Every savvy business person understands that a key to growing your business involves expanding and deepening relationships.  The next series of blog entries will focus on the essential business practice of networking.  Today, more than ever, your ability to create and sustain a rich, deep and lasting network is central to your long term success.  Yet, before I start discussing the what and how of networking – I want to step back and talk about why networking is so powerful.  Because highlighting this foundation will allow you to be far better prepared to take full advantage of your network.

First attending networking events and being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer is not the foundation of networking.  Certainly attending networking events as well as being able to clearly articulate your value is important but these are tactical areas that support something more important.  Networking is founded on the following principles: (more…)

Maybe Corporate America is Starting to Get It?

I have been fortunate to work with hundreds of talented senior executives over the past fourteen plus years. Yet, over the past few years I have been quite fortunate to work with an especially talented group of women leaders.  And to be honest, through this experience I have found that women executives seem more naturally wired for the style of leadership demanded in today’s business environment.  This is not a judgment of my own gender – it just has been my experience.  Women tend to be more powerful in situations that call for:

• Collaboration and inclusion
• Teamwork
• More authenticity and transparency
• Building a culture the fosters creativity and innovation
• Coaching and mentoring high potentials
• Showing concern for how the organization impacts the community surrounding it

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A New and Upgraded Edition  of the Online Test from Gallup’s “Now Discover Your Strengths”

By Tom Rath

DO YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY? Chances are, you don’t. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

“Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong… And yet, a person can perform only from their strength”

Peter Drucker

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists and ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions to discover their top five talents. And with your purchase you will be provided with a code that allows you to “Discover Your Strengths” by taking the assessment yourself.

In its latest national bestseller, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more (see below for details). While you can read this book in one sitting, you’ll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.

Follow This link to Order or Click the Image Above

We live in an exciting time in the executive development field.  In short,

• Recent research has shown compelling evidence that an evolved executive leader can make a huge difference in expanding profitability, performance, employee loyalty, etc.
• There is strong alignment amongst the many leadership models on the competencies an executive leader must embody to strengthen their impact.
• Based on this clarity as well as the ground breaking work of many – processes and methods have been created that are proven to add velocity onto the development process.

“The study was a real eye opener. Even after adopting the most conservative approach to determining the return on investment, we showed 700% in ROI for the coaching initiative (at Booz Allen Hamilton)”
Ed Cohen
Former Senior Director
Center for Performance Excellence
Booz Allen Hamilton

While executive coaching is only one piece to the puzzle – it is an approach that has proven we can build programs that work.  Given all of this plus the recognition that we find ourselves in challenging times that are crying for more leadership – you have to wonder why organizations and their senior leadership teams are not fully embracing the journey towards greater development of their leadership? (more…)

Whenever we face times of uncertainty and ambiguity life and business can seem more challenging. Yet. we also tend to let go of our resistance to learning and become more open to the advice and support of others.  One of the biggest challenges to innovation and success are when the ego fortifies itself from being in a learning mode.  This can manifest in a number of ways:

• The need to be right
• The need to tell rather than ask
• The false perception that we are masterful in all things and there is nothing left to learn.
• The confusion that because we are successful in one domain – that it guarantees success in other domains in business and life.

Yet, because of today’s environment I am finding executives and business owners far less entrenched in these “enemies of learning.”   This is because they realize it will take more than their own experience and knowledge to maximize their business success in today’s Topsy Tervy business world.  Many of us in the executive and CEO development business have not seen the drop in business experienced in past recessions.  In fact, many have seen an increase in their business because during these times – tried and true principles of success still work.  Yet, another emerging trend is the rise of executive and CEO peer groups. (more…)