Content about executive

February 19, 2013
Soapbox: The 10 Executive Toughness Fundamentals

Executive Toughness is designed to help you build and strengthen the three traits all highly successful people share: accountability, focus, and optimism.

 

By Dr. Jason Selk

I have had the privilege of serving as a performance coach to some of the most successful businesspeople on the planet, including scores of individual Fortune 500 and 100 executives. I use a methodology I call Executive Toughness, a mental training program that helps people boost their leadership performance and achieve truly ambitious goals.

January 2, 2013
Maximize Coaching by Utilizing an Executive’s Network

What makes for a worthwhile executive coaching engagement? Personality inventories and 360-degree reviews long have been standard fare for coaches, but now there’s a tool called Personal Network Assessment that provides detailed information about what may be an executive’s most critical resource: his or her network of relationships.

By Sean Tierney, VP, Activate Networks

What makes for a worthwhile executive coaching engagement? Personality inventories and 360-degree reviews long have been standard fare for coaches, but now there’s a tool that provides detailed information about what may be an executive’s most critical resource: his or her network of relationships.

Many professionals have used this tool—Personal Network Assessment (PNA)—to look beyond the larger organization to their own networks of professional and personal ties.

March 30, 2012
Dispelling the Myths of Creating a Winning Corporate Culture

Avoidance—and even outright denial—of the need to make corporate culture development a “Mission Critical Objective” lies in five common myths that destroy the impetus for any organized effort to create, build, and nurture a winning corporate culture.

By Joseph Gianni, President and CEO, 2logical

Few would deny the majestic power of a winning corporate culture. When the odds are stacked against the success of a mission critical corporate objective, a strong corporate culture can persevere through all kinds of challenges and setbacks—and make, well, even the impossible…possible.

Even in the most turbulent market conditions, a strong corporate culture can shorten the recovery time from minor or major setbacks by as much as tenfold, when compared to an organization lacking the “right stuff.”

March 8, 2012
Small Business Dynamics
How can women and minority business owners be most successful? Use your diversity position as reason to conduct strategic planning...dealing honestly and forcefully with the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. Thus, you will initiate more partnerships and carve a market niche.

By Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist

How can women and minority business owners be most successful?

See yourself as a plus to the business world, not as a liability. We are all minorities operating in the whole, as do professional specialties within the company’s big picture. Through diversity, each element blends and supports others, as does the corporate visioning process. Major public sector contracts require qualified minority subcontractors. Select partners, and show good faith efforts to procure and execute contracts.

February 6, 2012
Verity Credit Union Develops Future Leaders

When Verity Credit Union wanted to ensure the development and retention of its highest performers, it implemented the Future Leaders Program. The kick-off of this program was formally announced at an all-staff meeting. Participation was limited to the top 10 percent of employees.

By Margery Weinstein

When Verity Credit Union wanted to ensure the development and retention of its highest performers, it implemented the Future Leaders Program. The kick-off of this program was formally announced at an all-staff meeting. Participation was limited to the top 10 percent of employees. To select these top 10 percent, employees could be nominated in one of four ways:

January 20, 2012
Conference Highlight: Create a Powerful Executive Presence

You may have the right knowledge, the right skills, even the right attitude, but if your presence lacks, so does your training.

 

Training 2012 Conference & Expo speaker Dianna Booher explains the importance of communicating through our presence just as strongly as our words:

January 13, 2012
The Agony and the Ecstasy—Building Innovation Capability

Many firms fail at innovation because they lack the right management capability in the areas of discovery skills, execution skills, and leadership behaviors. The good news is that while innovation is a difficult capability to develop, it can be done.

By Peter Mulford, Executive Vice President, BTS

Does your organization have the managerial know-how to innovate? If so, do your managers know the behaviors they must change in order to cultivate a culture of innovation?

For most companies, in our experience, the answer is no. And the problem is neither a lack of resources nor of creativity itself, but of management capability—specifically, the capability to convert new ideas into value creation. The good news is that building innovation capability is not easy, but it can be done. Here’s how.

January 11, 2012
Executive Coaching Gives Leaders a Chance to Change

One-on-one coaching allows leaders the opportunity to overcome problems ranging from poor public speaking to a lack of executive presence.

By Annie Beecham, Marketing Coordinator, Connect the Dots Consulting

November 23, 2011
How-To: Start a Corporate Mentoring Program

Starting a corporate mentoring program can seem like a huge task, and for that reason alone, many organizations simply don’t do it. They talk themselves out of it and rationalize that the “informal” mentoring taking place organically in the organization is enough. But it’s not.

