John Mattone

Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Talent & Culture: John Mattone

Cultural Transformation Brings Tangible and Intangible Benefits

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The intangible benefits of working for an organization with a strong, positive culture are obvious.

It’s hard to put a price-tag on some of the aspects of strong company culture.

People want to work there and tend to stay longer. And companies with strong cultures often make it onto “Top 100” and other lists of great places to work. People go there knowing that great things are happening and that they want to be a part of them.

The tangible benefits of strong culture are apparent too. A 2018 study by Chief Executive found that companies with leaders invested in positive company culture and positive cultural transformation outperformed others in revenue growth by an impressive 36%! So by ignoring company culture, or assuming it will take care of itself, you could be leaving money on the table.

Customer Service Is a Primary Example

Have you ever dealt with a customer service agent at a company that was struggling? A company where the fight for survival meant putting company culture on a back burner? If so, you probably didn’t have the greatest customer service experience.

By contrast, have you ever dealt with customer service in a company where culture was a priority, and where strong culture carried through to every employee, including those on the front lines dealing with customer issues? If so, you probably had a much better customer service experience.

Company culture, whether tended carefully or left to its own devices, permeates the company. It’s not reasonable to expect that a place with poor leadership and a negative company culture will somehow have a customer service department that delivers outstanding services.

Great Culture Feeds Agility

Agility is essential in today’s business world. Everything moves at lightning speed, and there’s more opportunity for startups to displace stodgier, less nimble competitors, even if those competitors have a strong size advantage.

Agility depends upon assessing reality and then reacting to it in ways that meet customer needs better. That’s nearly impossible in a company where “culture” is nothing more than a holdover from days when “how we’ve always done it” worked. The world will move ahead whether company culture does so or not. And the companies that invest in culture that makes sense for today’s business world and today’s employees are the ones that will benefit most.

Agility means responding to client needs faster, with greater understanding.

What to Strive For

Awareness of company culture – what it is and what it ought to be – is a starting point, but it isn’t enough. Companies that are serious about cultural transformation must deliberately set the stage for change. Sometimes this requires leadership changes, and often it requires executive coaching to prepare top leadership for change.

Companies must recognize what’s good about their existing company culture, showcase that, and build upon it. But few company cultures are ideal. Therefore, it’s often necessary to review organizational structures, power, and decision-making to determine if they still work well, or if they need to be revised.

Talking to employees at all levels is also critical for building a strong culture. Turnover at the entry level, or at lower organizational levels might be tolerable, but it still represents a cost. Finding out what motivates employees and what discourages them is necessary for building the best company culture.

Finally, the importance of listening to employees cannot be overstated. Most employees want to do their work, be fairly compensated for it, and feel valued. They’re not looking for excuses to complain. So when employees do bring problems to the attention of those higher up, it’s incumbent upon leaders to really listen. Not every little thing can be changed for every employee, but listening clues leadership in on potential trends, or underlying problems that need to be resolved before they affect the bottom line.

One of the most important reasons businesses invest in executive coaching is to help build a better company culture. Simply letting company culture “develop” as it will be profoundly dangerous, because it allows poor processes and poor attitudes to set in, making them harder to tackle once the problems become systemic.

Cultural transformation isn’t just a “feel-good” exercise to convince leaders that the frontline workforce is contented. It’s a business imperative that ensures strong business practices, and the tangible benefits that result from them. If cultural transformation is a priority to your company in 2019, I invite you to learn more about my corporate culture services. 

5 Elements That Indicate a Healthy, Successful Company Culture

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Strong corporate culture provides two seemingly competing characteristics: stability and dynamism. The stability is provided by deep principles on which the culture is based. The dynamism is provided by the actions and attitudes that constantly grow and evolve based on those core principles. It is a way of looking at the stars while having feet firmly planted on the ground.

Practicality and creativity can feed each other in the right setting.

Without culture, a business is nothing more than a place people go to work so they can support themselves. Things may get done, but beyond basic business processes, the company is relatively inert, giving up countless opportunities to make lives better, both inside and outside the walls of the business.

Following are five key aspects of a healthy and successful company culture. Work on improving them, and you create a business that’s more than just a place for people to work and earn paychecks.

1. Mindfulness

There’s little mystery why so many leadership coaching clients work on mindfulness. Mindfulness is about being in the present moment and accepting the current reality. It helps tune out distractions and promotes problem-solving and creativity. Developing mindfulness in the workforce doesn’t require mandatory yoga classes, but it does require instilling a culture of focusing on the moment, and leaders who practice mindfulness and set a great example. It also requires acknowledging times when it’s appropriate to celebrate or to step away from work momentarily to appreciate why we do what we do.

2. Organization-Wide Understanding of the Importance of Culture

If the corporate culture is only talked about in meetings of department heads or is only taken seriously by some of the departments, the benefits won’t be apparent. Every employee, regardless of their position on the organizational chart, must be educated about what the company is about: not just making semiconductors or designing glassware, but also being a force for positive change in the world. Everyone needs to know that their contribution matters, and how their contribution matters.

3. Cutting Back the “Weeds” of Negativity

Just as actual weeds can take over an untended garden in record time, the corporate “weeds” of negativity grow fast and can choke out positive initiatives if left unchecked. This is not to say that everyone must show a forced positivity at all times, but that genuine complaints are considered and listened to, rather than ignored and left to transform into rumors and general negative energy. Negativity must not be ignored, but understood, so it can be addressed and not allowed to strangle positivity.

