Tag: leadership coaching

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.

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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.

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March 31st, 2021|Categories: Articles We Like, Blog, Leadership|Tags: articles we like, covid-19, executive leadership coaching, it leadership, leadership, leadership coaching, leading remotely, workplace culture|

March 28, 2021 / Articles We Like / Blog / HR / Talent Management

Talent Management and Post-Pandemic Rules

As executive coaches working with high-tech leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area we hear many opinions, ideas, and theories about the post-pandemic work world, especially as it relates to a notion of “new normal”.

As such, I wanted to share this particular article, “The Post-Pandemic Rules of Talent Management”, published in Harvard Business Review. Here, writers Becky Frankiewicz and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic clearly outline data-based trends and focuses on two critical areas – building culture outside of the office and the ever-more-challenging work-life integration. The article, originally published early in the pandemic considers an unforeseeable physical return to the office.

At the time of publication, the idea of a completely remote workforce felt abrupt, unsettling, out of control, and abnormal. Today, an entire team working remotely or hybrid no longer feels unthinkable. It’s become a reality and potentially an incredibly productive strategy.

Now that the talent pool can be fished from virtually anywhere leaders recognize the potential skills, experience, and capabilities they can access, from anywhere. And, thanks to technology, the tools for managing remote talent are easily and effectively accessible. They can remove the idea of costly employee relocation from the hiring process.

But what about workplace culture? Is it possible to build a culture when only half or even no employees step foot in the office?

See how HBR breaks down Covid 19’s culture correction.

Here’s a snippet:

At the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, talent literally left the building, and we’re now beginning to realize that in many places, it is unlikely to come back. Technology is moving humanity away from the office and back into homes across our nation every day. We are building culture outside of buildings, with work that supports life on a more even playing field, with talent that can come from anywhere. As we look to the future, it’s time to unleash this new way of working for the long-term, with a focus on well-being, equality, and productivity that can work for both employers and employees long after this crisis ends. It’s time to embrace the truly global talent pool that is available to drive growth, regardless of where people call home.

Over the past decades, rapid digital transformation has enabled organizations to completely reimagine the way they work and manage talent. From reliable video conferencing platforms to digital collaboration software, to ubiquitous cloud-based connectivity, and a data-centric approach to strategic decision-making powered by the synergy between artificial and human intelligence, an imaginary worker from the 1950s would surely marvel at the current landscape of work as if they were in a Black Mirror episode.

Find the article in its entirety here: “The Post-Pandemic Rules of Talent Management,” by Becky Frankiewicz and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in HBR.

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Would you like assistance navigating your company’s new normal post-Covid 19? Take a look at our executive leadership coaching programs for both one on one coaching and group workshops.

See how we can help you build an unstoppable, highly competitive, and innovative corporate culture

March 28th, 2021|Categories: Articles We Like, Blog, HR / Talent Management|Tags: articles we like, corporate culture, executive leadership coaching, HBR, leadership, leadership coaching, post pandemic, talent management, work-life balance|

September 5, 2020 / Coaching Skills

Skills for Effective Leadership Team Development

Developing your leadership team is best done through effective and frequent coaching. And establishing rapport is the critical first step in our In-The-Moment Coaching model. So what happens next?

Understand the problem that needs solving. This occurs in the “Assess” step in our In-The-Moment (ITM) Coaching model. Here are three reasons leaders who learn the skills of Assess are highly effective at leadership team development through ITM Coaching.

They understand they aren’t on point to solve the problem. Assess is exploring another person’s perspective on a situation in order to understand the current frame and uncovering the most important problem that needs solving right now. Once it’s uncovered, the leader’s job is to help him/her arrive at a solution to address it. This is “teaching others to fish,” which boosts the level of motivation, accountability, and engagement in taking action.
They open up thinking with strategic questions. The key to successfully assess is through the use of open-ended questions. Leaders who allow open-ended questions to emerge from a place of curiosity rather than a defined set of questions receive more information that helps them set the problem.
They pick up on nuances by staying present. In Assess, the leader’s job is not only to ask questions and listen but to notice how the situation is being described, the other person’s reaction to it, and motivations. Specifically, they are listening for specific word usage that implies constraints on thinking and views on others. By staying present in the conversation, leaders are able to pick up on these cues, ask the right questions, and quickly set the most important problem that needs solving.

Successful leadership team development through ITM Coaching relies on learning how to stay in Assess versus solving others’ problems for them. For more tips to help you do this and other how-tos on ITM Coaching, download the free Executive Guide to In-The-Moment Coaching.