Starting a corporate mentoring program can seem like a huge task, and for that reason alone, many organizations simply don’t do it. They talk themselves out of it and rationalize that the “informal” mentoring taking place organically in the organization is enough. But it’s not.

Here are 10 tips to help you get your program off to a successful start:

November 18, 2011
Leading with Humility

Humility is one of the most important attributes of leadership, because it helps connect the leader to followers through their common bond of humanity, say Merwyn A. Hayes, Ph.D., and Michael Comer, D.M., authors of “Start with Humility: Lessons from America’s Quiet CEOs on How to Build Trust and Inspire Followers.” The question is: Can humility be learned or is it innate?

By Merwyn A. Hayes, Ph.D., and Michael Comer, D.M.

November 2, 2011
Developing Brilliant Leaders

Can spatially gifted, ultra-smart executives be developed? Yes, thanks to breakthroughs in neural science, say Morris Graham and Kevin Baize, authors of “Executive Thinking: From Brightness to Brilliance.” They document a neural technology of visual informational processing (VIP) training needed to increase capacity—to turbo-charge the right hemisphere of the brain for greater cross-connectivity and spatial assimilation to better accommodate new data.

By Morris Graham and Kevin Baize

October 31, 2011
Chesterfield County Accelerates Leadership Transitions

Chesterfield County, VA, trainers believe a loss of executive leadership typically is not due to lack of talent or skill set, but due to misunderstandings or an inability to become “organizationally savvy.” With that in mind, the county launched its Transition Acceleration program.

By Margery Weinstein

October 7, 2011
Are There Ways to Survive Tough Times?

At the end of the day, the reality is that everyone is replaceable. What you are trying to do is make it such that when your leaders sit around a table going through the tough process of determining whom in their organization they can do without, your name is the one they put on the list as the kind of talent they have to find more of.

By Robert Knowling, Chairman, Eagles Landing Partners

September 8, 2011
Training’s Importance to the Big Picture of Business

More often than not, “training” is a vehicle to tout one’s viewpoint, tinker with old problems, or blame someone else for the course of events. If training is viewed as band-aid surgery to fix problems, then it will fail. Managers who have this “fix those people” mindset are, in fact, the ones who need substantive training the most.

By Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist

Professional education is the most important ingredient in corporate development. Today’s workforce will need three times the amount of training it now gets...if the organization intends to stay in business, remain competitive, and tackle the future successfully.

I advise CEOs, board chairs, and the upper echelon of companies on business strategy. Often, I find myself defending and promoting training as an important ingredient to success.

August 22, 2011
Job Transition: Tips for Succeeding in a Buyers’ Market

“Know thyself.” For professionals in job transition, blending this ancient Greek aphorism with a well-known marketing concept—the “Four P’s” of product, positioning, price and place—yields essential self-examination lessons. The key involves identifying, and then applying, these critical elements of the marketing mix.

By Tammy A. Beil, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Kelleher Associates

“Know thyself.” For professionals in job transition, blending this ancient Greek aphorism with a well-known marketing concept—the “Four P’s” of product, positioning, price and place—yields essential self-examination lessons. The key involves identifying, and then applying, these critical elements of the marketing mix.

August 12, 2011
6 Best Practices to Achieve Implementation Success

Having a project assurance methodology gives you the power to go beyond traditional project management barriers and gives you the answers you need to assure project success. It helps you to identify and resolve the strategic, tactical and intangible issues—and manage the human factors—before issues become insurmountable. And best of all, project assurance gives you (and everyone else involved) peace of mind that the project is on the right track.

By Rob Prinzo, Founder and CEO, The Prinzo Group

July 25, 2011
How-To: Create a Simple Plan for ROI

The training world continues to be all abuzz about return on investment (ROI), but there’s much discussion about how to effectively and affordably do that. Before you design your training, begin with the end in mind. In other words, determine what your business success looks like before you start. You can do this by getting a multi-level perspective on the situation and then determining the scope, severity, and value to the company.

By Kendra Lee

The training world continues to be all abuzz about return on investment (ROI), but there’s much discussion about how to effectively and affordably do that. Before you design your training, begin with the end in mind. In other words, determine what your business success looks like before you start. You can do this by getting a multi-level perspective on the situation and then determining the scope, severity, and value to the company.

July 6, 2011
Negotiating the Employment Contract

If you’re a corporate executive trying to recruit top talent, and your prized candidate says, “Show me the money,” and you don’t have it, you need to know a smart way out of the box. It’s increasingly important to know how to use the employment contract as an attractive recruiting tool without giving away your company.

