Tag Archives: coaching

The 10 Best Business Lessons Of 2016

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Here’s a list of the best advice we’ve given for building and growing a successful organization.

Over the last year, there have been a lot of changes on the business landscape from Yahoo being sold to Verizon to Gawker going bankrupt. Along the way we’ve talked to CEOs of big companies, first-time entrepreneurs, and those working hard every day to make something new. Many have gone against the grain and looked at practices that may seem unintuitive but ultimately helped them find success.

To help you prepare for making change at your own company in 2017, we’ve complied some of the best business lessons we learned this year.

Lesson 1: Look Outside The Box When Sourcing Talent

Though unemployment has been on a steady decline over the last few years, tech jobs are still in high demand. More often than not they are hard to fill. Take the example of security: Cybersecurity jobs are very hot right now, and most companies are having trouble finding and cultivating the right talent. The answer to this problem may be to think bigger. Telecommunications services firm Level 3 has actually found success in sourcing security talent not from their hard labor skills but from their passions, namely from musicians.

Though many people do not know the technical skills that security professionals need, the company found that those adept at music were able to learn how to do the job and excel at it. By casting a wider net and seeking talent from out-of-the-box sources, a few companies have been able to fill gaps where others are still searching long and hard.

You can read about this strategy here: Musicians May Be The Key To The Cybersecurity Talent Shortage Continue reading →

Why leadership development doesn’t change some people

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By Jack Zengerjz

Statistics show that 40% of people are unaffected by leadership development. Here are the steps you should follow to turn the non-responders around.

My firm Zenger Folkman measures leadership effectiveness using a 360-degree feedback process in which 15 or so subordinates, peers, and the boss pool their perceptions of a leader. They complete an on-line assessment and the results are then passed onto the leader who was assessed. By repeating that measurement every 12-18 months, the organization can monitor the collective amount of change that comes from any development program. The difference scores tell you whether or not the leader in question has made significant change. Continue reading →

This 60-Year-Old Theory Can Help You Nail Your Next Job Interview

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by Liz Alexander

You need to showcase the higher-order thinking skills computers haven’t mastered and your peers aren’t highlighting.

Day by day, year by year, machines are taking over basic tasks like data collection and processing, leaving the higher-order stuff to humans. The more automation eats away at the edges of our jobs, the more we’ll need to show we’re still masters of the type of thinking skills robots can’t yet do.

That trend is pushing a framework developed more than six decades ago back into the fore. In 1956, the education theorist Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues developed what’s since become known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchy of six types of cognitive goals they believed education should address. In 2017, it’s looking more relevant than ever.

Image: Fractus Learning

Continue reading →

Great leadership teams say these six things about each other

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By Evan RothEvan-Roth

Silos, egos, chest beating, throwing under the bus, misalignment and blaming each other. These descriptors top the list when I am asked to work with dysfunctional leadership teams.

It’s far more rare to hear the following six statements in the business world, but these are what winning sports teams say about one another. We can learn a lot from the world of sports as to how we can and should function as winning leadership team members.

It’s not about me, but the team.

It’s fascinating to hear this statement come out of a star player’s mouth. Are they being humble, not trying to draw attention to themselves? Or do they really believe what they are saying?

When our focus and intention is around winning as a team, we actually have a better chance of doing so. When the team is my focus, I cross the silo, embrace what’s best for the organization (vs. my own P&L), and am not satisfied until we all win. My performance is always less than the team’s performance, and I am not satisfied until the collective team wins. The last thing we would ever do is let down our team members. Continue reading →

What makes a leadership development strategy successful?

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By Forbes Coaches Council

A recent Deloitte study found that 56% of executives believe their companies are not ready to meet today’s leadership needs. Many companies are responding, last year iStock_000008266083Small[1]spending $31 billion on leadership development programs, and since 2015 alone spending on such programs has increased by 10%.

Jesse Demmel, vice president of platform engineering at Under Armour, rewrites an old adage: “Some leaders are born. Many are made.”

But not all attempts to “make” leaders are created equal. Matt Norquist, CEO of Linkage, a global leadership development consultancy firm, says, “I think that, despite all the effort, a lot of the companies I see aren’t making sustainable progress.”

So, what are some key elements that make a leadership development strategy successful?

Structured Progression

One mistake organizations make when it comes to leadership development is sporadic or inconsistent development opportunities. For example, leaders take hour-long online seminars or employees only meet with managers at annual reviews. Continue reading →