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Coaching People Development

CEO Coaching: What, Why and How the Best CEOs Utilize a CEO Coach

CEO Coaching: What, Why and How the Best CEOs Utilize a CEO Coach

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how to utilize a ceo coach

Some say it can be lonely at the top. If that’s the case, then CEOs must be in desperate need of company. Thankfully, CEOs and leaders can turn to CEO coaching to provide the guidance they need to overcome the struggles of running and managing a company. With the future of the company weighing on them, they need help too. And this is where a coach can come in. But this type of coaching goes beyond that. 

With the right coaching and a CEO’s drive for success, this combination can deliver impressive results for a business. 

What is CEO Coaching?

Imagine this: Jess Bezos uses a CEO coach. Even Steve Jobs once had a coach. Even Tom Brady, arguably the best quarterback of all time, has a lot of coaches and trainers who are focused on improving every single aspect of his game.

What do we take from this? Coaching is something that everyone can benefit from no matter how good you think you are in what you are doing. In this study by Harvard Business Review, they demonstrate the link between coaching and high performance.

Before you can learn about what CEO coaching does for you – the CEO – and your company, it is important to define what it is. CEO coaching is dubbed the fastest and most efficient way to grow your business by becoming a more effective leader. But exactly how does that happen?

A coach is generally someone who is experienced at being a CEO or executive leader. They have formal training in mentoring using a structured framework aimed towards success. Their goal is to help CEOs clarify their thinking and make informed decisions that will impact the company. It is a great source of support for CEOs because they do not normally have anybody to turn to for help; after all, they are so used to people referring to them for any major decisions impacting the business. 

reasons why you need ceo coaching

Reasons Why You Need CEO Coaching

Today, CEOs serve as more than just the face of a company. They are looked at as visionaries and thought leaders. For a select few, they are considered pioneers and trailblazers in their field. But even CEOs can benefit from CEO coaching. In fact, the best ones continue to seek out suggestions and advice from an external viewpoint in order to improve how they manage business operations and conflict resolution, and boost team engagement.

These are some of the reasons why you need to consider coaching and ways you can optimize its benefits.

1. To learn something new

The best leaders and CEOs are the ones who continually seek to learn and improve. They do not claim to know-it-all, but rather are open to learning new things or skills. Even if your expertise is in one area, such as finance or technology, it does not hurt to learn a new skill so you can become a more well-rounded leader. 

The best coaches are the ones that can help CEOs develop professionally and personally. 

2. To see things objectively

It is easy to overlook any aspect of the business that isn’t going well or could be detrimental to your long-term success when you have too much on your plate. Therefore, having a coach is helpful because they can provide you with an objective, third-party assessment. A coach can give you a reality check, so you can fix blind spots or any aspect that you don’t even know could be hurting your business. 

When you deal with something so often and on a regular basis, it is easy to dismiss issues until they impact your business negatively. Don’t wait until that happens before you do something about it. 

3. To set aside time to reflect.

CEOs often lead a very hectic schedule. In between meetings and operational obligations, CEOs have so many things to think about on a daily basis when it comes to running a business. 

The time spent with a coach is a chance for them to slow down and reflect. A coach can help CEOs to use this time as an opportunity to explore new business strategies. It allows them to open up to possibilities that they may not have considered on their own. This is very promising for businesses that wish to expand or grow. 

4. To see things in a new light.

CEO coaching can open new doors of possibilities for your business. Coaches can help with overcoming business obstacles and see new ways of approaching these obstacles. By trying out new things, you have the opportunity to increase efficiency and productivity within your business. 

5. To help the company grow.

The style of leadership can have a huge impact on the productivity of the company. CEOs that are committed to developing their personal and professional skills are more likely to inspire the rest of their team to become better too.

The true impact of business coaching is evident in how the business is managed and what business decisions are made. However, acquiring soft skills like interpersonal communication and improving teamwork can go a long way in achieving organizational success. 

optimize the benefits of ceo coaching

How to Optimize the Benefits of Coaching

There are a variety of reasons why CEOs use a coach. Some turn to coaches for sound advice in solving common issues that face their company. A few others use a coach to help develop a smart and well-planned strategy for their business’s long term success. 

The best way you can optimize the benefits of coaching is to identify what you want to achieve first. This will help you both achieve accountability with every coaching session, so you can achieve your strategic goals. 

CEO coaching is a win-win situation for your business. It helps business leaders learn new skills and a new perspective on how to handle common business responsibilities. In the end, it is a good investment to allow your business to flourish because a company (or team) is only as good as its leader inspires them to be.

In fact, the most successful CEOs are the ones who are diligent, open to learning new things, and constantly seeking growth and development. 

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Coaching People Development

Trust in the Workplace: 6 Steps to Building Trust with Employees

Trust in the Workplace: 6 Steps to Building Trust with Employees

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steps to build trust in the workplace

The Importance of Building Trust in the Workplace

Trust is the core foundation of any relationship, be it social or professional. Trust in the work setting is vital for the organization’s culture and success. Without it, people will easily feel disengaged and discouraged, and this could mean disaster for any organization. With that said, building trust in the workplace means bringing a culture of honesty, respect, and a sense of psychological security for everyone. It helps people, regardless of their position in the company, feel safe and happy about their roles in the organization. 

