The Skyline G Blog: New ideas and perspectives focused on results

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SkylineG Blogs

• Self awareness in leadership: the x factor in team performance
  Mar 26, 2024 - In the ever-evolving world of leadership and business, one essential quality continually stands out as the X-factor that can elevate leaders from good to great: self-awareness. While leadership comprises a complex web of attributes and competencies, self-awareness is the cornerstone that supports all other leadership skills.
• Effective decision-making: skills, process & strategies to improve as a leader
  Mar 12, 2024 - Leaders who possess strong decision-making skills have the power to navigate the complexities of the business world and steer their organizations toward success. Decision-making is a cornerstone of successful leadership and one of the most important leadership skills to master.
• 360 feedback assessment: what it is, who its for & how to implement at your organization
  Feb 19, 2024 - In the workplace, the 360 assessment is the #1 tool used to facilitate people in gathering feedback on their professional abilities helping them to confirm their strengths and understand areas of opportunity for development. Despite the massive potential upside of 360's, misconceptions and apprehension often surround 360-degree feedback, leading to mistrust.
• Leadership transition: plan, process, challenges & best practices
  Feb 5, 2024 - Whether it involves adjusting departmental leadership, passing the baton in the C-suite, or welcoming a new team leader, understanding the intricacies of the leadership transition process and executing the leadership handoff effectively is vital to ensure success.
• Mastering the CEO transition: How to craft an ironclad CEO succession plan & seamlessly transition a new CEO
  Jan 15, 2024 - A CEO departing - whether it's due to retirement, resignation, or strategic decisions - marks a critical time for an organization. The way the organization manages the transition profoundly impacts the company's stability, culture & long-term success. In this article we discuss the essential elements of a CEO transition plan and provide a detailed template to follow on how to craft a bullet-proof onboarding plan for a seamless onboarding process and CEO transition.
• Toxic Leadership & Toxic Employees: How to Fix a Toxic Workplace
  Jan 4, 2024 - In today's dynamic and competitive business landscape, the role of leadership in maintaining a healthy work culture cannot be overstated. One of the most critical challenges leaders face is dealing with toxic traits in the workplace. Toxic traits can permeate an organization at various levels, from toxic leadership to toxic employees, and they have a profoundly negative impact on both the organization's culture and its people.
• Effective Communication in the Workplace: Strategies & Tips
  Nov 7, 2023 - Poor communication is slow death for an organization. An organization with a poor communication culture is at risk of becoming obsolete.
• Leadership vs Management: Traits, Differences & Responsibilities
  Oct 4, 2023 - In the realm of business and organizations, leadership and management play vital roles each with its own unique attributes, but understanding these roles is crucial for achieving success.
• Executive Coaching Goals: Strategic Goal Setting for Massive Wins
  Oct 3, 2023 - Executive coaching is a dynamic, transformative process designed to accelerate leadership performance of specific leaders at key levels of an organization. Whether you're a senior manager seeking to accelerate your performance and skill trajectory, a C-suite executive navigating complex strategic change, or an employee with high potential (often referred to as a "high-po") that is being supported with coaching, setting clear and effective coaching goals is paramount.
• How to Find & Qualify the Best Executive Coach (10 Questions)
  Oct 2, 2023 - Looking for a coach? These 10 questions are absolutely critical to ask in the evaluation process & will ensure you hire the best executive coach possible.
• Leadership Styles: The 6 Primary Leadership Styles, Pros & Cons of Each & How to Figure Out Which is Best
  Aug 23, 2023 - Each leadership style has its own distinct strengths, weakness, and appropriate application.Understanding these 6 common leadership styles, their effectiveness & their applications can help leaders identify & develop their own personal unique leadership style that will best meet the needs of their team, people, environment, and organization.
• Executive Coaching vs Leadership Coaching: A Comprehensive Comparison
  Aug 22, 2023 - Effective leadership development plays a critical role in cultivating skilled managers and executives who have the ability to lead organizations toward triumph. Within this domain, executive and leadership coaching are distinct development methods to hone leadership capabilities. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they encompass unique approaches and cater to different levels of leadership within an organization.
• Leadership Coaching for Startups: Navigate Challenges, Scale to New Heights & Supercharge Your Success
  Jul 25, 2023 - Starting a new venture can be an exhilarating yet challenging experience. As an entrepreneur, startup founders have a vision, a passion for their idea, and the drive to make it a reality.
• Startup Leadership Teams: 5 Critical Operating Principles to Foster The Right Culture Needed for Groundbreaking Success
  Jul 24, 2023 - Add one paragraph that best describes your blog post (this is often the first paragraph of your blog post). This text appears on the main Listing Page that shows all blog posts.
• Leadership Coaching for CEOs: Helping The Best Leaders Get Even Better
  Jun 22, 2023 - Utilizing executive coaching designed explicitly for CEOs & other high-ranking executives can help even the best CEOs achieve exponential outcomes.
• Teamwork: The Relationship Between Outstanding Leadership and Extraordinary Teams
  Feb 13, 2023 - By understanding the importance of teamwork and its role in achieving success, you can ensure your entire team is ready to take on any challenge that comes its way.
• How To Create A Strategic Leadership Development Plan: The Process & Template for Leaders, Teams, Companies & Individuals
  Feb 6, 2023 - Failing to invest strategic insight & resources into a leadership development plan results in failure to adapt to challenges, retain critical talent & meet goals.
