John Mattone

Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Talent & Culture: John Mattone

Culture Change Consultants: There’s No Reset Button for Bad Culture

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Poor corporate culture kills workplace productivity.

Nothing grows in a toxic culture. Productivity is usually an early casualty.

A survey taken at Tech Jam 2018 found that more than their boss, job fit, or team, people cited culture as the factor that most influences productivity. When employees are not productive, they’re not engaged in what they’re doing, and if they’re unengaged and operating in a toxic culture, their eyes are on the exit door.

Toxic culture doesn’t develop overnight but is more of a “death by a thousand paper cuts” phenomenon. When leadership fails to tune into culture and consistently lets those “paper cut” incidents slip, good employees leave, workplace bullies stick around knowing they won’t be reprimanded, and the culture is slowly poisoned.

If ever there were a time for leaders to practice their leadership skills by owning responsibility, being transparent, communicating, and taking charge, turning around a toxic culture is it. Culture change is not something leaders can delegate. All leaders, including the CEO, must participate.

Honest Assessment, “Clean-Up” Must Come First

The first step in positive culture change is recognizing the existence of the problem. Evidence usually isn’t hard to find and includes higher absenteeism, higher employee turnover, and more difficulty in hiring the talent you need.

Just as you would undertake a major clean-up operation before turning a weed-choked vacant lot into a productive garden, you have to clean up the detritus of a toxic work culture before you can replace it with something better. Often, this means firing some people, but it usually doesn’t mean mass firings are in order. Most of the people who are underperforming or whose morale is at rock bottom are reacting to a bad culture and will return to productivity and engagement once the culture problems are solved.

No Shortcuts to Good Corporate Culture

If you think you can dump several tons of fill dirt on top of your trashed vacant lot and turn it into a flourishing garden that way, you’re in for a rude surprise. Just like weeds and invasive species can push through anything including concrete, the “bad seeds” in your toxic culture will poison the culture no matter how many pool tables you put in break rooms, or how many diversionary team building exercises you engage in.

Random “team-building” exercises are frail darts against the tough hide of a bad culture.

Fixing a poisonous culture takes time and takes fundamental changes in the way the business is operated. There may be times when you wonder if the effort will pay off. But it won’t pay off if you simply try to cover over old problems or pretend they don’t exist, rather than rooting them out and eliminating them.

Culture Change Consultants Help with Solid, Actionable Plan

Leadership must be involved in culture change efforts, or they won’t deliver results. But sometimes turning around a toxic work culture is beyond the capabilities of company leadership. That’s where culture change consultants come in. Hiring a culture change consultant isn’t the same as “delegating” culture change, because rest assured: leadership will be required to participate and sometimes make difficult choices.

What culture change consultants do is perform diagnostics to evaluate the culture and create an actionable, evidence-based case for change. By making plain the sources of cultural problems, they inspire behavior changes and help leaders embed positive behaviors throughout the organization. It’s hard work, but true culture change requires it, and the payoffs will be worth the effort.

Strong Culture Must Be Maintained

The process isn’t finished once the culture change consultants have done their work, however. Maintaining a strong and productive corporate culture requires consistent attention, just like the productive garden requires regular weeding, watering, and cultivation.

The good news is, when an organization knows what to look for in terms of behaviors that eat away at positive culture, they can stop them before they can do damage – if leadership remains committed to doing so. Maintaining a strong culture is hard work, but it is far easier than letting culture deteriorate and having to turn it around once the damage is done.

If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at cultural transformation, I encourage you to check out my books, particularly Cultural Transformations: Lessons of Leadership and Corporate Reinvention.

The Keynote Speaker as Part of Your Cultural Transformation Initiative

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A keynote speech at a convention, technical conference, or other gathering sets a theme and a tone and helps audience members take the proper perspective of that event.

A great keynote speech engages hearts and minds. 

You see them at college graduations, political conventions, and major product introductions. A great keynote speaker helps generate enthusiasm for an idea, accomplishment, or upcoming event, and helps attendees gain a sense of unity. If you’ve ever seen a great keynote speech, you know how affecting (and effective) they can be!

There are occasions during a cultural transformation initiative in a company, government agency, nonprofit or other organization when the addition of a keynote speaker is appropriate. Choosing the right one can help take that cultural transformation initiative to a higher level.

Cultural Transformation Requires a Deliberate, Long-Term Plan

Cultural transformation doesn’t happen based on wishful thinking or good intentions, but as the result of planned, deliberate action and follow-through. It’s not easy for leaders to admit that cultural transformation is necessary, let alone to put in the hard work and gain the workforce buy-in necessary to achieve it.

Frontline employees have to know that organizational leadership is fully committed to cultural transformation, or they’re less likely to participate or believe in its power. One way that organizations can hammer home the importance of cultural change is by bringing in a keynote speaker at a critical juncture in the transformation journey.

When Might a Keynote Speaker Be Appropriate?

One possible event that can be elevated by the right keynote speaker is the kickoff to the cultural change initiative. Once everyone knows what the goals of transformation are, and what steps the company plans to take to facilitate transformation at every level, a kickoff meeting highlighted by a powerful keynote speech can be the perfect beginning to a long and beneficial process.

Another time a keynote speaker may be appropriate in a cultural change initiative may be when a particular phase of the initiative has been completed. Maybe work teams have been physically moved into a more productive environment, or maybe new training opportunities have become available. Celebrating milestones in cultural transformation is good because it’s hard work in pursuit of something better.

Cultural transformation is hard. You should celebrate the milestones along the way.

You may think of other occasions during the course of cultural transformation when a keynote speaker would benefit the process. Perhaps once the major goals have been met, an event celebrating a better, more productive culture and how far the group has come could feature a rousing, inspiring keynote speech.

