Are you feeling trapped between your career goals and your loathing for “playing politics”?

Is there a way to remain true to your values and integrity and still be politically savvy?

You want to be a leader, not just a manager. You’ve been lucky: you’ve experienced good — maybe even great — leadership during your own career. Or maybe you have friends who’ve been lucky. Now you want to be one of those leaders, inspiring and motivating not only your employees, but also your peers and even your own management. But the political aspects of corporate life leave you confused and frustrated and hurt.

You believe a successful career should be compatible with integrity — but you’ve been pushed out onto the playing field without a rule-book, and there aren’t any referees. A mentor would be nice, but there’s no one within the company who fits the bill, and your friends just look dazed when you talk about it.

You want recognition for your achievements, appropriate compensation for your skills and experience (salary and promotions), and you want to maintain your integrity within the corporate system. You don’t want to believe this is too much to ask.

You’re sick of ignoring the invisible elephant in the conference room!

Corporate politics exists, and you want to know how to deal with it. So in between all your real work, you’ve read books, taken classes, tried winging it, and just plain scratched your head in bafflement. You know enough to know there’s a better way. Sometimes you get a glimmer of it, a taste that shows what it could be like to have confidence in your political choices, faith that your decisions can make career sense and stay aligned with your values.

Welcome to
Taming the Invisible Elephant:
How to understand what’s really up with corporate politics, so you can advance your career, support your employer’s goals, and sleep peacefully at night.

Elephants can wreak destruction, but they can also be gentle, wise, and powerful. Likewise, politics can be hurtful and egocentric — or gentle, wise, and powerful!

Six months ago, I would have said corporate politics is who you have to back-stab to get ahead. When Grace told me that as a manager, I had to learn to understand politics, I almost changed my mind about working with her. Politics was a four-letter word in my mind.

It didn’t take her long to help me understand that politics is really about working within the process to do what needs to be done — working with my peers, my team, and my management to move the company forward without stepping on anyone else’s toes. It’s about how to form a team and be a leader even when the company’s leadership isn’t making the effort. More importantly, it’s how to do all that while caring for the success of everyone.

I know I’m a better, more confident manager, and I’m getting more done by working within our company processes more effectively. My boss trusts me not to screw up politically any more. In fact, she even commented on my improvement in my last performance review!

~ Paul Jones, Resources Development Manager, San Diego, CA

Would you like to:

• Learn simple ways to promote yourself and your work without being obnoxious, so you can get the recognition, promotions, and salary you deserve.
• Develop a magical instinct for what people really need and want (but aren’t saying), so you know how to motivate staff and negotiate solutions — without being manipulative.
• Identify and understand unspoken senior-management concerns, so you know when and how to act and what to say.
• Learn the secret to involving key players, so you can focus on getting the important stuff done without wondering who’s going to trip you up.
• Understand at an intuitive level how your word choice affects your listeners’ reactions, so you can craft messages that say what you mean and prevent misunderstanding and confusion.
• Locate and tap into unofficial networks of communication, so you can understand what’s going on behind the scenes and know how to get support for doing the important projects.
• Discover the surprising fun of developing trust — your trust in others and their trust in you — so that you can get more done faster while building meaningful relationships.

This goes far beyond typical corporate leadership and communication training and other programs you’ve experienced.

• It’s tailored specifically to you — your situation, your style, your goals. It’s not based on a single cookie-cutter solution, but incorporates tools, techniques, and concepts from a multitude of management, leadership, and communication experts, spiritual leaders, top business and life coaches, and solid practical experience.
• It’s ongoing, because to get these results takes more than just a session or two or a group workshop. It takes consistent, focused work over time. The program length is tailored to fit your needs and your situation.
• It focuses on what works — no band-aid approaches or platitudes, but practical tasks with specific action steps.
• We monitor your results, so we know what’s working, what’s not working, and whether you’re achieving what you want.
• You’ll learn skills — and learn things about yourself — that will help you beyond your current workplace, in any and every situation of your life. My clients consistently report results in their workplace and in their personal relationships.

Will it work for you?

Not everyone is ready for this kind of work. Not everyone wants or needs this kind of work. And that’s as it should be.

Successful clients for this program have a few things in common.

1. You want something more, something bigger. Making a difference is important, but how you make that difference is even more important. You care about people, and you care about your own values and integrity.
   
   You’ve got some experience under your belt, and you know how it feels to be successful. And you’ve got a sense, a feeling, that you could go further and have a bigger impact in your corner of the world. You’re willing to take some risks to get there, but you want to do it without compromising your integrity.



2. You have a sense of humor — plus more than a bit of determination and even a dash of stubbornness.
   
   Without that determination, you wouldn’t have gotten as far as you have, and you’re ready to employ it to take you further. At the same time, you know how to have fun and how to laugh. You can find a little humor in almost every situation.



3. You enjoy learning and growing, even when it’s hard work. You’re enthusiastic and passionate and you get excited about what’s important.
   
   It’s that stubborn determination thing. As long as you can see some sort of progress, you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to keep moving. And getting excited about what you’re doing is half the fun — because without the excitement, there’s no fun at all.

