Category: Articles We Like | Page 7

On: "Research: What CEOs Really Want from Coaching"

We recommend this interview with the co-authors of a recent Stanford University/The Miles Group survey because of its key messages: executive leadership coaching is a tool for improving already high performance and CEO’s want the support, but don’t always get it.

In the Harvard Business Review article, Research: What CEOs Really Want from Coaching, Gretchen Gavett digs into the findings with the survey authors. To learn about the business case for CEO coaching, the common needs/focus areas and other fascinating findings, read it now.

How is coaching viewed in your organization?

Comment below! Or pose a question via Ask Mariposa.

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August 29th, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Recommended Reading|Tags: CEO coaching, coaching, Gretchen Gavett, HBR|

August 12, 2013 / Articles We Like

On: "The Entrepreneur's "Not Enough" Trap–And How To Avoid It"

This article by Dave Kashen resonates with us. As executive coaches, we have access to some of the most brilliant minds and regardless of intelligence, the fear of not being enough is a universal part of the human condition. It’s so powerful, it drives unconscious behavior in an attempt to overcompensate, leading to sometimes unintentional consequences.

In The Entrepreneur’s “Not Enough” Trap–And How To Avoid It, another perspective is offered on how we can channel fear towards more positive, conscious choices. Read it to find practices to shift from a place of fear and lack to love and inspiration.

What do you do to work with fear in a positive manner?

Comment below! Or pose a question via Ask Mariposa.

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August 12th, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like|Tags: business, coaching, Dave Kashen, Fast Company, fear, intelligence, leaders, leadership, Mariposa Leadership|

July 29, 2013 / Articles We Like / Recommended Reading

Surprises Are the New Normal: Resilience is the New Skill"

We share this article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter because in business, as in life, change is a constant. An unlikely competitor disrupts your market share, a new promising product fails to get traction, key talent resigns. What makes the difference between winning and losing in those situations is how you bounce back.

In the Harvard Business Review article, Surprises are the New Normal: Resilience is the New Skill, we learn about resilience, what it is – and is not. Elizabeth Moss Kanter offers sage thoughts for us all.

Read it.

How resilient is your organization? What do you do as a leader to help your team move forward after a setback?

Comment below! Or pose a question via Ask Mariposa.

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July 29th, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Recommended Reading|Tags: executive leadership coaching, global business, HBR, leadership, new normal, resilience, uncertain times, workplace culture|

June 5, 2013 / Articles We Like / Recommended Reading

On “5 Ways Big Companies Can Pivot Like Lean Startups”

We share this article by Brian Millar because we really like the concepts of pivoting and repurposing – they make innovation more accessible to anyone – not just start-ups and creative geniuses.

Considering the failure rate of new products (about 70%), innovation makes or breaks companies, big and small. Drawing on Twitter, Groupon and Paypal’s road to success, the Fast Company article 5 Ways Big Companies Can Pivot Like Lean Startups offers pivoting as a concept for stimulating innovation in big companies.

Pivoting means repurposing ideas, prototypes, products or technology to meet an unmet need. And, to be successful at it, five concepts are introduced:

Force innovations to evolve rather than die
Gain insight into what consumers want
Play with technology – don’t test it – to uncover its purpose
Tell the right stories
Your company is also a prototype

Read it.

Think about it – what’s tripping up your organization? Stage gates? Too much of the wrong research? Not enough playing, prototyping, looking wide?

Comment below! Or pose a questions via Ask Mariposa.

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June 5th, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Recommended Reading|Tags: FastCompany, innovation, pivoting, prototype|

June 3, 2013 / Articles We Like / Recommended Reading

On “Clearing Hurdles to Employee Engagement”

We share this article by Razor Suleman because a disengaged workforce is detrimental to business success. Recognition is a timeless, cost-effective leadership tactic, which leads to employee success therefore engagement, and yet organizations face hurdles when implementing a recognition program. The article featured on TalentCulture, Clearing Hurdles to Employee Engagement, identifies six common hurdles:

Employee participation
Making time
Securing executive buy-in
Engaging managers
Budget
Measuring Success

Tips for clearing these hurdles can be found in the article’s Infographic towards the bottom of the article.

Consider this: How does your organization recognize employees? What challenges do you face in clearing the hurdles in your organization?

Comment below! Or send us your questions via Ask Mariposa.

