Coaching has emerged as one of the most powerful tools for personal and professional development, especially in leadership. As with any development method, the effectiveness of coaching depends heavily on the fit between the coach’s style and the client’s needs. This alignment can be the difference between meaningful progress and stagnation in leadership development. This … Read More
Incoherent Leadership – A New Perspective on Leadership Derailers
Incoherent leadership occurs when a leader holds contradicting beliefs and values arising from the presence of two contracting self-states: the true and pseudo-selves. This article describes what incoherent leadership is (and is not), what it looks like, where it comes from, what its impact on an organization can be, and what is required on the … Read More
Whole Person Assessment: Balancing Character Flaws with Strengths
“You are the Grinch of assessments,” teased a fellow corporate psychologist after I shared the new scales we were norming. I smiled and asked her if she was investing six figures a year in someone, would she rather know the derailers or the positives? When we make talent decisions, can we ignore the negative? I … Read More
Three Ways to Respond When Your Meeting is Hijacked by a Righteous Underminer
Three hours into a strategy session, we were making significant progress. Excitement grew as the team envisioned what is possible. After a couple of cups of coffee in the morning and a diet coke for lunch, I excused myself and passed the marker to the woman on my right. Little did I know that my meeting … Read More
I Didn’t Learn to Ride My Bike in Class: The Importance of On-the-Job Coaching and Psynet POWER Meetings (PPMs)
I got on my bike with some help; my dad held the back of my seat while I peddled. He let go — I fell. He gave me a few tips (coaching) — I tried again and got a little farther. More coaching , a little more help and soon I was cruising the neighborhood. … Read More
How Unconscious Bias Creates a Conflict of Interest
The Unintentionally Unethical and Biased Employee — I believe that most people try to do the right thing most of the time. If they make a commitment, they try to keep it. When they have to choose between an organization’s best interests and their own, they often err in favor of the organization. We see … Read More
Achievement Drive: The Leader’s Guilty Secret
With a cumulative 100 years or so of assessment, coaching, and consulting under our belts, we have discovered that nearly every executive-level leader carries with them a “guilty secret.” Sounds juicy, doesn’t it? In the news over the past few years, some have been found to have purchased millions of dollars of art through their … Read More
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Leadership
Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont — three of the most famous horse races in the world constitute theTtriple Crown of horse racing. Over the last 150 years, only 13 horses have taken the crown. These thoroughbreds represent the outstanding performers in horse racing. They are meticulously bred, trained, and conditioned to race under variable conditions. … Read More
Leadership: Developing Resilience in a VUCA world
If nothing else, the global pandemic — and our leaders’ responses to it — has taught us that nothing is certain. Over time, we have seen it all: Stock markets losing, and then gaining hundreds of points in a day. Investors adjusting their portfolios to deal with the uncertainty. Complex decisions to re-open being based … Read More