• What is Leadership? A Guide To The Core Elements of Great Leadership & Behaviors That Make an Effective Leader
  Feb 6, 2023 - Discover the fundamental elements of exemplary leadership. Learn how to foster collaboration, garner respect & produce consistently outstanding results.
• What is Strategic Planning? The Key Components, Process & Role Leaders Play in Ensuring a Strategy's Success
  Feb 1, 2023 - Strategic planning in business is an essential process for any company looking to maximize it's resources & achieve long-term organizational goals.
• Business Goal Setting: How to Improve Team Performance & Morale
  Jan 30, 2023 - Team Leaders: Want to know the #1 way to enable your own success, and improve company performance & team morale? Set realistic business goals.
• Leadership Communication Skills: The 8 Core Traits of Effective Leadership Communication
  Jan 15, 2023 - Successful leadership hinges on communication skills & abilities. Discover the eight core communication traits of great leaders & help your team soar.
• Women in Leadership 2023: The Challenges, Benefits & Development of Female Leadership in the Workplace
  Jan 5, 2023 - In this article, we talk about the challenges women face in corporate America and moving beyond the feminine or masculine expression of leadership.
• The Modern Succession Planning Process: How it’s Changed & Redefining Traditional Succession Planning for 2023
  Nov 9, 2022 - Succession planning must account for a number of factors, including an organization's short and long-term strategy, areas of growth, talent management, attraction, development, and leadership development strategies and processes.
• CEO Life in 2023 is Tough: Four Things CEOs & Companies can do to Boost Tenure, Thwart Complacency and Improve Bad Succession Planning
  Nov 3, 2022 - The role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is without a doubt the most significant leadership role within a company. Whether an S&P 500 or start-up, the CEO is the face of the business; he or she shapes organizational culture and embodies what the company stands for, and is accountable for results.
• The 28 Most Important Leadership Competencies to Master
  Apr 5, 2022 - Discover the 28 most important leadership competencies that every leader must master to thrive in any business, industry & organizational culture.
• What is Leadership Development? The Process, Who it's for, & Why it's Important
  Mar 14, 2022 - Leadership development is the process of enhancing the leadership abilities of any member of an organization. Honing, developing, and effectively applying good leadership is a key part of any leaders' job and success. Leadership development is the process of developing and refining those key proficiencies.
• The Top 28 Leadership Qualities, Traits, Skills & Competencies That Make Exceptional Leaders
  Jan 24, 2022 - Great leadership is the ability to balance strategy, tactics, and implementation all the while mastering the nuances of motivating and engaging the people critical to success. Motivating and engaging teams is a core function and qualities of a good leader and a big component of that comes down to leadership style.
• Leaders: Face Your Fear of the Unknown The Four Steps Needed to Lead in an Uncertain World
  Sep 16, 2021 - Leaders: Face Your Fear of The Unknown. Recently, a surgeon and senior professor at Stanford, was explaining an upcoming procedure that he was going to perform using a minimally invasive technique. “You can’t teach this to everyone,” he stated. “It’s like driving in a really bad rain.”
• What Is Corporate Leadership? The Key Qualities & Top 5 Skills Needed for Company Growth
  Jun 29, 2021 - Corporate leadership steers a company or organization through the day-to-day choppy seas and navigates toward the future. Yet corporate leadership doesn't just focus on financial and business strategies, overseeing personnel, crafting core values statements, or issuing directives for employees at every level. Corporate leadership also inspires managers, supervisors, and employees with a growth mentality. It sets goals integral to the corporate culture that encourage innovation and avoid stagnancy and complacency.
• What are HR Analytics? The Benefits, Implementation & Key Metrics That HR Managers Need to Know
  Jun 29, 2021 - Thousands of companies fail to achieve their objectives. Overwhelming competition, lack of sophisticated technology, and poor execution all play a significant role. However, it’s shocking that the most vital aspect of company success - human resource - is often overlooked and neglected.
• How To Be Coachable: 9 Tips to Improve Coachability & Make the Most of Your Leadership Coaching Engagement
  May 24, 2021 - Those who are coachable are unstoppable. These 9 tips will help make the most of your leadership coaching engagement + 14 red flags that stunt growth.
• The 5 Most Important Elements To Create Superior Leadership Development Programs
  Apr 8, 2021 - We have been in the field of leadership development for a long time and have had the privilege to work with experts - hundreds of amazing leadership experts who help leaders within some of the top companies worldwide take their skills to the next level. Over time, we have observed that 80% of the time of our coaching engagements, the leaders grow and succeed in achieving the goals they set out to accomplish, and the leader’s manager and HR are happy with the results. 10% of the time, the leader fails to reach their coaching goals. This occurs because they were already failing in their role and a coach was brought in as a last effort. The remaining 10% of the time something truly fundamental, powerful, and life changing occurs. And for the companies where this success occurred, something equally profound happens - a leader’s transformation results in remarkable things for the company.
• Client Success Story: Medidata
  Mar 15, 2021 - A Fast-Growing Leader in Clinical Technology with Ambitious Revenue Goals Deploys C4X to Successfully – and Cost-Effectively – Build its Leadership Capabilities
• 6 Common Traits of Bad Leadership (and How to Fix these Poor Leadership Qualities in Your Organization)
  Jan 5, 2021 - You’re working diligently at your desk when your manager stops by your cubicle with yet another business initiative they want you to spearhead (remind you of anyone?). What he doesn’t realize -- or take the opportunity to look into -- is that you’re already leading the efforts on several side projects, in addition to your day-to-day tasks. “He means well,” you rationalize, this is an “opportunity.”