Some Keynote Speakers Specialize in Cultural Transformation

You can find keynote speakers to fill just about any speaking need, including keynote speakers who specialize in cultural transformation. Of course, you can’t expect even the most accomplished speaker to come in and “fix” everything that’s wrong with corporate culture, but you can expect them to inspire, motivate, and help your team develop enthusiasm and celebrate victories.

Getting the most from your chosen keynote speaker requires that you book early and promote the event to help generate buzz from the rank and file employee base. Some speakers are willing to write brief articles for your company newsletter, or even do a promo YouTube video you can send out to employees in advance of the big day.

Cultures don’t calcify or stagnate in a day, and neither do they transform into something thriving and productive overnight. Successful cultural transformation requires planning, gaining buy-in, an actionable plan, execution, and long-term follow-up, but the results are more than worthwhile. Oftentimes, having someone from outside the organization, someone with relevant experience, to kick things off, motivate people to keep going, or celebrate success can make the entire cultural transformation journey that much better.

I would like to invite you to check out my speaking availability if you are interested. And I would also like to invite you to check out my books, especially Cultural Transformations: Lessons of Leadership and Corporate Reinvention, which takes a deeper dive into the power of cultural transformation.

Conflict Resolution: One of the Most Important Leadership Skills

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Nobody can avoid conflict entirely, and if they could, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.

Outstanding conflict resolution solves problems and raises people’s potential.

Without conflict, there would be no diversity of viewpoint, and no reason for us to rethink things or evaluate our own opinions and ways of doing things. It’s similar to the physical concept of friction. Sure, friction can cause machinery parts to wear out, and it takes more physical energy to overcome mechanical friction. But without it, we couldn’t use an eraser to erase our mistakes, we couldn’t climb mountains, and the tires on our vehicles wouldn’t engage against the road, getting us to where we need to go.

Conflict resolution is one of the most important leadership skills, because it can resolve problems before healthy levels of friction can become damaging. And it can help bring people around to new ways of thinking and tackling problems. It is a skill that requires training and practice for most people.

Knowing When and How to Address Conflict

The intelligent leader can see when two parties are capable of working out a conflict on their own, and when intervention is required. They can also discern when conflict resolution can be accomplished by simple and straightforward conversation and when a formal grievance process must be initiated.

Conflict resolution skills are valuable in many professional positions, including customer-facing and supervisory positions. Knowing when conflict resolution is needed and how to facilitate it are skills everyone in a position of leadership should learn.

Most Important Leadership Skills for Conflict Resolution

Several key skills are put into service in the resolution of conflicts:

  • Communication – because some conflict is a simple matter of miscommunication, and all conflict benefits from honest communication about what the issue is, and what it isn’t
  • Emotional intelligence – because conflict is often a case of high emotion and low trust, and emotional intelligence can recognize and help work through this
  • Empathy – being able to see conflict from another’s point of view to avoid bringing one’s own preconceptions to the table
  • Problem-solving – the ability to create workable solutions through talking, brainstorming, agreeing on a solution, and implementing it
  • Perspective – knowing how important the conflict is in the overall scheme of things, neither minimizing its importance nor blowing it out of proportion

If any of these skills are lacking, conflict resolution will suffer.

Long-Term Steps for Prevention and Management of Conflict

You can’t make conflict go away by ignoring it.

One thing all leaders must commit to is refusing to ignore brewing conflict. It’s nice to think that conflict will go away if it’s ignored, but we all know that doesn’t happen. Nobody really likes confrontation, and everyone wants a harmonious workplace, but ignoring tension won’t magically produce a peaceful environment.

Knowing when to step into a conflict requires wisdom and practicality, and the strong leader knows how to read a room when to let things settle down before addressing the conflict, and when to step in immediately. It’s a skill that requires knowledge, training, and practice to master.

Finally, one of the best long-term steps to managing conflict is empowering people to reach their potential, whatever their role. Rarely is it the leader who directly resolves a conflict. Rather, the people in conflict must learn that they have a role to play, and they must be willing to do their part to solve the problem.

How Leadership Coaching Can Help

Leadership coaching is a process for engaging with leaders to help them realize their strengths and weaknesses and develop an actionable plan for strengthening the former while addressing the latter. Conflict resolution isn’t something that comes naturally to most people, and even if they know what the steps are, they may not know when and how to take them.

Leadership coaches are there to help leaders build their critical skills, including the skills that are used for conflict resolution, like communication, empathy, and problem-solving. Through leadership coaching, leaders practice their skills and gain feedback, so their skills not only improve but are ready to be called upon in the moment.

Whether you want to improve your conflict resolution skills in particular or your overall leadership skills, I encourage you to learn more about my leadership coaching services. As an alternative, you may wish to check out my books, particularly Intelligent Leadership: What You Need to Know to Unlock Your Full Potential.

Can Anyone Become a Leader? It’s More Than a Yes or No Question.

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Many, if not most, people doubt their ability to be leaders, and that’s unfortunate.

It’s good to think of leadership outside the corporate setting.

In most cases, that line of reasoning depends upon rigid, perhaps stereotypical definitions of what leadership means. Here are some of the reasons why people think they can’t be leaders:

  • They’re not in a position of authority
  • They’re introverted
  • How can everyone be a leader? Aren’t followers also necessary?
  • Leadership means power, and power means corruption

All of these reasons can be refuted, and in fact, have been by people who became remarkably influential despite not fitting the central casting image of a “leader.” Not everyone can become a leader in the sense of having authority or influence over huge numbers of people. But everyone can develop their leadership qualities and use them in their everyday life, even if the only person they lead is the one they see in the mirror.