Attention to culture helps prevent the “weeds” of negativity from taking over. 

4. Ensuring Company Values Work with, not Against Each Other

What are your corporate values? If you spelled them all out, do they show a coherent direction, or do some of them seem at cross-purposes with others? If you say you value outstanding productivity and each employee’s growth and well-being, do you allow one of those to “win” over the other? How will you tell when one value needs to take precedence over another, and how will you bring things back into balance when that is no longer the case? Don’t just say you value something: demonstrate that you do.

5. Being Part of a Larger Community

It doesn’t matter if your company is self-contained in one location or distributed among teams around the globe: it is part of a larger community. Maybe your company headquarters takes up an entire city block, but it is also part of the neighborhood and the city. How does it make those places better? Community outreach and social responsibility are important, not only for young professionals looking for the best places to work but for the good of the surrounding community. The “goodwill” benefits of making the community better may not be as easy to measure as numbers on an annual report, but they carry tremendous weight.

If you are focused on the direction of your corporate culture, I invite you to learn more about my corporate culture and transformation advisory services. Both the historic numbers and my own experiences have taught me that the current and future operating success of a business is tied to the health and maturity of its culture, and I can teach you how to develop a transformation plan that will put your company on the path to genuine, long-term success.

Beware Culture Promoting Success at the Expense of Everything Else

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You may have read in the news lately about a prevailing culture at streaming video giant Netflix that values fear as a motivator in the workforce.

When fear is the primary motivator in business, something is probably amiss.

According to various news articles, employees at Netflix earn high salaries but must operate at peak performance at all times to remain employed there. Critical public feedback and even public firings happen if the news articles are to be believed.

On the one hand, there’s no denying how successful Netflix has been, how it has disrupted the entire entertainment industry, and how it has changed people’s viewing habits and expectations for video entertainment.

But can a cutthroat approach to corporate culture work over the long term? How can such a culture expect to attract the best job candidates when they can work at other high-compensation companies without worrying about being fired in front of everyone?

Fear as a Performance Motivator?

There is no question that fear can be an outstanding motivator. Most of us have, if nothing else, experienced the fear of failing a test, or of letting our team down, and have risen to the occasion. It’s probably good for us to know we can have our eyes opened to problems that must be solved quickly, and then actually solve them.

For some people, for whom failure threatens their entire sense of self, fear can work as a motivator for a long time. But not everyone is like that. People with a secure self-concept, who are passionate about their work, may not regularly consider “avoiding failure” as part of what motivates them. Do these people have a place in organizations with fear-based corporate culture? Maybe for the short term, but they’re not likely to stick around for long in an “all-sticks-no-carrots” environment.

Different Things Drive Short-Term and Long-Term Success

We have all felt the crunch at work, when an important deadline looms, or when a presentation must go off perfectly to land a great client. Gearing up for these periods of intense focus and hard work may involve plenty of other motivators besides the possibility of accomplishing something great. Maybe the boss brings in a catered dinner for team members having to work long hours in preparation, for example.

Sometimes a little TLC during “crunch time” at work can keep the team going strong.

When it comes to long-term success, however, many of us envision our future selves and the future in which those selves live. And often we think of work we’re passionate about. Think of the astrophysicist spending an entire career looking for signals way out in the universe that may or may not appear. It’s not always the clearly-defined accomplishment (landing this account, or adding that many site subscribers) that keeps us going over the long haul, but passion combined with an envisioned future.

Feeling Valued, Not Fearful, Is Better for Long-Term Success

Nobody is saying that businesses must coddle underperformers or avoid hurting employee feelings at all costs. It is business, after all. But working in an environment that takes employees in, chews them up and spits them out is only going to work long-term for a small subset of professionals.

Success at all costs may work in a gritty 80s and 90s movies like Wall Street or Glengarry Glen Ross, but actual life is more than what happens on a big screen for a couple of hours. Healthy corporate cultures value corporate success, naturally, but they also value the people who make that success happen.

Sometimes executive coaching clients must come to grips with their own “success at all costs” mindset because when success happens due to cutting corners, or at the expense of long-term sustainability, it will eventually come crashing down. Ultimately, every executive, and every employee for that matter asks, “Why am I doing this?” If the answer is, “I just don’t know anymore,” then nobody wins.

Corporate culture is more than a slogan or a mission statement. It’s something that must be practiced until it is second nature. If you’re interested in learning more about corporate culture and cultural transformation, contact me or check out my books, which go into greater detail on these essential business topics.

2500 Words: Executive Coaching Programs: What the Best Ones Deliver

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Success ultimately means investing in results.

When companies invest in executive coaching, they do so in hopes of gaining measurable improvements.

Why do we invest in our children’s education? Because we want the result of prepared, independent people who contribute to society. We invest financially to get the result of greater financial freedom. We invest in improving skills because we want the result of being more competent and effective.

Likewise, companies invest in executive coaches because they want the result of more effective top leadership. But the companies with the deepest pockets know that just because someone calls themselves an executive coach doesn’t mean they have the skills to work with top executives, address their skills gaps, double down on best characteristics, and facilitate better results for the company.

Executive coaching programs aren’t hard to find. But determining which executive coaching programs turn out truly qualified executive coaches can be a bit more of a challenge. Making this extra effort is mandatory, however, for organizations that want to maximize the return on their executive coaching investment.

