John Mattone

Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Talent & Culture: John Mattone

How to Get High-Potential Individuals Interested in Leadership

By Leave a Comment

Seeking a competitive advantage for your organization is a full-time job in itself. Because of the pace of business today, the five-year-plan of old may be squeezed and condensed into a one-year-plan.

Time will move forward, whether or not we (and our organizations) do.

Technology continues to evolve rapidly, as do consumers and workforces, and the business that wants to develop and maintain a competitive advantage must accomplish more, in less time than in years past. But however fast the pace of business, organizations cannot do without great leadership. The effect of exceptional leaders is obvious in terms of higher productivity, increased creativity, and avoidance of missteps.

Yet leadership isn’t static. Wise companies are the ones with a constant eye on emerging leadership, both within their company and in competitors. It may be that the easy part of creating a strong leadership succession is identifying emerging leaders because you must also pique their interest in leadership. Here’s how to do it.

Look for These Qualities in Potential Leaders

Promoting someone to a leadership position solely because they have paid their dues and it is “their turn” is a huge gamble. You’re far better off looking through your ranks and identifying the behaviors and attitudes that pay off in leadership, whether someone appears destined for leadership in the next year, or the next ten years. Here are some key characteristics to look for in people when determining the most promising leadership potential:

  • Leadership by example – whether or not they are in a position of leadership, some people are perceived as a leader. They show up on time, set high standards, and demonstrate an example of everyday excellence.
  • Dedication to personal growth – through learning new skills, asking about opportunities, and sharing what they have learned with others
  • Trust and respect from coworkers – a characteristic that you simply cannot put a price on!
  • Decisiveness – because while it’s good to evaluate all options, ultimately moving forward requires making unequivocal decisions based on sound reasoning
  • Passion – regardless of how mundane their tasks may be, when a person is engaged in what they’re doing, that passion is contagious

Definitions and Goals for Leadership Promotion

Suppose a new leadership position opens up in your organization. Now is your chance to help an emerging leader take their first steps and develop their leadership skills further. The first step is to define what “leadership” means in this job context. Maybe you need a shift leader, or perhaps your company is creating a new team that needs a team leader. Define what this person will be required to do, because otherwise, how will you know whether they’re meeting the challenge?

Clearly define leadership positions. People need to know exactly what will be required of them.

You must also define your decision-making process for promoting someone to this position. Sure, you may feel like you know exactly who would fulfill the position optimally, but you have to make sure you’re not promoting someone solely based on a hunch. If you were telling someone else how to choose the right person for the position, what would you advise that they look for? Would they come to the same conclusion you would? Explore your options for fulfilling the position first, because you want to be confident that the emerging leader you’re considering is indeed right (and ready) for the promotion.

Frame Leadership Training to Maximize Interest and Effectiveness

Of course, leadership development involves more than simply promoting the right person for the right leadership position. Leadership training is essential too. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore found that how you frame the concept of leadership training influences both enthusiasm for participation and training effectiveness.

Specifically, they found that when a leadership training program was framed in terms of “improving leadership skills,” people were more interested in participating than they were when the identical program was framed as “becoming a leader.” What’s more, educational materials framed in terms of “leadership skills” produced significantly better content recollection than did the same materials that were framed as “how to be a leader.” It would appear that people are more interested in learning and applying leadership skills than they are at being labeled a leader!

Ultimately, when you take the time to really evaluate people, and to identify the right people for leadership positions, your leadership training programs will produce measurable results. If you are responsible for leadership succession within your organization, I encourage you to find out more about my leadership coaching services. 

What Navy SEALs Can Teach Us About Leadership Culture

By Leave a Comment

The Navy Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) teams have been around in some form since 1943, at which time they did recon and cleared beach obstacles for troops arriving for amphibious landings. They undergo what many say is the most demanding military training in the world.

The first groups of what later became Navy SEALs cleared beaches in advance of amphibious landings in World War II.

The jobs SEALs are asked to do are about the closest thing we have to “superhero” work in the real world. They tackle the missions that are exceptionally risky, sensitive, and logistically challenging, sometimes collaborating with special forces from other military branches.

Trust, collaboration, and interdependence are essential to successful SEAL missions, and it turns out that businesses can learn quite a bit from how this elite team of modern warriors operates. Mission, team, culture, and leadership are key components to SEAL success and the high esteem in which they are held.

Leadership, Structure, Strategy, Culture Intertwined

In many businesses, everyone understands the importance of leadership, structure, strategy, and culture, but too often businesses work on improving each of these as if they existed in their own silo. In reality, leadership, structure, strategy, and culture are interdependent and must align toward common goals for maximum effectiveness.

To break away from an “every person (or department) for themselves” mindset, it’s necessary to ask some tough questions, like:

  • How would we define our organizational culture right now?
  • What systems, structures, and attitudes need to change so goals align across our organization?
  • Are we treating leadership, structure, strategy, and culture as if each exists in its own bubble?

The answers to those questions can help organizations move toward a mission-oriented, team-oriented approach to achieving goals.

Moving from “Me” to “We” Requires Excellence Across All Dimensions

Entitlement, egocentricity, and selfishness pervade the top ranks of too many businesses today. And this can be a particular risk for the small startup that suddenly grows into a large enterprise. That same self-focus that can be necessary for getting a business off the ground can become an albatross around the neck of a larger, more mature enterprise.