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June 3rd, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Recommended Reading|Tags: effective leadership, employee engagement, employee recognition, Razor Suleman, TalentCulture|

February 21, 2013 / Articles We Like / Coaching Skills / HR / Talent Management / Strategy

How to Create a Memorable Employee Recognition Program

Good business practice involves appreciating and recognizing your employees. Although appreciation should be a natural activity for anyone, the truth is we all have different ways of giving and receiving gifts and appreciation. Some like verbal appreciation, while others like having an extra vacation day. Either way, employes want personal recognition, instead of a standard gift for all. So if you’re not careful, a thoughtless gift may actually backfire on you.

OC Tanner recently commissioned a study conducted by The Cicero Group entitled Optimizing Employee Recognition Programs. This study aimed to discover if awards are a viable form of employee recognition, and if so, whether cash works better than award items.

If your organization is looking to implement an effective employee reward system, I highly recommend reading this entire study as the six pages highlight some interesting findings. The statistics can come in handy when rationalizing employee reward programs to upper management.

The key takeaways for employee recognition programs are:

Award items are better than cash bonuses at contributing to the recognition experience.
Award items should be geared toward desire versus need. If cash is given, it will likely be spent on “need” items, such as bills. Therefore employees will likely forget about the recognition much faster than a more personalized award.
Though you may be rewarding employees with a tangible reward, verbal expressions of appreciation further augment and reinforce recognition and can “increase the degree of effectiveness by roughly 50 percent”.
Create a “tailored selection” of reward items that are unique and personal. This tells the employee that you took the time to offer something of value.

About the author:

Anne Loehr is the President of Anne Loehr and Associates, co-founder of Safaris for the Soul, and an Executive Leadership Coach for Mariposa Leadership, Inc. For more good reads, visit Anne Loehr’s personal blog at: www.anneloehr.com/blog/.

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February 21st, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Coaching Skills, HR / Talent Management, Strategy|Tags: Anne Loehr, employee recognition, HR Leade, leadership, Mariposa Leadership|

January 29, 2013 / Articles We Like / Ask Mariposa / HR / Talent Management

Ask Mariposa: Sending Late-Night Emails to Your Team?

Rob asked:

My team is complaining about the late-night emails I send to them. I tell them that the company policy says they can wait to answer until the morning, so what’s the big deal?

Anne Loehr, Senior Leadership Consultant responded:

The big deal is that according to a recent New York Times article, “Being constantly on actually undermines productivity,” says Leslie Perlow a professor of leadership at Harvard Business School. While you may not expect your team to reply to your emails in ‘off-hours’, the employee may still be “on” by thinking about the emails, which can undermine productivity.

Daimler, a German automaker, has taken several steps to address similar issues for the sake of their employees and their organization’s future success. One step was developing a set of guidelines for managers to help employees create balance.

While you don’t have to create management guidelines, I’d encourage you to consider some simple steps like only sending emails between 7am-7pm on weekdays (you can always queue your emails in your draft folder) and only sending urgent emails after hours. This will help you and your team be more balanced, focused and productive. Now that IS a big deal!

Share your thoughts on this response in the comments section below.

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January 29th, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, Ask Mariposa, HR / Talent Management|Tags: HR Leadership|

January 3, 2013 / Articles We Like / HR / Talent Management / Strategy / Wise Talk

The Value of Strategic Leadership

Every year Mariposa Leadership aims to engage you in a new leadership theme. Last year it was Design Thinking and we feel very fortunate to have shared the wisdom and resources of several well known innovators via our free monthly teleconference Wise Talk. Our 2012 guests included Roger Martin, Bill Burnett, Teresa Amabile, Saul Kaplan, and Jeanne Liedtka, just to name a few…

In 2013, our Mariposa Leadership theme is Strategy, and we look forward to sharing Wise Talk discussions with you and some of the finest strategic leaders and authors in the business!

This month we focus on introducing you to yourself as a strategist. Whether you run a global enterprise or a small business, we wish to present to you the strategic tools to not only outwit your competitors but offer you, as a leader, the means to shape your organization decisively.

Combining the best of ideas about strategy and leadership and giving you the tools and confidence to step into the role, our January Wise Talk guest and author of The Strategist, Cynthia Montgomery, will not only help you reinvent yourself but also your business and the world around you.