• White Paper: The Art of Executive Presence
  Sep 30, 2020 - In this white paper, we present the behaviors that embody and are imperative to developing executive presence.
• Groupon partners with Skyline G for consistent, flexible, and effective leadership development training on a global scale
  Sep 10, 2020 - Groupon partnered with Skyline G to offer two programs, both of which are customized to the specific development goals of the individual leader.
• CEO Defies AI Advice
  Sep 1, 2020 - The Trends and the Skills Leaders Need in the Next Decade That Will Help you Reevaluate Your Leadership Programs.
• Leading With the Help of Your Executive Coach in Times of Crisis
  Mar 18, 2020 - Leadership coaching in the best of times is powerful in helping leaders overcome day-to-day challenges, achieve business objectives, and foster deep and lasting change within themselves. Companies that have invested in leadership coaching understand the value and importance that coaching provides facilitating both personal development while helping that leader achieve business objectives. These are benefits of coaching in normal times. As the world, companies, and individuals find themselves in uncharted waters due to Covid-19, the importance of leadership coaching is even more critical.
• Why an Occasional Hands-On Leadership Approach Makes Sense: The Five Steps to Digging into The Details You Need to Lead.
  Mar 9, 2020 - When one hears the terms “hand-on” or “micromanagement,” what often comes to mind is the controlling, shortsighted, overbearing manager who, based upon insecurities or other issues, has to have their hands on everything. The cliché micromanager does not have the managerial or leadership style that one perhaps would want to shine a spotlight on as exemplary. The overbearing, ultra-hands-on style of the micromanager has numerous limitations, from the lack of independence and frustration it fosters in employees to the fact that micromanagement does not allow a manager or leader to grow or scale their responsibilities.
• Toxic Performers Can Kill Your Culture. Are you sacrificing company culture for short-term performance?
  Feb 19, 2020 - Success, execution, delivering results—what gets measured gets done and recognized. However, in thinking about your team members and their contributions, it is vital not only to look at what results they are delivering but also to make sure their contributions are not sacrificing more important company principles. A number of leaders we have worked with grapple with the challenge of excusing bad behavior from employees who deliver results. In our experience, the potential long-term negative impact of overlooking or even excusing destructive behavior far outweighs the benefits of short-term positive outcomes.
• The Smart way to Introduce & Scale Leadership Coaching into Your Company
  Feb 1, 2019 - The value of leadership coaching over the last decade has become both more widely understood and valued in comparison to other leadership development options. Options such as executive education and training programs are falling out of favor for lack of tangible metrics and on-the-job application. As companies and Human Resources (HR) leaders step back and reflect on what programs and solutions derive results, the interest and demand for leadership coaching has increased.
• Mindset Over Matter: Research and Findings Into Leadership Mindset, Gender Differences Regarding Mindset, and Its Impact on Leadership Performance
  Dec 1, 2018 - Research and Findings Into Leadership Mindset, Gender Differences Regarding Mindset, and Its Impact on Leadership Performance
• The Case For Providing Leadership Development For All Employees
  Oct 10, 2018 - There are a variety of paths to becoming a leader. But the most efficient path should involve identifying and developing a person’s inherent skills and abilities. Many organizations ignore this opportunity, leading to a lack of great leaders.
• Client Success Story: A Leading Financial Service and Analytics Firm Deploys C4X to Successfully and Cost-Effectively Build it's Leadership Capabilities
  Sep 19, 2018 - MSCI determined that it was a strategic business imperative to accelerate the performance of its leaders through leadership development and visibility of its top Executive Directors and Vice Presidents across the firm. Doing so would increase employee retention, engagement, and further align globally dispersed employees with the corporate culture.
• Beyond Gender: Changing the Leadership Conversation
  Sep 17, 2018 - Getting past the gender leadership problem requires changing the conversation and moving beyond gender and exploring what truly effective leadership behaviors are.
• ConMet partnered with Skyline G to establish a leadership development program that generated measurable growth in competency development for program participants within the first six months
  Sep 12, 2018 - Marci Jackson, Director of Talent Management at ConMet, was developing a leadership development program for her company. She was in search of a partner to support building a custom program to nourish and grow new leaders.
• Maximizing Leadership Influence Through Creating Shared Reality: Aligning Individual and Team Performance Through Social Tuning and Creating a Shared Reality
  Sep 12, 2018 - A common way to think of leadership is providing a shared vision for where you and your team want to go and clear directions on how to get there. A less talked about but equally important aspect of being a leader is your ability to create a shared reality for your people, giving them a framework for what’s happening right now and how it aligns (or doesn’t) with your vision for the future.
• Six Tips for Recognizing High Potentials
  Sep 12, 2018 - According to research done at CEB HIPOs are 91% more valuable than non-HIPOs. But today’s reality is that 73% of HIPO programs are failing to deliver business outcomes or ROI.
• CEO Turnover: Emerging Trends, Causes, and Solutions
  Aug 13, 2018 - Ill willed CEO’s beware, your days may be numbered. Professional services titan PWC has released a report on the biggest changes in the executive world between 2011 and 2016. Their main finding was that the number of CEOs forced to resign from their positions as a result of “ethical lapses” increased 36% worldwide.
• The First Critical Step to Leadership Coaching: Effectively Providing Feedback
  Jun 11, 2018 - As the awareness and application of leadership coaching grows, so does the use of giving and receiving feedback. Giving feedback is a critical manager and leadership skill that when done correctly is an important building block of developing employees. However, there is a tremendous risk of damaging employee productivity, sense of self, and engagement when feedback is not delivered correctly.