However, trustworthiness does not happen overnight. Rather, it’s a long and continuous process that needs everyone to be involved. As a leader, it is your job to cultivate this kind of culture in your workplace, from all levels and across all departments. But how do you do this?

importance of building trust in the workplace

Tips for Building Trust in the Workplace

Here are some key points you need for building trust in the workplace. 

Listen More Than You Speak

Understand that each employee is a unique individual who has his own idea and opinion. They have their own expertise and experience that they bring to the table. 

When communicating, listen actively to what they have to say. This shows you are fully connected and interested in understanding their situation or opinion before reacting or answering. Active listening will leave you with a happier relationship with everyone in the workplace. 

Thus, it is important that you instill this trait to each member of your company.

You can improve your communication skills by engaging in active listening training. This includes making a deliberate effort to ask each member of your team to speak their mind and encourage them to elaborate on what they have to say. Listen to both positive and negative feedback, and show them you are open to their feedback whether you agree with them or not. 

Empower your team with trust

This may sound like a no-brainer, but many managers fail to take this first step. Showing your employees that you trust them is a huge deal – pretty empowering. And in most cases, they will reciprocate it.

You can do this by giving them autonomy on tasks and projects that you have given them. 

You can also give them extra responsibilities. 

Also, you can encourage growth through professional development. One good example of this is to invite them to be part of important meetings that they wouldn’t normally attend. Say for instance you need help in your marketing and sales plans. It would be wise to take a sales rep with on-the-ground experience to the meeting and ask him/her for his insights. This person will remember your gesture and you may benefit from their experience. 

Cultivate accountability

If your team often suffers from poor work quality, missed deadlines, repetitive errors, and lack of trust, then that is a sign of accountability problems within the team. 

Remember that there will be no top-class management without accountability. Thus, the success of your team and the trust within each member of the team depends on the leaders being accountable for themselves and cultivating accountability with the team. 

Remember, trust is earned not given. Thus, building trust in the workplace means leaders must acknowledge their shortcomings as well. This will encourage employees to follow your lead. Walk the talk. 

Inspire with authentic leadership

A boss manages employees and tells them what to do. A leader, on the other hand, teaches employees why and how to do things, inspires, trusts, and values employees. Do not be a boss. Be a leader. 

Authentic leadership cultivates trust and improves employees’ performance and engagement. A good way to lead your employees is to coach them. This means providing training, encouragement and support, especially when they are struggling. Offer words of appreciation on a daily basis too, especially for those who are excelling at their jobs. 

Provide balanced autonomy

Surely, you do not want to be controlled or told what to do at every step of the way in your assigned tasks or responsibilities. Neither do your employees.

Rather than commanding your employees and telling them what to do and when to do it, allow your employees to be at their best by giving them autonomy.

Do not micromanage. After all, you (or your HR department) have hired these individuals for what they can bring to the table. Thus, trust them. Grant them a sense of ownership; give them tools, resources, and boundaries to work with. Encourage them to work with each other and make sure everyone is on the same page. And when they make a mistake, stay calm and tackle the situation head on, help them solve the problem. 

Establish an inclusive and welcoming culture

Your team is a collection of people from different walks of life; different cultures, traits, personalities, and viewpoints. Use this diversity to your advantage by accepting these different values and strengths. 

Create a company culture that welcomes everyone. You can pursue activities and initiatives that create a positive and welcoming workplace for different cultures that will benefit everybody. 

More importantly, establish a company culture that reflects appreciation, respect, and teamwork. Bring them together and give everyone an opportunity to connect with their co-workers. 

Tackle issues that concern your employees, especially issues that are important to them and give them a chance to be heard. For example, you have members of the LGBTQ+ community in your company. Make sure you provide them a safe space to work and give them equal opportunities to grow and develop their careers. 

Likewise, welcome new hires graciously. As a manager, you play a huge role in your company’s hiring process which is vital for boosting the organization’s employee retention. Small gestures like taking them out for a cup of coffee or lunch can help you establish a rapport, which is crucial for building trust in the workplace right from the start. 

tips building trust in the workplace

The Bottom Line

The more you actively work on building trust in the workplace, the more cohesive your workforce will become as a unit. With the right leadership, encouragement, and tools, you will soon have your dream team of people who trust each other and love working with each other. 

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Organizational Development

Why Leadership Must Empower Team Members and How to Do It

Why Leadership Must Empower Team Members and How to Do It

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how leaders empower team members

Bosses and leaders may have many similarities, but they are quite different from each other. Though every leader can be a boss, not every boss can be a leader. So what separates leaders from bosses? Easy: it’s their leadership style. A boss manages, delegates, and expects results. A leader, on the other hand, innovates, inspires, teaches, and is committed to empowering team members. 

The idea of empowering team members in businesses and organizations is nothing new. However, many fail to do it for different reasons. In most cases, it is because the organization is led by a boss, not a leader. 

Leadership through empowering team members

Empowering your team means giving them the permission to make decisions on their own and take actions within the organization. Sounds easy, but it takes a lot of work as this means establishing trust and understanding in line with the organizations’ values and goals. 

You can learn a lot about leadership through empowerment from the military. The US Army for example, defines leadership through empowerment as “influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation.” Retired naval officer, podcaster, and American author Jocko Willink said “A leader must lead, but also be ready to follow. They must be aggressive, but not overbearing. Calm, but not robotic. Confident, but not cocky.” 