In her July 2012 McKinsey Quarterly article, Montgomery explains how strategists lead. Central to her case is a simple observation: it is the strategist who must make the necessary choices that determine a company’s identity. It is the strategic leader who says, “This is our purpose, not that. This is who we will be. This is why our customers and clients will prefer a world with us rather than one without us.” She defines the strategist as meaning maker, as voice of reason, as operator, and expands on these giving examples of each, concluding that maintaining strategic momentum is a never ending task, however profoundly rewarding.

We are very excited to welcome Cynthia Montgomery on this month’s Wise Talk. Join her and Mariposa Leadership’s CEO Sue Bethanis on Thursday, January 24th from 1-2pm PT as they discuss how to be the strategist your company needs.

To sign up for our free monthly teleconference Wise Talk and submit your questions for discussion, please visit:

https://mariposaleadership.com/resources/teleconference_wise-talk

After sign up, you will receive the call in information and be entered to win a copy of this month’s leadership resource, The Strategist. One lucky listener will be announced at the end of the talk!

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January 3rd, 2013|Categories: Articles We Like, HR / Talent Management, Strategy, Wise Talk|Tags: Cynthia Montgomery, HR Leadership, leadership, Mariposa Leadership, Strategy, sue bethanis, wise talk, women in business|

December 18, 2012 / Articles We Like / HR / Talent Management / News

Sue's Top Three Reads of 2012

Happy Holidays everyone!

I thought you’d be interested in my Top Three Reads of 2012 – the leadership content that has been the most compelling for me this year: Designing for Growth; “The Power of Small Wins”; and “Why Men Fail”.

I scour Twitter every morning and love retweeting interesting articles and emailing colleagues, clients, and friends the latest-and-greatest resources.

So why these three? Here are some strands of “interestingness”:

1) Designing for Growth: book by November WiseTalk guest, Jeanne Liedtka (@DesignAtDarden)

I delved into much of the design thinking world this year to complement my own work and by offering a variety of authors, professors and consultants on WiseTalk. I think Jeanne’s approach and her book are simply the most practical of any I have come across. She translates her four questions (What is? What if? What wows? What works?) into 10 ready-made tools. I especially like the Journey Mapping tool!

2) “The Power of Small Wins”: HBR article by February WiseTalk guest, Teresa Amabile (@TeresaAmabile)

Teresa’s research approach is simply unparalleled. It’s easy to say that mood affects performance, and even the smallest of rewards and/or incentives leads to more productivity. The way she demonstrated this in her study is awesome. You’ll want to check this out!

3) “Why Men Fail”: New York Times column by David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks)

Before you get ruffled under the collar about the title, David Brooks’ column is not about men. It’s about “being strangers in a strange land.” Whether you’re in a different country or a new company, we must be more agile and flexible.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions!

– Sue

Sue Bethanis is the Founder and CEO of Mariposa Leadership, Inc., a 15-person San Francisco based firm, which provides leadership coaching and consulting to the high-tech, bio-tech, and financial services industries. For more on Sue, view her complete bio.

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December 18th, 2012|Categories: Articles We Like, HR / Talent Management, News|Tags: Best of 2012, David Brooks, design thinking, designing for growth, HBR, HR Leadership, Jeanne Liedtka, NY Times, reading list, sue bethanis, Teresa Amabile, why men fail, why women still can't have it all, wise talk|

Ask Mariposa: Need Resources to Become a Better Leader?

Jude asked:

What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?

Eric Nitzberg, M.T.S., Senior Leadership Consultant responded:

I would recommend starting with your coworkers, and even friends and family members. The best leaders frequently ask for feedback from the people around them about how how they can become more effective. People who work with you have opinions about your strengths and development areas as a leader, but most won’t share those with you unless you ask them. Also, you have to ask repeatedly over time, and thank them for their feedback, even if you don’t agree with it. That way you will develop an environment where it’s safe to ask for and give feedback.

As for more formal resources, some of my favorites are The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner, Your Brain at Work by David Rock, and anything on Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. I also love the Harvard Business Review.

Share your thoughts on this response in the comments section below, and ask us anything here: http://blog.mariposaleadership.com/ask-mariposa/

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December 18th, 2012|Categories: Articles We Like, Ask Mariposa, Coaching Skills, HR / Talent Management, Influencing Skills, Recommended Reading|Tags: ask mariposa, Eric Nitzberg, executive coaching, HR Leadership, leadership, reading list|