Leadership Is Context-Dependent

The context of our lives as individuals and in society is constantly changing, and not just because we live in a technologically advanced world. Read Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 of the Hebrew Bible and you’ll see that time has spun in cycles throughout recorded history. There is indeed a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

Likewise, the need for leadership changes. Nations need leadership, and individuals need leadership, and who fulfills those roles is not simply a function of who wears a label of power. You may have never functioned as a traditional leader in your life, but today or any day your exact combination of experience and insight may be called upon by a situation.

Anyone Can Develop Their Core Leadership Qualities

What are the most fundamental leadership qualities? They include honesty, integrity, commitment, passion, communication, accountability, and creativity. Clearly, you don’t need a job title with “vice president” in the name to possess and to make the most of these qualities. The most important way to develop these qualities is, of course, to practice them in everyday life.

The qualities that make good leaders are the same ones that make good human beings in general.

If you have the opportunity to participate in leadership development programs or to engage in leadership coaching, I urge you to do so, whether or not you pursue a professional leadership track. Leadership qualities aren’t just important when it comes to planning budgets and managing projects. They matter throughout human interaction, and anyone can benefit from developing their leadership qualities.

Leadership and Authority Not Inextricably Yoked

We tend to think that leadership and authority always go together. Often they do, particularly when it comes to high-profile leadership positions. But while authority requires leadership, leadership does not always require authority.

Leadership frequently demands that we step outside our “comfort zone,” and when we’re willing to do that, we not only grow and develop as individuals, we help others do the same. In fact, if you think about the last time you had to step outside your comfort zone, there’s a good chance you were doing so because in some capacity your leadership was needed in that moment.

Maybe your child needed help with a trigonometry concept that you hadn’t visited in decades. Maybe a young goat had his horns stuck in a fence in the back pasture. Or maybe you simply recognized that you’ve been slacking in some area of your life and it’s time to turn things around. All of these situations call upon leadership. And the more you have worked on those fundamental leadership qualities like integrity and commitment, the better you will rise to the challenge.

Anyone can be called upon to lead at any time, in any situation. Everyone has the ability to develop the key qualities that make good leaders. The number of people called upon to lead in a formal, organizational context may be small, but they don’t succeed without those same, fundamental attributes that all people of good character possess.

If you are interested in leadership in the organizational context, I encourage you to check out my books. In particular, Intelligent Leadership: What You Need to Know to Unlock Your Full Potential addresses key leadership attributes, how they vary from one individual to the next, and how to put your unique strengths to work for you and for those who depend on you.

(2500 Words) The Definitive Guide to What Coach Training Can’t Teach You

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It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of coach training.

Coach training has advanced significantly, and outstanding coach training programs are available.

Coaching is an activity that helps individuals and groups thrive, from the community center basketball league to the pinnacle of world-class corporations. And while some people gravitate toward or have a more natural affinity for coaching, it’s not an inborn talent. Learning how to coach is the key to being an effective coach.

Coaching is a partnership that is creative and thought-provoking. When done well, it inspires people to maximize and fulfill their potential. It is distinct from teaching, mentoring, and training yet makes teaching, mentoring, and training more effective.

And coaching works. An ICF (International Coach Federation) study found that clients improve their work performance, time management, and business management while discovering more opportunities. They report higher self-confidence, better relationships, and better communication. The median financial benefit from coaching is an ROI of more than three times the amount invested in coaching!

Naturally, if you’re going to invest in coaching, you want a coach who has undergone rigorous training in an accredited program, and who has the necessary skills and experience to perform exceptionally. But there are some things that coach training can’t teach, just as there are some things medical training can’t teach. The aspiring coach who completes training has made a start, but there is much more he or she must learn to do either through practice or with the help of other types of professionals.

The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Coaching Business

Practice management is increasingly being taught in advanced professional schools, and with good reason. Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals must understand the fundamentals of how to manage a business, or they won’t be able to practice their vocation. Even the solo practitioner coach running their business from a home office has to know how to keep records, how to deal with tax issues, and how to market their business.

In fact, a lack of marketing skill and practice are primary reasons why coaches struggle to succeed. It’s not easy to promote oneself as someone who can confer value. And marketing is demanding. You must know which marketing channels to use, how to craft pitches of varying lengths for different scenarios, and you have to be willing to look for opportunities to market and seize them. Establishing oneself as an expert, attracting attention to the coaching business, and doing the hard work of closing deals are things even the most well-meaning and ambitious aspiring coach won’t know how to do naturally.

And coach training, while likely emphasizing the role of passion in leadership and leadership coaching, may gloss over the fact that passion doesn’t equal profit. Amassing a strong client list is incredibly hard work, and many a coach maintains a day job or side job while establishing the coaching business. You have to be willing to hustle, and you have to make time to learn how to operate a profitable business. These are generally things you will learn outside the coach training program.

How to Understand the Gap Between Where the Client Is and Wants to Be

The effective coach must commit to seeing the reality of where their client is, and where they want to be. Going into an initial meeting with preconceived ideas is at best a temporary stumbling block, and at worst a disaster for the coaching relationship. Honesty and communication must be established immediately in order for the coach to see what the client’s “point A” and “point B” are – let alone to work out a plan for how to get there.

Together, coach and client determine where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there.

Leadership coaches typically enter the coaching relationship with assessment tools designed to help establish point A and point B, and they can be tremendously helpful. But there are some things that even the best-designed assessment tools cannot do. They can’t look the client in the eye and see that there is something deeper going on, and they can’t account for circumstances outside the client’s control, such as company legal issues, hiring problems, or other systemic business problems.