True growth of a business or company comes from the result of multiple people working together for the same goal. And that requires empowerment of each and every member of the team. 

In his article in The Globe and Mail, Andrew Atkins said, “Companies with high levels of trust and empowerment are more than 2.5 times more likely to be revenue leaders in their industries than others.” 

But how do you empower team members?

Empowering team members is a culture

Building an empowerment culture is no easy task. It requires thoughtful and proactive leadership, open communication and trust among each member of the organization, appropriate infrastructure of mechanism and accountability, stout and continuing member engagement.

Here are some steps and strategies on how to build the culture of empowerment in your organization:

Develop by delegating

While it is easy to delegate tasks among your team members, people often fail to use it as an opportunity to empower and strengthen the team. Rather than just giving away to-do lists, delegate tasks with the intention of developing and cultivating your members’ capabilities, skills, and responsibilities. 

Delegating tasks, especially for big and important projects, gives your team a good sense of value within your organization. Take note of your high-performing members and assign them with big tasks that you think will challenge them and bring out the best out of them. Make them leaders on these tasks. This gives them an opportunity to shine and eases your workload.

Show them that you trust them by giving them authority without checking back on them for every detail.

Give your team autonomy over their tasks

Different folks, different strokes. This means each individual has his own way of doing and finishing things. Your way may be different from their ways, but that doesn’t mean yours is any better. 

When you delegate tasks, you should also hand over control. Refrain from micromanaging your team and understand that your way is not the only way to get things done. 

Set expectations clearly

Outline the boundaries where your team is free to act. Set your expectations clearly (of course, without micromanaging) and give your team the freedom and responsibility to make decisions that are in line with the company’s goals. 

steps to empowering team members

Provide all essential and helpful resources

You cannot expect your problems to magically go away, or things to automatically sort themselves out, by simply letting your employees work on them without giving them all the necessary resources. Provide tools and ideas that you believe are necessary to get things done. 

Give positive feedback, criticize constructively

A good leader recognizes the good deeds of his or her employee. This is extremely important, especially when someone takes a leadership role and is successful. 

Similarly, be specific on the feedback you deliver. Simply telling them “great job” doesn’t steer them in the right direction on what to do in the future. Guide your employee to help them find the right solutions; point out the good and bad, and provide alternatives that you believe could improve their performance. 

Mentor your team

Do not just teach your team members to do what you think is right, or tell them the steps to quickly complete the tasks. Empowering team members require coaching and mentoring.

Coaching and mentoring is extremely important for a positive work environment. It brings the best out of people.

Mentoring means working with them to make good decisions; this comes after you help them develop their skills and solve problems. 

Build real and authentic connections with your employees, practice humility, and use humor to make them feel at ease. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, and help them improve on areas they need to work on. 

Similarly, assign tasks that you know could optimize each team member’s capabilities. This will help them feel valuable and competent. 

Make sure you explain clearly why you assign them certain tasks and let them know you believe in their capabilities.

Encourage open communication

When communicating your ideas and goals about certain projects, make sure you hear what your team member has to say as well. Make sure they feel comfortable in expressing their ideas and thoughts. Encourage them to brainstorm and think outside the box. Similarly, commend them for their feedback and opinions. 

strategies to empower team members

Be open to other ideas 

Include your team in decision-making and goal-setting processes whenever possible. Getting them involved in the preliminary process is a good way to empower team members. Be open to hearing their input and ideas. This can open your organization to new ideas that could catapult your way to more success. 

Recognize their hard work

Make sure you always show appreciation for each of your team member’s hard work, especially if they do a good job. If possible, reward their success through incentives or bonuses, especially if they go above and beyond to complete the assigned task. This will further encourage your team to continue being innovative and taking actions. 

Having a good empowerment culture in your organization is a win-win for you and your team. While you can certainly achieve certain things with direct management – sustainable growth and continued success comes from empowered team members.

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Career Transition, Outplacement and Mobility

Why the Value of Outplacement is Always Higher than Cash

Why the Value of Outplacement is Always Higher than Cash

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If your organization is debating between offering cash or career transition support to impacted employees, here are some important things you should know before making a final decision.

Cash or career transition? This could be one of the most important decisions your organization makes over the next 12 months.

Let’s face it, it’s going to be a tough year for many companies. Last year, a mix of resilience and government support programs helped a lot of employers stay afloat and in the process, kept many individuals on the payroll who might otherwise have been laid off.

Although it’s not clear when those supports will disappear, it looks more and more likely that even with COVID-19 vaccines being administered, new outbreaks and new variants of the virus will take a toll on the global economy and push employers ever close to reducing headcounts.

Those conditions will bring many organizations to the precipice of the question posed above: if your organization has to manage a downsizing, will you give them the opportunity to work with a career transition firm or offer them a cash payment and let them face joblessness on their own?

However, for mid-market companies to get full value from an investment in outplacement, there are some common mistakes that must be avoided.

We’re not talking about severance, which exists in addition to career transition support for many individuals in transition. This is a scenario where an employer offers a choice between career transition support or a cash payment instead of CT. In some instances, employers have stopped offering career transition and go straight to an additional cash payment, which means employees never get to find out the benefits of working with a CT firm.

Both options are the hallmarks of caring organizations that want to give their people the best possible chances of finding another job. But increasingly, we’re seeing that the two options are simply not created equal.