If you look at the Navy SEALs, their priorities are mission, people, and purpose, and making good on these priorities requires teamwork. SEALs form teams of individuals with multiple, complementary motivations and skills, and they make sure never to lose sight of the mission and higher purpose. It requires honest, regular feedback, and agility when things don’t go as expected. It cannot work without trust, honesty, respect, and loyalty – qualities that businesses need to carefully cultivate as well.

Honest communication and feedback are indispensable to teams that deliver results.

Steps to Building a Healthy Leadership Culture

Moving from the “Me” culture of the complacent or egocentric business to the “We” culture that has made the Navy SEALs the legendary entity they are, requires taking several key steps:

  • Performing a diagnostic assessment, because you can’t go in the right direction if you don’t know where you are now
  • Matching strategy to culture
  • Defining behaviors and attitudes that drive real results
  • Connecting every team member to the mission
  • Assigning change agents where appropriate
  • Building an overarching narrative that speaks to the main mission of the organization
  • Measuring and monitoring performance, behaviors, and attitudes regularly

When you consider leadership training programs or leadership coaching, are you focusing solely on training program participants, or are you considering the potential improvement in the organization as a whole? After all, the best leadership training program available can only do so much when a business suffers from low morale, lack of purpose, backbiting, and turf wars.

While occasionally, the name of an individual Navy SEAL will make the news, for the most part, we learn about them through the actions of the organization itself and the demanding missions the organization tackles. Businesses can learn from this. It’s not the actions of a singular leader that determine long-term success, but the coordinated actions of a group of properly trained and coached team members who know how to work together to accomplish goals, and who leave their egos at the door.

Business missions are usually nowhere near the level of complexity and risk that the typical Navy SEAL mission is, but that doesn’t mean companies can’t learn from the military’s cream of the crop. I invite you to learn more about my corporate transformation services because when the team works together as something greater than the sum of its parts, that’s when the previously unattainable can happen.

Helping Leadership Culture Survive Mergers and Acquisitions

By Leave a Comment

A 2018 survey by Deloitte found that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity was accelerating this year. There are not only more deals, but larger deals, and technology acquisition is the top driver of mergers and acquisitions.

When companies combine, both leadership and culture must redefine themselves for the new entity.

Financial and legal due diligence are givens during M&A activity because it’s absolutely essential that every technical and legal aspect of the transaction is done correctly. But in all the details involved in a merger or acquisition, it can be easy for leadership to place the concept of leadership integration under the new entity on the back burner. This can lead to large, but avoidable problems.

Leadership Challenges During Mergers and Acquisitions

During a merger or acquisition, the risks of losing people, experiencing lower productivity, and logging lower profit levels are elevated. The leadership teams of each party to the transformation may do things differently, and this can exacerbate risks. It’s not unreasonable to include leadership training of the new, merged leadership team as part of the merger or acquisition process. The new business will be different from each of the formerly separate businesses, even if one company is essentially “swallowing up” the other.

When the leadership teams of the businesses that are going to merge or undergo an acquisition are pulling in different directions, or have different priorities, difficulties can arise. It may seem like a luxury to use leadership training during the midst of the great upheaval of M&A activity, but in fact, it may be one of the best investments the new, merged company can make.

The Strong Leadership Integration Team

A strong leadership integration team can be the difference between a mutually-beneficial, productive change in leadership and a confusing disaster. Will a new CEO be named once the new entity is formed? If so, CEO coaching may be a smart investment to help ensure that the transition is smoother and more productive.

It’s also important that the leaders in each organization know who their cohorts are at the other and how the leadership structure will change. It may not be possible at the outset to know exactly what roles each leader will assume, but with a leadership integration team, hammering out those important details can be done with transparency and the least amount of disruption.

Good Leadership Integration Inspires the Rest of the Team

Transparency and honesty are the keys to maintaining positivity throughout the M&A process.

A successful merger or acquisition doesn’t simply graft one company onto another. It requires blending of two corporate cultures – a task that is no less challenging and no less important than the legal and financial merging of the companies. When leadership appears baffled or at loose ends, it hardly inspires confidence from the frontline workers. Therefore, leadership training should be a priority at the very beginning of the merger or acquisition process, as should formation of a leadership integration team.

When leaders have defined goals for the process, know what they want the new organization to look like, and have a practical plan to get there, it carries weight with the everyday employees, who may sometimes wonder if their needs are considered as the two businesses combine. Strong leadership and clear goals inspire team members’ confidence that the merger or acquisition makes sense and will lead to better things for everyone.

Leadership changes are inevitable when two companies merge or when one acquires another. The stakes are high, as is the risk of misunderstandings or turf battles. It’s critical for the leadership of both businesses to take a proactive approach to the merger or acquisition, bringing in leadership training help if necessary, so that upheaval is kept to a minimum and there is less confusion.

When leaders get out in front of the merger/acquisition narrative, they can shape it better than they can if they’re simply reacting to the latest legal or financial step in the process. This benefits not only the leaders themselves but every team member from the companies that are combining. If you’re interested in learning more about meeting the many challenges of corporate transformation, including the challenges of going through a merger or acquisition, I encourage you to check out my books, which go into depth on many of the most relevant topics surrounding cultural change and cultural transformation.

