The Coaches’ View

The Cary Chamber of Commerce recently sponsored the 5th Annual Honor a Teacher Program at the Koko Booth Amphitheatre. This year, 22 Western Wake County Public School teachers were honored with $1,000 awards and trophies from sponsoring businesses.

The Honor a Teacher Program was created by Barry and DJ Mitsch of The Pyramid Resource Group, Inc., a corporate coaching company based in Cary. The first teaching award in Cary was the Discovery Award, established in the 1990’s by business leaders Ralph and Daphne Ashworth. Inspired by the Ashworths, Barry and DJ created the Clara Knoll Teaching Award in the year 2000 to honor Barry’s grandmother who taught for over 40 years in New Jersey. Clara passed away in 2005 at the age of 106.

The Honor a Teacher Program was established to encourage other area businesses to recognize public school teachers. As of this year, $112,000 has been awarded by businesses such as Progress Energy, SAS, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Time Warner Cable, KB Homes, and AT&T. The awards ceremony has become a premier event on the Cary Chamber calendar and this year over 400 people were in attendance.

“Teachers have the most difficult yet most important job in our community. We hope this recognition can help inspire our best teachers to stay in the profession,” said program co-founder Barry Mitsch of Pyramid.

Companies interested in being part of the program can contact Tiffanee Gwaltney at the Cary Chamber, 919-467-1016.

Kathy Baske Young, a professional business coach who is affiliated with The Pyramid Resource Group, Inc., was recently recognized by the Roanoke Valley YWCA as their “Woman of Achievement” in the business category. Kathy was also featured in Business Connections, the magazine published by the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce. She has been one of the driving forces behind Leadership Forward, a Roanoke Valley program designed to educate and engage professionals into positions of leadership in the community. Kathy is a Professionally Certified Coach (PCC) and has been affiliated with Pyramid since 1999. She is one of Pyramid’s leading facilitators for their proprietary team coaching program known as The Extraordinary Game.™

Doug Leland, Master Certified Coach and an affiliate of The Pyramid Resource Group since 1999, spent nearly four months last year walking across the country with his wife, Sally. They were two members of a twelve person walking team taking part in the $6 million “Steps Across America” project sponsored by a number of “house-hold name” corporations. The purpose of the walk was to promote personal fitness and healthy lifestyles.

“Our walk across the United States is an experience we will forever cherish. Seeing the magnificence of this country from ground level, one step at a time has physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions best experienced than expressed. It has opened doors to new possibilities and is a journey we may very well repeat.”

Doug specializes in coaching senior executives and helping professionals make transitions to ever more fulfilling stages and phases in life. His Monday Morning Message is a popular e-zine read on five continents where Doug shares his observations and insights on life.

Being raised below the Mason-Dixon line, I was taught as a little girl to be nice at all costs. It occurred to me somewhere around 10 years old that being nice was another form of “lying.” Nice is a judgment about how we “should feel and do.” There is a difference in being nice and being kind, a difference in being nice and being straight and trustworthy.” People trust others who tell the truth, even if the communication or the relationship gets messy as a result.

What I learned early in life was that sometimes I had to choose to be less patient with others and not quite so nice in order to engage in conversations that were meaningful and in relationships that grew.

Most of us feel we need to learn to exhibit more patience. I see it in the clients I coach. One said to me today, “I guess I should learn more patience.” What was really needed was less - - this client needed to learn to notice that his impatience was a signal that there was an underlying truth that need to emerge. Once we surfaced it, he was relieved and in touch with something real and actionable. He needed to address an issue that was taking too much energy and address an issue with a person who was afraid of telling the truth out of a perceived consequence of losing her job. So they were engaged in this little dance that was going nowhere and was frustrating. Once the truth was told, the dance changed and there was movement. This interaction, though tough, was definitely better than waiting patiently to continue the same conversation.

Where do you need to lose your patience? What is the underlying truth you are wrestling with? What is available to you as a result of getting in touch with that truth?

Barry Mitsch, co-founder of The Pyramid Resource Group, has been helping executives improve their presentation and speaking skills for nearly 20 years. He notes that very little has changed over the years in the formula needed for a successful presentation, except for the emergence of presentation technology such as PowerPoint. PowerPoint has become so pervasive in executive presentations that it often loses its impact.

“PowerPoint is the most overused tool by business presenters. They seem to think they have to have it or they will not be seen as professional,” notes Barry.

He advises clients to wait until they have thoroughly developed the content of their presentations before even thinking about visual aids. You can get more tips on giving presentations from Barry’s book, “Mind over Mutter – 160 Practical Tips for Giving Great Presentations.”