, Never Ask “Why?”

In coaching, why is important. Why the client wants to achieve that. Why they reacted the way they did. Understanding why helps the client to change. As important as why is, I rarely use the word “why” in a question. Why? I’ll tell you.

It’s said that if you ask “Why?” five times you’ll get to the root cause. In conversations, asking “Why?” five times usually irritates the client or causes defensiveness! 

It’s easy to ask “Why?” But expect to hear a short, simplistic response, or “I don’t k...

It’s Not Luck, Life Just Doesn’t Happen To You

How much of life happens to you versus you make it happen? Your answer will reveal a glimpse at your future. Your success in the things that matter to you depends on your answer to this question. Here’s what you can do to improve.

Does life happen to you, or do you make it happen? This question separates high achievers from the crowd – in every field. It’s a question of personal autonomy, choice, and personal responsibility.

I lived in three countries that have a fatalistic outlook. In Jap...

You Hear What You Want To Hear

We’ve suspected this, and let me confirm it. We hear what we want to hear, not what’s actually said. Here are 4 reasons why that happens, and 3 ways to change it.

Listening is more of a psychological process than a physical act.

Physically, we hear words and take them in. From there, it’s all psychological. Because we must process and interpret the words we heard. Not just the words, but the non-verbal communication as well.

Listening is more of a psychological process than a physical act...

Change Behavior By Moving from What to Why

We’re all trying to help people change. Yet, changes are too few and too slow. The biggest reason is we’re focused on the wrong thing. By moving conversations from WHAT, the behaviors, to WHY, the meaning underneath those behaviors, we can see real change. Here’s how.

I worked with a group of CEOs to help them move from micromanaging to a more developmental approach with their teams. Five minutes into my workshop, one CEO become a bit animated. “If we hired qualified people, I wouldn’t have...

What John Grisham Did To Achieve His Big Goal

Back in the 1980s John Grisham was a busy, young lawyer – who wanted to write a book. He had the vision to write, but little free time. Does this sound familiar? Here’s his story and how you can achieve your big goal.

Grisham couldn’t stop working. He had a young family and a busy practice. What he could do was become intentional. He decided to go to his office early and write just one page a day. And he kept going. Week after week, he continued writing a page a day, until 3 years later his...

The Best Leadership and Coaching Articles of 2018

It’s been a fantastic year of learning, growing, and changing. The number of visitors and article views at keithwebb.com were up 13% and 14% respectively, even though I wrote fewer articles in 2018. Here’s the 10 most viewed articles.

This year, I’ve had more emails and comments on social media from individuals sharing the impact that an idea from an article had on them.

Here’s the list of my top 10 viewed articles for 2018. Which was your favorite? Do me a favor and share your favorite on...

How To Not End Up In Another Dissatisfying Job

If you’re unhappy with your current job, you’re not alone. More than eighty percent of people are looking for a new job or open to one. Gallup reports that only fifteen percent of workers worldwide are engaged in the jobs. These figures are staggering. Leaders who leave one dissatisfying job often find themselves in another unless they first do these 4 things.

Mariana worked for an international nonprofit, first as a field staff member, then as a manager. She contacted me for leadership coac...

Fascinating Results of Study on Managers and Coaching

Coaching has an identity problem in organizational settings. Everyone knows about coaching and may even use the term to describe how they work with people, but few are actually coaching. A new study demonstrates that managers believe they are coaching when they are actually just telling people what to do. Worse, because peers reward their micromanager-as-coach approach, the wrong behaviors are reinforced. The good news is there’s a fairly easy solution to help managers begin to coach and see...

How To Pass The ICF Coach Knowledge Assessment (CKA)

The Coach Knowledge Assessment is an assessment the International Coach Federation uses to measure coaches’ understanding of the knowledge and skills important in the practice of coaching. If you have good coaching training, with these tips, you should pass the ICF CKA with flying colors! 

Coaching has turned into a $2 billion a year industry. The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the largest coaching association in the world with more than 34,000 members in 145 countries. The ICF began...

How to Automate Follow Up With Email for Free

Studies show that attending a good training event will produce about 23% behavioral change. That’s not much change for the amount of time, money, and energy put into these events. The same studies show that if you follow up training with some kind of coaching, average behavioral change increased to 89%. That’s a huge difference. The problem is, we have more trainees than coaches to do the follow up. Rather than throw our hands up and say, “oh well,” let me show you a way to automate follow up...