If your organization is weighing these two options, here are some important things you should know before making a final decision.

Career transition is a GPS for displaced individuals

Career transition has always served as a trusted partner to help displaced individuals navigate the sometimes opaque paths to new and better jobs. That has never been truer than now. With so many people displaced by the pandemic and so many companies in flux, it is harder than ever to find the best job openings and develop the strategies to land them. Like a GPS, career transition can help your displaced individuals plot the quickest route from their old job to a new and possibly better job.

Finding a new job is a skill unto itself

Although some people are naturals when it comes to searching for a new job, for others, it is a strange and awkward experience. Some of the people being displaced right now may not have had to apply for a job in years. Career transition not only supports the development of basic job-search skills, but it is also a master class in strategies to help displaced individuals cut through the clutter of online job boards and get to the front of the line for the best available jobs. Finding a new job today is a huge task; a proactive career transition firm can help individuals connect to job openings, many of which never make it to the online job boards. In this very difficult and complex job market, CT is the right tool for the job.

Speed is of the essence

Career transition is the quickest path to a new job. It has long been known in the career transition industry that the longer someone is out of work, the harder it gets to find that next new and better job. Career transition consistently helps its candidates get jobs faster – up to 65 percent faster than those who try to find a new job on their own.

Career transition is a gateway to a broad range of career development strategies

There was a time when Career transition was focused on learning resumé writing and interviewing techniques. Now, however, that simple and traditional approach is gone. Career transition is now shorthand for reskilling, upskilling, and redeployment opportunities. Laid-off individuals are given an opportunity to re-imagine their careers, and career transition helps them identify the best strategies to realize their career dreams.

Cash does not protect the employer brand as much as career transition

One of the reasons why an employer offers support to displaced individuals is to protect their brand as a top employer. If you treat your people badly in a downsizing, it can prompt top talent to leave your organization and may make it harder to recruit top talent in the future. Research shows that best-in-class companies are 2.5 times more likely to use career transition. They know the warm feeling that comes with a cash payment fades quickly once displaced individuals realize the job of finding their next job is much bigger and more complex than first thought.

The lure of the cash payment will no doubt endure, particularly in a labor market where so many organizations are under pressure to cut costs and reduce headcounts. But if the goal of a cash payment is to truly help a displaced worker land on their feet at a job that is as good or better than the one they just lost, then the choice is pretty clear.

Career transition is a win-win for both organization and individual. And right now, as we continue to chart an uncertain path into the future, everyone could use a little win-win.

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Career Transition, Outplacement and Mobility

Four Mistakes Companies Make During Layoffs

Four Mistakes Companies Make During Layoffs

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Optimising The Value of Outplacement

So-called mid-market organizations can benefit just as much from outplacement as big organizations. In some instances, the rewards are even greater. Here are four mistakes you want to avoid during layoffs.

There are a lot of smaller and medium-sized companies who think that outplacement support is a luxury only used by the biggest companies. That is a dangerous myth.

So-called mid-market organizations can benefit just as much from outplacement as the big organizations. In some instances, the rewards are even greater.

Outplacement is a service offered to employees who have lost or will be losing their jobs, to help them find new employment as quickly as possible. This could can include a new role in the same or a different industry, retraining, retiring, or starting a business. Outplacement services include career coaching, resume writing, interview preparation, skill development, referrals to hiring managers, and targeted job leads. 

However, for mid-market companies to get full value from an investment in outplacement, there are some common mistakes that must be avoided.

Mistake 1 – Only offering outplacement support to the senior-most employees.

Almost everyone who involuntarily lose their jobs experience feelings of insecurity and anxiety, regardless of their position in the organization. Even so, many mid-market organizations tend to offer career transition to only their senior-most executives. In reality, career transition can help employees at all levels in the organization acquire the confidence and skills needed to map out a future career path. Remember that your brand as an employer can be damaged just as much by a badly managed layoff involving mid to lower-level employees as it can be with a senior executive.

Mistake 2 – Assuming that employees who have gone through career transition services previously do not need support when they experience another job loss.

Regardless of whether it is the first time an employee has involuntarily lost their job or the fifth time, it can be a jarring, life-changing experience. Combine that with a rapidly changing job market and shifting personal goals, and it’s pretty clear that your employees need outplacement support each and every time they are laid off. This is particularly important in mid-market companies, which may view employees who have been through career transition before as more independent, and thus less likely to need additional support. Every job loss is a challenge and requires focused support.

Mistake 3 – Not consider the needs of the “survivors.”

It is very common for those employees remaining to be as profoundly impacted as those individuals whose roles are made redundant through organizational restructures. These ’survivors’ suffer a wide range of emotions such as relief, guilt, envy and resentment.

In addition, survivors can feel insecure, demotivated and anxious – all of which have a big impact on performance, sickness absence and accountability.

Good outplacement providers can offer programs that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of organizations to help the “onlookers” of change effectively deal with the business and personal impacts and improve their resilience.

Mistake 4 – Not seeing the bigger picture.

In times of economic turmoil, all layoffs have a big impact on society as a whole. The fewer people working, or struggling to find good jobs, the more likely it is that economic growth will suffer. And it doesn’t matter whether the layoffs are coming from huge, multinational organizations, or a mid-market company with 500 employees. When times are tough, every single additional person who is left in employment limbo creates a burden for society. That’s why providing outplacement support to everyone – regardless of the size of company they are leaving – is so important.