So what’s involved?

You’ll make a profound shift in how you approach office politics and how you think about, talk about, and deal with the people and situations in your organization.

1. We’ll start by defining what you want to accomplish, which will help us understand how to approach scheduling and plan what you’ll learn and do.

After hundreds of sessions with many clients, I’ve learned that taking a “running start” is often the best way to gain momentum and start achieving results. So I’ll suggest starting with three sessions per month — but as always, we’ll schedule as works best for you and your situation. And we’ll track progress and adapt to your busy schedule as we move forward; some clients prefer to keep to that schedule, and others find twice or even once a month works better.

Sessions are by phone, and all our conversations and other interactions are wholly confidential.

Grace’s understanding of the challenges of having a well-rounded and fulfilling life make her coaching relevant for most of us. She blends her vast corporate knowledge and experience with her outside-the-box thinking, creating results that are immediately applicable while building pathways for a new approach to whatever you are doing.

~ Shannon Thompson, Founder & Visionary Director, Shakti Rising, San Diego, CA

In these sessions, based 100% on your needs and goals, we’ll cover things like:

• Getting a solid, realistic grasp on where you are now and where you want to go, so we know exactly what we’re aiming for.
• Clearly mapping the political environment at your office and thoroughly understanding the corporate culture, so we understand the framework within which you’re working.
• Understanding what office networking really means and building/strengthening your network, so you have a reliable knowledge of who to trust, who you can go to, and who to be wary of.
• Becoming 110% clear on your company’s and department’s policies and procedures, both spoken and unspoken, so you can make informed decisions about when to circumvent them and when not to.
• Examining how you and others in your organization use language (word choice and sequence) and tone, so you can make changes in your usage that will shift how others react to you and how they view your work and contribution.
• Tuning into the unspoken, unofficial communication network, so you instinctively know what’s going on across the organization and how that affects your projects.
• Exploring how to bring all of yourself — your integrity, values, and heart — to work, so you can feel like a complete person in the office and help others develop trust and confidence in you and your work.
• Continuously addressing specific situations that come up at your workplace, so you can apply your new skills and understanding in the heat of the moment and experience the difference in results.
• Much more, based on your experiences, results, and needs.

Of course, there will be other things that come up around and in between and through all of these topics. We’ll talk about them too!

2. Email and In-between Calls

I encourage clients to keep in touch with me between sessions, because I want to know what’s happening for you. You may have something you need me to review, a question or challenge that comes up, or a success you want to share. Send it my way! It makes our phone sessions much more valuable if I know what’s going on between our sessions.

I’m also open to in-between emergency calls if something comes up that requires immediate assistance. This is, of course, subject to my availability.

You have found time on more than one occasion to help me over a hump or — more importantly — out of a ditch. Those times have been invaluable to my growth. Nothing like immediate help.

~ Paul Jones, Resources Development Manager, San Diego, CA

3. Between-sessions work

We’ll do a lot of work in our calls, and there will be more work to do in between. All our work is focused on your goals, practical steps that make a difference and create results. At the end of each session, I’ll send you a worksheet to track your ongoing projects as well as the daily and weekly practices that help you create new, productive habits. Depending upon your goals and needs, I’ll also recommend books and articles to read as we proceed. And I’m always there to provide moral support and encouragement as well.

This is a commitment to your future.

This is a commitment to and investment in yourself and in your future.

When we started working together, I expected you’d help me sort things out, but I thought it would take several sessions and a lot of research and reading on my part outside of the sessions.

You have an uncanny ability to see through what is being said and surface all the “unsaid” issues. Then you quickly give candid feedback and have a tremendous toolbox to help me move forward through your expert guidance with the right tool. The speed at which you understood my predicament and used great approaches to get me unstuck and moving forward was amazing. An hour often seemed too much time!!!

I have worked with many facilitators / coaches / counselors relating to work and personal situations. Your skills are exemplary and moved me faster than I ever expected. I now have great tools for reframing my perception of a situation — and I’ve made an internal “flip” in my mind from inertia and sadness to optimism and momentum!

~ Jennifer Baker, Fishers, IN

I limit the number of clients I work with.

It’s a case of practicing what I teach and keeping my schedule under control. And it’s knowing that I can only bring my best to my clients if I have the space to give each one my full attention. So I strictly limit the number of clients I work with at any given time.

That way, I can promise you that you do get my full attention, during our calls and in between when I respond to your emails and when I’m thinking about what you’re up to, and how I can help you.

If what you’ve read here is inspiring, interesting, intriguing, I’d like you to be one of those clients.

And the best way to start is — to take the next step. Fill out the form below and we’ll set up a time to talk. Or just pick up the phone and call me at 760.757.7660. If I’m on the phone with a client, I won’t answer, so please leave a message.

I answer email and phone messages within one business day — usually faster. There’s no commitment; this is just an exploration to see if this is the right time and the right match for both of us.

I’m looking forward to it!

“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going!”
~ Ancient Chinese proverb ~