• From Fear of Feedback to Story Changing Tool: Why doing a 360 assessment is something you want to do today
  Jan 8, 2018 - What words would your colleagues, direct reports, and supervisors choose to describe you? Are you considered more open and communicative or rigid and difficult to work with? If someone perceives you as the latter, how can you change his or her opinion of you to the former? How can you revamp your personal brand? Believe it or not, the traditionally dreaded 360 assessment is the ideal tool for the task.
• Why Employees Trust Their Company’s Mission, But Not Their Leaders
  Dec 13, 2017 - Leaders, by design, are supposed to inspire their employees. In order to do so, they must create relationships and an environment that supports and motivates people.
• The Guide For The Introverted Leader
  Oct 26, 2017 - Many people think that a leader has to be an outgoing and extroverted people person. Because of this, introverts can be overlooked for leadership opportunities.
• The 4 Ways To Keep Developing Leaders Aligned With Company Goals and Culture
  Sep 28, 2017 - Developing leaders have a lot to focus on. Sometimes ensuring company alignment slips through the cracks. But by supporting leaders and reinforcing how they can both be better aligned and help align others with the company, they will learn to make a positive impact on everyone they lead.
• How to Build A Leadership Development Program That Doesn’t Disappoint
  Sep 21, 2017 - Add one paragraph that best describes your blog post (this is often the first paragraph of your blog post). This text appears on the main Listing Page that shows all blog posts.
• That’s Not Leadership or Management! The Impact of the Disengaged Leader (DL)
  Sep 21, 2017 - We hear a lot about the importance of the engaged employee most of us have read the statistics – such as 70% of U.S. workers are not engaged, 90% of leaders think an engagement strategy will have an impact on business success but barely 25% of them have an engagement strategy in place, only 40% of employees know their company’s goals, strategies and tactics. And 75% of people voluntarily leaving their jobs don’t quit their jobs they quit their bosses.
• The Nine Critical Steps To Influencing Others
  Sep 20, 2017 - “Influence is 15% professional knowledge, and 85% the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people.” Dale Carnegie
• Why a Big Personality Isn’t a Necessary Leadership Skill
  Aug 23, 2017 - Think about how we portray leaders -- both business leaders and otherwise -- in our culture. In movies, they rally the troops with inspirational speeches right when things seem bleakest.
• 8 Eye-Opening Business Leadership Trends [Infographic]
  Jul 13, 2017 - Any organization that is driven to stay ahead of their competition has keen eye on relevant business leadership trends – not only in their industry but trends that manifest on a more macro level.
• Why Your Leadership Development Plan Should Not Include Coaching One Leader at a Time
  Jun 27, 2017 - The smartest organizations, and the ones that will prove to have staying power in the marketplace, are the ones that have established a comprehensive leadership development plan.
• The 4 Reasons Why Leadership Development Needs to Be Updated
  Jun 1, 2017 - There’s a leadership problem in the workplace. Companies lack employees with leadership skills and fear they don’t have enough rising leaders to take the reigns. Case and point -- almost half of the companies surveyed for Workplace Trends’ Global Workforce Leadership survey in February and March 2015 said that leadership is the hardest skill to find in employees.
• Why You Should Walk the Line Between Company Culture and Your Individual Leadership Style
  May 30, 2017 - The company culture is the heart of the organization. Goals, processes and policies should be tied to it. So when leadership styles within the organization match that culture, success should follow, right?
• 5 Keys to Scaling Leadership Coaching in Your Company
  May 4, 2017 - Want to hear something alarming? The <a href="https://www.i4cp.com/">Institute for Corporate Productivity</a> conducted research with 665 global organizations and found that half of managers admitted to hoarding talent – keeping their best employees in their current roles. That’s not all…
• Warning! Are You Dooming Your Leadership Development Programs?
  May 4, 2017 - In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article, Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström, and Derek Schrader shared the story of a leadership development program they studied. Initially, the program started off with a bang. Participants enjoyed the training sessions and post-assessments indicated it was successful.
• Managers: Important Trends You And Your Leaders Need To Know About
  Apr 4, 2017 - Don’t wait for an angry employee’s email to go viral to realize you’re behind. Here are three management trends you need to know about right now:
• Do Effective Leaders Use Fear or Love in the Workplace?
  Mar 22, 2017 - It’s the age-old leadership question: Is it better to be loved or feared? And an August study published online in the "Journal of Business and Psychology" finds there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
• 3 Subtle Signs of Bad Leadership (and How to Fix It)
  Feb 23, 2017 - According to a 2016 survey by Paychex, 44.6 percent of the 2,000 employees surveyed said they left their previous job because they didn’t like their boss. But bad leadership isn’t always easy to spot, especially when those leaders have the best intentions. Here are three telltale signs of ineffective leadership and how to address them through leadership development:
• How to Lead in the Virtual Office
  Jan 16, 2017 - With the increase of technology and sophisticated work tools, more and more employees are working from coffee shops, couches and the virtual office. In fact, 52 percent of employees surveyed by Workfront in July, expect the majority of employees will work remotely in the next few years.
• The Search For Brilliance
  Jan 1, 2017 - Middle managers serve as critical connectors between senior management and frontline employees. They must execute strategy, make hard decisions throughout strategic and tactical deliveries and balance employee morale and expectations with overall organizational objectives.
