When we think about great organizations – those that seems to last decade after decade and reinvent themselves to respond to changing markets, technologies, competitors and other external conditions, we find that they share some fundamental characteristics that shift their ability to respond instead of react, to take bold action instead of delaying yet another quarter, to collaborate and innovate instead of guarding territory and hunkering down.  As we have looked at companies, or even divisions or project teams, who create extraordinary results over the long-term, we notice that Read more

At Transcend, we believe that collaboration is fundamental to driving business performance and is a hallmark of the fearless organization.  We also believe that collaboration is a key indicator of a high-functioning leadership culture.  Here’s our view on what makes collaboration so important, what it means for an organization, and how you can work to increase or support collaboration in your teams.

Why is Collaboration Important?
Leadership is fundamentally about change – instigating it, managing it, making it successful. Think about it. If a leader isn’t there to Read more

Trust is one of the fundamental pillars of organizations that go from good to truly great, and a key difference between LITO (leaders in title only) and effective and fearless Leaders. So what exactly is trust, and how can you proactively build it?

Trust consists of three elements occurring at the same time: knowing the positive benefits of a relationship, evaluating any risks in the relationship, and choosing how to interpret the behavior of the other person. In companies, this manifests as Read more

When you see a report card from school with 1 A+, 2 As, 2 Bs and a C, what are you drawn to comment on?  For most of us, the answer is “Why did you get a C?”

We may comment on the A+ in passing, but it is often glossed over as an area we don’t need to worry about, rather than one in which that student might really build some outstanding strengths.

What about a performance review or a survey on your presentation or reviews of a paper you wrote?  What sticks with you?  Research shows that the negative or critical information is where we tend to focus our attention and is what sticks in our minds.

This focus on “problems” or weaknesses is called negativity bias, and it’s a Read more

Remember the last time you experienced conflict with someone?  One of the most common reasons we create conflict is our focus on positions.

What is a position?  It’s a particular answer to a question, a particular method of doing something, a solution that is definitive and ours, or even a definition or stance that we have chosen to espouse.  In politics we think of these “positions” as clear polar opposites, such as liberal or conservative.  In real life, each of us carries a set of interests (our personal financial interests, our personal religious or special-group interests, etc) which help us move toward or away from the defined polar-opposite “positions”.  When we focus on the position, there is no Read more

April 2011 – Leadership and executive coach Laura Huckabee-Jennings recently earned the prestigious Professional Certified Coach designation, becoming one of only about 2,000 credentialed coaches among the nearly 25,000 coaches worldwide, according to statistics from the International Coach Federation.

Huckabee-Jennings, formerly with Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola in line management positions, received her credentials from the International Coach Federation (ICF) , the world’s largest non-profit professional association of personal and business coaches, after following Read more

When did you last use the phrase “if only”?  If only my situation were different…  If only this person or that person would do something different… then everything could change.  It’s completely understandable that our reaction in many situations we believe to be adverse is to look for the cause outside of ourselves. And indeed, there are many external circumstances that we do not control and may not even be able to influence.

How about the phrase “He/she/it made me…”?  She made me angry.  The kids got me upset.  The weather prevented me from running today.  I have often felt that the actions I took or the emotions I felt were Read more

“Everybody needs a coach. Every famous athlete, every famous performer has somebody who is coach — somebody who can say ‘Is that what you really meant?’ and give them perspective. The one thing people are not really good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.” – Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

As a very successful CEO, why would someone like Eric Schmidt suggest that he needs a coach and so do you?  I see executives every day who Read more

Did you go into business to change the world, make money, be your own boss, express your creative side, or just create a corporate culture that honored your personal values?  Did that passion get lost somewhere along the journey of establishing product lines, websites, employee manuals, call scripts, business metrics, processes and legal documents?  You are not alone.  Many business owners start out with a passion for what they are doing, and lose their way at some point and feel overwhelmed running their business.

What would it mean for you to rediscover your passion and live each day fulfilling your dream, without the overwhelm?