September 5th, 2020|Categories: Coaching Skills|Tags: assess, effective coaching, effective leadership, executive coaching, Executive Guide, In-The-Moment Coaching, ITM Coaching, leadership coaching, leadership team developement, rapport|

April 3, 2020 / Blog / Mariposa Articles / Stress / Work-Life Integration

Working Parents + Shelter-in-Place. Mission Impossible?

by Tawny Lees, COO and Executive Coach, tawny@mariposaleadership.com

As I’ve been talking with and coaching clients this week, the reality of long-term school closures and shelter-in-place orders seems to be hitting working parents the hardest.

It can feel impossible for two-parent homes where both partners work from home — and gets even harder when one parent works outside of the home, for single parents, when kids have special needs, or if elder care is thrown into the mix.

Three main ideas here, curated from what I’m hearing, reading, and experiencing myself as a working parent:

Set Expectations

Get radically real about short-term (now to 3 months) expectations of yourself:

As a professional. Anyone responsible for kids at home is just not going to be as productive and/or available as usual. It’s okay. This is an unprecedented situation in our lifetimes; as a leader, you and your team need to figure out how to work through it together. Shift the mindset from “I/we can’t get this all done” to “here’s what I/we can get done.”

Assess your and your team’s current deliverables, initiatives, and capabilities.
Reset short-term priorities and deadlines.
Re-assign/share the workload across the team.
Establish preferred times for meetings or availability for real-time interaction. (E.g. meetings only between 9-12 and 2-5.)

Proactively align on all the above with everyone who needs to know – cross-functional partners, customers, suppliers, boss, etc.

As a working parent. You will not be able to offer the same level of time, attention, and expertise that your children would normally receive from teachers, caregivers, etc. during this time. It’s okay. Do your best, they will survive. Shift your mindset from “I’m being a bad parent” or “my kids are missing out on XYZ” to “we will get through this and learn previously unimagined lessons about life.”

Set Structure

Involve everyone and make a family work plan:

Figure out a schedule and division of labor that works. For all. You’d be surprised that even young kids can contribute to brainstorming ideas and making a plan. (Whip out some flip charts or post-it notes – they’ll love it!) And by involving them, they tend to be more enthusiastic about sticking with it. Things to consider:

Can you and your partner or older kids work in “shifts” to take care of younger kids?
Can you enlist or employ friends, family, babysitters, tutors to virtually engage your kids on a regular schedule that you could rely on? Via video, they could talk, read, play games, sing, do dances, do schoolwork, etc.
What are the most engaging/reliable activities that kids can do with little to no supervision? (e.g. movies, online gaming, schoolwork.) Schedule those activities during important work time. They will be getting more screen time; get over it.
What work can you do while sitting near/with them? (e.g. status reports or emails at the kitchen table while they do schoolwork and ask an occasional question.)
As you prioritize your precious time, what is the best way for you to spend the free time you’ll have with the kids? Having fun? Relaxing? Getting outside? How do you want to “be” during that time?
What are your rules for the time when you need to be uninterrupted? (e.g. door is closed, don’t knock.) How can you reward them for sticking to the rules? (e.g. an enthusiastic high-five, cuddling and reading for 15 minutes, going outside to play.)

Make sure everyone in the family understands the schedule/plan and experiment! Try it for a week and then revisit – What worked? What didn’t? What to try next?

Recharge

You’ll need energy to pull off this mission:

We all know the metaphors – “put your oxygen mask on first,” “you can’t pour from an empty cup,” etc. Well, they are true. Especially now.

You will need to get creative, and insistent, about making sure you are getting adequate sleep and time to relax and recharge.
Include a favorite activity in your plan, make a pact with someone, do what’s needed to make it happen.
Take time off from work, use the weekend as a weekend (it’s still there, even though days seem to be blurring together.)
Give yourself some perspective – look ahead 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years from now. How will you feel then, how will you look back on what is happening now?

You are not alone! We are all in this together. We would love to hear what’s working for you so we can help share information with others. Often, the first question our clients ask us in a session is: “What are your other clients doing about WFH?” Let’s spread the best practices.

To download a PDF of this article, click here.

April 3rd, 2020|Categories: Blog, Mariposa Articles, Stress / Work-Life Integration|Tags: corporate culture, covid-19, executive coaching, leadership, leadership coaching, work-life balance, working from home, working parents|