Neither can tools replace the wisdom required for conceptualizing and articulating a plan of action with the client. Assessment tools can offer help, but creating a clear and efficient pathway to achieving goals is a process that must be worked out and agreed upon between the coach and the client. When early tasks in the coach-client relationship aren’t attended to meticulously, progress may be halting or tangential, and it will take longer to make progress toward goals.

Coaching “Presence” and Equality with the Client

From their very first client interaction in their very first coaching engagement, the coach must demonstrate a presence of equality with the client. Coaching is a partnership. Think about other successful partnerships in your life. They probably involve a sense of “being in it together,” as well as a sense of equality, and also indefinable chemistry or rapport. All of those are necessary to the coaching relationship as well.

This can be difficult for the new coach who is working with a CEO or other high-level leader. The coach must be willing and able to sit down with a high-level leader, talk as equals, ask challenging questions and in some cases, give difficult feedback. It takes confidence! In these situations, the coach must recall their training, and understand that they have something that the client needs. This is one reason why strong rapport between coach and client must be present. If honest communication isn’t present right from the start, it must be established as soon as possible, or the coaching engagement won’t deliver results.

There are many ways the new coach can develop their presence and develop the confidence needed when addressing high-ranking leaders. Public speaking courses or lessons can be particularly effective for developing presence and self-assurance. Regular practice through participation in local business associations, Chamber of Commerce, or Toastmasters groups can sharpen these skills and help make them second-nature. Nothing, however, can take the place of practice and experience, and these will develop with each successive coaching engagement.

How to Turn Intellectual Property into Products

Even if you maintain a day job or side job while launching your coaching business, you presumably want the coaching business to pay the bills by itself. Coaching engagements, obviously, are where you want the bulk of your income to come from. But you’ll find that the world’s most successful leadership coaches almost without exception do something more: they find ways to turn their hard-earned intellectual property into income streams that supplement their coaching business while helping market it as well.

It’s not uncommon for coaches to write books or book speaking gigs that showcase their hard-won knowledge and experience, but there are other ways of turning intellectual property into products. Paid webinars, online courses, and video series are other ways coaches can supplement their coaching income while effectively marketing their coaching services.

Another way that coaches monetize their unique skills mix is to specialize their coaching services. Some may promote themselves as leadership coaches in particular industries, like healthcare or hospitality. Others may offer smaller coaching packages that are designed to address a specific need. They may, for example, develop a niche coaching program around a specific skill, like resume writing. Whatever they do to maximize the potential of their intellectual property, successful coaches use these techniques to supplement income as well as to market their core coaching services.

The Difference Between Coaching and Consulting

The primary differences between coaching and consulting have to do with where the subject matter expertise lies and where the “answers” come from.

A key difference between coaching and consulting is where answers to issues are expected to come from.

A coach is someone whose subject matter expertise is in coaching. That person may coach clients who work in many different industries. A consultant, on the other hand, is hired for their subject matter expertise in a given industry, or a given aspect of business (such as turning around a struggling business).

In coaching, both coach and client understand that any answers come from within the client, and not from the coach. The coach can advise on techniques and can help the client practice those techniques, but their job is not to tell the client how to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be.

By contrast, people turn to consultants for answers. They are paid for their expert opinions or advice and are expected to understand the problem and present possible solutions. They may even advise on which solution is the best one. But they’re not there to facilitate a leader’s development of strong leadership or to help a leader address a leadership skills gap.

A recent study by researchers at EDHEC Business School in France and the International Centre for Leadership Coaching found that when asked to “coach,” managers without coach training tended to demonstrate consulting rather than coaching. It’s a fine distinction, and one that coach training programs may discuss, but when it comes to actual practice, it’s essential that coaches understand what they are and are not being hired to do.

The Importance of Practice, Especially at First

It’s the conundrum of any professional starting their own practice. They know they must build experience to get better, but it’s hard to attract clientele without having experience. Furthermore, building any professional skill, from arguing court cases to coaching leaders requires consistent, long-term practice.

Specifically, coaches must practice these key skills:

  • Listening
  • Asking questions
  • Providing feedback
  • Helping with the setting of goals
  • Demonstrating empathy
  • Allowing others to arrive at their own answers
  • Recognizing strengths
  • Providing structure for addressing skills gaps
  • Using a solutions-focused approach

Ideally, coach training programs help coaches in training practice these skills in a safe environment before sending them into the world as coaches. That’s necessary, but not sufficient. To practice and hone these skills, aspiring coaches may need to take matters into their own hands. They may need to seek out and take continuing education classes or join (or create) local coach organizations where members can get together to practice key skills as well as trade ideas.

Continuing education, community organizations, and networks help coaches keep their skills sharp.

People are said to “practice” professions like medicine and law because they never fully master every aspect of them. They can’t, because professions evolve and knowledge advances. The same is true of coaching. The ones that have long and distinguished careers are the ones that commit to continued education from the start. Continuing education not only provides necessary learning and practicing opportunities, it can also strengthen and extend professional networks.

Why a Clear Coaching Contract Is Essential

Certainly, coach training covers the coaching contract. For coach and client to engage well, both must be clear on the client’s desired outcome, both long term and for individual sessions. Constructing that contract, however, can be far from straightforward.

It’s not always easy to tease apart the client’s concerns that are and are not coaching-related. A coach, after all, is not a therapist or a mentor. But since coaches are trained in the importance of empathy, of compassion, of emotional intelligence, it’s only natural that some clients will use that “safe space” in ways that are unrelated to coaching. That’s why it’s so critical that coaches be absolutely intentional about establishing the coaching contract.