For most business owners, rediscovering your passion means taking a hard look at what is causing you to feel stress and overwhelm, and tackling that at the Read more

With all the support mechanisms we’ve reviewed over the past few months in place, you are well on your way to realizing your goals and achieving your personal vision, in line with your most dear values.

So what remains to define your journey to a more fulfilling life?  Simply making the changes needed to integrate this process into your life on an ongoing basis.  As your life changes and you achieve key elements of your vision, you may find that your vision begins to Read more

At yet a higher level of engagement than simply getting feedback, is developing partnerships to support you in pursuing your vision.

Partners can be colleagues, family members, friends, or anyone who has an interest in helping you meet your goals and achieve your vision.  When considering who you might enroll as your partner, think about who might share your vision, benefit from you achieving it, or be pursuing a similar vision themselves.

The purpose of partnering is to find continuing support from someone who truly wants you to achieve Read more

So now you are working toward your goal, you are holding yourself accountable for implementing your plans, and probably beginning to feel more focused and like you are on the path to your vision.  What helps keep you on the path?  How will you know when to make course corrections?  What are you measuring to see what progress you are making?

Of course tangible goals like losing weight, or eating better can be measured on a scale, or by tracking your meals and looking back to see how you did.  But what about other goals you might have like losing your temper less often, or listening better?  Because these goals are measured by how others perceive you and your behavior, you may need Read more

Anyone who is not already familiar with the concept of executive coaching may easily confuse it with related professional advice from other sources.  Since executive coaching clients are often senior executives, they have probably experienced many kinds of advice and encouragement in their professional careers, but coaching is a unique form of personal leadership development.

Perhaps the most familiar advisor for many executives is the mentor.  A mentor is an invaluable resource at any stage of your career and provides advice, counsel and resources to show an executive how to achieve success in the way that the mentor did it.  The mentor shares Read more

In coaching relationships, one element of the relationship to which many clients ascribe great power is the accountability provide by the relationship.  The client makes a plan to take certain actions over the next week, and the coach will ask about those actions in the next session.  While there is no right or wrong for doing or not doing any action item, many clients feel that they have made a formal commitment to taking those actions, and will work much harder to complete them, just knowing that Read more

Within each of us we carry the seed of our own greatness.  We nurture this as children, but soon learn to hide it from the light of day and fit into what we think society expects of us.  We build our internal beliefs and habitual thoughts about what we “should” do and “must” be, and in doing so, we protect ourselves from the thoughts and words of others, but also lock away our most Read more

Behind every good strategy and every goal achieved, there was an action plan that brought it to life.

The strategy is not the end of the process, but the beginning of your journey toward your vision.  You have defined the vision, made it concrete with some goals that define what it will take for the vision to come to life, developed some strategies that you think will help you achieve your goals, and now you are ready for the plans.

Plans are the day to day activities that are how you will implement the strategy.  In some cases, it may be as simple as Read more

With SMART goals in hand, you are ready to build strategies around them.  This is just like developing business strategies in that you can look at your various strengths and build strategies that play to them.  If you know one of your key strengths from Strengths Finder is “Relator”, you work best through people.  So, you might find that you want to work on a goal through finding a group that share the goal and working with them. Or you are an extrovert, you might exercise more regularly if you were Read more

Now that you have a vision of where you are going, it is important to set goals that move you in the direction of your vision. I like to make sure they are SMART goals. You may have heard this acronym before, but it stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound.

If your goal is to have a healthy body, for example, you might set a goal of losing 20 pounds by October 31st, 2010, or you might set a goal of Read more

The next step in this journey to greater success and fulfillment is establishing your personal vision.  A personal vision is grounded in the present and includes every significant aspect of your life, who you are, and what you desire in your life.

A great place to begin this is to start with a deep understanding of your own natural talents, abilities and preferences.  There are several tools to do this, but one I really like is called Strengths Finder 2.0, and it will give you a clear idea of your top 5 strengths and the kinds of activities you will undertake with mastery.  Building a vision that plays to your strengths will drive greater enjoyment and fulfillment.  Anytime that you are working against your strengths, you will find it feels like Read more