Conclusion

Remember that outplacement support is tailored to meet the needs of the individual in transition, no the size of the organization they used to work for. Everyone who suffers an involuntary job loss not only needs professional support, they deserve every chance possible to find another job, as quicky as possible.

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Coaching People Development

Localizing Your Leadership Team

Localizing Your Leadership Team

By Gary Malcolm, Managing Partner of LHH and an accredited Executive Coach

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Localizing The Leadership Team

In my capacity as an Executive Coach, a common challenge that I have heard from international companies in Vietnam is how to successfully localize, “promote from within”, and onboard newly promoted executives into the leadership team. Having supported these new executives over the years, I have seen three common themes emerge around challenges they face with the leadership transition.

Adopting a Two Team Mindset

All individuals that have been identified to be a leadership team member have a fairly ‘cookie-cutter’ recipe for success: be technically excellent at what they do, achieve exceptional performance leading a business unit, and be recognized by the organization as having the qualities and potential for executive leadership.

However, a common misconception is that this winning recipe will also equate to success in the leadership team. Partway into the new role, they default to a focus on their own performance and the success of their business unit to the detriment of the leadership team. What they often fail to appreciate is they are now a member of a new team, and their contribution, perceived value-add and collective success of the leadership team are now of equal.

When I work with an executive, I call this “Adopting a Two Team Mindset“. To be effective, the new executive member must accept they are a member of two equally important teams that are both competing for their time and effort. The imperative is the executive has a shift in mindset, finds the correct time/effort balance, and is conscious of when they slip back into old behavior.

Politics Is Not For Me

Another theme that I have observed from coaching fresh executives is a reluctance to be involved in organizational politics. They typically describe it as a bad practice, or against their values and beliefs, or that it feels inauthentic and manipulative. As such, they adopt an avoidance approach.

Unfortunately, every company has internal politics. As a CEO eloquently put it to me: “It’s just a form of soft influence or an alternative way of getting things done. It is not necessarily a negative, but it’s a necessary part of doing business.”

To be effective, an executive must accept that “playing politics” is a necessary part of being a leadership team member. Therefore, it’s important the executive practices “good” politics which enables them to further their individual and team’s interests appropriately. It’s not always a negative and it is possible to further a cause without compromising values and beliefs.

Am I In, or Part-Way In?

The third and most frequent theme is how organizations onboard locally promoted executives into the leadership team. Typically, it takes the form of ‘part membership’ through attending (some) team meetings, a slightly larger scope of responsibility, or being asked to lead an organization-wide project. It is done under the notion that the executive needs to prove themselves or earn their place.

Often I observe that the executive is not given full access to all information to be able to contribute equally or the decision-making authority to get things done. They are expected to perform at the same level as their peers, yet without the tools and resources to be successful. As a result, they are often on a path to failure.

In this case, I work with executives to have meaningful discussions with their boss on defining their roles, responsibilities and reporting lines, barriers resulting from ‘part membership with the aim of gaining clarity around their pathway to full leadership team membership.

Whilst the above three themes are not an exhaustive list of the challenges facing new leadership team members, they are common barriers to success that are easily overcome.

About Gary Malcolm

Gary is the Managing Partner of LHH Vietnam, and an ICF-PCC accredited Executive Coach.

In his role at LHH, Gary is helping to reshape the Coaching, Career Transition, and Assessment markets in Vietnam; through education and the implementation of best practice and international standards.

Gary’s clients are senior leaders and executives at Global 1,000 companies. He helps them navigate Workforce Transformations – both managing the “pain” of restructures, whilst focusing on the “gain” of developing the organization’s people.

A market leader for the last 20 years, LHH’s services include Career Transition & Outplacement, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Workforce Advisory, and Change Management. We are powered by LHH Global’s 385 offices in 64 countries, and our clients are the most recognized brands in Vietnam and all of Southeast Asia.

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Coaching People Development

Why Coaching Works

Why Coaching Works

Why coaching? – It’s good for people, and good for business. It gives you all the benefits of corporate training – except people actually enjoy it and learn from it.

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the value of coaching

Imagine what your organization could achieve if everyone were coached to be their absolute best. – Sure, there are other ways to invest in your people. But have they ever brought someone to tears through self-reflection? Doubt it. Through coaching, your people get to know themselves. Their goals. Weaknesses. Hang-ups. And once they know all that, they can build on the good stuff and work on the rest.

Coaches change lives. And organizations. That’s why we’re here.

The Value Of Coaching

A Business Superpower For Everyone

Why not away days? Bigger bonuses? More vacation time? Those are fine. But they’re not tailored to each person. And they don’t have the same tangible impact.

Coaching is good for people, and good for business. It gives you all the benefits of corporate training – except people actually enjoy it and learn from it.

The personal power of coaching

According to the International Coach Federation (ICF), 99% of people who get coaching are satisfied with it, and 96% would recommend it to others.

Why? Unlike other benefits or training, coaching’s personal. It’s about your people, not the company agenda or corporate tick boxes. Sessions can touch on mindsets, beliefs, internal barriers, self-doubt, perspectives, work issues, home issues – whatever the coachee needs.

They feel more confident. They know what to do in tricky situations. They become better leaders. If that doesn’t sound like the model employee, we don’t know what does.