By Robert A. Adelson, Partner, Engel & Schultz, LLP

If you are a high-tech, marketing, or life sciences executive changing jobs, you could lose a lot of money or “crater” your career if you aren’t aware of opportunities in negotiating your new employment contract. If your skills and experience are what the company needs most, then you deserve—and can negotiate—terms commensurate with your value.

June 6, 2011
Best Practices: What Not to Do When Developing Global Leaders

Organizations today struggle to identify both current and future global leaders. Equally significant, they are failing to help these global leaders to acquire and leverage the competencies necessary to succeed in the face of greater globalization. Failure to develop global leadership is easier—and more common—than you might think. Here is how many companies do it.

By Neal Goodman, Ph.D.

Organizations today struggle to identify both current and future global leaders. Equally significant, they are failing to help these global leaders to acquire and leverage the competencies necessary to succeed in the face of greater globalization. Failure to develop global leadership is easier—and more common—than you might think. This is how many companies do it:

June 6, 2011
Please Don’t Go!

After years of mentoring, job rotations, and leadership retreats—when they’ve finally made it to the top and are ready to give back to the organization—the last thing you want is for your leaders to walk out the door. We’re still in an economy that’s more oriented to the employer than the employed, but with a slow recovery in progress and better times hopefully ahead, you need a plan to prevent your competitors from successfully wooing your best leaders.

By Margery Weinstein

June 6, 2011
Training Today: The Impact of Executive Presence

“Executive Presence is a topic everyone is talking about, but few have stepped forward to offer a clear definition of it,” says executive communications and speech coach Sally Williamson, who authored an upcoming book titled, “The Hidden Factor: Executive Presence, How to Find It, Keep It, and Leverage It.” “It’s an elusive idea that keeps creeping into discussions of leadership, executive development, and succession planning.”

“Executive Presence is a topic everyone is talking about, but few have stepped forward to offer a clear definition of it,” says executive communications and speech coach Sally Williamson, who authored an upcoming book titled, “The Hidden Factor: Executive Presence, How to Find It, Keep It, and Leverage It.” “It’s an elusive idea that keeps creeping into discussions of leadership, executive development, and succession planning.”

May 12, 2011
Teambuilding and Training With the Most Impact

Companies owe it to themselves to think and plan...before launching piecemeal training programs. After carefully articulating and understanding direction, then training needs (including teambuilding and empowerment) will stand a chance of being successful.

By Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist

If training is thought of as band-aid surgery to fix problems, then it will fail. Managers who have this “fix those people” mindset are, in fact, the ones who need training.           

Teambuilding must be part of the corporate vision first, not as a series of exercises delegated to trainers.

May 9, 2011
Examining Executive Presence

Organizations are concerned. Executives are worried. And HR representatives are freaking out. All because of executive presence. No matter what the industry, the question arises, “How can we create executive presence?” A look at the reasons behind this concern and tactical ways to address the issue.

 

By Karen Hough, founder and CEO, ImprovEdge

Organizations are concerned. Executives are worried. And HR representatives are freaking out. All because of executive presence. I’ve been working with C-level executives for well over a decade, but in the last 24 months, the issue has exploded. No matter what the industry, the question arises, “How can we create executive presence?” Let’s talk about reasons behind this concern and tactical ways to address the issue.

What Is Executive Presence?

April 26, 2011
Executive Presence Is a Top Priority for Leadership

High-potential and leadership programs are a top priority as companies focus on succession planning and the development of future leaders. And, as companies define skill gaps, Executive Presence--a combination of behaviors and attitudes that present a sense of confidence, competence, commitment, and authenticity--has become a hot topic and an urgent priority. But many development managers struggle with what it is and how to build it into a leadership program.

By Sally Williamson

High-potential and leadership programs are a top priority as companies focus on succession planning and the development of future leaders. And, as companies define skill gaps, Executive Presence has become a hot topic and an urgent priority.

September 17, 2010
Communicate for Action

Why do organizations encounter a corporate divide when it comes to communication? One reason is because communication often is seen from the communicator or presenter’s point of view. Unless the presenter incorporates the recipient’s needs and frame of reference in the message, the communication will remain ineffective.

By Kevin Sensenig, vice president and global brand champion, Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.

Ask a group of employees about the challenges they face in their organization, and most often communication issues are close to the top of the list—even though there is no lack of information, strategies, tips, and training available on the subject. In fact, a recent Google Web search using the key words, “communication articles,” revealed 77.3 million hits. So why do organizations still encounter a corporate divide when it comes to communication?