What Backgrounds Do Top Executive Coaches Typically Have?

Most executive coaches have backgrounds in things other than coaching. Just as many opera coaches are former opera singers, and just as many sports coaches have extensive experience playing the sport they coach, executive coaches often have experience in the highest levels of business leadership.

That is not always the case, however. You’re likely to find some executive coaches who specialize in particular industries, and this can be helpful. For example, hiring an executive coach for the top brass in a healthcare corporation will typically require a different set of expectations than would hiring a coach in an industrial solvents business or a transportation company.

Do you need to choose an executive coach with a background in your particular industry? Not necessarily. However, highly specialized industries with highly specialized customer bases tend to benefit from hiring executive coaches with specific experience in those industries, because they are likelier to understand what these companies need from their top leadership positions.

It doesn’t matter what industry your business is in: you can almost certainly find an executive coach with experience in that industry, and while it isn’t strictly necessary, it can be a good way to narrow the field when choosing an executive coach for your top leadership.

What Training Is Available for Aspiring Executive Coaches?

A simple search engine query on “train to become an executive coach” yields over 99 million results, so there’s no shortage of people or programs out there claiming to serve this need. Since there is no single, official credential that will tell you whether an executive coach is qualified the way, say, an accountant is qualified, you could hire an executive coach with any number (or no number) of training experiences.

The fact is, anyone can claim to be an executive coach whether or not they have been through an executive coaching program, so it’s wise to be skeptical of the credentials of anyone who says they are an executive coach.

The good news is that executive coaching programs are evolving to more directly meet the needs of potential coaching clients, and those who are serious about becoming an executive coach know that if they want to land the best clients, they have to bring something more to the table than a hastily-earned certificate bestowing the title “executive coach” on them.

Today there are even accreditation programs for executive coach training programs that can help potential clients determine whether the coaches they consider hiring have the necessary training and experience to deliver outstanding results. There’s still no equivalent to the Bar Exam for executive coaches, but it’s a bit less of a “Wild West” environment than it used to be with respect to finding qualified coaches.

Components of Great Executive Coaching Programs

Any top executive coaching program will cover the three main pillars of overarching coaching principles, practice guidelines, and core competencies.

The overarching principles learned in executive coaching programs work as a compass to the coach and the client. A systems perspective is one such principle because the goal of coaching a single executive is always pursued as part of a larger goal of organizational success. Other overarching principles include a results-based orientation, because results are, after all, what the organization wants, and a business focus because the coach is not a substitute for a therapist.

Executive coaching is ultimately about business, not about exploring psychological issues.

Practice guidelines taught in executive coaching programs include topics like confidentiality, pre-coaching assessments and activities, the development of coaching contracts, assessments, goal-setting techniques, and follow-up.

Core competencies taught in high-quality executive coaching programs include psychological knowledge, business understanding, organizational understanding, and proven coaching techniques. Coaches should also be specifically trained in how to build and maintain coaching relationships, how to conduct developmental planning with the client organization, and how to facilitate development and change with clients.

Finally, coaches should be trained in how and when to conclude the coaching relationship, and how to help clients make the transition to long-term development. Most executive coaches provide for some follow-up guidance after the official coaching relationship has ended, and this can be tremendously helpful for executives who want to continue developing the skills and techniques that coaching has helped them learn.

Advantages of Executive Coaching Programs That Are Accredited

Accreditation, in general, is a process where an organization obtains certification of competency and credibility. When evaluating accreditation of executive coaching programs, it’s important to learn about not only the coaching program but also about the organization bestowing the accreditation. In the field of executive coaching, it is the International Coach Federation (ICF) that is the most prominent accrediting body.

One of the main purposes of the ICF is to ensure high standards in the coaching profession, because the better the training program is, the better results the coaches trained by it will deliver. The ICF is recognized as an industry leader worldwide, and ICF accreditation generally indicates that an executive coaching program has proven credibility.

The ICF also has an official Code of Conduct for their program accreditation, and it addresses several key issues that companies considering hiring an executive coach should examine closely, including:

  • Fraud
  • Organizational and employee conduct
  • Distribution of approved courses
  • Course operational standards
  • Course content standards
  • Faculty standards
  • Incremental review
  • Past unethical behavior

When you’re excited about hiring an executive coach, it can be somewhat of a downer to consider the possibility that a training program isn’t up to scratch, or may have had problems in the past, but it’s part of the due diligence that must be done to ensure that the investment in executive coaching gets the desired results.

Can Coaches Receive Some or All of their Training Online?

Many aspects of executive coach training can be and are carried out online. Not everyone who aspires to become an executive coach has the resources to devote to even a short-term, intensive program on a campus. In fact, even executive coaching programs that conduct most of the training in a classroom generally have some of the activities online, for practical reasons.

Today’s executive coaching programs tend to include both in-person and online components.

One example of an accredited executive coach training program is John Mattone’s Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching Certification. The program is accredited by the ICF and is designed to ignite (or re-ignite) a participant’s coaching career by training in proven executive coaching philosophies, processes, and tools. Some of the training takes place online.

The program includes an intensive, immersive three-day hands-on learning experience, as well as a comprehensive resource manual, plus a recommended two-year development journey so that skills learned can be consistently applied as an executive coach grows their practice. Further levels of mastery can be pursued with additional in-person and online learning modules.

