Senia Maymin, MBA, MAPP, PhD, is the coauthor of Profit from the Positive. Maymin is an executive coach to entrepreneurs and CEOs. Maymin runs a coaches network and is the founder and editor in chief of PositivePsychologyNews.com. Her PhD is in organizational behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Full bio.
Senia's solo articles are here, her articles with Margaret Greenberg here, and with Kathryn Britton here.
Today’s guest is Kathryn Britton. Kathryn’s background in a nutshell:
- Currently:
- Co-Editor of PPND
- Executive coach (website)
- Teaches Managing Project Teams to project management graduate students at the University of Maryland (website)
- Facilitates writers’ workshops (link)
- Co-author of the wellness book Smarts and Stamina (on Amazon) and co-editor of two PPND books on Gratitude and Resilience
- Previously, a software engineer for IBM for 26 years and for the U.S. Navy for 4 years
- Follow Kathryn on twitter as @kathrynbritton
Today’s interviewer is Senia Maymin.
(Direct link to video in Youtube)
Key take-aways from Kathryn you will hear here:
On Research and Business:
- Why Israeli pilots were wrong in their interpretations of praise and critique (source: Daniel Kahneman)
- A story that Jane Dutton tells about John Chambers and compassion at Cisco
- We need to help each other focus on the things that are going well; it takes intentional actions to vocalize what’s going right (source: Shelly Gable’s work on Active Constructive Responding); good question to ask people: “What would make it even stronger?”
On Coaching and Making Change:
- When you’re working towards a change, set it up as a series of experiments (source: Stuart Friedman)
- Guilt and shame are very poor platforms for change (source: James Prochaska)
- Be as prepared as you can, but you don’t own the outcomes (source: Kahneman)
- Never put the client in the wrong (source: coach training)
- 6 questions to ask when you’re going for a job interview
- Don’t start in places where you’ve had a lot of failures (source: Smarts and Stamina)
On Writing:
- Why it is important to merge together stories and research
- As a writer, have a place to practice
- Ask yourself about writing, “What could make it even stronger?”
References
Britton, K. H. (2008). Increasing job satisfaction: Coaching with evidence-based interventions. Coaching: An International Journal of Research, Theory, and Practice, 1(2), 176-185. Discusses active constructive responding in the workplace.
Dutton, J. (2003). Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Friedman, S. (2008). Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life. Harvard Business Review Press.
Gable, S., Reis, H. T., Impett, E. A., & Asher, E. R. (2004). What do you do when things go right? The interpersonal and intrapersonal benefits of sharing positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(2), 228 –245.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. London, Allen Lane.
Kanov, J. M., Maitlis, S., Worline, M. C., Dutton, J. E., Frost, P. J., & Lilius, J. M. (2004). Compassion in organizational life. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6), 808-827. A discussion of John Chambers at Cisco starts on page 817.
Prochaska, J. O., Norcross, J. C. & Diclemente, C. C. (1994). Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward. New York: HarperCollins.
Shaar, M.-J. & Britton, K. (2011). Smarts and Stamina: The Busy Person’s Guide to Optimal Health and Performance. Philadelphia, PA: Positive Psychology Press.
Turner, D. (2007). Active and constructive responding, with a twist. Positive Psychology News.
Photo Credit: via Compfight with Creative Commons license
Film strip courtesy of SalFalko