• 5 Things You Need to Do to Set Yourself Up for a Promotion
  Dec 12, 2016 - Everyone wants a promotion, but it’s not as simple as waiting a year or two to “get” one. That’s because promotions are earned, not given. This is especially true at the leadership level; professionals need to prove their worth and show that they’re ready for career advancement. Demonstrating value isn’t making a one-time presentation to senior leadership about why a promotion is deserved. It requires a conscious effort to improve and grow as a leader and simultaneously position yourself as a high-performing professional. Here’s how:
• When It's Not You: How to Handle a Boss (or someone with whom you work) with a Mental Illness
  Oct 20, 2016 - People complain about their “crazy” boss all the time. But what do you do when your boss actually suffers from a mental health condition? It sounds absurd, but it’s more common than you might think. The latest numbers from the National Survey on Drug Use and Healthfound that, in the previous year, 18.1 percent of adults had suffered from a mental illness. For 4.1 percent of the population, it was a serious mental health problem.
• 7 Ways Women Leaders Can Excel Being Their Authentic Selves
  Oct 11, 2016 - Women in leadership positions are often told to behave in ways that are viewed as more masculine to be successful. But it’s not that simple. Because when women act like men, their peers and employees tend to think that one thing -- that they’re bossy. In fact, research conducted by our company, Skyline Group International, Inc., found a significantly lower perception of effectiveness when women express the masculine behavior in 57 percent of the 28 leadership competencies studied.
• Leadership Blog Posts: Greatest Hits Volume 1
  Sep 21, 2016 - Punk Rock - the music that fueled my skateboard charged youth still rings true in my ears today. Punk rock changed my life and how I see and interact with the world. In the context of work – punk has influenced me in a range of areas including how embraced my first real corporate job, set about trying to change the world of work, and the books I write – my second book even opens with a quote from Suicidal Tendencies first album.
• Taking Leadership Coaching to the Next Level: Scaling the Results and Impact of Leadership Coaching Throughout Your Company
  Sep 21, 2016 - Leadership coaching is considered one of the most impactful ways to develop leaders for many reasons. First, it is highly personalized, giving the leader being coached a great deal of ownership—and accountability—over the process and its success.
• Developing Leaders in the 21st Century: Outdated Methodology is Giving Way to Technology-Enabled Solutions
  Sep 15, 2016 - Over the past decade, the workplace has changed dramatically. Organizational structures have gotten flatter, managers and employers are spread around the world and often work together virtually, and everyone is being asked to do more than less. Meanwhile, the rapidly changing workforce includes boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Ys, and a rising number of contract and part-time employees, all bringing different backgrounds, needs and expectations.
• Find Overlooked Talent by Providing Every Employee Opportunity for Career Development
  Sep 6, 2016 - Leadership coaching is typically reserved for the top one percent of employees. In other words, those nearest the top are getting all the development needed to get to and stay at the top. But what about everyone else? Do they get the same opportunities? Without coaching and development, employees at lower levels can never reach the next step of their careers, and they never reach the top. The same people get better and move forward, while everyone else stays the same. It’s time to level the playing field.
• Moving Beyond Male / Female Leadership Stereotypes
  Sep 4, 2016 - What do you think of when you think about an average woman in a leadership role? What qualities do they have? How do they act? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses?
• Leaders, relax don't do it!
  Sep 1, 2016 - The Three Steps to Move From Reaction to Response and Make Better Decisions.
• 'Mentoring' and 'Leadership Coaching' Are Not the Same. Do You Know the Difference?
  Aug 23, 2016 - When companies talk about leadership development, words like "coaching" and "mentoring" often get tossed around. Not only that, but the terms are used interchangeably. So, most listeners just assume they mean the same thing. Certainly, at first glance, they do seem to be one and the same: Both, after all, involve an authority figure who helps guide a leader to success. And that's the same thing, right? Well, no. In reality, there's a big difference between mentoring and leadership coaching; and both tasks are essential. What's more, when development programs combine or mis-label the two, leaders miss out. So, what’s the difference, and why should we care?
• The Lack of Innovation & Tech in Leadership is a Major Problem
  Aug 15, 2016 - Technology changes so rapidly that it’s a challenge to keep up. And not only our personal technology, but we see this in the workplace, too. Almost every aspect of business has been made better by advancements in technology -- except leadership training.
• This Is Why You Need Balance To Be An Effective Leader
  Aug 11, 2016 - The conversation on gender and leadership centers on the same advice. Women in leadership need to be less bossy and more confident, and men need to be more understanding. It’s been said over and over again, and yet, the balance between men and women in leadership isn’t getting any better.
• Leadership Development Needs to Be Updated
  Jun 23, 2016 - There’s a leadership problem in the workplace. Companies lack employees with leadership skills and fear they don’t have enough rising leaders to take the reigns. Case and point -- almost half of the companies surveyed for Workplace Trends’ Global Workforce Leadership survey in February and March 2015 said that leadership is the hardest skill to find in employees.
• The Same Leadership Problems / The Same Solutions Isn’t It Time For Change?
  Jan 12, 2016 - Search “leadership engagement” on Google: 308,000,000 results. Search “leadership development” (94,900,000 results) and “ROI of leadership development” (1,840,000 results). What more can be said about the popularity, seeming importance and value of developing and engaging leaders in your company?
• The Top 3 Signs You are Managing a Reluctant Leader
  Dec 9, 2015 - It's not surprising to notice that some people you work with never step up to fully embrace their leadership role. It's not that these individuals are not productive employees; they just never seem to go the extra mile. We call these individuals "reluctant leaders."