In short, even the world’s top executive coaching programs are realistic, in that they understand the value of online learning. Accredited online training programs are pursued by aspiring executive coaches who may not have geographic access to in-person programs. The key to succeeding at any high-quality training program is the effort and time the participant is willing to invest in the process.

Hiring an Executive Coach with the Right Qualifications

Since coaching is an unregulated industry, you will have to ask questions and do research to find out what qualifications a potential coach offers. You can be more confident of their qualifications if they show they completed an accredited program, such as one accredited by the ICF. Another way to check out credentials is to do online searches of both the candidate coach and any programs they attended.

While there are many coaches who consider themselves generalists, there are also many who choose to specialize in certain industries. You may or may not choose to hire an executive coach who specializes in your particular industry, but you are wise to discuss your needs as well as your industry when talking to potential coaches. Any top executive coach will have the names and contact information of trusted professional references you can talk to about their expertise and experience.

Experience, training, and passion for coaching should all be evident in any candidate coaches you interview.

Many executive coaches offer complimentary “discovery” sessions that allow both parties to assess how good a “fit” the coaching relationship will be. Ideally, both the person who is to be coached and the person responsible for hiring the coach will be in on this session to go over topics like:

  • Minimum commitments, including follow-up commitments
  • Frequency of meetings
  • Expected outcomes
  • ROI for prior client organizations and executives
  • Success stories – especially if the client can follow up on them

Additionally, this session should give clients an idea of the level of synergy between the coach and client, as well as whether the coach is well-organized, and genuinely committed to what they do.

Questions to Ask Potential Executive Coach Candidates

You will undoubtedly have plenty of your own, specific questions to ask of candidate coaches, but be sure to ask the following as well:

  • How long have you been coaching?
  • What clients have you worked with?
  • What events led you to become an executive coach?
  • Can you provide me with references?
  • What steps will you take to understand our unique corporate culture?
  • How do you tailor plans to meet specific coaching needs and budgets?
  • What type of coaching methodology do you use?
  • Can you give me an example of when you empowered a client to leave their comfort zone?
  • How would you handle telling a client that they are wrong about something?
  • Do you have experience in our industry?
  • What training and certifications do you have?
  • How do you measure the success of the coaching engagement?
  • How long are typical coaching engagements, and do you offer follow-up afterward?

Even for large, successful businesses, executive coaching can be a sizeable investment. Maximizing the return on that investment requires that you do plenty of research and ask plenty of questions before signing a contract with an executive coach.

Signing a contract with an executive coach should only come after thorough research and vetting.

What if You Want to Become an Executive Coach?

The process of becoming an executive coach may appear simple, but it isn’t easy. The first, and perhaps most important thing you can do is to ask yourself if coaching is the right calling for you. Being a great coach requires genuinely wanting to coach. You might be surprised at the number of people who entertain the idea of being an executive coach without being convinced deep down that coaching is a good fit for their experience, goals, and personality.

Assuming that coaching is a genuine goal, and something you’re willing to learn, practice, and persevere with, the next step is choosing an accredited executive coaching program. There are many of them, so you’ll need to research several. Consider how the training is delivered (online, in person, or a combination of both), how much it costs, how long it lasts, and what credentials you will receive upon successfully completing training.

Once you finish your executive coaching program, you will need to build coaching experience hours. Many coaching programs help program participants to do this as part of the training program, but not all do. Working with a mentor coach can be tremendously helpful in learning the daily ins and outs of the coaching business, and in networking and finding opportunities to coach. With many executive coaching programs, the hours you spend coaching in the field can count toward additional coaching credentials.

Getting your first coaching client is a major milestone, and it may take time, but don’t give up. Networking and asking for word-of-mouth recommendations is necessary, but there is much more you can do in the meantime. One of the most important things to do is to know your “ideal” client. What industry are they in? Do they work for a small or large enterprise? What types of changes do they want to make?

Create and practice your “elevator speech” that lets someone know in 30 seconds what you do and how you do it. And make it easy to do business with you. Always have with you a selection of your own marketing collateral, or at least a rate sheet with clear payment options so people will see that you take your work seriously and are ready to answer their questions.

Finally, set realistic goals with a timeline. You may need to start with an offer that is hard to resist, such as a flat-rate package of time with clear goals and a clear value proposition. After you acquire the first client (and presumably give them your absolute best effort), you’ve built some momentum toward gaining the next client, and so on, with each client, you add to your repertoire.

Marketing yourself online should begin before you land that first client, and should include your presence on a handful of social media sites (especially sites on which you have a loyal following). Content marketing through blogging is standard practice with executive coaches. If you haven’t the time to consistently publish relevant information to your coaching blog, you may need to invest in a writer who can do this for you. Consistency and commitment are the keys to building a strong online presence that will serve your coaching practice for years to come.

Conclusion

Executive coaching that gets demonstrable results benefits both the client organization and the coach.

Executive coaching programs strive to train executive coaches who deliver measurable value to their clients. At the same time, because there is no regulation in the executive coaching industry, sketchy executive coaching programs exist that hand out meaningless credentials and do little but waste people’s time and money.

Accredited executive coaching programs are the ones that companies should look for when evaluating potential coaches for their top leaders because it is the accredited programs that have the most to lose from ill-prepared or marginally trained coaches that come from the programs.