Why All Managers Should Understand the Basics of Coaching

By Leave a Comment

The terms “managing,” and “coaching” are often used interchangeably, though they’re not the same thing.

Managers who understand and use business coaching principles are better managers. 

While the two processes have some common ground, there are key differences. Managing is primarily about overseeing the work of other people. Coaching, on the other hand, is more of a two-way communication process aimed at helping people unlock their potential.

Managers who have basic business coaching skills benefit themselves, their direct reports, and their organization because coaching skills can help solve problems before they can become intractable.

Key Coaching Skills Managers Should Learn

A study by Julia Milner and Trenton Milner focused on nine key coaching skills, and their presence or absence among a group of managers:

  • Listening
  • Asking questions
  • Giving feedback
  • Helping with goal-setting
  • Demonstrating empathy
  • Empowering employees to arrive at their own solutions
  • Acknowledging people’s strengths
  • Providing structure
  • Promoting a solutions-focused approach

They evaluated managers’ self-reported skills in these areas, as well as their skills as evaluated by 18 coaching experts, both before and after the managers received coaching training.

The Good News and the Not-So-Good News

Most managers considered themselves good listeners even before having received coaching training, and they were right, for the most part. But they consistently overestimated their ability to empower employees to arrive at their own solutions, and they overestimated their skill at acknowledging employee strengths.

However, after undergoing training in business coaching, the managers improved significantly in these areas, and their overall coaching ability improved by over 40% based on multiple assessments of the participants before and after undergoing coaching training.

Basic coaching training can significantly improve managers’ skills in key coaching principles.

What Coaching Accomplishes for Managers

When managers understand and practice the core concepts of business coaching, they accelerate learning, achieve genuine behavior change, and improve business results. Accelerated learning is essential in today’s business environment, where customers, technology, and the competitive environment are in constant flux. Achieving behavior change is likewise notable because it can be all too easy to slip back into old habits after training, and coaching helps prevent this.

And of course, every business wants improved business results. With businesses facing constant pressure to achieve greater goals (often with the same or fewer resources), the ability to put coaching to work to improve the bottom line means a better workplace for everyone.

But perhaps one of the best results that can be achieved by the manager who learns and practices basic business coaching principles is that they make the transition from “teaching” team members to helping them learn. As a result, the manager no longer has to function as “the answer person,” because team members are confident that they can learn the answers themselves.

Have you ever attended a high school football game and seen a highly competent pep band director in action? If so, you’ve seen what great coaching looks like. Once the band starts together and gets through the first couple of measures of music successfully, the director can leave them to their own devices for the rest of the song, because the band has learned how to rely on itself. And you can bet that the band has great respect for their director because they know the director has great respect for their abilities.

Business coaching is not the same thing as “telling people what to do.” Nor is it the same thing as micromanaging. Rather, it is a specific set of skills that managers can and should learn, both for their own benefit and for the benefit of the team and the organization as a whole. If you are interested in learning more about positive work culture and the role that coaching plays, I invite you to check out my books, as well as my speaking and training services.

2500 Words: The Definitive Guide to Life Coaching

By Leave a Comment

Life coaching is sometimes misunderstood. Some consider it a modern form of counseling, while others may consider the life coach to be little more than an expensive “agony aunt.”

The life coach performs totally different functions than the best friend or poker buddy.

It may be easier to begin by defining what life coaching is not. Life coaching is not consulting, nor is it mentoring, therapy, or counseling. Life coaching addresses defined personal projects, business or career issues, or transitions in a person’s life. It involves looking at what is going on right now, identifying challenges or obstacles, and defining a course of action that will overcome those obstacles to reach important personal goals.

Some life coaches consider themselves general practitioners, while others may specialize in issues such as confidence/self-esteem, career change, self-care, managing stress, channeling creativity, or mastering the art of balance among home, career, and personal development.

In short, life coaching is about guidance, empowerment, and improvement of one or more aspects of life. It doesn’t exclusively focus on professional life like business coaching does, and it’s less laser-focused than CEO coaching is. While life coaching is similar to career coaching, it may include non-career goals, such as developing the motivation and discipline to exercise.

Who Are Life Coaching Clients?

The one thing that people who hire life coaches have in common is their desire to be better people overall. Perhaps they have goals and want to learn how to achieve them faster, or maybe they face particular challenges or stresses that they want to overcome. People who hire life coaches often want to solve particular objectives, often:

  • How to gain clarity on what they really want out of life
  • How to define the steps they need to take to reach their goals
  • How to identify obstacles so they can be overcome
  • How to remain accountable to themselves for taking action

They may be professionals, blue-collar workers, or CEOs. They may be parents who face unusual challenges, like a child with a chronic medical condition. But in most cases, the people who hire life coaches are people who want to make a life transformation and want to maximize their chances of success. They know that friends and family members may not be able to be impartial, and they may not feel like they need the specialized services of a mental health counselor. They want to keep moving, keep learning, and become the better all-around person they know they can be.

What Should Clients Expect from Life Coaches?

Life coaching isn’t a trivial investment for most people, so it’s important to know what to expect from a life coach. If you hire a life coach, you should fully expect that, assuming you engage with the process to the best of your ability, you will get more out of life, produce better results in your personal and professional life, make choices more effectively, see steady progress toward your goals, and learn how to maintain better balance among all the stressors of everyday life.

