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May 26, 2021 / Blog / Culture / Leadership / Wise Talk

Herminia Ibarra on Career Reinvention – Post Pandemic

We featured author Herminia Ibarra on our executive leadership podcast, WiseTalk just before the release of her book Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader. The intelligent, insightful discussion (see recap and link to recording below) covered topics including the outsight principle, how behavior drives attitudes (as opposed to the other way around), and why people fall into the authenticity trap – and how to get out.

 

Herminia Ibarra Guest of WiseTalk

 

As a recognized authority on leadership and career development, we were curious to learn how Herminia is coaching leaders in today’s strange corporate climate.

Here’s what we learned – At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, as early as April 2020, Herminia Ibarra was quick to consider and share the effects the pandemic and its newly created challenges might have on the workforce. As a twenty-year scholar of career change studying periods including the dot-com boom and bust, the 2008 financial crisis, and the subsequently extended bull-market run, she is all too familiar with unexpected, even catastrophic change on company leaders, employees, and culture.

In an article for Harvard Business Review titled Reinventing Your Career in the Time of Coronavirus dated April 2020, Herminia states,

Unexpected events or shocks disrupt our habitual routines, jolt us out of our comfort zones, and lead us to ask big questions about what matters and what is worth doing. It’s no wonder, then, that during the current pandemic, many people are rethinking their careers.

Today, more than ever, the path to your next career will be circuitous. To cover all of the ground you’ll need to cover, it’s vital to let yourself imagine a divergent set of possible selves and futures. Embrace that process and explore as many of them as you can.

At that time, among her recommendations was to welcome the downtime. She urged people to get involved in projects, take courses, cultivate new knowledge, skills and relationships, do pro bono work, investigate start-up ideas, etc, until they can achieve a state of confidence or better footing.

Lockdown imposed limitations but, the concept was, as is in line with Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, that the time could be an opportunity to learn about yourself and the kinds of contexts and people that bring out the best in you.

Now that we have traveled through these strange months and are emerging back into the world and some semblance of normalcy – Herminia considers lessons learned by the upheaval and the downtime as they relate to career and reinvention. She shares in a recent interview with RSA events, called Precarious Reinvention Through Precarious Times that, while there were rumblings of career change before the pandemic, since Covid those thoughts have been exasperated. The downtime activities and reflection she refers to in April of 2020 are now percolating ideas and actions for change. What is now occurring is a deep dig into what people really want in their careers. People can typically talk about what they do not want in a job. But identifying needs and desires is harder.

The pandemic caused a shock to the system that opened a window for consideration and contemplation. People merely dreaming about a job with more substance, meaning, passion, balance, and control became jolted into a new reality. Mortality entered the equation. Whether their health was in question or they experienced fatal or near-fatal events with friends, family, or colleagues, the question – Is what I am doing worth it? – And so now the real change begins. And, if you did not take the time early in isolation to practice self-reflection, skills building, or experience experimentation, it may be the time to do that now. 

Our WiseTalk discussion between Sue and Herminia provides profound insights into how leaders and employees can come to purpose, understand and overcome the common traps that get in the way of stepping up to bigger or different positions or careers. You’ll learn how change really works when we are attempting to grow professionally, and how applying the “outsight” principle reshapes our image of ourselves, our jobs, and our potential. You can listen here.

In case you don’t know Herminia, she is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Before joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. Herminia was ranked 18th among the top management thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50  in 2019. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, and one of Apolitical’s 100 most influential people in gender policy. 

____

WiseTalk recap:

Favorite Quote:

“Until you can feel it in your bones, it’s very hard to have thinking drive your behavior.”

Insights:

  • The “outsight” principle means learning by going outside the norm. It’s an external perspective that you get from doing new things and experimenting, by interacting with new people, going outside your past experience, outside your usual network of contacts, and getting a more external perspective to open your eyes to a different reality.
  • Traditional leadership development methods tend to emphasize learning through introspection, which is the opposite of the outsight principle. Sue inquired about this juxtaposition. While there is a place for introspection in developing leaders, Herminia’s research showed that behavior drives attitudes and thought processes as opposed to another way around, particularly when the end state is unclear. When transitioning from A to B, and B as the end state is known, it’s easier to plan the steps to get to B. But when the end state is unknown or murky, all the thinking in the world is theory and likely to not match reality. When transitioning to a leadership role for the first time, Herminia explains the only way to aspire to that goal in a way that’s motivating, is to get closer to it through experimentation. Only then will you have fresh material for reflection afterward.
  • To gain outsight, Herminia suggested three areas for aspiring leaders to create some experiments: redefining your job, extending your network away from the usual suspects, and being more playful with yourself. Getting started with experiments in these three areas, especially with job activities and network building, will help you gain positive momentum. The people you meet along the way make a huge difference because they become kindred spirits or people who can guide you or you can bounce ideas off of because they are going through something similar. The more time spent thinking about it and conceptualizing this concept, the slower the learnings will come. But those who take action even if they aren’t sure where they are going, or because it feels unnatural, will learn more quickly.