Becoming a successful executive coach is simple, but not easy, and companies that take the time to research potential coaches and to talk to them before signing a contract are likeliest to discover just the right coach for their needs. Great coaching relationships depend on honesty and transparency, right from the start.

If you want to know more about executive coaching, corporate culture, and the importance of coaching to outstanding leadership that gets results, I invite you to check out my books, which explore these topics and more in detail.

Glossary of Terms

Accreditation – a process of officially recognizing a person or training program as having necessary qualifications to perform a particular service

Core competencies – a combination of knowledge and technical capabilities that produces results within a given business context

Executive coaching – the defined, professional relationship between a trained coach and client, with goals that typically include enhancement of the client’s leadership performance

Generalist coach – a coach whose aptitudes and knowledge may be applied to a wide variety of different fields or industries

International Coach Federation (ICF) – an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to the professional coaching field, as well as development and accreditation of executive coach training programs

Specialist coach – a coach who focuses their practice on businesses within a particular industry or sector, such as finance, technology, or healthcare

Why Keynote Speakers Remain Relevant in the TED Talk Era

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Public speaking serves many different purposes, and plays a large role in the professional world, even when technology allows the sharing of images, sound, and text to billions of people instantaneously.

Nothing can duplicate the experience of the live keynote speech.

Speaking in public was considered a civic duty of ancient Athenians, and the topics discussed in the public space were big ones like war, politics, and economics. In the modern age, the live public speech maintains status, despite the fact that many – if not most – keynote addresses, political stump speeches, and other types of live speaking are captured on video.

Today, anyone with an internet connection can access a huge range of addresses by people in every industry, and many of these are collected and offered as TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks. They’re hugely popular because of their convenience and the high quality of many of the talks.

But does the ready availability of a large library of talks on an almost endless range of subjects make keynote speakers obsolete? Absolutely not. If anything, TED Talks highlight the importance of keynote speakers.

Communication Mediums Are Mutually Influential

Think of how entertainment mediums influence each other. Television, movies, books, comics, and live theatre influence each other, but they do not cancel each other out. The same is true of the mediums used in an exchange of public information. While TED Talks may have some influence on how keynote speakers structure some of their material, or which audiovisual elements they choose to include, the reverse is true too: TED Talks wouldn’t exist today if not for outstanding keynote speakers who have known how to engage and affect an audience live and in person.

The Live Event Is Not Duplicated in Video Form

Seeing a video of a live keynote speech is good, but it is really second-best in terms of partaking of the energy in the room and experiencing the words first-hand. The most popular TED Talk ever was given in 2006 by Ken Robinson, and it was about the importance of creativity in public education. It’s been viewed almost 54 million times. While all those video views represent an important “long-tail” continuation of the theme of the original talk, it’s safe to say that viewing the video is not the same experience as having seen the original presentation live.

The value of live streaming and online video is immense, but it is not a substitute for experiencing an event in person.

And with the types of business events that typically include keynote speakers, that “live” element is incredibly important. Kicking off or wrapping up a convention or other major business event with a video is anemic compared to doing so with an actual keynote speaker in the venue, reading the audience and creating a silent, but pervasive feedback loop with them.

Immediacy Is Heightened in a Live Event

So far, it’s not possible to perfectly duplicate the sense of immediacy that comes from watching a keynote speaker live, delivering a presentation in an auditorium full of actual people. Watching it live on video can be riveting, no doubt. Think of the “watercooler talk” at work the day following a major political speech. But even live remote viewing doesn’t capture the sense of immediacy that fills the actual space and time keynote speakers fill with their presentations.

The availability of high-quality public speaking in video form, on demand 24/7 is something to be celebrated. It helps great ideas spread, and sparks inspiration and the importance of that cannot be overestimated. However, nothing will ever replace the effect of outstanding keynote speakers, live and in-person.

The fact that the public address has been going on since ancient times, through the Second Sophistic movement during the Middle Ages, on through the Renaissance, the Industrial Era, and into modern times as an essential form of public discourse indicates that it is timeless and irreplaceable.

Don’t underestimate the value a great keynote speaker can bring to your business event. If you have such an event in your future, I invite you to check my speaking availability. Someone will be in touch right away, so we can discuss your needs.

Fixing Broken Corporate Culture Key to Sustainable Success

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Corporate culture is perhaps the most powerful way businesses can unite their people behind common goals and behaviors. It’s not an exaggeration to say that great culture can be a powerful competitive advantage.

Don’t think great culture is a competitive advantage? Watch what happens to companies where culture isn’t given attention.

While it can be easy to see how a rotting corporate culture can destroy a business, it’s not always as easy to see how a great corporate culture helps with long-term success. But help with success it does!

Building a strong corporate culture is one of the hardest things a CEO will ever do, and yet it’s essential. Culture is related to productivity, change management, handling growth, increasing profits, and hiring and maintaining the best team.

It’s amazing how much emphasis companies place on mapping out business strategies, often while letting the surrounding culture fend for itself. But fixing a broken corporate culture is much more than a cosmetic fix: it can be what saves a business and positions it for long-term success.

The Effect of Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching at the highest levels of the company hierarchy can have a positive effect on corporate culture, as long as both client and coach identify corporate culture as a strong priority (which they should). Building self-awareness is often a key goal of leadership coaching relationships, and when a leader does this, it’s much harder to avoid seeing culture problems or to write them off as isolated problems.

