Coach John G. Agno is your own cultural attache; keeping you abreast of what's effective in leadership. People learn better and are positively motivated when supported by regular coaching.
PERSONAL COACHING Leadership onboarding coaching helps the executive adapt to the employer's culture, create rapport with their team and develop productive ways to achieve necessary goals.
SELF ASSESSMENT CENTER Leadership skills and style testing. Know how you motivate and coach people to gain success at work and in life.
WHAT IS LEADERSHIP? Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.
LEADERSHIP TIPS “The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)
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When we come to know and accept ourselves, we become free to accept others and appreciate how they complement us.
Whether you are looking for a job promotion, seeking peace within your team, or looking to improve relationships, we can all benefit from learning more about what drives and energizes us. Finding common ground among an office or different personalities can sometimes be difficult or even detrimental to a career or an organization.
What if discovering what motivates you and others, you can begin to identify and eliminate what doesn't? In "The Birkman Method: Your Personality at Work" by Sharon Birkman Fink and Stephanie Capparell defines a critical workplace assessment that has given millions of business professionals the awareness tools they need to reach a higher level of performance.
The Birkman self-assessment goes beyond behavior to give insight as to why certain things will satisfy or stress you. It is built on the foundation that once you discover your own personality and interests, you can better understand others, resulting in a more fulfilling work environment.
Each person who buys the book, will be able to complete a full Birkman questionnaire and receive his or her own personal "life style gird" with an easy-to-understand summary of key Birkman scores, which are more thoroughly described in the book. The book then helps you understand your results and personal report.
SAP (Systems-Applications-Programs) AG, a global provider of business software, has implemented coaching programs based on effective personal development accomplishing business goals while meeting the challenges of the coachee's professional role in an optimal way. SAP leadership has been following these prevailing coaching issues from:
After six years, the "leader as coach" pool in Germany comprises more than 70 internal part-time coaches (i.e. coaches who work as a coach besides their main role/activity) coming from all levels of hierarchy and functions.
The return on investment (ROI) of coaching can be enormous, especially in the context of project management. The following feedback may illustrate this point: "Coaching helped us prevent a potential project loss of at least Euros 100,000, because an excellent project lead found a way to manage tremendous task overload for almost a year."
A growing body of evidence shows that the ability to be smarter with ones feelings is tied to improved leadership, effectiveness, relationships, decision-making health and well-being; all of which help higher emotional intelligence (EQ) leaders create greater economic and societal value.
“EQ has quickly become a global movement that’s helping companies large and small rebuild trust internally to make its employees happier and more productive, which in turn impacts the overall ROI,” said Joshua Freedman, chief operating officer for Six Seconds and the chairman of NexusEQ, a global conference taking place this summer at Harvard. “We now know that these skills alone predict more than 50 percent of performance – which is more than can be said for IQ, or even for technical skills. Companies implementing EQ have stronger leaders and more committed employees, which turns into productivity, loyal customers and profit.”
EQ – Explained and In Practice
Just as the traditional idea of cognitive intelligence is measured by IQ, emotional intelligence tests create an EQ score. Though various working models of emotional intelligence exist, all recognize the importance of accurately assessing emotional data, then integrating and applying it effectively. The Six Seconds model of emotional intelligence structures these into a three-step process for putting EQ into action:
Awareness is “Know Yourself” – accurately assessing emotional data
Management is “Choose Yourself” – consciously selecting emotional response
Direction is “Give Yourself” – purposefully applying emotion toward significance
Among the benefits that organizations have reported:
EQ has twice the power of IQ to predict overall performance
High EQ salespeople at L’Oreal achieved $2.5 million more in sales
An EQ initiative at Sheraton helped increase the hotel chain’s market share by nearly 25 percent
The U.S. Air Force is using EQ to screen para-rescue jumpers to save $190 million
Higher EQ managers in a major restaurant chain created 34 percent greater annual profit growth
The seventh NexusEQ conference will take place at Harvard University from June 24-26, and will feature more than 80 experts sharing examples of how emotional intelligence is creating a positive impact around the world.
According to Freedman, the goal of the conference is to help leaders learn how to leverage the science and practice of emotional intelligence to improve prosperity and well-being in the workplace and community. More than 300 participants will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s best neuroscientists, authors and experts on emotion, learning and business to begin incorporating EQ into their lives and business practices.
Most of us have untapped talents that are tied to something unique in our makeup. Race, gender, physical factors, socioeconomic factors--anything that shapes us--all work together to define the talents that we either tap or fail to tap.