What we found most interesting:

As people try to step up to leadership, they sometimes experience the authenticity trap. Things that don’t feel comfortable for people tend to feel inauthentic. But Herminia explained authenticity can be a defense against learning and a defense against getting out of your comfort zone. Authenticity can be defined in a number of ways, but when people hide behind it they tend to mean, “being as I’ve always been.” Which is not great, because you can be authentic and change a lot. She says, “The way you actually become really authentic is by changing and adapting and by doing so, mean you remain true to yourself in an evolving way…we all want to be ourselves at work but we want to be ourselves in a way that takes into account growth and evolution.”

___

Join us on WiseTalk for inspiring conversation and practical insights when Founder/CEO Susan Bethanis speaks to thought leaders in leadership, tech, design thinking, and human resources.

 

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April 21, 2021 / Blog / Leadership / Stress / Work-Life Integration

Leading in the New Normal

Leadership Questions and Coaching Support During Uncertain Times

How are you surviving in this strangest-of-times? We are listening deeply to what our clients are experiencing. Here is what we are hearing:

  • Getting set up: How do we logistically move to a primarily virtual work environment for the foreseeable future? There is a recognition that this is NOT a three-week thing, it’s most likely at least a three-month thing.
  • Protecting our families: How do we keep ourselves and our families safe? How do we work it out together to be in the same household (to be productive and not get on each other’s nerves)?
  • Relieving anxiety: How do we keep calm in the face of such uncertainty? What can we control in the face of complete overwhelm? How do we deal with isolation—it’s already setting in—including how to show compassion for our teammates and for someone who may be sick?
  • Redesign: How do we start to reprioritize, reengineer, reorganize, rethink, and/or re-message our products, services, business models, marketing needs, talent needs? In other words, how do we redesign anything big or small, to get ahead of the curve? There is a sense we should redesign now.

Resources to Support You

1-1 Executive Leadership Coaching

  • We can help you set up communication practices with your directs that help things run more smoothly.
  • We can help you redesign your work environments and your business.
  • We can work with you on video over a week, 3 months, or 6 months; we will flex with you.

Learn more about leadership coaching.

Group Learning on Videoconferencing (VC)

Morale boosters that can prevent isolation and relieve anxiety:

  • Quick one-hour VC booster: Happy to work with you and your managers on a variety of topics: OVER-communicate effectively, establish boundaries for WFH, best practices to deal with family obligations and sick team members.
  • 2-hour VC boosters: Happy to facilitate mini-workshops for you that will build your team up and bring them together.
    • StrengthsFinder: We love the positivity of the StrengthsFinder tool, and in 2 hours, your team can learn to leverage each other to get more done, get to know each other better, and support each other.
    • In-the-Moment Coaching:  How do you and your directs continue to give regular feedback and problem-solve when you’re not seeing each other in the hallway? In 2 hours, learn how you can coach on-the-spot and teach others to do that as well.
    • Influence + Impact in the NEW NORMAL: Given our collective new reality, how do you influence others to take into account that: 1) people are in different stages of overwhelm, which calls for strong empathy skills, and 2) your job now may be more about helping your colleagues or customers rethink priorities and generate completely new ideas.

Strategy and Redesign:

  • Have you already planned a Strategy Offsite? Or need to plan one to re-think your 2020 plans? Happy to help you facilitate this on Zoom.
  • Want to get ahead of the curve on redesigning organizational priorities, business practices, or products?
  • We can support you using a Design Thinking approach and successfully facilitate group brainstorming sessions on Zoom. You can, in turn, use these techniques with your customers.

Need content to send to your colleagues?

  • Visit our blog for the latest posts on Leading in the New Normal
  • Join WiseTalk: A free one-hour monthly teleconference with leadership experts; our theme for 2021 is “Corporate Culture-Navigating the New Normal”
  • Follow us on Twitter: @MariposaLeader @SueBethanis

For over 25 years, Mariposa has been offering leadership coaching to tech leaders in both 1-1 and group formats virtually and in person.