Any leadership coaching specialist will tell you that leadership means nothing if people don’t respect it. And they simply won’t respect “leadership” from someone who is blind to systemic problems in corporate culture.

Culture from the Top Down and from the Bottom Up

As important as it is for top leaders to commit to strong corporate culture, it’s equally as important for the rank and file workforce to commit to strong corporate culture from their own point of view. But they won’t do this if they believe that leadership doesn’t care about them or value them as essential members of the team propelling the organization to success.

Culture must be addressed from the top, but it can’t be dictated.

It’s also important for top leaders to understand what “culture” means to the administrative assistant, the building manager, the drafter, and even the summer intern. Because what someone at the top thinks of as “good corporate culture” may be completely divorced from what “good corporate culture” means to the people actually operating the company day to day.

Communication, Transparency, and Honesty 

Corporate culture consulting requires a uniquely tailored set of services, but it always depends on an environment of strong communication, transparency of motives, and plain honesty. A company can spend huge sums of money trying to improve corporate culture, but if the top brass doesn’t communicate what that means, and doesn’t listen to the concerns of non-leaders, it won’t work.

Worse still are cases where efforts toward better corporate culture hide fundamental dishonesty on the part of company leadership or fail completely to take into account the needs of the everyday employee. Putting a pool table in the breakroom won’t make much of an impact on a workforce that has repeatedly asked for flexible scheduling to accommodate family obligations. Ultimately, empty gestures end up alienating employees – often really good employees who are worth keeping around.

Any business will tell you that providing outstanding products and services is the key to long-term success. But how many of them forget that there needs to be an environment that is conducive to providing outstanding services to customers? Corporate culture consulting services can work wonders, as can leadership coaching, provided they are undertaken by company leadership that is genuinely committed to making positive changes, and not just slapping a quick paint job over serious structural issues.

My many years of experience as a leadership coach have taught me that great leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum or in a perfect, predictable world. It depends heavily on the people who are led, and how they view the organization and the pursuit of its goals. Don’t let culture fend for itself, because it won’t work over the long term. If you want to learn in more depth about corporate culture, leadership, and cultural transformation, I encourage you to learn more about my executive coaching programs and check out my books for more insights.

5 Ways Business Speakers Can Shake Your Business Out of Complacency

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Complacency in business is a disease, particularly in our current era of fast-paced innovation.

The power of “how we’ve always done it” is immense, and can almost guarantee complacency.

Complacency is an intrinsic flaw that holds organizations back from pursuing something better, and in many organizations, it is hidden quite well. The tip of the organizational culture iceberg shows a company’s public face: their stated strategy and shared values, their goals, visions, and how they claim to “get things done.”

But underneath the surface, complacency may lurk, and it consists of shared assumptions, norms, unwritten rules, perceptions, and how things actually get done. This is more dangerous than most business executives realize because a business that isn’t dynamic and willing to change in today’s world is a business that will be left behind by the competition. Disruption is inevitable, and complacency can shatter a business when disruption is no longer avoidable.

Shaking your company out of complacency requires a concerted, consistent, long-term effort. Business speakers can be a key part of that effort because the outside viewpoint is a well-established tool for poking at complacency and making people see it and understand it. Here are five ways business speakers can shake your business out of complacency.

1. Through Inspiration

Inspiration from seeing someone overcome seemingly impossible challenges can be hugely effective in shaking individuals out of complacency. And when an auditorium full of people sees a shining example of an inspirational story, they’re likelier to go back to their work with a renewed sense of possibility. That sense of possibility will last and be productive if the business speaker is part of an organizational program to root out complacency and spark innovation.

2. Encouraging Stronger Employee Engagement

The mere fact that a company would bring in business speakers to inject new ways of looking at business issues shows employees that management is concerned about them and wants to help them achieve excellence. The right speaker helps establish and strengthen an organizational climate that encourages positive attitudes and positive business relationships, especially in a business that is open about its desire to improve job satisfaction and retention.

An engaged workforce is a productive, stable workforce.

3. Offering a New Perspective

It can be all too easy for a workforce to slip into only seeing the business from an insider’s perspective. Business speakers, particularly those with industry knowledge, offer both understanding of what it’s like in the industry and a perspective of someone outside the company. Knowing how things appear from another person’s point of view (for good or bad) can be just the thing to prompt people to broaden their own perspective of what they do, how they do it, and how it affects the world.

4. Breaking Up Monotony

Let’s face it: carving out an hour to see a truly inspired business speaker is a great way to break up the monotony of day-to-day work. And breaking up monotony can help uproot complacency. Companies that invest in speaker series (even if some of those speakers appear only on a video displayed on a big screen in the auditorium) show workers that it’s OK – beneficial, even – to break out of the routine regularly and learn something new.

5. Helping Teams Work Better Together

By emphasizing the importance of aligned, collective goals, as well as the importance of every team member in achieving those goals, business speakers can help prompt teams to try new ways of working together. A great inspirational speech triggers the audience’s emotions and can help them generate a renewed sense of commitment and enthusiasm to achieve team and organizational goals. Some speakers may even tackle “teamwork” as a topic and offer solutions teams hadn’t thought of.

Business speakers and leadership coaching alone aren’t the cure for organizational complacency, but they can be a key element of it. Over time, people blind themselves to the shortcomings of “the way we’ve always done it,” and outstanding business speakers can be great at encouraging people to take off those blinders and overcome organizational complacency person by person.