Likewise, individual coaching sessions may not start out with the client fully present and ready for coaching. The coach must be able to acknowledge this and do what is necessary to get the coaching session on track. It may be as simple as asking, “What do you need to get off your chest in order to be fully present for this session?”

The overall coaching contract is carried out through a series of coaching sessions. Each coaching session has its own (whether prescribed or unspoken) contract for what the client wants to accomplish. Ensuring that this happens takes practice on the part of the coach.

Beginning the session with a mutual statement of what they want to accomplish together at this time can help keep coaching on track and productive. The overall coaching contract is essential in both business and relationship terms. But each session is its own contract, and it is the experience and skill of the coach that ensures it is fulfilled as well.

Understanding One’s Own Tendencies in the Coaching Relationship

Effective coaches understand themselves keenly. They know their own personality traits, their own strengths and weaknesses, and their own tendencies in times of stress. Not only must the coach help the client keep coaching sessions on track and productive, they must also be aware of their own tendencies, attitudes, and actions that can push a session off track.

Self-awareness can prevent coaches from stress responses that can take a coaching session off-track.

Many coach training programs have participants use the very assessment tools on themselves that they will use on clients in practice. This is important as a training exercise, but it is also important as a way for aspiring coaches to gain insight into their own characteristics and how they can affect the coaching relationship.

Over time, a coach will come to recognize how they respond to the stresses that inevitably arise over the course of a coaching term. Maybe their response to a difficult session is to make to-do lists with the client. Maybe their response is to take a short break and come back to the session after a few moments of head-clearing. But they must not mistake their own coping mechanisms as effective coaching, because what works for them may not work for their client.

Self-awareness is an indispensable attribute of outstanding coaches because they are able to recognize their own responses to stressful situations and avoid imposing their personal coping mechanisms onto clients and potentially derailing a session.

Conclusion

I am endlessly grateful that we live in a time when aspiring coaches from all over the world have access to outstanding coach training. Not only that, bodies like the ICF help aspiring coaches choose the right program for their needs and help minimize the damage that dishonest coach training can cause. Never before have we had resources and access to coach training programs and materials, and that is of tremendous benefit to coaches and their clients.

At the same time, just as other types of professional training can’t possibly cover everything, even the most outstanding coach training programs can’t teach everything there is to know about practicing as a leadership coach. It’s absolutely essential that aspiring coaches understand what can and cannot be learned from coach training and to make a deliberate effort to learn key skills about running a business, demonstrating equal footing with clients, maximizing the value of intellectual property, and so on.

Some coaching skills are developed in the field, with regular practice.

Are you an aspiring leadership coach, or someone who is just starting out? I encourage you to check out my books, which take a deeper dive into the topics of leadership, coaching, and cultural transformation. And I also invite you to learn more about my leadership coaching services, which include an ICF-accredited certification program in executive coaching based on Intelligent Leadership.

Glossary of Terms

Coach training – formal learning programs that teach the coaching process. Such programs include the teaching of skills like using client assessments, coaching techniques, overcoming challenges in the coach-client relationship, and crafting coach-client contracts.

Coaching contract – a contract signed by both coach and client that defines the coach-client relationship, spells out which assessment techniques will be used and when, spells out what coaching is and is not, scheduling, fees, confidentiality, and more

ICF – the International Coach Federation, the leading global organization for advancing the coaching profession through the creation of standards, provision of certification, and maintenance of a worldwide network of trained coaching professionals

ICF accreditation – a process that coach training programs may undergo that assures that the program aligns with ICF core competencies for coaches as well as the ICF code of ethics. Obtaining accreditation requires completing a rigorous review process by the ICF

Intellectual property – works or inventions that are the result of creativity. It may include books, artwork, software, assessment tools, webinars, or other products created due to experience and expertise in a particular field, and may be sold or licensed for profit.

Why You Should Hire A Keynote Speaker For Your Corporate Event

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Whether it’s a corporate event, company retreat, graduation commencement, or banquet, it’s essential to have a keynote speaker present to take your event to the next level. A seasoned keynote speaker can have the ability to build and incorporate different themes and elements into one coherent message that will leave your guests feeling inspired and determined for greatness. Keynote speakers, or motivational speakers, have the unique ability to draw the attention of any crowd to engage and captivate them with their eloquent speaking skills. These speakers can lead conferences and corporate events with riveting ideas about personal topics, career, and the success of your business as a whole. Want to properly kick-off your next company event? Consider bringing in a professional keynote speaker to uplift and inspire your audience.

The Advantages

In addition to offering entertainment and inspiration, motivational speakers offer a plethora of benefits for businesses and their audiences. This is especially true if your keynote speaker happens to be someone well-known to the public. With the right keynote motivational speaker, you’ll find that your attendance numbers will experience a significant boost–promoting success for your event and your business as well. Let’s take a closer look at the other countless advantages of hiring a keynote speaker for your corporate event:

  • Changing Perspectives: In any speech they deliver, a seasoned motivational speaker has the unique ability to bring different perspectives into their presentation. With changing perspectives, the speaker can present ideas so that the audience can see things much differently. This allows individuals to see their perceived challenges into new opportunities, or to approach something with more simplicity than complexity. Far too often, obstacles in our lives are too close to see clearly, needing for us to take a necessary step back to see the whole picture. Motivational keynote speakers can provide individuals with the kind of perspective that allows them to do just that.
  • Build Audience Energy and Inspiration: The right motivational speaker can truly build energy in a room of curious, even skeptical, individuals. Through their excellent speaking skills, keynote speakers help their audience inspire belief in their skills and abilities. In turn, these individuals start to see the success and capabilities that live within them. Most importantly, keynote speakers can help shine a light on the ways necessary to make the business they work for, the people they work with thrive as a whole.
  • Grow a Community: In any corporation, there are many departments that work as a team to yield success for their corporation. While everyone does their best to work together, spans of departments can result in disconnection–information and tasks slipping through the cracks. The right keynote speaker can work these problems into the spoken content they impart on the audiences they speak to. Keynote speakers can show workers how to come together as a team and grow their departments into one whole community.
  • Bring Forth New Techniques and Ideas: Motivational speakers are superb at relaying new ideas and techniques to their audience. This allows individuals and companies the advantage of freeing themselves from static work that comes from stagnant thinking. Motivational speakers can lead businesses and workers down the path of innovation and success.
  • They Show Your Investment In Your Employees: A motivational speaker is there to inspire the minds of those who attend the event at hand. These speakers are trained to share new techniques, the latest thinking, and motivate employees to thrive in the workplace. These types of events can truly shine a light on the care and value you have for your employees. Your team will be able to see how important their career development is to you as an executive leader. In turn, workers will be more inclined to work harder and more efficient knowing that they are worth so much in the eyes of their employers.

In their presentations, motivational speakers exude authority and respect which allows them to have the full attention of their audiences. With their full attention, they can spread awareness of the overall message of their speech. A speech that resonates with those who listen is one that boasts the most success. Since the goal of this event is to get employees and individuals focused, motivated, and steered towards the path of success, it’s essential to have a keynote speaker deliver an empowering speech at your next conference or event. One of the best investments you can make is one that truly benefits your employees, and a keynote speaker can do that and more for your company.

Hiring a Keynote Speaker for Your Corporate Event

As a motivational keynote speaker is a major factor in the success of your event, it’s essential that you do your do-diligence and locate the best speaker for the job at hand. When searching for the perfect keynote speaker, be sure to establish the date, location, and budgetary needs of your upcoming event. This is the first step in determining what speakers will be available to you in your specific time and budget frame. You’ll also want to consider at what time of day you will be holding your event, as some speakers excel at imparting their presentations in different atmospheres. For example, many speakers excel at delivering their presentations at workshops, or after dinner where they can incorporate the right doses of humor. On the other hand, many speakers are better at delivering morning speeches that are filled with energy and liveliness. These factors are very important to consider when hiring the right keynote speaker.

Of all, hiring a keynote speaker for your next corporate event will only grant your company the credibility it deserves. You’ll be able to successfully maximize your business results with the right keynote speaker at your event.

Does Your CEO Have a Coach? If So, Consider Yourself Lucky.

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When an opera singer hires a voice coach, or an Olympic-level athlete works with a personal athletic coach, nobody raises an eyebrow. After all, people at those rarefied levels of accomplishment have to continually work on their skills to maintain and improve them.

People at the top of many fields frequently engage coaches.

So why does it still seem almost frivolous when the CEO of a major corporation has a coach? A CEO at the top of industry may not have fans in the general public, but they do have the livelihood of thousands of people in their hands. If anything, people should be more skeptical of the CEO who doesn’t work with a coach.

Eric Schmidt of Google is known for lauding the role of the CEO coach – after having had to be convinced of the need for one at first. I myself worked with the late Steve Jobs, a man who, individualistic though he was, recognized the value of CEO coaching. If the CEO of your organization has a coach, it should increase your confidence in them and their ability to help the business thrive and accomplish its goals.

A Working Alliance Progressing Toward Stronger Performance

CEO coaching – like other forms of leadership coaching – is a working alliance. The relationship between CEO coach and client takes place in the context of the business, and successful coach-client relationships depend on developing rapport and defining a desired future.

A coach is not a “yes man,” but must be accepting and open-minded. CEOs must be open about their career trajectory and willing to undergo various assessments to help clarify their strengths and weaknesses. And together, the CEO and coach define goals, milestones, and a clear plan for reaching them. By the time the CEO coach is through working with the client, the client should have better leadership skills, better knowledge of when and how to use them, and a keener understanding of where they are likely to fall short, so they can continue to work on developing weaker skills.

Why CEOs Choose to Work with Coaches

The most outstanding CEOs know a lot, but they are acutely aware that they don’t know everything. They’re ready and eager to learn, and they support professional development for those up and down the corporate ladder. Many CEOs choose to work with CEO coaches because they genuinely care for the well-being of their workforce, and they want to run the company to the best of their ability for their own and everyone else’s benefit.

CEOs work with coaches for the same reasons top athletes do: to improve their performance.

And believe it or not, many top CEOs worry about the same things everyone else does. They may occasionally experience “impostor syndrome.” They may want to structure their time so they can spend more of it with their family. They know that quitting isn’t an option, so they want to dig in and get better at what they do, just like people at every other level of the organizational chart.

How Does CEO Coaching Work?

CEO coaching usually has a defined starting and ending point, with the typical CEO coach engagement lasting for six months to a year. After an initial intake meeting where CEO and their potential coach determine if they can work well together and during which the CEO completes certain assessments, regular meetings take place that focus on specific developmental or leadership issues.

Together, the CEO and the coach define goals and timelines and monitor progress. Typical goals executive coaching clients focus on include:

  • Creating better work-life balance
  • Improving self-confidence
  • Developing stronger communication skills
  • Improving conflict resolution skills
  • Learning how to delegate and empower others (and the differences between the two)

CEO coaching is perhaps the most high-profile form of leadership coaching, but it is not the only one. Many organizations invest in leadership coaching or executive coaching for high-level leaders other than CEOs for many of the same reasons: ensuring the best possible performance while preventing problems like burnout.