Happy to offer you VC meetings now.

Please connect if you’d like to chat:

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March 31, 2021 / Articles We Like / Blog / Leadership

IT Leadership Lessons Learned During Covid

 

As the corporate focus shifts from response to repair now that the Covid 19 vaccine is becoming more available, leaders look to lessons they learned and prepare for what’s next. In this article by Clint Boulton for CIO Magazine, a publication about and for IT Leaders, Clint speaks with 7 IT leaders from companies including, HP, RSM International, Johnson Controls, and McAfee to hear from them what the past 12 months have taught them and what that means for their business. Here are a summary and snippet. You can read the article in its entirety here.

_____________ 

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, and soon after IT leaders rushed to mitigate the impact on their businesses, marshaling teams to work remotely.

CIOs boosted infrastructure capacity, shipped laptops to residences, and migrated applications small and large to software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and cloud software. Eighty-two percent of CIOs surveyed say they have implemented new technologies and IT strategies during the pandemic, according to IDG’s 2021 State of the CIO survey.

Beyond implementing new technologies at scale, CIOs embraced the mental-health hurdles associated with managing remote teams whose work-life balance has been disrupted.

“Like most organizations, the pandemic took us by surprise,” says Paul Herring, global chief innovation officer of accounting firm RSM International. “We had to adjust quickly.”

Here IT leaders reflect on what they learned from a year of leading teams during the pandemic, as well as how work will likely change going forward.

(more…)

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January 6, 2021 / Articles We Like / Blog / Leadership

Self-Compassion Makes a Better Leader

Effective executive leadership and corporate culture depend on mental clarity, emotional balance, and vision to navigate unpredictable challenges, especially in times of uncertainty and disruption. Do you know what else it requires? A fair dose of self TLC. HR leaders and executives work carefully to practice compassion for employees and build a strong company culture around respect, care, and compassion. But executives too often forget to practice compassion on themself. See how this Harvard Business Review article, Self-Compassion Will Make You a Better Leader, by Rich Fernandez and Steph Stern, explains how leaders cultivate this critical skill and why it’s critical now more than ever. 

 

Here’s a snippet:

When times are tough and you’re faced with hard decisions, it’s easy to get paralyzed by self-doubt and fear. To move to clarity and action, leaders need self-compassion. Research shows that it increases your levels of emotional intelligence, resilience, integrity, and makes you more compassionate toward others, all of which improves your effectiveness as a leader. The authors offer several exercises for cultivating this skill, from short daily practices to tactics that help you shift your mindset.

It’s understandable for leaders to get caught up in fear, doubt, and criticism when facing critical business decisions that will have a major impact on lives and livelihoods. But what’s needed in times of uncertainty and disruption is mental clarity, emotional balance, fortitude, and vision. To move from self-doubt and paralysis to clarity and action, you need an often-misunderstood skill: self-compassion. Based on our experience training tens of thousands of leaders on the role of self-compassion in emotional intelligence and effective leadership, we’d like to share some key tips and techniques for cultivating this critical skill.

You can read the full article here

____________________

Navigating the New Normal – We are living in unprecedented times. Leaders are turning to Mariposa’s executive coaches to help pivot, plan, and perform in this disruptive business climate. Our deep expertise as listeners and change partners supports you and your teams. Learn more.

 

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August 18, 2020 / Blog / Leadership

What Leaders Are Facing in the Pandemic

COVID-19 is bringing about a cultural transformation that will have lasting effects. In many ways, we have lost what is familiar but also gained new opportunities for possibility. While we all experience this pandemic differently, perhaps now is the time to rethink how these new and improved ways of working together through digital interactions create and foster community in our professional and personal lives.

Please take a quick look at this short video clip with Bob Baxley, Head of Design at ThoughtSpot, where he asks me about the major issues leaders are facing during the pandemic. I speak about logistics, well-being, culture, and strategic pivoting.

How can we look inward so that you can have a meaningful impact on your work culture to make better and healthier decisions in this rapidly transformed workplace environment?

 

by Sue Bethanis, CEO/Founder of Mariposa, sueb@mariposaleadership.com@suebethanis
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June 24, 2020 / Blog / Leadership / Press Clips

SFBT Top LGBTQ-Owned Business

The San Francisco Business Times has named Mariposa Leadership, Inc. to its Top 50 list of “Largest LGBTQ-Owned Businesses” in the Greater Bay Area. Ranking at number 35, Mariposa is the only executive leadership coaching company listed in the publication’s recent survey.