My decades of experience as an executive, a coach, and a speaker have shown me time and time again the importance of building a strong organizational culture, where complacency can’t gain a foothold and thwart efforts toward continued excellence and innovation. I encourage you to check out my books as well as my speaking and training services to learn more about what it takes to build a strong, positive corporate culture.

Business Coaching for the Sole Proprietor or Very Small Business

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Individualism is a theme that runs strong in many countries, including the United States, and that’s one reason why starting one’s own business is encouraged and pursued by many.

From solo bookkeepers to food truck owners, very small businesses are an important thread woven through the economy.

However, the vast majority of small businesses need some help along the way, in terms of hiring professional services, borrowing capital, or asking for advice. Large enterprises have long understood the value of coaching because they have seen first-hand how coaching can lead to peak performance in top leadership.

Many small businesses, even when run by highly competent people, are nevertheless short on the resources necessary for learning how to manage, market, and grow more effectively. In other words, many solo practitioners and owners of very small businesses are on their own, without a sounding board for ideas or the reality check provided by someone with experience. Small business coaching can help.

From Passion to Measurable Results

It’s no secret that many people start small businesses to pursue a passion, whether for comic books, coffee, law, or small engine repair. But passion and inspiration don’t pay the bills. Because so many small business owners must play multiple roles to make their business operational, they may have trouble finding the right processes, the right people, and the right suppliers to optimize day-to-day operation.

Coaching forces the small business owner to step back and view things from a different perspective, and this can lead to insights that make the practical aspects of running a business clearer and easier to grasp. The small business coach knows their client has passion. Their job is to help the client turn passion into measurable positive results.

What Coaching for the Very Small Business Can Accomplish

Here are some key areas where coaching can help the sole proprietor or small business owner.

  • Self-accountability – which can be aided by a third party (the coach) following up on a regular basis
  • Identification of blind spots – which we all have, however competent we are
  • A voice of reason – helping us see when obstacles are real or imagined
  • Encouragement for networking – something all professionals should do
  • Encouragement to leave the comfort zone – because sometimes setting big goals is more reasonable than we think

Helping Marginal Gains Add Up to Something Significant

Improving marginal gains can make a measurable difference in the health of a small business. 

With the very small business, marginal gains can be disproportionately beneficial. For example, if you’re a sole proprietor, choosing a more cost-effective internet provider rather than sticking with the one you’ve always had can make a difference. Choosing different software or moving certain processes to the cloud can save money. Closely tracking expenses can lead to eye-opening discoveries about inefficiencies that need to be banished.

The right small business coach is aware of how expenses that may not matter to the large enterprise can be significant to the small business and is ready to help you root out inefficiency and maximize marginal gains.

Coaching and Small Businesses Initiated by Necessity

Not everyone starts a small business out of necessity. The explosion in the “gig” economy that began during the last recession had more to do with a major lack of jobs than it did with people pursuing their passion. The good news is that many people who started their own business out of necessity learned how to make it work and have no intention of going back to traditional employment.

These people can benefit tremendously from small business coaching. Maybe they have spent so many years in survival mode that they have a hard time seeing the bigger picture, and the right coach can help with that. In fact, the right coach can help turn what started out as a “gig” into a fully-fledged, satisfying career as a business owner.

Executive coaching and business coaching isn’t just something that huge enterprises do to ensure top executives perform well. Smaller businesses and even solo practitioners can benefit tremendously from the services of a small business coach. Yes, coaching is an investment, but investing with the right coach has a strong, positive ROI. You can bet that Amazon, Apple, and other giants wouldn’t invest in coaching if it didn’t.

If you’re a sole proprietor or small business owner, I encourage you to check out my books, as well as my speaking and leadership coaching services. Whether or not you pursue coaching, you’re welcome to look through the extensive collection of content on my website and in my books and learn from the experiences of other executives and business owners.

How Leadership Coaching & Leadership Speakers Bolster Company Culture

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It’s easy to talk about company culture, but it’s not easy to define.

Defining “good company culture” isn’t easy, but most people know it when they see it. 

Furthermore, it’s easier to define what makes a bad company culture than what makes a good one. Bad company cultures are often rife with secrets, lack of transparency, and an attitude of every person for themselves. But good company cultures are often good in a variety of ways. A strong culture in a financial law firm will be different from a strong culture in a creative firm because culture depends partly on industry or niche.

Whatever industry a business is in, strong company culture depends on talented and committed leadership, up and down the organizational chart. Not only can leadership coaching improve company culture, so can leadership speakers, by inspiring and helping the overall workforce understand their company’s leadership.

Leadership Coaching and Company Culture

Leadership coaching helps leaders identify goals and map out the objectives that will get them there, and it also instills accountability, ensuring that leaders “walk the talk.” Successful leaders use their behavior as a positive example, and when frontline employees see this regularly, they’re more engaged. After all, if a leader demands that people work overtime to meet a deadline, but then skips out the door at 4 p.m. because they have a tennis game, how likely is it that the employees left behind will give their best efforts?

Leadership coaching provides an objective viewpoint to leaders that they may not have otherwise, helping them see themselves as others see them, and helping them understand how and why they influence actions in the people who report to them.