Clients should expect a potential life coach to create a plan stating approximately how many coaching sessions will be needed, how frequently they will be held, and whether they will be held in person, by phone, by video-conference or some mixture of communication methods.

While clients certainly can’t expect the life coach to do all the work, they can expect to come away from life coaching with a better picture of what their true purpose is in life. They should also graduate from the coaching process with higher self-confidence, better motivation, and better discipline to put confidence and motivation to work. In short, they should come away from life coaching as a better version of their current best self.

Therapists, coaches, and mentors all help people excel, but in different ways, and through different approaches.

How Life Coaching Differs from Therapy

There are some obvious differences between life coaches and therapists. For one thing, therapists are required to be licensed and are regulated by state laws as to their level of education, type of training, and continuing education. Therapists work with people who are dealing with mental health issues, substance abuse, trauma, grief, or difficulties with intimate relationships. Therapy often involves exploring the past and deep-seated events and experiences that have influenced mental health.

By contrast, life coaching focuses on the present, the future, and how to bridge the two most successfully. A life coach will help a client identify goals and obstacles, and develop the discipline, motivation, and accountability to overcome obstacles so they can achieve their goals.

Coaching often involves addressing an individual’s mindset, attitudes, and thinking patterns by identifying problems like negative self-talk and self-limiting beliefs. The person seeking life coaching is assumed to have the answers they need within them, with the coach’s job being the facilitation of discovery of those answers.

One other important difference between therapists and life coaches is that therapists usually charge on a per-session basis, while life coaches often price their services based on coaching packages or programs. Coaching packages may last anywhere from six weeks to six months, and sometimes longer.

Can Life Coaching Improve Your Career?

Absolutely! What’s going on in our everyday, non-work lives affects our performance at work. Think about a time you went into work after a great weekend, rested and enjoying the afterglow of doing things you loved with people you loved. You probably performed well at work that day. Likewise, think of a time you went to work with a vague backache because you didn’t sleep well, or after getting up and realizing you forgot to get coffee at the supermarket. That day at work was probably far more challenging, right?

Life coaching helps with confidence, which carries over into every aspect of life. It can also help us with relationships by helping us understand and implement healthy boundaries or learn to listen more effectively. Life coaching often addresses issues with interpersonal skills, overall wellness, and effective time management, and these are issues that apply whether or not we’re at the office.

A life coach can’t teach you how to write a quarterly report that your manager will love, but a life coach can teach you how to manage your time and expectations, so you don’t waste any of your time wishing things were different or otherwise engaging in behaviors that work against your progress.

How Can Life Coaching Help with Work-Life Balance?

One of the most important things life coaching can impart is what the elusive work-life balance is, and what it is not. People, families, jobs, and co-workers are in a constant dynamic state, so you’re not going to achieve a work-life balance that is “once and done.” The fact is, most of the time we can only maintain balance momentarily, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue it.

By helping clients prioritize and overcome self-imposed obstacles, life coaches can help with work-life balance.

How we are when we’re not at work affects how we are at work, and vice versa. But there will be times when work must take precedence, such as when there is an important and hard deadline to be met, come what may. Likewise, there will be times when non-work situations must take precedence, such as in the event of illness, natural disaster, or a well-earned vacation.

Life coaching can teach us how to keep our eyes on the goal of good work-life balance, even during those times when such a careful balance seems impossible. With life coaching, we can’t avoid those hard and stressful deadlines or non-work issues that happen to all of us. But life coaching helps us recognize when things are out of balance, why they’re out of balance, and how to bring things back to the center once a crisis subsides.

What Qualities Should a Life Coach Have?

Life coaches are human, after all, and because of the one-on-one nature of what they do, they should have certain human qualities in abundance, aside from their professional qualifications. For one thing, your life coach should genuinely care about you and your success, as well as the balance of all the major aspects of your life.

Your life coach should also have strong emotional intelligence, demonstrating behaviors like:

  • Considering people’s feelings and emotions
  • Thinking before speaking
  • Having strong self-control and emotional control
  • Knowing how to deliver criticism and feedback constructively
  • Being authentic to who they are
  • Showing empathy
  • Knowing when and how to apologize
  • Keeping commitments

Your life coach should understand that you, the client, are unique and that whatever tools or techniques they have been taught in their training need to be adjusted for you, your goals, and your situation. And your life coach should be genuinely excited about your progress, helping you to see just how far you have come during the coaching process.

What Are Life Coaching Sessions Like?

Your initial life coaching session, after you have hired and committed to the coaching process, will be different than subsequent coaching sessions. Your coach should establish rapport by encouraging you to talk about things like what your day has been like, what is important to you right now, and how you hope the life coaching process will help. You may also answer more probing questions like who your role models are and how they came to be that. You may talk about your usual decision-making process, career aspirations, and how you spend your free time.

Subsequent coaching sessions will probably commence with talking about how you are, what you feel good about, and what you are struggling with. You will talk about what has happened since your last coaching session, any breakthroughs or insights you have developed, and any decisions you have made.

Coaching sessions may take place in person, by phone, or by video conference.