Extremely intelligent, well-educated men and women with master's degrees have a strong desire to succeed in their work but face unique organizational obstacles. For a variety of reasons, these professionals represent silent voices in their workplaces. They have come to be defined as "untapped talent"--professionals with relevant skills and abilities who aren't making the most of them.
Untapped talent comes in many different forms. Diversity, in other words, is quite diverse. Most people never hit their talent ceilings, and that reality isn't exclusive to any race or gender.
When a Person Lacks Access and Falls Far Shy of Potential
Access is one of the greatest nontangible levers to success. A single act of connecting with the right person who can provide you with the right information has changed many careers. Access raises the curtains to the rooms that are invisible to many but well-known by a select few--the power brokers in an organization.
Access Defined: Providing entry to an influential person(s) or being placed in a career situation that broadens your perspective and skill base.
One global leadership assessment conducted by a $35 billion corporation revealed that access, opportunity and development were the major factors that could increase the representation of women at its senior level. Like most global organizations, this one did well when it came to hiring and developing female professionals below the vice president level. Breaking through that wall where one became an officer of the company, however, was a very different story. Women represented 42 percent of the organization's workforce, but only 25 percent of its leaders who were a vice president or higher.
Navigating Untapped Talent
"The untapped mostly come from backgrounds that uniquely equip them with experiences that foster nontraditional thinking. When they draw on these experiences in a work environment, they offer fresh, innovative perspectives on organizational challenges. They become 'tapped talent,' and their passions and skills not only align but are applied to opportunities. Unlike the untapped, that are often invisible to many, the tapped are positioned to make an impact," says Dani Monroe, author of "Untapped Talent: Unleashing the Power of the Hidden Workforce."
Monroe's new book is organized in three sections. The first provides some foundation ideas about untapped talent and why it exists. The next section covers three specific areas where leaders can directly impact an organization by mining and refining talent. The third looks at three characteristics identified as essential in great leaders as it applies to untapped talent.
According to the findings, 74% of North American workers strongly agree with the statement that their workplace is more stressful, while 18% somewhat agree. Just 6% disagree.
My workplace is more stressful compared to five years ago.
Strongly agree
74%
Somewhat agree
18%
Somewhat disagree
2%
Disagree
6%
“We expect, to a degree, that most people would say they are feeling more pressure when asked about such workplace issues,” said Monika Morrow, Senior Vice President of Career Management at Right Management. “But there’s no ambiguity or uncertainty about the latest findings. Nearly everybody thinks stress has grown over the past five years…in other words since the recession began. That prolonged economic downturn prompted staff cutbacks, curtailed training and development initiatives, reduced opportunities for career advancement and made for heavier workloads all around.”
Most employees have been expected to make a greater contribution, Morrow said. “In many cases, operations have been streamlined, headcount is lower, competition greater and the outcome has been more pressure felt at all levels of the workplace. But understanding these realities don’t make it any easier to deal with or succeed in the situation.”
According to Morrow, management has also been hard pressed since the recession. “At the upper levels there’s relentless focus on results and earnings, and this stress is translated throughout the organization. And at the same time management is expected to cheer on a discontented workforce.”
Morrow advises organizations to avoid denial when concerns about workplace stress are raised. “Ignoring the problem may only complicate a difficult situation. What management must do is acknowledge the heavier burdens and make efforts to have them shared fairly. Expectations must be clarified, and priorities rationalized.”
Lisa B. Marshall, a communication expert who helps organizations build stronger teams, manage conflict, create stronger more effective messages and deliver better presentations, has written "Smart Talk."
In today's rapidly changing landscape, global communication fluency is a must have leadership skill. Professionals from all positions in the workplace need to continually assess and re-tool their strategy for ongoing success and career development by learning the latest strategies.
How to have difficult conversations.
You have to tell one of your most productive employees that she dresses inappropriately and unprofessionally. Worse, her personal hygiene is sometimes less than desirable. How do you handle this difficult conversation?
Is it so hard to tell that same person that their twenty-pounds-too-small and twenty-years-too-young shirt is wildly inappropriate for the office?
Confronting another person is difficult. Perhaps, it's because these skills are rarely taught at home or school. And even people with excellent communication skills sometimes retreat when faced with stressful or sensitive communication issues. Yet, when you avoid communication, the vacuum gets filled with negative assumptions and ill will.
If you want to maintain your relationship with the other party, the goal is to encourage a change in behavior, and that means you need to deliver bad news thoughtfully, tactfully and respectfully. When preparing for a difficult conversation, it's critically important to think about the emotional and intellectual perspective of the other person. Compassion helps you to be open to the other person's perspective. Compassion is what reminds us that the other person is just doing the best they can with what they've got.
