Two new books on work that are meaningful reads ..read more

Recent research on leadership has highlighted several evolving trends and critical insights that are shaping how we think about leadership in 2024 ..read more

Have you given positive recognition to your team lately? Leaders I coach often report that they don’t provide enough positive recognition. Positive recognition and feeling a sense of progress are two of the biggest motivators for performance, so why don’t we do more of it? Recent Gallup research shows that only 1 in 3 workers say they received recognition for doing good work in the past week, it's not uncommon for employees to feel that their best efforts are ignored, and employees who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they'll quit in the next year. Recognition doesn ..read more

Fascinating research recently from McKinsey shows that employers are going beyond burnout and stress to consider employee well-being more holistically, including different factors that impact holistic employee wellbeing and how predictive each factor is to overall health. Leaders are well-aware they need to cultivate psychological safety and a sense of belonging in their teams; it is refreshing to see these factors correlated to well-being. Too often there is tension between performance and employee well-being. The distinctions between which factors are org vs. team vs. role vs. individual can ..read more

Coaching the team as a whole, not just individuals, is becoming a key leadership skill. Team coaching, whereby you use coaching practices in team meetings, has parallels to the same practices which foster team psychological safety including developing strong collaborative relationships amongst team members; coaching the team to solve problems collectively and using an inquiry/Socratic approach to help them think differently about challenges; and seeing failures as learning opportunities and creating a culture where failing is okay (with frequent post-mortems asking "what did we learn?"). All o ..read more

In order to understand team engagement & motivation, Google asked 180 teams: What is most important for team performance? The top responses included: making an impact, having meaning, role clarity and structure, and dependability of others. But the #1 response was psychological safety; that team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other. Neuroscience informs this idea of psychological safety in teams. In fact, one of the most exciting developments in leadership coaching has been the rise of neuroscience-based research which provides insight int ..read more

Research shows that the first five minutes of your workday are critical to how effective the rest of your day is.  When you first arrive at your office, what do you do? A strong start to the work day includes 5 minutes of planning the day ahead. Even if your schedule is set well in advance, it can be helpful to take a few minutes when you fist sit down at your desk to plan and anticipate the rest of your day. Think about key decisions you need to take, and organize a priorities list for the day. Rearrange any meetings that aren’t critical. Build in preparation time to key meetin ..read more

In an earlier post, I wrote about research showing that the most effective leaders go beyond time management skills to use high-performing habits throughout their workday. These are meaningful at work, and yet, the activities that impact our effectiveness do not end when we go home. In fact, the habits we create during our “off-work hours” can be some of the most impactful on our focus, creativity, resilience and physical and mental energy – all of which we need in large supply to successfully navigate the the average workday.  Many of us tend to downplay how much time we are willing to g ..read more

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review presented research that shows that the effective leadership performance is based less on skill in leadership competencies, and more on discrete, daily routines that are utilized to drive personal and organizational effectiveness.  In other words, the most effective leaders have strong daily habits for themselves and their teams. Over time, these habits lead to higher performance. My work in working with senior leaders supports that idea. Habits might include time management practices for personal effectiveness, but in most organizations, hig ..read more

In a recent coaching conversation with a senior executive, he started our session by expressing frustration with casual chit-chat at the beginning of meetings. He has an extensive to-do list which never gets shorter, and often works long hours, so getting down to business is a priority for him. He considers his strengths to be his ability to execute effectively and quickly, and to be someone who is reliable, trustworthy and competent. These qualities are meaningful leadership traits and important to his work in strategy and finance. However, there is a flaw in this leader’s thinking about how ..read more