Ep. 346: High Level Executive Coaching  ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Coaching Reframes Professional Perspective** - Daniel Burd learned GTD deeply through coaching and has coached hundreds of executives worldwide, reshaping his worldview. - He emphasizes coaching's transformational impact on clarity, control, and productivity. Transcript: Daniel Burd You, David. Thank you, Ana Maria. Very, very glad to be here with you both. For me, this conversation carries a very personal meaning. I was one of the first, very first professionals ever certified as a GTD coach more than 15 years ago. And being part of this pioneering group shaped both my career and my worldview. So my worldview is totally different with GTD. And over these years, I have the privilege of coaching maybe hundreds of executives. And being able to talk about this one-on experience, the coaching, which is something that I really like to do, is really a privilege. So let's talk about GDD Coach. And I threw the ball to you, Ana Maria. Hello. Yeah. David Allen So Ana Maria, let people know what you'd like them to know about you, what you've done as our master certifier of coaching around the world. So take it away. Ana Maria Gonzalez Thank you um so what would i like you to know about me in relationship to my role of um you know the super master trainer um for the david allen company i certified trainers master trainers And coaches around the world and given that this call is focused on coaches we have a ([Time 0:01:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2ce4ae34-354b-4ddf-a5ab-0e2f34cf6f48)) - **Use Small Gains To Sell GTD** - Ask executives how much a small productivity gain would matter to them to surface motivation for GTD coaching. - Use concrete percentage gains to make benefits tangible and compelling. Transcript: Daniel Burd Lots of things come into my mind. One regarding the results of the GTD training or GTD coaching. I always start coaching selling the GTD. Many times the executive already know, read the book or did some training. But I want to emphasize the benefits. And I always ask the executive if he gains 5% in terms of productivity, if he gains 5%, how happy he would be. Just speaking about productivity. And they all say, wow, that would be wonderful. Can you imagine 5% from now on on my life just in terms of productivity? And last week, I was speaking with a C-level person from a bank, a huge bank here in Brazil, the biggest bank. And we did the coach one month ago, and we were just speaking. And he said that he gained at least 15% of productivity with this training. As David was saying, I thought, okay, I probably have not much to teach him on how to work because he has more than 10,000 employees behind him and he climbed the corporate ladder already. And the GTD training in one month improved, in his words, like 15%. So I think the impact is brutal. But he said that this was not the most important part. He said that the most important part was that he was feeling less stressed. He was able to be more present. And it is so good when we hear this kind of feedback that the guy is having a life now and he's more productive and less stressed. This is what we sell. And it is so good to hear back. Well, I'm getting this. And that's wonderful. ([Time 0:04:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3c7a8568-717b-4ede-89c4-6d2d08551bb4)) - **The Cold Shower That Proved Coaching** - Daniel brought a coach to Brazil expecting to already know GTD and got a 'cold shower' when his system was reviewed. - That experience convinced him of coaching's value to fix subtle but impactful system errors. Transcript: Daniel Burd There was no training at that time, like 20 years ago. And when I contacted David and Catherine in Ohio, California, and I said that I want to be a representative here in Brazil, I thought that I was already a GTD-er. I thought, okay, I already know how to use this thing. And one of the requirements was that I had to bring a coach to Brazil to teach me how to use. I don't know if you remember this, but I brought Julie to Sao Paulo. And I thought, I'm losing my money, bringing someone, paying everything. I'm losing my time because I already know this thing. And it was like a cold shower. When I showed her my system, I was very proud. I have my system, I have my list, I am GTD-er. And then she started to go a little bit deeper with the concepts, with, okay, she was very polite. It's a good system, you're wonderful. But then she started to make some notes about my project list about my next action definitions about my horizons of levels then i understood that i i wasn't using gtd at all i was just scratching And using very wrongly not having all the potential that it has to to to present to us so in that day i i understood the value of a coaching because sometimes i think i understood i think I'm doing everything all right but when there is someone just be beside me look at my system and say okay guy it's beautiful but maybe you get this wrong. Let's make it right. And the thing is, we are not going to do it right just because the book tells us that this is right. But because there are huge benefits in doing it right, the friction that we have when we are walking reduces a lot when we really take it in a in a in a profundity. ([Time 0:07:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a5cd751d-8ffe-4781-b94b-359d14b35784)) - **Personalized Tweaks Unlock GTD Value** - One-on-one coaching reveals personal pain points and allows tailored fixes rather than generic instruction. - Coaching uncovers existing strengths and helps tweak habits into a smoother system. Transcript: Daniel Burd Because one thing that I did in the beginning very mechanically is the mind sweep or the capture all over the office in face to face. So we walk through the office and get everything that there was there and so what is this? Is this in the right place? In the beginning, I was kind of, I don't think the word is a shame, but I think that the person might not see value on doing that or open their purse or open those things. Are they going to see value on this? And it is remarkable one CEO of a company we did this in his office and he he hired me to to train all his directors based on this walk through his office one thing that in a training set or In the book, maybe we didn't get that value. And it was so wonderful because he said that it was a woman. She said that it was the first time in like 20 years that she had that feeling of an office without noise, without things calling her attention. But she didn't know what to do. She felt the noise, but she didn't have any technique or on how to make it quiet. And it was a huge benefit. I think the one-on experience allows us to have this kind of personal