To manage a difficult conversation successfully, it's important to understand your own conflict management style as well as that of your conversation partner.
Corporate cultures and behaviors can hinder women's progress toward leadership positions.
"Given that men maintain critical mass in leadership positions, they control the evolution of their organizational structures and the pace at which women will be allowed into leadership," says "Not in the Club" author Janet Pucino. "Statistically women are the extreme exception at the executive level and in boardrooms. Only 16 percent of board positions are held by women and less than 4 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs."
Pucino cites other data on gender biases, women's experiences and human behaviors and concludes that, despite a prevalence of such findings, there's been virtually no impact on today's corporate structures, labor laws, governmental policies or business programs in the country's top business schools.
There is an abysmal lack of executive coaching and mentorship of emerging women leaders. Coaching and mentoring for women is a key success factor. If you ask male executives if they've mentored women during their careers, most would say they have not done so, but there aren't yet enough women executives to mentor other women. Women don't have the critical mass to do it alone. The solution is to engage a male executive coach to help you understand how male executives think and engineer the best work experiences in more diverse environments.
Career success is really all about having choices and making choices in your current work environment and throughout your career. The higher up you go, the more expectations you have placed on you. It becomes imperative to take control--you don't have to respond to everything. Working your choices through with your coach or mentor can bring clarity to your thought processes. Here is what one executive woman said about her coaching experience, "John has a unique style, a solid set of tools and an approach that will enable an individual to validate the direction they want to pursue both professionally & personally. You will benefit from the breadth, depth and diversity of his knowledge."
Why Gender Matters
The context of a woman's role within a culture directly correlates to how women are accepted and perceived in the workforce by that culture. These different perceptions lead to different inquiries and conclusions. For example, it is common for women executives to feel isolated because they are not socialized in the ways men are. As women move up the corporate ladder, this feeling of isolation occurs because women are held to different standards than men and are not always supported by the people they have brought along with them.
In recent years, scientists have discovered that differences between the sexes are more profound than anyone previously guessed. Right down to the cellular level males and females are different. The sex hormones estrogen in women and testosterone in men have a significant impact on behavior.
Men and women are not only markedly different in the hormones that drive them, but they are also different in the way they think. The brains of men and women are actually wired differently. When we add to this our unique personalities, our cultural upbringing, and the environment in which we live and work, we come to appreciate why the sexes view the world differently.
It is these differences that create interpersonal problems when we have the irrational belief all men, or all women, respond in a similar manner. The truth is that both men and women routinely approach a broad range of personal and business issues quite differently.
Men in business will expect women to behave like them, while women will expect a female counterpart to behave in a more feminine manner. It is a fine pink line that women in leadership roles walk. Men and women tend to respond differently—not better or worse, just differently. Yet women continue to be faulted for their feminine attributes.
As you can imagine, this gender gap can create all sorts of problems when neither side feels valued, inappropriately judged or misunderstood. The key to success will be to recognize that some ingrained behaviors can create natural “gender gaps." We know that the corporate world has vast room for improvement when it comes to incorporating women into top professional positions.
As you know, the culture at most companies has been shaped over centuries by male executives. You also know that the natural outcome of a male-dominated business is that it has the tendency to be conducted like a team sport. Today, more and more women are playing competitive sports, but it is only recently that they have begun to recognize the need to adapt some of these same skills to the workplace. Even then, women can find the rules of the game elusive; they don’t completely understand its approach to power, money, control, and status. Sometimes the elements are more subtle than that.
You know, and we know, that you are skilled and brighter than average. You work hard, you stay late, and yet others who are less dedicated are too often the ones who get recognized and rewarded.
This fact is sad but true: it will be exceptionally difficult to move ahead if you don’t appreciate the unwritten rules of the game. Keep in mind the truism: “Star players don’t become star players on the field. They are merely recognized there.” If you want to understand how someone succeeds, don’t just watch them accept the award. You have to observe their daily preparations closely.
To bridge gender gaps, successful women key into the rules of the game and actively study the culture of their organization. For starters, women must understand what is considered a win, what behaviors and goals will be rewarded, and what qualities are characteristic of a strong team player.
Gender-based differences play out in leadership nearly every day influencing how men and women communicate, act, react, problem-solve, make decisions and work together. One is no more effective than the other; but joined holistically within a balanced leadership team, can lead to a better business outcome.
With about $33 billion in global revenue last year, Mars would be in the top 100 of the Fortune 500, ahead of McDonald's, Starbucks, and General Mills. It employs 72,000 people, more than a third of them in America.