I am fortunate to have worked with CEOs in many industries, and I am a strong believer in the value that coaching adds for both the client and their organization. If you would like to dive deeper into this topic, I invite you to check out my books as well as my speaking and training services. 

Why Success Depends on Embracing Disruptive Leadership

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The term “disruption” has become a staple of discussion surrounding twenty-first-century economics.

The current industrial revolution requires that we change how we think about even the most entrenched business processes.

The internet has changed nearly everything about how business is transacted – including in the most non-technical businesses.

As we experience the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the physical and the digital worlds converge, new ways of doing business are replacing old ways. When I spoke to the World Business Forum in Sydney, Australia in 2016, I said that success today is in direct proportion to our ability to embrace disruptive thinking, and I believe that just as strongly today. Here is a clip from that event:

Why Does Disruptive Leadership Matter So Much Today?

Disruptive leadership isn’t just important today, it is indispensable. We don’t buy books the way we did 20 years ago, we don’t manage bank accounts like we used to, and we’ve even changed how we get around cities and how we diagnose diseases. Since we don’t do things the way we used to, we can’t lead the way we used to.

Even in middle management, where incrementalism and risk management have traditionally been rewarded, leaders must embrace disruption, because many traditional processes are inadequate to the demands of the future. Leaders who take risks and that reward disruptive innovation are the ones that will create the most value in our increasingly digital future.

How Do Leaders Embrace Disruption?

Leaders embrace disruption by ensuring that all fundamental business processes happen while at the same time demonstrating that they value disruption. Suppliers still have to be paid, and employees still need to be able to do things like schedule vacation time. All these basic business processes still have to take place. But at the same time, businesses must be open to changing how those things are done, taking advantage of technology and understanding how attitudes and markets are constantly evolving.

Businesses must not be afraid to employ people who are capable and willing to disrupt things, and this may require significant changes to the corporate culture. Leaders must model behaviors like commitment to continuous learning, willingness to change, looking for answers and talent in unexpected places, and learning to replace “No.” with “How?” And they must expect those behaviors in others.

Asking how instead of immediately saying no is one way to embrace disruption.

Why Leadership Coaching Helps Leaders Embrace Disruption

Leaders who don’t embrace disruption will ultimately find themselves left behind. By contrast, leaders who break barriers, liberate talent, model disruptive behavior, and reward innovation will move both themselves and their organizations ahead.

Leadership coaching can be a tremendously valuable investment for leaders who are reluctant to embrace disruption. Learning to recognize limiting behaviors and change them is a key component in many leadership coaching relationships. Knowing that you should do something can be a far cry from actually doing it, and leadership coaching is about practicing key skills until they become encoded into everyday life. Embracing disruption is a skill like any other in that it requires learning how, and then practicing it until it becomes integral to day-to-day operation.

Disruption Is Here to Stay

Disruption isn’t going away. There are too many people throughout the world who think, “Why do we do things this way when technology allows us to approach it from an entirely new and better direction?” Without disruption we wouldn’t have Amazon, the iPhone, LED lighting, Skype, or countless other technologies we use every day.

When leadership embraces disruption, short-term gains may be sacrificed for long-term success, and yes, egos may be bruised. But the world simply won’t wait around while old and inefficient methods of doing business proceed at their frustrating pace. Leaders who embrace disruption recognize this and even celebrate it, because they know their future depends on it. If you would like to learn more about disruptive leadership and the changes that go along with it, I invite you to learn more about my corporate culture transformation advisory services.

Leadership and Cultural Transformation Begin from Within

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Strong leadership is necessary for cultural transformation.

Cultures may evolve or stagnate, and leadership is a prime determinant of how they do so.

Culture in the workplace can become stagnant, and when it does, any cultural evolution that happens will tend toward calcifying the processes and outlooks that are already in place. There’s nothing wrong with stability, but when stability turns into stagnation, an organization can’t grow and thrive as it should. And without strong leadership, culture can’t change in positive ways.

While it’s possible to learn leadership techniques, having the insight and courage to apply them in pursuit of positive cultural change must come from within. It’s not always easy, but practicing setting and achieving goals can prepare you for times when you have to make important (and sometimes difficult) leadership decisions.

What It Takes to Achieve Your Goals

Many elements go into successfully achieving your goals. Not only must you have goals, you must also have the motivation and self-confidence to pursue them. You must think big while being realistic, and you must be disciplined enough to monitor your progress. Being able to foresee possible obstacles can help you prepare for when things go off-track, as can having the discipline to resist temptation to stray from your goals.

I have identified 21 laws of leadership and cultural transformation that I believe can help you as you develop your own leadership skills and strive toward goals for yourself and for your organization. You can download the document for free here. Here are the first three of those laws of leadership and cultural transformation and why they work.

1. Align with People of Extraordinary Character and Competence

We are shaped by the company we keep. And while we can’t always choose who we work with, we may have more control over who we spend our time with than we think. Aligning with positive people who are competent and of strong character is easier when we take these steps:

  • Be genuine and true to yourself
  • Find common ground, such as positive traits you’re attracted to
  • Leave your comfort zone sometimes: experience new things and meet new people
  • Consistently work on your own character and competence
  • Counteract complainers with positivity that’s genuine (even if it is over something small)

Seek out and demonstrate positivity and strength of character.

2. Disciplined Pursuit of Less Can Deliver More

You simply cannot be all things to all people. Your role as a leader may have grown more complicated over the years as you assume more and more responsibilities. Eventually, you may wonder what your real function is! Learning how to delegate and empower team members can help you offload some of the non-critical responsibilities that weigh you down. When you can identify and focus on the activities that only you can do, that add value, you can deliver more while pursuing less. It’s not easy, but leadership coaching can help tremendously with key executive skills like delegation and team empowerment.

