by Marlene Pontrelli

The following is a preview of one of the topics to be covered during the Leadership Training Institute seminars at the Congress of Cities and Exposition in Reno, Nev., Dec. 5-9.

Personal success is something that many city officials have already achieved to varying degrees. Elected officials and senior executives are the ?go-getters? and ?doers? of society. They are natural leaders, and are often very comfortable with taking on responsibility and being in charge. Few may think they even need a personal or business coach in their life.

However, the same characteristics necessary to succeed can lead to burn-out in those who try to do it all, fail to recognize their own strengths and weakness as team leaders, and underutilize their greatest asset ? the power to coach others to achieve common goals.

Strategies for addressing these issues are explored in three main areas: balancing life in an unbalanced world, developing coaching skills and putting coaching skills to work.

The first ingredient to successfully using leadership skills to coach others is recognizing the need to put life ? including the time spent at work ? in balance. Everyone recognizes why a successful leader is constantly on the run, multi-tasking in a million different directions, yet ends up exhausted (and usually demanding such exhaustion from those around them).

Most people will look at this type of leader and question whether such a lifestyle is really right for them. However, imagine a leader who not only is able to take care of priorities and lead the organization forward, but also appears to live a happy, contemplative and full life. That?s a leader that everyone can aspire to be and who has the greatest potential to lead people and organizations to excel.

Learning to balance is not about juggling competing obligations or desires, or thinking that nature will ever create a day containing more than 24 hours. It is learning what can be done to keep the daily routine in balance, and how to instill this balance in others.

After discovering how to balance a daily routine both personally and with a work group, the next step is determining how to get there. In life coaching, many may ask the question, ?What were you doing when you felt it couldn?t get any better than this?? With work groups, some may be asked to think of a time when everything was going well.

There are specific skills everyone can learn as a coach that will make for a more effective leader. Understanding why individuals and teams need coaching and learning the role of the coach leads to an understanding of why coaching works better than managing.

Details: The ?Life Coaching Skills for Effective Leadership: Balancing Your Personal and Professional Life? Leadership Training seminar will take place Tuesday, Dec. 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information or to register for Leadership Training Institute seminars, visit www.nlc.org.

Marlene Pontrelli is the city attorney in Tempe, Ariz.