You will probably talk about progress on any “homework” you were given at your last coaching session, as well as progress you have made toward the goals you are working on with your life coach. You will talk about what you have struggled with since the last session and discuss whether this indicates that a goal should be modified, or whether you, for whatever reason, were not able to make progress.

Your coach will talk to you about the goals or tasks you will take on before your next life coaching sessions, and how you plan to make progress toward them. And you will probably discuss how you might get stuck on your way to your goals, how to get unstuck, and how to maintain accountability to yourself as you work toward your next goals.

How to Choose the Right Life Coach

Successfully vetting life coaching candidates requires both heart and mind. The fact is, you probably won’t “click” with every life coach candidate you talk to. Their bona fide qualifications matter, of course, but so does their ability to develop a rapport with you. If you worry that establishing a good working relationship will take too much time, then perhaps that coach isn’t the right one for you.

You can and should ask a potential life coach about results. References and testimonials from clients are valuable, and you should follow up with them. You may be able to find online reviews of some life coaches, and you should read them, but with a skeptical eye. A client who failed to make progress and trashed their coach online may have worked with a genuinely bad coach, but they may have worked with a good coach with whom they could not establish a good rapport.

Life coaching is not a highly regulated industry, and because of that, it’s important that you gather as much information as you can, from as many reputable sources as you can.

Qualifications to Expect from Life Coaches

Because there is so little regulation surrounding life coaching, you can find life coaches with a range of backgrounds. Many of them have experience in business, and some may have a background and qualifications in counseling. Fortunately, life coaches who are simply not qualified in any way are often quickly flushed out of the profession, but you should still be willing to follow up on any qualifications a life coach claims.

It is also important that you dig a little to make sure that your chosen life coach is not in pursuit of a particular agenda. Did they get into coaching because they couldn’t make it in any other field? Do they impose a coaching style or worldview on their clients, regardless of the client’s background?

Ideally, the life coach you choose should have the training, education, and experience necessary to develop successful coaching programs, and while they should have trusted tools and techniques, they should understand the limitations of those tools and techniques. You should expect your life coach to provide you with solid references as to their education, training, and previous clients, and you should follow up with them to ensure they’re valid.

Life coaches tend to have similar backgrounds as other types of professional coaches.

What Is ICF Certification?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) is an international nonprofit organization that was founded in 1995 and is dedicated to establishing and maintaining standards for coaches. Today, many coaches consider ICF certification to be essential to a successful coaching career, although ICF certification is not required for a person to advertise their coaching services.

To earn ICF credentials, a life coach must complete coaching-specific training that meets the organization’s standards and achieves a designated number of experience hours in coaching. ICF-certified coaches must also partner with a mentor coach and adhere to the organization’s code of ethics and core competencies.

The ICF also offers accreditation for coach training programs. If your chosen life coach has completed an ICF-accredited training program, you can be confident that the training curriculum aligns with ICF standards. The organization offers a searchable database that coaches in training and coaching clients can use to learn whether a particular training program has been accredited by the ICF. If you don’t know where to start in evaluating a life coach, you can begin by asking if they have ICF certification or if their training was ICF accredited.

Conclusion 

Life coaching has similarities to and differences from other types of coaching, including career coaching, business coaching, leadership coaching, and executive coaching. For some people, life coaching is the type of coaching that makes the most sense when considering goals, lifestyle, and work-life balance. Choosing to work with a life coach is not a trivial decision, because working with an outstanding life coach can indeed help you transform your life. If you’re interested in learning more about coaching, I invite you to check out my leadership coaching services.

Glossary of Terms

Business coach – a professional who works with business professionals to help them define business and career goals, develop a roadmap to success and develop the persistence and accountability to achieve business goals.

Career coach – a coach who helps clients at many different career stages. Clients may be just starting out in their careers and want to make the most of it, they may be at a career crossroad, or they may be nearing the end of their career and interested in making the most of their professional legacy.

CEO coach – a coach who works with CEOs, often starting as soon as a new CEO is appointed. These coaches work specifically on career and decision-making processes that are unique to the CEO experience.

International Coach Federation (ICF) – an international organization dedicated to ensuring that people in the coaching profession are qualified, educated and trained and that they adhere to the organization’s code of ethics. The ICF also offers accreditation services to coach training programs.

Leadership coach – a coach who works with people in professional positions of leadership, including team leaders, managers, executives, and others who are expected to provide leadership and have a measurable stake in moving the organization toward its goals.

Life coach – a coach who works with clients who are interested in achieving personal and/or professional goals, and who want to develop their motivation, discipline, and self-accountability so they can reach their goals without wasting time or compromising on the qualities they value most.

Maximizing ROI on Leadership Training Programs

By Leave a Comment

Leadership training programs range considerably in quality.

“Feel-good” team exercises may be a fun diversion, but they may not produce the ROI you want.

From the quick, “feel good” seminars that let managers check off a box stating they’ve implemented leadership training to in-depth training programs with pre-assessments, post-assessments, and major time investment, leadership training programs abound.

But you would be hard pressed to find an upper manager interested in implementing a program that won’t produce a measurable, positive outcome. Therefore, if you’re in charge of leadership development, you have to be ready to make a positive business case for any leadership training program you are interested in using.