Its diversified galaxy of brands for man and beast are iconic -- from chocolate favorites like M&M's and Snickers to Wrigley's Juicy Fruit and Lifesavers to pet-care products like Pedigree and Whiskas, as well as Uncle Ben's Converted Rice.
The company says it does 200 million consumer transactions a day. But despite that reach across civilization and into customer pockets, Mars is among the most secretive, insular, and little understood multinational companies around.
It is still 100% family-owned -- now by the three elderly offspring of Forrest Mars Sr., who launched Mars onto its trajectory as a confectionery colossus after taking over the business from his father, Franklin C. Mars, who died in 1934. The three owners are all multibillionaires -- each is reportedly among the 20 or so richest Americans. Ask employees -- while officially called "associates," they sometimes refer to themselves as Martians -- about a member of the Mars family, and you're about as likely to get a revealing answer as if you'd asked about the proprietary process in which they stamp "m" on the little colored candies.
For the first time, the company has made it onto Fortune's annual U.S. roster of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. At No. 95 on the 2013 list, Mars boasts employees who love not only the products they make but also the office culture and the company's long-standing principles. The "Five Principles of Mars": quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency, freedom. According to a regulatory filing for 2011 in the State of Delaware, where Mars is incorporated, there are six members, all grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Frank Mars. One is Victoria Mars, a great-grandaughter of founder Frank Mars and the company ombudsman.
Today, Mars has 11 billion-dollar brands and not everything at Mars is about chocolate. Mar's 78-year-old pet-care division lead by Linda Mars is the company's biggest business, employing nearly half its employees worldwide.
What becomes striking is that Mars family board members are intimately involved in the business by visiting each plant location at least once a year along with the fact that Mars is a sweet company at which to be an employee.
For example, a typical Mars plant manager influences associates by his or her ability to pace development of operational systems and innovative approaches. These operational managers' value to Mars is they initiate or design positive changes. And since these managers would increase their effectiveness with more warmth and tactful communication (read: effective team cooperation), Mars leadership encourages them to get a personal executive coach along with experienced mentors.
The irony of the company's very privateness, employees stress, is that it turns out to be a boon. Employees have autonomy to experiment with ideas and management has the patience to train. It doesn't work that way elsewhere. Debra Sandler, president of the chocolate division, said, "This is probably the only company in which I was told, 'You're not investing enough in your brand.'"
"A lot of really good companies invest in the wrong architecture," says Paul S. Michaels, the nonfamily president of Mars. "Does it add value for the consumer [for] Snickers bars to pay for marble floors and Picassos?" Perhaps, most significant, employees have great latitude for advancement, both within their divisions and in the larger Mars workplace. The demographics of the Mars workplace in the U.S. -- about 70% of it in manufacturing, almost entirely nonunionized -- are diverse; women constitute 38% of the managers.
Science tells us that men and women use different parts of their brains and consequently have different behaviors that lead to different leadership styles. Gender-based differences play out in leadership nearly every day influencing how men and women communicate, act, react, problem-solve, make decisions and work together. One is no more effective than the other; but joined holistically within a balanced leadership team, can lead to a better business outcome.
Is gender really an issue that we should be discussing in the 21st century? Are men and women really that different? Didn’t the feminist movement that began in the 70’s answer that question?
The modern reader will agree that men and women are different anatomically, but we still stumble around when asked if men and women are different in other ways as well. Professor Steven Goldberg in his book with the provocative title, Why Men Rule – A Theory of Male Dominance, maintains that men and women are different in their genetic and hormonally driven behavior.
We would stress that this does not mean that one sex is superior or inferior to another but rather that each has different strengths and at the same time different weaknesses. He believes that the high level of testosterone in males drives them toward dominant behaviors, while high estrogen levels in women creates a natural, biological push in the direction of less dominance and more nurturing roles. To say that men and women are the same is to deny the physical reality. Science makes it plain that males and females are different from the moment of conception.
Men and women are not only markedly different in the hormones that drive them, but they are also different in the way they think. The brains of men and women are actually wired differently. In recent years, scientists have discovered that differences between the sexes are more profound than anyone previously guessed.
Let's face it--there are inherent gender differences that make it more challenging to build cross-gender relationships. And in today's hypersensitive workplace, men are much more cautious in their dealings with women. However, when 50 percent of the workforce is made up of women, it behooves men to build bridges, look for women's strengths, and learn how to leverage them. Coaching women in the leadership pipeline represents a huge opportunity to grow the organization.
Women, if you are clear about what you need and how men can help you, reach out to them. However, if you are vague about your request or don't exhibit a sense of confidence and a "can-do" attitude, you should consider engaging a male executive coach to learn how to become more successful in your career.