What’s in it for your organization?

It’s like supercharging your workforce.

Coaching makes them happier, so they’re more likely to stay. It makes them more confident, so they can tackle whatever they face. And it creates a culture of learning, so the coaching goes on outside the sessions.

We’ll show you the proof, too.

Coaching sessions are always confidential. But we’ll send you a monthly report outlining everyone’s feedback. And you can see data on how people are getting on with their objectives too.

All of which means you don’t have to take our word for any of this – you’ll be able to see the progress for yourself.

What is Coaching?

A quick intro to professional coaching

Professional coaching has definitely seen an upswing in recent years as companies grow larger and jobs become more complicated. But what exactly is it, and why might you need it for your team?

What actually is it?

The International Coaching Federation describes coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

This means that a coach works with a client to define their professional goals and encourage self-discovery, and assists them in designing a plan that holds them accountable for making changes.

A growing demand

The stats alone show that the demand for professional coaching is constantly growing. Rapid changes in the way we work and our business environments has meant traditional methods of developing our companies and staff no longer yield the same results that they used to. As the landscape changes, it becomes a constant battle for employees to stay on top of their shifting responsibilities and goals.

In order to combat this, companies have to start committing themselves to developing their staff and encouraging their growth. Hiring a professional who can be trusted and who knows what needs doing is the obvious answer.

Why Get Coaching?

Why bother with coaching in your business?

The results from coaching will vary from person to person but, whatever your end goal is, it provides a perfect opportunity for both personal and professional development for your team.

Improvements across the board

According to the Harvard Business Review, ten years ago coaching was mostly used to fix toxic behavior. Nowadays it’s used for all manner of reasons across whole companies, not just at the top.

Whether it’s developing high-potential staff, helping to facilitate transitions, or encouraging someone in a new role, coaching is a way of supporting your team and promoting a positive environment.

Results for the long-term

It used to be that staff would be sent on short-term improvement courses, but this often only promotes a short-term change. In order to see long-term development, managers and leaders need to consider an approach that works to change internal thought processes and patterns. That’s where coaching can help.

As coaching grows, more studies are undertaken and the takeaway from them is that you can expect to see a marked improvement in your team’s positivity and productivity, their confidence and their ability to adapt and be flexible, and their attitude when it comes to facing challenges or obstacles.

Source: Ezra

Categories
Career Transition, Outplacement and Mobility Coaching People Development

Reskilling the C-Suite: Leading into the Future

Reskilling the C-Suite: Leading into the Future

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C-suite executives are not being asked to personally match the reskilling demands that are being placed on other levels of the leadership hierarchy. There are some very basic things senior business leaders can do to ensure you are transforming yourself at the same pace and magnitude as you are trying to change your organizations.

I have always considered myself digitally literate.

I’m comfortable using all my tech devices and know my way around social media. In my position at LHH, I have regular and informed conversations with other senior leaders about things like artificial intelligence, machine learning and the blockchain.

So, when I agreed to take a digital literacy self-assessment a couple of years ago, I wasn’t all that worried about the outcome.

Turns out I should have been at least a little concerned.

The self-assessment is part of a foundational digital literacy course for executives offered by General Assembly, a sister enterprise to LHH in the Adecco Group. To my great surprise, I found out that there were several areas of digital knowledge where I just didn’t know as much as I should have.

That’s a tough realization for any executive leader. How could I be lacking in skills and knowledge that are so essential for success in the current business environment? That question strikes deep at the heart of a much bigger issue: the collective failure of executive leaders to engage their organization in reskilling and upskilling.

Unless you have starved yourself of all business news, you’ll know that the world is facing an enormous skills mismatch that could possibly leave tens of millions of working people around the world out of a job. Too many people are trained to fill jobs that are quickly disappearing; too few have the training and skills to fill the jobs of the future.

None of us can say we haven’t been warned.

From Oxford University and MIT, to the World Economic Forum to McKinsey, Gartner and PwC, the world’s leading strategic business thinkers, consultants and researchers have been warning us for years now that technology and the demands of macro forces like climate change are going to make many jobs completely disappear. Without urgent and focused investment on reskilling, there are going to be millions of people unable to earn a basic living.

And yet, in our client conversations and through all the available data we see at LHH, it’s quite clear that we’re not taking the action needed to address this urgent problem.

A recent survey by LHH of more than 2,000 hiring decision-makers from around the world found that less than half (47 percent) believe their organizations are trying to identify their employees’ transferrable skills so that they can be reskilled to fill future job openings. And only one-third are confident in their organization’s ability to deliver reskilling and upskilling programs

No matter how you cut it, those responses prove that we are just not meeting this challenge head-on.

So, why are the senior-most leaders failing in the face of the greatest human capital challenge in many generations? After considering all the possibilities and talking at length with leaders all over the world, I’ve come to believe that business executives fail to provide reskilling for their people because many of them are in desperate need of reskilling.

Many years ago, earning money as a student, I worked on an IT help desk that, on many occasions, required me to attend to the offices of C-level executives to help them with computer problems. Although some of these problems involved legitimate failures of hardware or software, in many other instances it was a case of executives not possessing even the most elementary knowledge of how to operate and utilize their technology devices.

Given that technology has a much larger role in all our lives today, the problem is just as bad, or maybe even worse now than back then.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review noted that while survey data is showing that the pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation at most large companies, C-suite executives were not being asked to personally match the demands that were being placed on other levels of the leadership hierarchy.