Many of the metrics that assess the effectiveness of leadership training programs are nebulous, and may not be straightforward to measure. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be measured. You simply have to know what to look for and how to assess performance before and after the leadership training program.

Potential Outcomes from Leadership Training Programs

After a successful leadership training program, you should expect to see higher employee productivity, better customer satisfaction, and better employee retention. Clearly, some of these will take more time than others to recognize, so it’s important to understand the time scale on which you can expect to see improvement.

For example, employee productivity may increase very soon after a team leader completes leadership training, particularly if the leader is in regular communication with the team about the training and expected outcomes. It may take a bit longer to see higher levels of customer satisfaction simply because of the time it takes for a transaction to process from beginning to end. And it may take a period of months before you can accurately assess employee turnover rates, but that’s OK, because employee turnover is a critical metric, and one worth examining over the long term.

Collecting the Data That Indicates ROI

Measure pre- and post-training skills and attitudes to help quantify training ROI.

To be able to measure the effectiveness of a leadership training program, you should conduct pre- and post-training assessments of participants. Better still, conduct those assessments as well as collecting “360-degree” feedback from the trainees’ direct reports, peers, and superiors. Differences in pre- and post-training data should be evident. And over the longer term, you can look at how many people who completed the leadership training program ended up being promoted to having greater responsibilities, which is a good measure of their leadership abilities.

Articulate Business Needs and Choose Trainees Carefully

Before choosing a leadership training program, it’s essential that you define what you want the end results to be. For one company that may be bringing in 10% more clients over a defined time period, while for another it may be reducing team turnover rates by 30%.

When considering candidates for leadership training programs, talk to them and ask them what they want and need in terms of leadership training. They should be able to answer the question with some specificity: “I want to learn which technology to buy for the call center team to help them work more efficiently,” or “I need to delegate key tasks more effectively,” are statements that indicate someone is ready for training in being a more effective leader. It is the participants who genuinely engage with the program who will deliver the results showing a positive ROI for leadership training.

No executive or senior manager wants to spend money on a leadership training program that doesn’t produce a measurable ROI. At the same time, it’s important for top leaders to understand that measuring ROI for leadership training programs isn’t the same as measuring ROI on a new piece of equipment. Leadership training ROI is measurable, but it may require more work, more listening, and more reliance on qualitative factors than measuring other types of ROI.

I have seen first-hand how outstanding leadership training programs can propel companies forward. Making the case for leadership training may require producing some hard numbers for the decision-makers who control how resources are spent. But making a business case, and then demonstrating the result afterward are powerfully convincing and should ultimately make your company a better place to work. If you want to learn more about leadership training, corporate culture, and cultural transformation, I encourage you to check out my books, which explore these critical topics in depth.

How Transformational Coaching Changes the Game for Leaders

By Leave a Comment

Transformational coaching isn’t only about making clients better delegators, communicators, or conflict-resolvers. It’s about uncovering what powers an individual’s style and decision-making and working with that to produce better business results.

Transformational coaching is about getting genuine, human-powered results.

When done well, transformational coaching can be revelatory in the sense that it uncovers what’s underneath the hood, what powers the actions. Just as a great architect works with the characteristics of the land on which someone wants to build, a great transformational coach works with the foundational characteristics of the person seeking coaching. Sure, transformational coaching involves developing and practicing skills that make people more effective professionals, but it does more.

Businesses That Ignore What Makes Us Human Ultimately Fail

Many, if not most of us have worked for a business that seemed not to have a heart. A place where petty rules rendered competent adults into little more than obedient children. Maybe production was high, but in these businesses, you don’t have to dig far to see a quickly rotting foundation. Such a business contents itself with getting the bottom-line result regardless of the costs of all the human workers who churn through it, unable to take being more than a cog in a machine.

Think of the best place you worked. Or, as an alternative, think of the best class you ever took, or the best team you were ever on. What made it “the best” was probably the fact that people were valued as individuals as well as important contributors. That supervisor knew how valuable you were under deadline pressure. That teacher knew you were quiet but had something meaningful to share. That coach understood that your sportsmanship more than made up for a couple of technical skills shortfalls.

Understanding the Role of Emotion in Decision-Making

The transformational coach isn’t afraid of acknowledging that decision-making in business has an emotional component. It’s the difference between knowing which job candidate is best “on paper” versus the one you know in your heart will be a perfect fit for a job. This is not to say that the transformational coach disregards the importance of core business and leadership skills. Rather, the transformational coach understands how an individual’s personality and background affect how those core business skills are manifested.

Transformational coaching helps leaders learn to balance the quantitative with the qualitative.

There’s no percentage in pretending that emotion doesn’t drive decision-making. We’ve all worked with a colleague or supervisor who tries to remove anything that can’t be measured in numbers from the decision-making process, and most of us have seen that fail too. What the transformational coach does is uncover and acknowledge the non-quantitative aspects of leadership, and help people learn to put them to good use.

Transformational Coaching Is Highly Individualized

All types of business coaching are individualized, but transformational coaching takes it to an even deeper level. And it must be acknowledged that transformational coaching may not be right for everyone. Some people are interested in learning conflict-resolution skills or delegation skills without delving into the underlying psychological and social reasoning for the skills gap.

But for individuals who are interested in the metamorphosis that is possible with transformational coaching, the results can be game-changing. Naturally, it requires thoroughly researching and evaluating potential transformational coaches, because charlatans exist in this branch of coaching just like in any other.