It's truly hard for some women to be both the person they want to be with their family and the person they want to be at work. Primarily, it's all about how they need to spend their time. In today’s hectic world, it is an understatement to say that women are overworked. Women struggle with too much to do, too many people to please, too few resources, too few hours in our days and too little help.
Our research tells us that it is a mistake to believe that it is simply a matter of working more effectively, prioritizing, or planning ahead. Those are just a part of the total picture. It is about all of those things and so much more. We must feel empowered to do what is important for us, to discover, use and develop our signature talents, to discipline ourselves to stay focused, and to just say ‘no’ when we need to. Effective utilization of our time offers us the chance to restore our energies as we bend, stretch, and bounce between our work and our personal lives.
Busy people often maintain that they do not have time to plan. But they are wrong. Planning is essential for all busy people. The busier we become, the more important it is to plan. Successful people will admit that planning ultimately saves time.
Let’s not waste another minute moaning and groaning about who is smarter, taller, thinner, happier, funnier, or more effective than we are. If our intention is to manage a successful career, we have to acknowledge that we will be associating with some very smart people, and we will be expected to compete. Women many times have a lot of good friends but have failed to build relationships with key individuals, inside and outside their organizations, who can help them achieve their work and career goals.
Success is not only determined by what we know and can do, but also by the people we know, and even more importantly, by the people who know us. Success is powered by three things: 1. Know-how, 2. A strong network of contacts, and 3. Your reputation. That’s it. That’s the secret to success.
Being politically savvy is sometimes easier for men than for women. Some women even associate it with what people do who are controlling, self-serving, dishonest, and even fake.
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Plato (paraphrased)
We all know women who maintain, “If I just keep my head down, work hard, and produce beyond what others have been able to accomplish, I will be promoted.” We may believe that ourselves, but this is a myth that continues to hold women back!
Becoming “political” is the equivalent of becoming socially aware. It is a vital skill necessary for every executive. However, methods of dealing with corporate politics are not taught in executive education courses or graduate schools today.
Ignore at Your Own Risk
Building your political savvy goes hand-in-hand with building your social capital. There are important reasons to consider this. Ignoring the existence of corporate politics is akin to saying that we can ignore the weather. Political astuteness, combined with ethics and integrity, can produce positive results for us, our team, and our organization.
As personalization becomes ubiquitous, the segmented profiles that advertisers, publishers and even presidential candidates use to define us may become more pervasive and significant than the identities we use to define ourselves.
Our consumer profiles are beginning to define us in all of our online interactions, and a result may be that we get different prices at the mall — or different news articles and campaign ads on our mobile devices — based on a hidden auction system that we’re unable to alter or control. The travel site Orbitz, after learning that Mac users spend 30 percent more on hotel rooms than P.C. users, has started to send Mac users ads for hotels that are 11 percent more expensive than the ones that P.C. users are seeing, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.
Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, said that mobile devices would soon “do things we haven’t begun to think of,” like storing details of our preferences and tastes and offering location-based suggestions that anticipate our desires and our questions before we’ve even asked them. Advertisers compete in an auction for the opportunity to send ads to individual consumers. Each time a company buys access to us, it can bombard us with an ad that will follow us no matter where we show up on the Web.
Since 1994, when Lou Montulli, an employee at Netscape, created the cookie as a way of distinguishing online shoppers, it has been possible to track the activities of individual users on particular Web pages. It wasn’t until the following decade, however, that real-time bidding first used cookies to tag individual Web browsers so that their users could be sent display ads at various Web sites. This makes it possible to build comprehensive profiles of users and then conduct an auction among advertisers to show a display ad to targeted users across tens of thousands of Web sites.
The stories we see on the Web, on TV and on our mobile devices could be pegged to the market segments in which advertisers have placed us.
As our experiences become customized, there is more at stake than just discount coupons and deals. There’s also the future of our common culture. As personalization shapes not only the ads we see and the news we read but also the potential dates we encounter and the Google search results we receive, the possibility of not only shared values but also a shared reality becomes more and more elusive. In his book “The Filter Bubble,” Eli Pariser describes the social consequences of a personalized culture, which is the core strategy for Google, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube — which hope to present us with information that’s so directly relevant to our lives that they can sell more ads to which we’re likely to respond.
As Pariser puts it, “Personalization can lead you down a road to a kind of informational determinism in which what you’ve clicked on in the past determines what you see next — a Web history you’re doomed to repeat. You can get stuck in a static, ever-narrowing version of yourself — an endless you-loop.”
Source: The New York Times Magazine, December 2, 2012
