Stepsero

Whether we like them or not, tough conversations happen, and it is important to know how to approach them, and when. Costas Kalisperas walks us through preparing tough conversations, focusing on the desired outcome, listening to learn, and much more.

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

Episode #57: Coaching with Costas: Dealing with Difficult People

Episode #58: Coaching with Costas: What’s Wrong with Politics?

Episode #59: Coaching with Costas: Speaking up at work

Episode #60: Coaching with Costas: Too Kind to Lead?

Episode #61: Coaching with Costas: Do values matter?

Do values matter?

Broadly speaking, values relate to a sense of justice

The values that most companies openly pursue may look very similar to one another. What matters however, is whether people practise them or not.

Values at work reinforce your sense of purpose, your satisfaction in your own work. They increase motivation, enhance engagement, loyalty, retention, and performance.

At the foundation of teamwork is trust building. And you can only build trust by being authentic, transparent and fair.

It’s what you stand for and who you are that causes people to follow you.

It is important not to be too self-righteous about your values. 

Leaders may be making decisions that seem unfair or unjust to you, but they are based on information you don’t have access to.

Burnout is the result of not being who you are and not being aligned to your own values for too long.

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

Episode #57: Coaching with Costas: Dealing with Difficult People

Episode #58: Coaching with Costas: What’s Wrong with Politics?

Episode #59: Coaching with Costas: Speaking up at work

Episode #60: Coaching with Costas: Too Kind to Lead?

In this episode of our mini-series “Coaching with Costas”, we discuss whether one can actually be “too kind to lead”.

Below are the main highlights:

At the root of effective leadership is kindness. Kind leadership is critically important, particularly today.

Leadership is about being inclusive and understanding others’ perspectives and their personal growth agenda, ultimately empowering them to be as successful as they can be.

You can be kind and purposeful, transparent, consistent and people centric. Kindness does mean to allow people to underperform and not address difficult topics. If you allow underperformance and don’t help people improve, that is in fact unkind.

John Maxwell suggests a framework where there are different layers of leadership. According to the top layer (5th) of leadership, people follow you because of who you are and what you stand for.

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

Episode #57: Coaching with Costas: Dealing with Difficult People

Episode #58: Coaching with Costas: What’s Wrong with Politics?

Episode #59: Coaching with Costas: Speaking up at work

Speaking up at work” is the central topic of this fifth episode of “Coaching with Costas”.

Below are a few main pointers:

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

Episode #57: Coaching with Costas: Dealing with Difficult People

Episode #58: Coaching with Costas: What’s Wrong with Politics?

In this fourth episode of “Coaching with Costas”, we discuss how to deal with office politics.

Below are the main highlights of our chat:

Office politics often have a negative connotation. However that does not have to be the case.

It is not either performance or politics. One does not exclude the other. If anything, politics do affect performance, so withdrawing from it may be naive and counterproductive.

Poor leadership is one of the reasons why office politics have acquired a negative connotation over time.
 

Having a great point of view and being right is not enough. You have to persuade people and make sure they feel accountable and committed.

Self-awareness is key, and can help you find commonalities with people who share similar values to yours, without feeling that you are engaging in something that is unnatural. At the same time, it makes sense to build relationships with potential adversaries who may otherwise force you to withdraw from what is perceived as politics.

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

Episode #57: Coaching with Costas: Dealing with Difficult People

In this third episode of “Coaching with Costas”, we discuss how to deal with difficult people.

Below are the main highlights of our chat:

“Difficult” means different things to different people.

“Difficult people” represent challenges or risks to our wellbeing, our career path and our progress. It is natural to feel stress hormones rising when dealing with difficult people or difficult situations. Remember to be kind to yourself in these situations.

It is important to separate the behaviour from the person. Labelling people as “difficult” is usually not helpful. All in all, we deal with difficult behaviours rather than difficult people.

Try and understand what it is about a certain behaviour that is causing you less than full satisfaction in your work life. Then, try to figure out what it is that drives that behaviour in the first place.

