Everyone’s coaching experience will differ, but all coaching candidates have one thing in common, an expectation of change. I have observed the overlap of three different coaching approaches, each of which can be useful depending on the candidate’s needs and the nature of their request. These requests fall into three categories: Line-of-Sight Coaching I once … 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
When Profiling Candidates to Generic Roles Does More Harm than Good
Not all effective accountants, operations managers, financial analysts, etc. are wired the same. “It says I should be a forest ranger.” My introverted friend and I just received the reports from our guidance counselor’s career assessment test, and he was disappointed. His dream was to drive in the Indianapolis 500, and the race car driver … 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
Your Mental Model Influences How You Handle Change, Uncertainty – and Your Job Performance
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life.” Due to innovation and disruptions caused by technology, some have gone so far as to say the pace of change is accelerating. Whether constant or accelerating, change leads to uncertainty, and uncertainty can feel, pardon the clinical jargon, “icky.” Uncertainty produces anxiety, … Read More
Advice Culture can Keep your Company from Sailing into Hurricanes or Blocking Canals
For six days, the world’s eyes were on the Ever Given, the container ship stuck between the banks of the Suez Canal. Although a unique news story, maritime disasters are more typical than most of us realize. According to the insurer Allianz, 41 large ships were lost in 2019 and 46 in 2018. Over the … Read More
The Fall of Trust
Stephen M. R. Covey claimed in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is “the one thing that changes everything” – if removed, it can destroy the most thriving economy, the most powerful government, the most successful business, and the most influential leadership. Business Replaced Government as Most Trusted Institution For 20 years, Edelman … Read More
The Core of a True Leader
In the hope of figuring out how to treat families, one of the most innovative and iconoclastic psychologists, Murray Bowen, discovered the core of a leader a decade before anyone mentioned emotional intelligence. As technology has given us greater access to how the brain functions, scientists have found even more support for this theory. In … Read More
Heroes Cannot be Leaders
–While in the role of a hero, one cannot be a leader; while in the role of a leader, one makes heroes of others.– In a society where leaders and heroes are revered, the above statement may startle you. However, the term heroic leader is an oxymoron. In 2020, the Philadelphia newspapers referred to football … Read More