For over 24 years, Mariposa has been known as a community of learners who challenge each other and highly respect each other’s differing perspectives and backgrounds.

“As we learn and grow with each other — and with the leaders we coach — we will continue to address the issues that arise in today’s workplace directly impacting LGBTQ employees. We don’t shy away from standing up for LGBTQ rights as well as continually shedding a bright light on systemic and structural oppression in all its forms.”

To honor Pride Month and Mariposa’s recognition by the SF Business Times, Mariposa is making a donation to the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth.

Successful high-tech and biotech companies, like PayPal, Amazon, Netflix, Zuora, Zynga, Gilead, and Theravance, as well as many non-profits, have leveraged Mariposa Leadership’s executive leadership coaching to accelerate leadership performance and to cultivate engaging and innovative organizational cultures. Further, as part of its commitment to the LGBTQ community, Mariposa has worked with several Bay Area LGBTQ organizations like Start Out, Out & Equal, Equality California, and Horizons Foundation.

If you would like more information, please call Allison Adams at 415-621-6055, or email allison@mariposaleadership.com.

_________

About Mariposa Leadership, Inc. Since its founding in 1996 by Sue Bethanis, Mariposa Leadership, Inc. has been sought by the Bay Area’s most successful companies for their expertise in executive leadership coaching. High-tech and other cutting-edge industries rely on Mariposa’s individual and executive team coaching programs to accelerate leadership performance. Sue Bethanis is the author of the well-received business book Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage, and hosts Mariposa’s monthly leadership forum, WiseTalk, as well as Mariposa’s bi-weekly community zoom room for coaches, WiseSpace

 

You can read and download the press release in its entirety here

 

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November 30, 2017 / Articles We Like / Leadership

On “4 Ways to Train Your Brain to Be More Open-Minded”

There’s always more than one point of view. And now, in an ever-polarized world, it’s important to consider those that are not your own. According to John Brown, who was recently featured in the Fast Company article, “4 Ways to Train Your Brain to Be More Open-Minded,” truly being open-minded is actually a counter-intuitive mental task that takes purposeful action.

So, what if our divergent values and ideas could provide for healthy dialogue and innovation instead of polarization?

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December 15, 2016 / Articles We Like / Leadership / Strategy

On “What Great Managers Do Daily”

We’ve all read the numerous articles highlighting the must-have qualities of an effective manager. Beyond the personal traits – what is it exactly that makes a manager great on a day-to-day basis?

Inspired by a Gallup study that found that about 70% of people in management roles are not well equipped for the job, Ryan Fuller and Nina Shikaloff’s recent Harvard Business Review article “What Great Managers Do Daily,” highlights employee engagement results from two Fortune 500 companies. Their conclusion is that most companies understand the importance of having highly effective managers, but few understand how to make them more effective. This article provides five key findings about what makes great managers different than the rest.

What do you think about their results and recommendations?

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February 2, 2016 / Articles We Like / Leadership / Strategy

On "The Wild West of Measuring Corporate Sustainability"

Many companies have made sustainability measures part of their corporate goals. The impetus to do so might be driven by cost reduction measures, the need to ensure a future supply of materials, or a desire to make a positive impact on the communities they serve. Reporting on progress of sustainable development is a fairly recent business trend, and as such, varying degrees of standards exist, with varying degrees of transparency. At the same time, investors are becoming more savvy about the information they want from their portfolio companies.

In this Stanford Social Innovation Review article, The Wild West of Measuring Corporate Sustainability, author Eric Nitzberg builds a case for why executives ought to stay ahead of sustainability reporting trends to meet the expectations of modern investors. He also cites key sustainability reporting resources leaders can leverage to inform their sustainability strategies moving forward.

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June 29, 2015 / Articles We Like / Leadership

On “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders”

Trust is a key ingredient for creating an engaged and productive workforce. Yet competing priorities, daily pressures and sometimes a lack of self-awareness can get in the way of effective communication and leadership. When we read the survey results in this article, the list of complaints employees have about their leaders seemed all too familiar to us as executive coaches. But by bringing awareness to the power of meaningful connection with employees, we know leaders can make a huge impact on productivity in the workplace.

We share the Harvard Business Review article, “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders“, by Lou Solomon, to help raise awareness of your communication and connection with employees. Try implementing the suggestions to build more trust!

Tell us: What communication practices do you find most effective for connecting with your employees?

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