3. Know You Are Good; Admit You Can Be Better

It may seem paradoxical that you have to both accept yourself and change yourself, but it’s not really an either/or situation. The concept of radical acceptance embraces both acceptance and change. Experiencing your life as it requires letting go of illusions of control, which opens us up to change. Knowing you are good but admitting you can improve requires three key steps:

  • Recognizing reality: this is what is happening
  • Accepting reality: right now, it’s not like I envisioned it
  • Moving forward: I can take what reality gives me and do my absolute best with it

In other words, you can move forward and make positive changes without giving up who you are at your core.

I encourage you to download “The 21 Laws of Leadership & Cultural Transformation” to learn about the other 18 laws. And I also invite you to learn more about my executive coaching services. We all have transformative power within, and it is the leaders that learn to work with this power in positive ways that change the world.

What Makes A Good Motivational Speaker?

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Can you remember an event you attended where you were completely blown away by the presenter or guest speaker? Perhaps it was a commencement address for college graduation or a conference where a passionate professional spoke of their trials and tribulations. Do you recall the passion in their voices? The excitement in their gestures? Good motivational speakers have the unique ability to inspire an entire room. Motivational keynote speakers can truly deliver thought-provoking and emotional speeches that give listeners the strength they need to reach their goals once walk out the doors. While it’s essential to have a knack for public speaking, it takes more than eloquent speech to make a motivational speaker successful. It takes much effort and practice to refine the methods of motivational speaking. So, how do they do it? How do motivational speakers lift us up and inspire us to do more?

Important Qualities of Motivational Speakers

A good and well practiced motivational speaker not only can paint a picture with their storytelling but teach a lesson and motivate individuals in a way that can relate to certain aspects of the audience’s life. Most importantly, a seasoned motivational speaker can read the room and speak to the audience’s needs rather than their own. Let’s dive into a few more important qualities that make up a successful motivational speaker.

  • Passion: In order to be a successful motivational speaker for events, it’s essential that one has a passion for what they do and what they speak about. Having a passion for what they do will only help them thrive as a motivational speaker. Most importantly, a motivational speaker who exudes passion in their work is someone who inspires others. An audience can pick up on a speaker’s passion for what they are doing and, in turn, have more respect for them and their work.
  • Dynamic: With time and circumstance, the needs of individuals change all the time. Any successful motivational speaker for events will know how to navigate these circumstances to ensure that their speech is always relevant to the audience. To truly impart wisdom and inspiration on your audience, motivational speakers must display dynamic qualities. To be dynamic, a motivational speaker must always remain up to date on the latest trends in their area of expertise.
  • Confidence: Confidence is key when it comes to motivational speaking. If you want your audience to be enthralled with what you are trying to impart on them, it’s essential that you have confidence in yourself.
  • A Strong Speaking Voice: Most of the time, motivational speakers will present in front of very large audiences. Therefore, it’s essential to have a strong and robust voice that will carry across the room. A seasoned motivational speaker for events has a voice that boasts influence and authority–keeping their audience focused throughout the entire presentation. Not only must a motivational speaker have a strong speaking voice, but they must speak with clarity, conciseness, and with perfect annunciation.
  • Empathy: Having empathy for your work and your audience is another essential quality for a motivational speaker to have. Being able to empathize with others will allow speakers to expand new depths in their work and relate to their audiences on another level. Great motivational speakers will us empathy to put themselves in their audience’s shoes to get a better understanding of how they feel. Empathy will give speakers the opportunity to deliver speeches that empowers everyone in the room.
  • Sense of Humor: Everyone likes someone with an appropriate sense of humor. Adding humor to your speeches is one of the best ways to keep your audience enthralled. Adding jokes or fun anecdotes into your speech is a wonderful way to keep your speech fun and light-hearted in certain sections.

While these are only a few examples, there are many important qualities that make up a great motivational speaker. Motivational speakers are truly charismatic while their speeches hold great substance. These individuals have the unique ability to deliver powerful messages and inspire those that listen to what they have to say. With these qualities, motivational speakers can lead their audience through a range of emotions while coming towards clarity and inspiration.

Why John Mattone Is a Leading Motivational Speaker

As one of the top executive coaches in the country and the #1 authority on Intelligent Leadership, John Mattone has spoken at some of the world’s most distinguished and reputable conferences around the world. On average, John Mattone specialized with global organizations that represent any industry and sector in the corporate world. In each speech that he gives, John Mattone accomplishes the following:

  • The transformation and renewal of their organization.
  • The remodeling of their corporate culture to better support their business needs.
  • The strengthening of leadership skills and mindsets
  • The building of excellent leadership to support business goals.

With over 30 years of experience, John Mattone exudes passion and authenticity in each and every one of the speeches he delivers around the world. From the moment he walks out on the stage, John Mattone starts out his motivational speeches with bang and end with his audience in awe of what they just experienced.

If you’re looking for a motivational speaker for your next corporate event, you’ll want to consider John Mattone for the job. As one of the best motivational speakers in the world, John Mattone always revolves his speeches around relatable content that will reach out and grab the audience’s attention from the start. Most importantly, John Mattone isn’t afraid to speak openly and honestly about his successes and his failures on his journey to becoming the man he is today. John Mattone has the humility to share lessons through his own mistakes and his own accomplishments, allowing the audience to truly relate to the purpose of his speech–also showing them that they too can accomplish what they may think is the impossible. John Mattone’s speeches are relatable, motivating, and easily inspire each and every person who attends. For your next corporate presentation, it’s advisable to consider John Mattone as your keynote motivational speaker.

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