Ask yourself: “how can I grow and learn from this experience?”

Dealing with difficult behaviour can be the source of your growth as a leader. After all, some of the most trusted relationships are built in difficult situations.

Move towards the conflict rather than run from it, and seek common understanding.

Communication is always the answer, but “how” and “when” is the key. Figure out whether it is a one-off incident or a consistent pattern, and make a decision as to how and when to do something about it.

The most important thing is to change how you describe things. Avoid confrontational terminology. You don’t have to beat the other side or beat them.

Keep in mind that you are likely to be somebody else’s “difficult person”. You may display behaviour that other people find difficult.

Use inclusive language if you are going to communicate to the other person about some of the difficulties (e.g. use “we” instead of “you”)

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

Episode #56: Coaching with Costas: Impostor thoughts or growth mindset?

In this second episode of “Coaching with Costas”, we discuss the “Impostor Phenomenon”.

Below are the main highlights of our chat:

It is natural to have impostor thoughts if you push yourself towards growth.

The impostor phenomenon is a symptom of success. It is often born out of a natural tendency for self-growth and self-improvement.

The more you achieve, the more you might fear that those who look up to you will discover that you are not as good as you should be.

Some studies suggest that impostor thoughts are born or child roles and family dynamics. Too much or too little praise can be the source of impostor thoughts in adult life.

While self-confidence is a large high-level topic, impostor thoughts are driven by specific situations, people or dynamics.

It is important to label Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs), in order to come up with strategies to undermine and correct them.

The ABC model (Activating event, Belief, Consequence) can be a useful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Coaching model to help deal with ANTs.

If you do new things, new neuroconnections can be created, and existing ones can be reinforced (neuroplasticity).

It is crucial to have a sense of purpose and a solid network for support to face our challenges.

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

Episode #49: Effective Coaching with Costas Kalisperas

Episode #55: Coaching with Costas: The work-life conundrum

In this first episode of the miniseries “Coaching with Costas”, Costas addresses the work-life conundrum. 

Below are a few notable highlights: 

Costas is a Londoner of Greek Cypriot heritage and has worked as a barrister, solicitor, investment banker, private equity executive, angel investor and board director across a range of industries in a professional services career spanning 30 years. He has lived and worked in the US, UK and the Middle East over that time. 

Now an executive coach, his clients describe his approach as one that encompasses structure and challenge on the one hand and empathy and support on the other. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. This helps to nurture greater collaboration and collective success, while having some fun along the journey. 

Costas has been entrusted with leadership responsibility around team cohesion, morale, mentoring and career development in all his prior roles, including as a Head of a team and as Chair of year-end review committees at Barclays investment bank for many years, as well as in senior positions at Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America. He has thereby gained valuable insights into the importance of transparency, collaboration, diversity and inclusion in achieving the best results. 

Costas is a graduate of Meyler Campbell’s Mastered Programme, an accredited coach by the EMCC, a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching and a Hogan Certified practitioner. 

References:

Costas Kalisperas Likedin profile

www.intune-exec.com

In this episode, we welcome executive and mental coach Marta Michniewicz.

In our chat, we cover a variety of topics, including: 

Executive and mental coach with extensive experience in the healthcare industry. Marta has worked in a variety of roles from providing psychosomatic body therapy to clients in clinical settings, to product development in health promotion, to working with health tech start-ups as a Platform & Partnership Manager. In her work, she uses her coaching and consulting skills to drive individual and organisational change. With Marta, you quickly experience a foundation of trust to grow within and create deep relationships with others.

References:

Marta Michniewicz Linkedin profile

www.hifemp.com

www.martami.de

Kem Boggs joins Stepsero to share her thoughts on the role of leaders in a remote work environment. 

Below are a few main takeaways: 

Top-performing human resources and talent acquisition leader with over twenty years of experience in positions of increased responsibility and a track record of promotions during my career. Fifteen years of experience in HR leadership. Five years of experience in leading employment branding programs. Four years on the executive or extended executive leadership team in multiple organizations.

References:

Kem Boggs Linkedin profile