The Negative Effect of Denying Who We Are

Ultimately, transformational coaching acknowledges that in the long run, it’s not good to deny who we are. While all of us have put on the metaphorical mask of confidence on a day when we didn’t feel like it, nobody has the strength to spend an entire career hiding behind a false front. With transformational coaching, we can learn why we don’t have to do that, because regardless of our emotional makeup or background, we bring something valuable to the table, and with help, we can use our gifts and talents for the good of the organization.

Coaching has been a major part of my career, and I have worked with a diverse array of talent. The most successful have been those who refuse to deny who they are (like the late Steve Jobs), and who understand the immense value of having a unique take on the world and on business. Ultimately, business is made up of people not machines, and there’s no reason to believe otherwise. If you’re interested in learning more about coaching and about cultural transformation in business, I invite you to  check out my books as well as my speaking and training services. 

How to Prepare for Your Guest Keynote Speaker

By Leave a Comment

An event that warrants inclusion of a keynote speaker is almost by definition a big deal. People book keynote speakers for many events, including conventions, technical conferences, and business celebrations.

Preparation can ensure a keynote speech won’t just be good, but exceptional!

If you book your keynote speaker carefully, based on research, watching videos of their previous presentations, and perhaps talking to event planners who have worked with them, then you can expect them to bring their “A” game. In fact, most keynote speakers are highly motivated individuals who are more than willing to blog or tweet about the upcoming event to help drum up excitement.

But if you’re in charge of booking and preparing for a keynote speaker, you must attend to many details to ensure the best possible experience for the audience and the best ROI for the money you spend booking the speaker.

It Starts with Good Communication

Early on, establish whether your point of contact is the speaker him- or herself, or an assistant. Make sure both of you understand each and every point of any contract you sign, and if there is any question whatsoever, ask and try to get answers as soon as possible. What equipment will the keynote speaker bring? What must you provide? How much of a deposit is required up front, and when must the fees be paid in full? Will the speaker have a question and answer session after the presentation or not? None of these issues should be left until the day (or week) of the keynote presentation.

Check and Recheck the Venue Prior to and the Day of the Presentation

Thoroughly test the sound system and any presentation equipment you will be providing. If there is a “green room,” make sure it is clean. Survey the stage and its immediate surroundings for any potential safety issues, and be certain that both the audience lights and the stage lights are in proper working order.

If more than one person will be handling lights, sound, and other stage-related duties, they should have walkie-talkie headsets, so they can communicate with each other instantly, so problems can be solved quickly or prevented entirely. If you have booked an external venue, learn what services their staff provides.

Thoroughly test all sound, light, and presentation systems before the day of the keynote event.

Promote the Event to the Audience

You can start generating buzz around your keynote speaker as soon as your contract with them is signed. If you have a social media coordinator, have them include information on the speaker and the event in your organization’s social media. If it is an internal, employees-only event, use your internal social network or email network to inform the audience about the event.

Some speakers will do a brief phone or video interview beforehand, and if they offer, you should take advantage of this opportunity. An audience that knows some of what they’ll be seeing is an audience that will be more enthusiastic and engaged.

Have Backup Plans Ready

It’s OK to be a bit obsessive when it comes to planning keynote events. Think of all the “what-ifs” and plan for them. What if the speaker’s flight is delayed? What if the sound system malfunctions? What if something happens to the auditorium and you have to move the event at the last minute? Sure, none of these things is terribly likely, but being prepared for them will put you and the speaker at ease.

Keynote events are special occasions, used to kick off or tie together industry meetings, big announcements, and new transitions. Choosing the right keynote speaker is, of course, supremely important, but also important are all the preparatory steps are taken to ensure the event goes off without problems. Plan, communicate and have backup scenarios well in hand and you can help ensure that your keynote speaker makes a tremendous positive impact. If you have an event coming up, I invite you to speaking events and leadership conferences.

How Leadership Training Programs Address Workplace Politics

By Leave a Comment

“Workplace politics” is hard to define, yet we have all experienced it because it’s about human behavior, power, authority, and influence. In its most positive incarnation, office politics is about balancing the many diverse views of interested parties.

“Workplace politics” isn’t necessarily a negative term.

At worst, however, office politics is about self-serving methods to acquire or maintain influence or authority, and it can destroy an organization from within. How leaders handle office politics is one of the most important determinants of how well the leaders succeed and how well the overall organization succeeds.

It’s no use ignoring workplace politics, or pretending that it doesn’t exist. Even the most smoothly functioning businesses have internal politics. The difference is that the good companies use it positively, to oil the gears that make the company operate. Leadership training programs cannot ignore the importance of workplace politics and must equip current and future leaders for handling it adroitly.

Bad versus Good Politics

“Bad” office politics can be identified by the verbs used to describe people’s behavior. They “angle,” or “maneuver,” or worse, “backstab.” In offices with bad politics, people are metaphorically “thrown under the bus,” or otherwise sacrificed in others’ attempts at personal advancement. Sometimes the only way to “cope” with such a toxic work environment is to leave.

Good politics still involves advancing individual interests, but not at the expense of others’ rights or the legitimate organizational interests. Actions taken in a positive political environment serve a higher purpose and invoke criticism constructively. They don’t advance one person’s interests by trashing someone else’s.