dance. What's hurting? ([Time 0:09:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/651fdc2d-23fd-411b-a0ef-9b6865a0e24e)) - **Start By Asking What Dominates Attention** - Identify each executive's main sources of friction by asking "What most has your attention right now?" - Focus coaching on those top pain points, often meetings and email. Transcript: David Allen So I learned after all these years, that was my primary question in coaching was what most has your attention right now? Is it your email? Is it your filing system? Is it the stuff piled up on your desk? Is it your staff? Is it delegation? Is it follow-up to, you know, what is it meetings? You know, the main thing, the two main things that from my experience with a lot of executives, that they feel the two things that most are in the way of their productivity are meetings And email. Because they're just not handled with a really fine GTD focus. And, uh, doesn't mean that's easy because what's happened with the digital world is everything. There's a lot more volume and a lot more speed with the amount of things that people are having to then address and deal with. ([Time 0:12:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cd739f64-e803-4195-8755-3d6db69a6964)) - **Saturday Sessions Fix Small Habits** - Daniel coached an Accenture partner on a Saturday because he couldn't implement GTD during the week. - Small habit changes, like consolidating capture, proved life-changing for that client. Transcript: Daniel Burd Remembering about two clients that they asked me to work on Saturdays because they couldn't do during the week. One is a partner at Accenture, and he asked me to go to his house on Saturday morning, and he had already read the book. And he said, there is value here, but I don't know how to put this in place. And this guy now, he has a global role in Europe. Again, I worked with him, and then he put all his direct reports to work with me also. But I remember so many simple things that if we are not working one by one, it's difficult to see. In his case, he loved Moleskini, those notebooks, Moleskinis. And he had a pile on his home. And whenever he goes to a meeting, he grabbed a different one I think this one is good for this meeting and so just speaking with him about this habit that he had about capturing in different Places all over the place it was like life-changing for him and imagine lots of lots of people and just this is a very simple example and another one which he which was a president of a paper Company again we worked on saturday and he was at his office at this time and i presented him the concept of having a complete project list. This is the list of the projects that they are important to you, or you are responsible for doing it, or you have to look over it. And I presented a few concepts, and then we met again, like, two weeks later. ([Time 0:13:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/73d162a2-b973-4944-a7e2-432f78de351e)) - **Create And Share A Complete Project List** - Build a complete project list and review it with a coach to reveal overlooked commitments. - Treat the project list like Lego: combine concepts to construct a personalized system. Transcript: Daniel Burd This is the list of the projects that they are important to you, or you are responsible for doing it, or you have to look over it. And I presented a few concepts, and then we met again, like, two weeks later. And he came with 40 plus items in his project list he was amazing wow now i have a project list so you can imagine if you read sometimes it is so simple you have to have a project list you have To understand what is project in terms of gdd but it is so simple that we i think we tend to underestimate the power of having it and when we are working together and we can show i always show My list to the the clients and they say okay this kind of stuff you put there okay when they get the the meaning then they can start playing like lego for me gtd is kind of a lego you you present Lots of concepts and how they tie together and then the person start to to build his his own construction i just remember again your your your thoughts sparking lots of thinking here. ([Time 0:15:17](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f95d7852-ab43-4a26-acf2-2525c8c9206b)) - **Personal Life Often Takes The Coaching Day** - A newly promoted COO needed one hour for formal job clarity and spent the rest of the day on personal life issues. - Executives often gain more from sorting household and family commitments than from organizational tasks. Transcript: Daniel Burd I coached the president of a chemical company, and he wrote a testimonial for me after the coaching. And he said that the biggest value he saw was not on the big things, because the big things on his life, on his professional life were already in place they have budget uh rituals they have Committees ritual so when he stepped into the ceo position there were already lots of rituals that he had just to follow because the multinational he was the ceo but those rituals were In place. So he said that the most value he got was from the small things, the car that was not working, the things that all those personal stuff that was a mess that he could organize. And again, he shared that he had much more mental space now because he was not worrying about if about the cars about everything on his life they they usually have very complicated life Those guys on this they usually have more than one house lots of cars and lots of things happening so they have two companies one is the professional company and they have the personal Company with lots of commitments and when they understand that they can use this for manage those small commitments they they see lots of benefits in that you know you remind me of a very David Allen Almost the same situation. I was brought in, I had coached the COO, he was number two guy in a very large financial organization, and then the president retired, and so he got promoted to be president and so he wanted Me to come in and spend a day with him to to sort of regroup now that he's got a new job and sort of get clear about all that and so i came in and and it took us about an hour to get clear about that Because he had all the rituals they were already set up the committees were already set up. He had the direct reports were already there. They were already reporting to him. And all of it was there. We spent the whole rest of the day in his personal life because he had investments that he had needed to manage. And he had a teenage son that he couldn't get to do anything. He was trying to get him into the right college. And he had, he had a second house. He commuted. This is in Washington, D.C. And he commuted down to North Carolina every weekend. And so he had multiple houses, multiple investments, multiple people that he needed to manage about all that. But it took most of the rest of that day just to address all of those things. ([Time 0:16:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/485db460-a92c-4cf0-8d8e-9e26f74793ca)) - **Stress Comes From Uncaptured Work** - Managing un-captured commitments, not inherently stressful jobs, often drives executives' stress. - Downloading and organizing projects dramatically reduces measurable stress. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez I have another again a couple of reactions um we found danielle that many times when we coach the high level executive back then a lot of it in new york city um then they hired us for their Wives because it their lives are very complex like you said they have two or three houses they somehow they the wife was always pregnant for child number three or child number four or They were building something else or something was being remodeled or the schools or the colleges so we were actually brought in to also do um you know the gtd coaching for the wife because They understood that even it's an enterprise it's just that it's not the bank that they're they have the role you know as the ceo or the whatever but their personal life it it's another Enterprise and um when that's under control obviously then they can better focus at work and everything just moves smoother right and more elegantly and with less tension so that was Also something that um our good beloved marion bateman who we all remember um she often had to go and coach the wives um i did it a couple of times, but it was more of a Marion thing, David. I think Marion, obviously, probably she identified. I was more like, I will go in and change your life a little bit more rough in my approach. Marion obviously was more soft, but we did a lot of that. So don't undermine that, Daniel, when you're working with high-level executives. It may be something that they ask you to come do because they see the value and the power. And the other thing... David Allen By the way, it's not always a wife. Sometimes it's a husband. Ana Maria Gonzalez Correct. Well, the partner, I should say. But I think this is changing. Daniel Burd It's much more my husband needs... Correct. Correct. Ana Maria Gonzalez Did also a couple of times the the the husbands who actually were the staying home husband um because again it's another company the home the personal it's it's somehow we were led to Believe that that didn't require the same rigor or the same work it does because, when we understand the definition of work, that it's anything that needs to be completed, then everything Is work regardless of its nature, right? If it meets the definition. And many years ago, when I was working for COPEZUL, as you know, down in Rio Grande do Sul, I worked with all the top executives. And one of them, my dear friend Zapparoli, who knows if he hears this one day, I still remember him and I sent him my love. He was the executive in charge of the control room, which was a very stressful job, but just by the nature of it. Because again, if anything went wrong, the whole thing will explode. But that didn't stress him at all, all. What stressed him was, were all the projects that he had not somehow downloaded and put into his system, which resulted in 120. And after we did that complete projects list, and they had the biofeedback machines, I think that's where they call back then that they would put some things on your brain to measure Your level of stress because they had to do it for all the control room operators. If they had a certain level of stress, they could not be doing the work because it meant that they weren't capable, right? Zaparoli's stress level dropped significantly because it wasn't the work that by nature was a stressful job, let's say it was every all the noise in his head so we were able to see the Difference and and it was not a small list it was 120 projects there was no way then because i tried hard and we moved some but all those 120 belong there they didn't belong in someday maybe They didn't belong anywhere else they belong there that was the level of complexity that he was managing. ([Time 0:19:58](https://share.snipd.com/snip/eaee96cf-c7ae-4dcd-9e66-629feb2b1df6)) - **Turn Problems Into Projects With Next Actions** - Capture problems as projects and define next actions to transform nagging issues into manageable work. - Coach for appropriate engagement so people know what to do and when to move on. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez We pretend that we're not paying attention, but we're actually paying even way more attention than it deserves because it doesn't go away. David Allen And we don't promise that we'll solve everything that somebody considers as a problem. But what we can do is coach people into being appropriately engaged with the situation. And appropriate engagement may simply be researching to find out if you can change it. And there's an action step you would need to take to do that. So there's still action to take, even though it may not be the final solution to what you think the problem is. It could be the final solution to becoming appropriately engaged with it so that you then, uh, don't, it's now on cruise control, as we say that, that, you know, you, you've, you know Exactly what you need to be doing to move the needle on it, to move things forward and to make progress on it. So you find out that you either can't make any progress on it, in which case you accept it, ignore it, or play with it, or it changes. And you do what you need to do to change it. Yeah. Daniel Burd You know, the appropriate engagement, I think it took me like six or seven years to understand what does that mean. I think now I have a better vision that I had a few years back because it is great. It's not just doing, it's not just completing. Appropriate, engaged, it's different. Yeah, I am comfortable. Again, another word that you use, Ana Maria, tension. How is the tension in this subject? Is this appropriate? Is this what I can do? And now I am appropriate, engaged. ([Time 0:25:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ed62489c-4080-460b-8ebd-24ee1f87402b)) - **GTD Enables Appropriate Engagement** - GTD is not about working harder or longer; it's about being appropriately engaged and freeing mental space. - Proper GTD implementation allows people to relax while remaining in control. Transcript: David Allen Yeah, because most people think, oh, I'm not going to do GTD. It means I'm going to work harder. I'm going to have to work longer hours. I'm going to have to do everything. And it's like, no, not at all. ([Time 0:27:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7dff8d63-6a1e-450a-a7e9-16c92ca50f40))