• How Trust Gets You in Trouble: 6 Alternatives You Can Use Instead
  Sep 2, 2015 - "I don't trust you..." It's the sentence we all dread. How can someone not trust me? I'm a good person. Trust is one of those incredibly loaded words. What trust means to one person may mean something else to someone else. We don't need a universal definition of trust. Instead, we need to stop using that word as a replacement for identifying and precisely defining a problem.
• Stopping the Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve
  Aug 12, 2015 - Do you get annoyed like I do when someone responds to a question or observation about his or her behavior with, “Yah, yah, yah, I know I should do a better job at ___.”? Initially, you have a feeling of guilt for making the person feel self-conscious for his or her poor work. Then, without meaning to, you let your cynicism set in. You don’t want to believe that the other person has no intention of doing what they say they will do and then you feel like a bad person to think that. But it’s true, right? More than likely, they aren’t going to do it!
• Stop Playing the Gender Card
  Jun 2, 2015 - We, Stacy and Thuy, were in a staff meeting in which the discussion around women in leadership came up as part of our suite of solutions. First, we were delighted to be having the conversation around women in leadership positions and how to continue to support them in their growth. Second, we were also frustrated that we had to even be in this conversation in the first place. That said, we accept that the world is the way it is and that we all have biases. What we found to be most interesting in our exploration of this topic as a team was how often the victims of workplace discrimination were also the perpetrators.
• Starting Small with HR Analytics in a Big Data World
  Apr 30, 2015 - Few topics in recent years have garnered as much attention as the topic of HR analytics. Several notable thought–leaders (e.g.,John Boudreau, Tom Davenport, Jack Fitz-enz) are calling for the HR profession to adopt a predictive analytics approach to understanding and managing people in the workplace, and a number of Fortune 100 firms have been leading the way such as Google, IBM, and Intel to name a few.
• Feedback Phobia: The Problem With Asking for Feedback
  Apr 21, 2015 - Everyone wants feedback, right? Wrong. Most people cringe at the thought. Although the term feedback has become mainstream in the world of corporate speak, giving and receiving it still ranks below going to the dentist for a deep filling. This is because we are wired to reject things we don't want to believe is true about ourselves, and most of us feel uncomfortable telling others information that could come across as insulting. So when someone asks you for feedback, you naturally think twice about providing him or her with the truth.
• Great Strategies Require Great Thinking: The Seven Steps To Effective Strategic Thinking
  Apr 1, 2015 - Strategic thinking is the process of identifying the best way to achieve your vision or objective given your unique situation, circumstances and preferences. It requires a systemic view of your own organization and industry, at the market level and across the larger economic and business environments. This type of thinking includes the ability and willingness to look at problems differently, try new things, take risks and consider long-term implications of current actions.
• Find Your Hidden Strength in the Overlooked Middle
  Mar 26, 2015 - Why is the middle is so often overlooked? We see this phenomenon with the middle child in a family. We pay attention to the first child with caution and our youngest child with gentle coddling, yet we often have to remind ourselves not to forget about that middle child. Much like in a family, middle performers in a company are often overlooked, and it could be holding your organization back.
• Why Leadership Planning and Organizing is HOT
  Feb 10, 2015 - When people consider leadership roles, their common reaction is to think about the flashier characteristics -- sexy things like vision and strategy. Many people who follow strong leaders find that high-level aspirational talk gets them excited. Whereas others in the know, are aware that kind of talk is hot air. The majority of leaders can talk a good vision or strategy game. Great leaders are the ones who can also get it done. You know the type of leaders I am talking about -- real leaders who not only talk it, they can walk it by crafting a vision, identifying a strategy, and then making it happen. Give me a leader who backs up their talk with some spicy, hot planning and organizing, and I'll following him or her any day!
• 4 Telltale Signs You're a Control Freak and How You Can Get off the Freak Show
  Jan 30, 2015 - How do you know when you have become a control freak? A great indication of this not-so-complimentary badge of honor is when your team starts calling you some variation of ""(Insert Your Name Here), the Control Freak Show"" behind your back.
• 2055: Message From The CEO
  Jan 22, 2015 - Inspired by the Leon Wieseltier’s Article “Among the Disrupted” in the New York Times January 18th, 2015 Book Review Section.
• Rethinking and Retooling Surveys
  Oct 1, 2014 - Surveys are the most prevalent and widely used methods for collecting data and insights on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of employees, customers, and other business stakeholders.
• Uncovering Hidden Strengths For Continual Leadership Development
  Sep 26, 2014 - We often get stuck in our approach to new opportunities by relying upon what comes easily to us and what has worked in the past, whether it is playing a new game, entering a new relationship, or accepting a new promotion. On the other end of the spectrum are the things that despite our painstaking attempts to improve, just don’t budge and we avoid doing. In between this spectrum are your middle skills – the skills that fall between what you already are great at and the things that you are inherently just not good at doing. Your middle skills are the majority of the skills that you have and, with focus and practice, can become your powerful solution for ongoing personal and professional development. Your middle skills can be thought of as hidden strengths waiting to be developed.
• Employee Data Lake
  Sep 10, 2014 - The concept of an “employee data lake” with respect to Big Data movement represents the aggregation of a variety of data sources both structured and unstructured in one place such as email, chats, financial records, etc.