Understanding How Decisions Are Made

Leaders and team members alike must understand not only who makes decisions, but how decisions are made. It isn’t always obvious who calls the shots, but understanding how decisions are made is invaluable to every team member. For example, a company may have to change the decision-making process upon receiving a government contract in order to fulfill regulations. When this happens, it’s essential that everyone understands why certain steps must now be taken, and who must take them.

People need to understand not only who makes the decisions, but how the decisions are made.

Learning how decisions are made is part understanding roles and company organization and part listening and observing. When every team member understands the decision-making process and the decision-makers themselves, it’s easier for people to know how to develop their ideas and get people to listen.

How Effective Leaders Manage Politics

Workplace politics is too broad a canvas to address with one-size-fits-all guidelines about how leaders should manage it. However, it always starts with building relationships, and requires an understanding of several key concepts:

  • Understanding that the meaning of action depends on perspective – in other words, a decision looks different to different people in different roles. Therefore, understanding of all team roles is critical.
  • Understanding the importance of process, policy, and structure, and knowing when these constructs are inadequate.
  • Realizing that no workplace is devoid of emotion, and that knowing how emotions are elicited and what different emotions do affect productivity and morale.
  • Determining that actions must be aligned with intentions, and determining that people need to know how certain intentions line up with actions and choices.

The best leadership training programs produce leaders who lead by example and act with integrity. They account for realities like today’s geographically scattered teams and remote workers and help leaders develop the listening skills and techniques that work in an era when much communication is done electronically rather than face to face.

And finally, leadership training programs help leaders understand the importance of exploring perspectives other than their own. Understanding others’ perspectives won’t necessarily change how things are done, or what decisions are ultimately made, but it will set the stage for clearer, more constructive communication, which is one of the most important ways to address bad office politics.

Leadership training is closely intertwined with organizational culture. If you are interested in leadership training, corporate culture, or organizational transformation, I invite you to check out my books and also my speaking and training services. 

How to Determine if a Leader Is Ready for Business Coaching

By Leave a Comment

Imagine having a child you envision becoming, say, a world-class tennis champion.

Successful coaching of any kind depends on the readiness of the person being coached. 

As they get older, they show signs of good athleticism, and equally important, they show interest in the game. Perhaps when the time is right, you show them how to swing a racquet, or explain how the matches shown on television are scored. Does that mean that it’s time to hire a tennis coach for them?

No, of course not. They may well turn into a talented player, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready for coaching at the first signs of promise. Even if they learn the game and maybe join their school’s team, they may not be ready for coaching. In fact, coaching someone who isn’t ready can be a colossal waste of time and money. Readiness is important when it comes to any type of coaching, including business coaching.

Risks of Premature Business Coaching

Let’s be honest. Business coaching can be a costly investment. When it’s done by an experienced, talented coach, along with a coaching client who is motivated and ready, it is an investment that can pay off swiftly and impressively.

But when business coaching is foisted upon someone who simply isn’t ready for it, it can be a waste of time and money, and it can actually set back the coaching client, who will probably wonder what is wrong with them that they couldn’t improve with the help of a coach.

Every organization should recognize and develop leadership talent because succession and legacy are important concepts. But that doesn’t mean that every potential leader who shows promise needs coaching right now.

Signs That a Leader Is Not Ready for Coaching

Certain levels of maturity and confidence are required for business coaching to be successful. If you have an emerging leader who shows these behaviors:

  • Consistently blaming others or external factors for problems
  • Insisting they don’t have the time for coaching
  • Exclusively focusing on short-term tips and tactics
  • Constantly putting off choosing a coach to find “the right one”

then they may in fact not be ready to work with a business coach.

Not every otherwise-competent employee has the maturity required for successful business coaching. 

Likewise, you should be aware of the emerging leader with exceptional luck, who has not had to cope with a huge, crashing failure, because that person may believe that they are in fact too good to even need coaching. Failure is humbling and great for helping people mature.

Signs of Leaders Who Are Ready for Coaching

The emerging leader who is ready for coaching is ready to listen, and they show this consistently in their day-to-day activities. Without great listening skills, coaching will fall on deaf ears. Likewise, those who are ready for coaching have strong communication skills and understand the importance of those skills.

People who are ready for business coaching are ready to take action to address one or more skills gaps or opportunities for improvement. They’re self-aware enough to know when they need to make changes and humble enough to ask for help with the task. They are committed to putting in the time required to work on skills and behaviors and to follow up with their coach regularly.

Finally, the person who is ready for business coaching isn’t afraid to display a certain level of vulnerability. After all, coaching will almost inevitably include constructive criticism, and it can be hard for anyone to open themselves up to that. But the clients with whom business coaches work best are those who aren’t afraid to share both their great successes and their worst failures.

Business coaching is a two-way street. Business coaches don’t have magic solutions they can apply topically to just anyone and get great results. While it will always be essential to thoroughly check the background, experience, and track record of business coaches before hiring one, don’t forget how important it is to know whether the potential coaching client is ready to be coached. I can tell you from experience that readiness on the part of the client is a key ingredient in a successful coaching relationship. If you’re interested, I encourage you to learn more about my leadership coaching services.

Language Translation »