The authors of that article analyzed job postings for C-suite positions across a broad swath of Fortune 1000 companies. The study found that while digital skills were very much table stakes for chief information and marketing officers, only 60 percent of postings for CEOs and 40 percent of advertised jobs for presidents included digital skill requirements.

This data is a pretty graphic example of the disconnect many executives have to the reskilling equation. We all understand reskilling is a key to transitioning people out of redundant jobs into more sustainable jobs in the digital economy. But many of us just don’t know how to make that happen because our own skillsets are lacking and the people around us are loath to tell us how far behind we’ve fallen.

Fortunately, there are solutions we can employ. In short, it’s time for executive leaders to start changing the way we approach our jobs. It’s not just the pressing need to acquire more and better digital skills; we need to start building cultures where the people around us can provide us with honest feedback, so we know where we need to do better.

When you’re at the very top of an organization, it’s unlikely that someone else is going to tell you that you need to up your game. You must find the motivation within yourself to identify those areas where you need to upskill or even reskill. There are some very basic things you can do to ensure you are transforming yourself at the same pace and magnitude as you are trying to change your organizations.

Get out of the echo chamber. One of the biggest problems that C-Suite leaders have is that if they get any feedback – and many do not – it’s not honest or frank. The hierarchies in many companies ensure that the senior-most leaders are never in a position where their performance is being critiqued. As C-suite leaders, we should seek that kind of feedback and be willing to act on what we hear.

Get a coach. I remind C-suite leaders who eschew coaching that all the best elite athletes in the world, both in team and individual sports, rely on coaches to help them perfect their technique and fortify their mindset. Coaching helps us confront and reflect on our shortcomings and focus on corrective courses.

Use a coaching mindset when leading others. One of the greatest parts of having a relationship with a coach is that it will teach you how to use a coaching mindset to get more out of the people you lead. A coaching mindset ensures that you do as much listening as talking, and that you inspire others by showing your confidence in them. A coaching mindset, or a reverse-mentoring approach to leadership, not only helps you embrace your own skill deficit, but it will help you start conversations with other members of the executive team who might suffer from the same problem.

Future-proof your own skills to help guide your organization. Even though you’ve reached the C-suite, you still have a lot to learn. If you want to build an organization that embraces change and welcomes reskilling, demonstrate that you embrace it in your own job. Take a digital literacy course, register for some Harvard short courses, make sure you are constantly reading books and news to keep up on what’s going on in the world. Show the people you lead that continuous improvement through learning is baked into the culture of the organization at the highest levels.

There is no escaping the pressing need to reskill and upskill to meet the future of work head on. Change is coming. And business leaders must demonstrate that they are adapting to the seismic transformations that are unfolding today and those that are unknown to us now but which we will face soon.

If you want your organization to follow you fearlessly into that future, you need to not only tell them what they need to do, you need to show them you can take your own advice. Only then will you be able to find yourself on the right side of the upskilling challenge.

digital transformation

“The overwhelming response from employees is the positivity in feeling rather than outcomes being dictated to them they have more control of their own destiny,” he says.

This article was originally published in C-Level Magazine on May 13, 2021.

To learn more about developing a renewable workforce, visit https://lhh.com.vn/the-new-roi/

Categories
Coaching People Development

EQ: The Great White Whale of Leadership Development

EQ: The Great White Whale of Leadership Development

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EQ: The Great White Whale of Leadership Development

In a new survey of 500 people managers, a solid majority of respondents (57%) said that EQ was likely to be found in the highest-performing members of a team.

Author: Burak Koyuncu

It is the great white whale of leadership development.

Leaders who are not only technically proficient but also mature, empathetic and trustworthy. Leaders who are decisive but also listen to their teams before reaching a conclusion. Leaders who are attuned to the emotional state of their teams and demonstrate confidence to inspire others rather than to feed their self-aggrandizement.

Put it all together and you have a leader who embodies what people managers would describe as a high degree of emotional intelligence. However, while most organizations value these qualities, new research suggests that we regularly fail at identifying or cultivating emotional intelligence, more commonly known as an Emotional Quotient (EQ).

In a recent Lee Hecht Harrison Penna survey of 500 people managers, a solid majority of respondents (57%) said that EQ was likely to be found in the highest-performing members of a team. Not surprisingly, 75% of respondents use EQ to determine promotions and salary increases.

However, the same survey revealed more than two-thirds of organizations (68%) do not have any formal tools in place to identify, develop or leverage EQ. Further, only 42% provide specific training to help employees cultivate emotional intelligence. 

A Deeper Understanding of Emotional Intelligence

To understand the impact that EQ can have on the performance of an organization, we need to take a deeper dive into the qualities most often associated with emotionally intelligent leaders and the consequences that a low EQ can have on an organization.

We asked survey respondents to identify the qualities they associate with leaders who are emotionally intelligent. For example, more than half of our respondents identified empathy as a quality demonstrated by a leader with high EQ. The responses to our survey show very clearly that what have traditionally been described as “soft leadership skills” are in fact the key ingredients for EQ.

These qualities are not only growing exponentially in importance for existing leaders, they are also being used increasingly to guide recruitment and promotion decisions.

In fact, some survey respondents identified EQ skills as more important than experience in a similar role (13%) and educational attainment (11%), which have typically been considered precursors for leadership success.