• Unleashing Innovation: The 3 Steps To Unlocking Your Creative Power
  Jun 23, 2014 - For some, the word “innovation” conjures up feelings of open frontiers, the future, unbridled possibilities. For others the word conjures up feelings of dread. Not because they are not interested or excited by innovation, it is because of the pressure that comes with an environment that is driven to innovate faster and better. Tremendous pressure and anxiety exists when people turn a creative, open, and fun process into a specific activity—picture a domineering manager stating to her staff, “Today we innovate and we don’t leave this room until we are done!” No, you cannot force yourself or your team to innovate. Innovation is not a task.
• The 3 Steps to Maximizing Your Collaboration Skills
  Jun 10, 2014 - Unless you live and work alone in a cave,it is almost certain that you have work relationships that involve some level of collaboration. Collaboration is vital not just for getting work done as efficiently as possible; it is also critical for optimum workplace satisfaction, because true collaboration increases an individual’s morale, sense of accomplishment, and identity within their team and company. As a leader or an aspiring one, you should be consistently reflecting on how you collaborate and seeking opportunities to raise your “collaboration game.” Not only will being a strong collaborator raise your productivity and job satisfaction, it will reinforce to others that you are a leader.
• Achieving Your Objectives: Starting Slow In Order to Go Fast
  May 21, 2014 - In today’s turbo-charged, nitro-powered, gotta-go world, we are pushed to perform faster and, in many environments, we are rewarded for speed. However, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the right objectives on time if you are not clear on what success really looks like, on the resources required, and have a plan. Taking the time to prepare and identify a strategy to achieve success will prevent truly detrimental derailers and, in turn, help you beat your deadlines.
• Maximizing Your Middle: Evolve Your Latent Skills, Attain Your Goals, and Become a Modern Leader
  Apr 29, 2014 - Leaders past, present, and future are individuals who have faced opportunities and obstacles; and triumphed in the face of these circumstances. Some of these leaders succeeded because they were able to jump over the hurdles in their path by deploying a set of skills that have been tried and true. Great Leaders, however, became triumphant by building new skills and evolving themselves to meet the challenges and opportunities in their midst. This reflects the most fundamental aspects of leadership development – that great leaders observe and adapt.  Great leadership requires more than a fixed set of skills, abilities, and traits. Today, underlying all of the requirements of being and staying a great leader is agility – flexible, being able to move and change. Think bamboo in hurricane vs. oak tree.
• The 5 Principles of Authentic Leadership
  Jan 16, 2014 - Real Leaders Don’t Say They Are Authentic—They Are Authentic Perhaps the most important element concerning authenticity as a leader is understanding the traits and values that are important to you and manifesting these consistently. To provide a bit of structure and guidance on honing your authenticity, we provide the following.
• Validating the 360 Instrument
  Jan 1, 2014 - In 2001, led by Gustavo Rabin, Ph.D., Founder and President of Skyline Group, we assembled a core research team from Stanford University, along with fellow academia colleagues from University of Massachusetts and University of Florida. The objective was to capture the core of the research performed through all other existing 360 assessments and distill the essence defined as the fundamental competencies that support or derail a career.
• Social Media and The Intentional Leadership Legacy
  Nov 14, 2013 - In the end, nothing will matter as much as the legacy you leave behind. Successful leaders tend to focus on the future, on five-year plans and long-term strategy. It takes a conscious effort to create and leave an intentional legacy and shape what will be remembered from your time in a position of leadership.
• Sales Is A Numbers Game - Or Is It
  Sep 21, 2013 - Numbers and data have always been a part of the sales world and any decent Sales Executive can crunch numbers, spin numbers, see trends, analyze and make decisions based on numbers. Sales Executives are always trying to determine what activities in what volume will lead to a sale...
• Leaders: This is The Most Important Thing You Can Do Today at Work (and it’s Not about Productivity)
  Sep 3, 2013 - Your team should be focused on productivity, but as a leader, your focus should be on bringing the right perspective to your role.
• Maximizing the Middle: Why Focusing Your Sales Talent Investment on Mid-Level Performers Will Exponentially Increase Sales Performance
  Sep 1, 2013 - Add one paragraph that best describes your blog post (this is often the first paragraph of your blog post). This text appears on the main Listing Page that shows all blog posts.
• Telepathic Leaders Equal Big Failures. Leaders Don't Rely on Psychic Skills Instead of Communication Skills.
  Jul 18, 2013 - Around the world, there are leaders who are intentionally or unknowingly relying upon their psychic abilities and those of their employees to relay important information with disastrous results. The results of failed telepathy range from massive product recalls, failed change initiatives, to unengaged employees. Humor aside, the lack of information and assumptions made by leaders regarding things as broad as their vision to as specific as individual performance expectations leads to big problems that are easily avoided.
• The Epidemic of Lousy Leadership! The 5 Actions You Can Take to Avoid or Fix Lousy Leader Syndrome (LLS)
  Jun 19, 2013 - Sadly though not surprisingly across the U.S. in companies small and humongous there are tens of thousands of leaders who are doing a lousy job. Some may not know they are doing a bad job and many other leaders know they stink but are stuck; unable or not knowing how to change. These Leaders suffer from Lousy Leader Syndrome (LLS)
• The Golden Rule of Leadership: Leading Others is a Privilege Not a Right (and My Challenge to You)
  Jun 6, 2013 - Scanning headlines, popular literature, and reflecting upon what my colleagues and I experience on a daily basis, I am struck by how many leaders (managers included) have seem to either have forgotten, never learned, or are too self-absorbed to get it.  It, being the Golden Rule of leadership: Leading others is a privilege that is earned not a right.  Leaders who understand that leading others is a privilege understand that leading first and foremost, is about service.
