The business landscape is dynamic and rapidly evolving, and today’s leaders constantly face challenges that demand strategic thinking, effective communication, and adaptable decision-making.
Time marches on, and with it go corporate leaders. Everybody retires at one time or another, and to maintain solvency in the leadership ranks, companies must know in advance how they’re going to deal with these departures. The traditional way of addressing this is with succession planning.
It’s important to have a plan in place to make the changing of the guard for executive management positions smooth and uncontroversial. The plan itself, however, is not as important as what the plan mandates: development of personnel who are ready, willing and able to assume top spots such as chief executive, chief of operations, chief financial officer, chief technology officer and others.
Succession planning – or succession development?
A lot of companies are big on planning but not so great on development. Where succession planning is concerned, this is often simply a problem with how the process is viewed. Planning is a system with so many aspects, it can seem to go on forever and grow to the point where nobody really understands the plan anymore. Development is quite different.
If you think “succession development,” then you’ll be starting out on the track that will lead you to the results you want. Common sense tells you that in leadership succession, the goal is to prepare future leaders, not to plan. You already know what’s going to happen – new leaders will replace retiring leaders or those who leave for other reasons. The key is to make the “plan” simple and concise while focusing the majority…
Today is the official launch of our new website and we are excited to share it with all of you.
We are also beginning our 15th year of business here in the Bay Area.
Our passion and vitality for our work seem stronger than ever. Much of this has to do with our continuous learning during the last 18 months.
First we engaged with Phil Sandahl and his staff at Team Coaching International (TCI), where we went through their unique team coaching certification. TCI's team assessments are the best in the business and gives us and the teams we work with an immediate and incisive look at how teams see themselves and how their stakeholders see them as well. This output has translated to us helping teams get immediate traction and acceleration in moving toward their goals. Please check out these tools on our Team Assessments page.
Next we got involved with Bob Kaplan and Rob Kaiser authors of The Versatile Leader and the accompanying 360 survey called the Leadership Versatility Index (LVI). In all the years that we've been doing leadership and executive coaching nothing has impacted our thinking and approach to coaching more than this concept of leadership versatility. No longer do we think in terms of deficits or focusing only on strengths, but rather building versatility into a leader's repertoire of leadership behaviors. If you're interested in reading more about this concept please go to our Coaching Philosophy page on the website to download several articles.
We then became certified in the Birkman…
A rising athlete relies on a good coach to provide the insight and direction that lead to greater skills. In the same way, smart business leaders tap into the proven expertise of executive coaches to help them develop the leadership and personal power needed to rise to the top of their fields. What’s it like to work with an executive coach? Why are these coaches so beneficial?
Most of us have watched sports coaches in action. In nearly every case, we know that the coach’s athlete or team is much better at the sport than the coach. Think John Madden, Tommy Lasorda, Phil Jackson. None of these epic coaches could possibly match up against their world-class players. So what good are they?
The answer is simple: They have specific knowledge about the game that the players don’t have, and they can see things the players can’t. This is exactly why an executive coach is so valuable to the career paths of individuals in leadership roles who wish to grow at a rate that would be impossible on their own. Let’s take a look at some of the elements of a well-rounded executive coaching program.
Time frame and objective
Unlike with athlete coaching, which can last an entire career, executive coaching programs usually last for nine months to a year. If the coaches are seasoned high-performers, this is sufficient time for the executive client to learn necessary skills, un-learn bad habits and embed the new knowledge through practice and analysis. Coaching or training programs…
We have noticed a trending in the last 5 years between managers and their direct reports that concerns us a great deal. Managers have become less accessible, conduct fewer staff meetings, schedule infrequent one-on-ones and communicate downward less and less. We believe this growing trend is being driven by three particular things: managers being asked to manage and be individual contributors, more matrixed organizations that require significant cross functional collaboration and thus a greater time allotment and managers not being acknowledged or rewarded enough for developing their people. This is not an attempt to bash managers but rather an explanation for what has distracted them away from best practices for the manager/direct report relationship. Managers are literally in the middle between the demands being placed on them by their leaders and the responsibility of managing a team. So what outcomes do we see due to this dilemma? In our executive coaching and team development work we see less “bench strength” being developed in organizations, fewer career path discussions taking place and diminishing morale as people begin to feel more like worker bees than employees who are making a contribution that has an impact on the organization. The only way managers can get back to enhancing their relationships with their team members is too make a greater commitment to making development a priority. Carve out the time on your calendar and don’t cancel time with your people/ team unless the building is burning down or you have a million dollar deal…