Leadership Speakers and Company Culture

“Inspiration” may seem like an odd thing for a company to invest in, but in fact, it makes practical sense. Leadership speakers can touch on topics that aren’t usually brought up in day-to-day operations. The combination of industry knowledge plus hard-earned wisdom can be tremendously powerful to a jaded workforce. Tapping into employee inspiration and giving them “permission” to use it is accomplished by carefully selecting the right leadership speakers, creating buzz surrounding the speech, and encouraging attendees to ask questions and put what they learn to use.

Find ways to keep the conversation going after your leadership speaker has left. 

Keeping the “mojo” going after hearing a leadership speaker can be accomplished in many ways, through discussions on the company network, or creation of an electronic idea or suggestion box, followed by a deliberate attempt at keeping the discussion going. Otherwise, you risk employees seeing the leadership speech or speeches as little more than a “feel-good” effort on the part of the company brass.

Leadership Isn’t Reserved Only for Designated Leaders

A combination of leadership coaching for top leaders and leadership speakers for the entire workforce can work together to help create an environment of leadership consciousne12ss. It’s important for employees to see opportunities for informal leadership in their day-to-day tasks and interactions and to feel that it’s OK to take those opportunities. Examples could be someone who takes new hires under their wing to help them find their place or someone who sees where a process could be altered and takes the necessary steps to make that happen.

If nothing else, we all lead ourselves in how we approach each day, and how we hold ourselves accountable. When leadership coaching and leadership speakers inspire even better self-leadership, the difference in company culture can be measurably better.

Decades of experience have taught me the real and measurable value of leadership coaching and leadership speakers. The years have also taught me the overwhelming importance of strong company culture. After all, people don’t usually leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers or bad environments. Companies that invest in their culture can expect to see both immediate and long-term improvements in employee engagement, as well as lower turnover and higher morale. Clearly, leadership coaching and leadership speakers combined as part of an effort to improve company culture pay off.

If company culture and leadership culture interest you, I invite you to check out my books, which cover these and other relevant topics in greater depth.

Business Coaching Techniques Anyone Can Use on the Job

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Business coaching is an investment that most businesses reserve for senior leadership. It’s too bad that not everyone can work with a business coach, but there are countless workarounds that allow anyone in any position to make use of the principles of business and leadership coaching. intel

Everyone has the opportunity for leadership, including self-leadership. 

And it doesn’t matter if a person isn’t a designated leader or even a de facto leader of a group. If nothing else, we are all in charge of how we approach our responsibilities, and business coaching principles can be applied to how we lead ourselves. Here are several key business coaching techniques anyone can use, whatever their position.

Learning to Build Trust Through Accountability

Trust is essential for success in business and in life, and it should be omnidirectional. Not only should a person strive to build trust with those higher up, but also with colleagues, new people, people in entry-level positions, and those in positions with little to no bearing on how we carry out our own responsibilities. Self-accountability is the key to building trust, and it requires consistently practicing the skill of keeping our word and ensuring our words are honest.

Developing Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to “read” a situation, control our emotions, and respond appropriately. One of the most important ways to build emotional intelligence is to get into the habit of pausing before speaking, taking a brief moment to assess the situation as best we can. This can prevent outbursts, “tone-deaf” comments, or misreading situations and causing confusion. There are many online resources anyone can use to build emotional intelligence skills.

Learning to Strengthen Networks

Networking isn’t something you do once for all time. It’s an ongoing exercise in interacting with others, including, but not limited to, people who are of obvious professional benefit. Building a strong professional (or personal) network requires putting yourself “out there” to some extent: participating in professional organizations, volunteering, writing articles for trade journals, speaking to groups, or even asking questions when attending professional presentations.

Improving Time Management

Improving time management skills helps with both professional and personal life. The skills are simple in concept, but require consistent practice to master. Techniques that are beneficial to practice and hone include:

  • Making a schedule and following it
  • Prioritizing tasks to the best of your ability
  • Setting boundaries to minimize interruption of important tasks
  • Learning to use various apps and other technologies for time management
  • Overcoming temptations to procrastinate and multitask

These are some of the skills top leaders often work on in their business coaching relationships.

Time management is a skill that benefits everyone.

Learning How to Listen and Ask Good Questions

Learning how to listen well is a prerequisite to learning how to ask good questions. Listening is an important skill, and everyone knows that. But how many people think of themselves as good listeners, and how many of them actually are good listeners? It’s not as easy as many people think! Some steps to becoming a good listener include:

  • Facing the person speaking and maintaining appropriate levels of eye contact
  • Being attentive, without being overbearing
  • Being open-minded and waiting until the speaker finishes before formulating a response or question
  • Avoiding the temptation to interrupt
  • Avoiding the temptation to impose a “solution”

Good listening may feel inefficient in an era of multitasking and business transacted at the speed of light, yet it is one of the most important skills addressed in business coaching. It is a skill that will never become unnecessary.

Business coaching is partly designed to address skills gaps like the ones listed above. Leaders are not immune to having poor listening time management skills, and when those skills are not up to scratch, the consequences can ripple throughout a company division or even an entire organization.

But you don’t have to be a leader to benefit from the skills and techniques that business coaches use with their business coaching clients. Building skills in accountability, emotional intelligence, networking, time management, and listening are beneficial for anyone, in any personal or professional capacity. Fortunately, there are many resources available to all that can help those who seek to improve their professional effectiveness.

I encourage you to check out my books, including Intelligent Leadership: What You Need to Know to Unlock Your Full Potential. You owe it to yourself to maximize your potential and optimize your performance, whatever your profession and position.

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