• The Punk Rock Leader: Why More Leaders Need to Unleash Their Inner Punk Rocker
  May 30, 2013 - Punk Rock  - the music that fuelled my skateboard charged youth still rings true in my ears today. Punk rock changed my life and how I see and interact with the world. In the context of work – punk has influenced me in a range of areas including how embraced my first real corporate job, set about trying to change the world of work, and the books I write – my second book even opens with a quote from Suicidal Tendencies first album.
• The Scent of Great Leadership: Do Great Leaders Actually Smell Different?
  May 21, 2013 - Traditionally the manifestations of “leadership” show up in what can be seen as in specific behaviors or experienced in the manner of what and how things are communicated. The combination of the verbal, non-verbal communication, and leader-like behaviors make up almost the entirety of how a leader is experienced and judged.
• Delivering Consistent High Impact Coaching: Introducing the 4x4 Coaching Methodology
  May 14, 2013 - The benefits derived from executive coaching are many including - higher functioning leaders, higher performing companies, and better-performing stock price. Whether you are just starting out learning to coach as a new manager or a seasoned coach, what you’ll find in the executive coaching world is a lack of consistency how coaching is deployed and how the success of the engagement is measured. To overcome this obstacle, I created the “4x4 Coaching Methodology.” This methodology ensures a coaching experience is consistent and hits the objectives you (both coachee and organization) have identified.
• Are You a Restless Leader?
  May 8, 2013 - I have been thinking lately about recent Aberdeen Group research that year over year indicates consistent CEO concerns with significant business issues such as innovation, employee productivity, execution, etc. Consistent issues, no surprises, yet year over year the concerns remain the same. Why? Certainly, leaders have the authority to make things happen. Making significant changes doesn’t always cost a fortune- so budget shouldn’t be an issue. These issues are fundamental to company success, share price, and competitive advantage - so prioritization also should not be an issue. What is going on here?
• The Career Employee Bill of Rights
  Apr 30, 2013 - Are you a career employee? A career employee is an individual who spends their career working for others versus working for themselves. Don’t get us wrong. There is no judgment here. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a career employee. There’s a certain level of safety, comfort, and stability associated with being employed. Very few us by nature of our personality were actually designed to venture out on our own and brave the world as an entrepreneur. Trust us, we know personally and have done both. It’s painful and it’s not for everyone. That’s not just because it’s tough, sometimes being an entrepreneur is unrealistic. So many of us, choose to become career employees.
• Searching for Great Employees? First Take a Look in the Mirror.
  Apr 24, 2013 - Even in today’s new job market realty where persistent high unemployment is becoming the norm, every company wants great employees and dreams of the perfect hire. Given the high unemployment rate and economic uncertainty, companies are more often holding out on hiring employees like a virgin bride waiting for Mr. or Miss right.
• How to Pick an Executive Coach
  Aug 13, 2012 - Picking a coach can be a difficult decision. How do you decide one person is going to be more helpful to your learning and growth over another one? I regularly find myself with potential clients explaining my approach and providing them with the best information to help them make the right choice. The bottom line is that it is a very personal decision and while I’d love to say there is no bad choice, I’ve actually seen leaders make the wrong choice. How do I know? They’ve come back to me later and said, “I want to work with you because it didn’t work out with the other person. I should’ve gone with my instincts.” What was their decision informed by? What were they paying attention to and distracted by?
• What Really Motivates People?
  Jul 20, 2012 - When I’m talking to leaders, the conversation around how to motivate their team typically comes up whether it’s a top performer who needs to be motivated to stay within the organization (and not lost to the competition) to middle performers who would do even better if they would take things to the next level. So what actually motivates people?
• Want to Improve the Performance of your Organization? Focus on the Middle
  Mar 20, 2012 - Once you set your strategy and are clear about goals and objectives, everything else is about execution. Solid research shows that excellent execution of a mediocre strategy beats poor execution of the best strategy. Given that execution is key to success, we must look at where execution takes place...in the middle.
• Stop Fighting the Retention Battle; It's An Engagement War
  Feb 10, 2011 - Even with a recovery in the economy, the job (and housing) market will take some time to catch up. That doesn't mean there aren't jobs out there. It just means they are for very specific talent. Those talent know exactly who they are. Since 2008, we've personally seen this talent pool still get calls from headhunters and move around from one company to the next with bigger titles, pay, and responsibility.
• Why and How to Update Your Perceptions
  Oct 25, 2010 - I see this often, and it’s pervasive: You can make somewhat lateral moves in an organization, but it’s sometimes difficult to make substantial upward moves. Why? Because the perception of you has not been updated in the minds of people who met you as a young, up-and-coming employee.
• Why Making Decisions Is Often More Than “Yes” or “No”
  Oct 18, 2010 - I recently had a conversation with a client about his desire to be more strategic about decision-making—particularly about decisions that would impact his career and his life.
• Can I Change?
  Oct 13, 2010 - One of the questions clients ask me most often is, “Can I change?” Sometimes they ask the question in general, wondering if dramatic change is within our capabilities as human beings. But the most relevant version of this question is about self.
• Leaping Ahead With Organizational Intelligence Surveys
  Sep 1, 2010 - The organizational survey is one of the most prevalent and widely used methods for collecting data and information about employee thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in organizational settings. Surveys in general are commonly used for varied purposes in the context of workplace learning, performance, and management.