Our respondents also connected higher levels of emotional intelligence with success in a series of critical tasks and responsibilities, particularly in the area of decision making.

People with higher EQ tend to be better able to assess the impact of their decisions on both customers and employees. It allows them to arrive at more balanced decisions that take into account all perspectives. That helps build support for decisions. People with low EQ might focus on purely numerical or non-human aspects of a challenge and will almost certainly ignore competing or alternative perspectives. 

Survey respondents also believed EQ is a key ingredient to success in leading teams through times of change (44%), addressing personal issues of employees (37%), giving feedback or employee appraisals (31%) and spotting talent (25%). Someone with a high EQ is much more likely to spot others with the same mindset and capabilities; low EQ hiring managers tend to either not recognize or devalue skills related to emotional intelligence.

This shifting mindset—and the growing recognition of the importance of high leadership EQ—may have a lot to do with the increasing awareness about what happens when leaders do not possess emotional intelligence.

When there is a lack of empathy, self-awareness or trustworthiness, employees can easily become disengaged from their employer and, more importantly, their customers.

Our research showed clearly that even when an organization recognizes the value of EQ, it may still have no idea about how to develop and harness its power. There are, however, several critical steps an organization can take to improve their overall EQ.

Assess and measure existing EQ

There are several assessment tools that can help organizations successfully measure the EQ landscape in their workforce. If an assessment reveals that a majority of leaders in one department score low in “empathy,” the company can intervene to educate those individuals in the importance of considering other perspectives when executing their duties. An organization cannot intervene, however, if it doesn’t know which departments have an EQ deficit or what specific qualities are lacking.

Integrate EQ into management practices

Learning programs can help bring awareness to the importance of EQ. However, companies can also integrate EQ into their leadership culture by taking steps to build a culture of coaching, where reflection, listening and collaboration are emphasized over quick judgment or imposing solutions. 

Related Article: There Isn’t a Better Time to Build a True Coaching Culture

Encourage leaders to learn from other leaders

Creating opportunities for leaders to gather and discuss their experiences can help develop EQ muscle memory. When leaders see the value of connecting with each other on a more personal or individual level, they should begin to see the value of using a similar approach with their own teams.

Create time for reflection

Sometimes, deadline and workflow demands make it hard for teams and leaders to just take a break and reflect on what they are doing and how they are doing it. It’s important to build in those pauses so that team members can discuss successes and struggles or failures. Creating those opportunities to reflect not only builds EQ, it also ensures people are not bottling up feelings of frustration or resentment. 

Build a pipeline

It is harder to cultivate EQ with existing leaders than it is to recruit new leaders who already possess high emotional intelligence. Consider incorporating EQ identifiers into recruitment tools like job descriptions and interview scoring sheets. There are also some psychometrics available in the market to identify individuals’ EQ values.

In the final analysis, EQ is about employees being more self-aware of their emotions and the emotions of the people they lead. It’s not an easy mindset to develop, but the payoff is well worth the effort. Leaders with strong EQ create an environment of trust and confidence that fosters strong teamwork and higher levels of performance. 

Source: lhh.com

Categories
Organizational Development Workforce Transformations

Employers Still Facing Challenges in Future-Proofing Their Workforces

Employers Still Facing Challenges in Future-Proofing Their Workforces

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Employers still facing challenges in future proofing their workforces

NEW YORK, NY  May 12, 2021 – Despite facing unprecedented challenges in sourcing skilled labor, only slightly more than half of the employers around the world are embracing leading-edge talent strategies like reskilling, upskilling, and redeployment to future proof their workforces, according to a new global survey of hiring managers and executives from LHH, the world’s leading talent development and career solutions company.

The survey of 2,100 HR decision-makers in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia found that only 56% of all organizations are actively working to future proof their talent pipelines. However, within that figure, there is evidence that organizations are struggling with the key components of a future-looking HR strategy.

The survey also found that less than half (47.2%) of organizations are focusing their attention on the transferrable skills of existing employees to fill future job openings, a critical component for the redeployment of talent.

As well, just less than 40 percent (38.6%) of HR decision-makers who do not currently participate in reskilling or upskilling programs, say that they simply have not considered them (38.6%). In addition, only 33.5% of all respondents are extremely confident in their organization’s ability to effectively launch and manage reskilling and upskilling programs.

John Morgan, newly appointed president of LHH, said it is not surprising that some companies are struggling with the challenge of future-proofing their talent pipelines, given that they are facing an unprecedented array of economic, environmental, and social forces that have disrupted traditional workforce management.

In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and increasing demands for diversity, companies must still contend with the profound impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Morgan said. The World Economic Forum has predicted that as many as 85 million people could be displaced from current jobs by advances in AI.

“Identifying transferable skills and investments in reskilling and upskilling strategies are, simply put, the most effective ways of meeting future talent needs. In the past, companies could fire people with outmoded skills and then go out and hire new people with new skills to fill the jobs of the future. With the global skills shortage, that is no longer even remotely possible.”

John Morgan, President of LHH

Investing in reskilling and upskilling is also very timely given that countries around the world – including the United States and those in the European Union – are pouring trillions of dollars into stimulus programs to help workers escape dying industrial sectors and move into jobs that are matched to future skills needs, Morgan added.

Source: lhh.com

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