Insights Blog
New perspectives on leadership and organizational culture from the Kinetic Insights coaches.
Building Strong Relationships That Nurture Superior Results
Leaders often think a well-defined vision, a strong strategy, and a clear operational plan make up the formula that will fuel their team’s success. All too often, they overlook the fact that these great plans are carried out by people. And people are driven by relationships that are based on emotions and feelings.
There is truth to the saying “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. Strong relationships are the foundation of superior results, lasting success, and essential […]
5 Keys to Success for Leading Virtual Teams
With much of human interaction having moved to the virtual world, we have seen a plethora of ‘how to’ videos, tip sheets, webinars, and conference calls providing valuable information for how to hold a meeting and work in teams virtually. I participated in one such webinar with a group of colleagues who focus on team effectiveness, including Dr. Ruth Wageman (author “Senior Leadership Teams”, faculty Harvard University, and co-founder of 6 Team Conditions) and Dr. Krister Lowe (Senior Partner at Team […]
Refine your Questions to enhance your Collective Leadership Skills
We are evolving into a new stage of business operations, one that is driven by virtual relationships and management, and therefore, our leadership styles and skills must evolve as well. Collective leadership is emerging as the next and best phase of leadership for our post-pandemic world.
Collective leadership embraces shared responsibility and accountability. It offers the realization of more potential from team members, distributed decisions that are better aligned with the areas of responsibility, and a flatter organizational structure in which success comes from the diverse […]
Develop Self-Awareness with 3 Action Steps
“A good half of the art of living is resilience.” ― Alain de Botton
In my last blog, we discussed the five core skills to building resilience. Now, we are going to give some quick tips on how to develop each of these five core skills. We’ll call this blog series “Building Out the Five Core Resilience Skills”. I will begin at the foundation of resilience with action items to help develop self-awareness.
The two aspects of self-awareness
Becoming Resilient People in a Time of Fear
We are all facing challenges in this current COVID-19 shelter-in-place environment. As I talk with clients, it is clear from the sounds of children in the background, the dog barking, or the doorbell ringing with the grocery delivery. This is the beginning phase of what the experts tell us could be a long and challenging journey. This means will all need to be resilient people.
For some, fear has taken over as we watch this global pandemic dominate our news cycle and impact our daily lives […]
Leading through Uncertainty
You got this. While you may not think so, you know what to do. You’ve done it before.
Sure, you haven’t had to deal with a global pandemic, but if you have been a leader at any time during the last 20 years, you have had to lead through times of uncertainty, significant change, and complexity. While COVID 19 is having impact on a larger scale, the skills you need to lead your teams and organizations through this time are the same.
How did you lead through […]
Your Executive Roadmap for Performance Review
How would you rate your own skills on the performance review process?
Like most soon to be or junior executives, you may not have spent much time evaluating your own skill at performing this routine task of leadership. However, your ability to effectively review the development of the leaders in your organization will have a significant impact on their individual accomplishment within your organizational vision. If you haven’t upgraded your review skills recently, you may not be getting the most out of reviews. If that’s the […]
How One Fortune 500 Executive Grew from Managing Well to Leading Powerfully
“What do you think about getting a personal executive coach to knock off some of the rough edges?”
That’s NOT exactly the first thing a newly minted President wants to hear.
As in most traditional organizational cultures, there was a distinct technical and operational side of the business that was exclusively internally focused. Meanwhile, the commercial side focused externally. In a conscious effort to cross pollenate and leverage existing talent, the company strategically promoted several high performers to challenging new roles. This included the President of one […]
Defining Your Personal Brand at the Executive Level
Personal Branding at the executive level is impactful for both the executive and the organization. The value to the organization is shortening the process to match an executive to the right position where they will thrive and drive results quickly. Conversely, executives who propagate their brand will be offered positions where they will have a higher chance of succeeding and have an accelerated path to connecting with the teams under them.
Executive personal brands reflect who you are at the level (title or leadership phase) you […]
Three Leadership Themes of 2019
Control and Command leadership is being replaced by emotionally intelligent leaders who value input and commitment.
Leaders and employees are human. If you are looking for more efficiency, innovation or productive ownership of organizational strategy then bring your whole self to work in new ways. Demonstrate and build a foundation of trust and influence to get more of the right things accomplished through commitment and true ownership at more levels in the organization. 5 out of 6 of the books above talk about leaders who demonstrate […]
Will your team follow you?
Will your team follow you?
An organization’s many stakeholders value strong decisive leadership. We see the decisive leader as someone who gets things done and makes things happen. However, there are times when there is a disconnect between the leader and the team they are leading. The leader feels they are being clear in the direction and that everyone is proceeding forward toward the same goal. In reality, the team is perplexed and uncertain as to what is actually going on.
Unrest is building and less and […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution & Its Impact on Coaching
The Fourth Industrial Revolution & Its Impact on Coaching
The 1st industrial revolution was when we began using water and steam-powered mechanized production. The 2nd was when electrical power created mass production. The 3rd was when electronics and information technology was used to automate production. And now the 4th is a fusion of technologies that are blurring the lines between physical, digital and biological spheres.
But what does that really mean for us?
This fusion allows massive amounts of data to be available to us than ever before. […]
Cure Your Blind Spots to Expand Your Capacity
Weaknesses are traits or behaviors that, because we’re aware of them, we can choose to strengthen or not. In contrast. blind spots are, by nature, an obstructed view – invisible to us. Because we’re not even aware of them, we are also not aware of how they shape our thinking, trigger emotions, and direct our behaviors.
How Do You Cure Your Blind Spots?
Written by Kristi Thompson
Looking at it from another angle, our blind spots are frequently the opposite of our strengths on which we all build […]
The Best Leadership Lessons I’ve Ever Learned Came From Parenting
I often tell my clients, that the best leadership lessons I have ever learned were from being a parent. The leadership skillset requires that you are always thinking ahead, balancing multiple priorities, helping others to accomplish stretch goals, noticing their needs and feelings, resolving conflicts, and listening, really well. To all the parents out there or those who fill that role in the life of a family member, someone they love, does this sound familiar?
Parenting, not unlike leadership, is challenging and rewarding. It requires commitment, […]
When the Middle becomes the Beginning: Why and How – you need to invest more in coaching your mid-level leaders
When the Middle becomes the Beginning
Do you think it’s too costly to develop your middle managers as well as your executives? Think again.
Many organizations treat middle management as a Darwinian proving ground by making a minimal investment and then waiting to see who survives. Meanwhile, the best development tools such as executive coaching, action learning task teams, and high fidelity simulations, are reserved for senior leaders and a select group of high potentials. These are often expensive and the size of their middle management population […]
The Risks of Either-Or Thinking
Either-or thinking is a trap we can easily fall into that encourages us to believe there is only one right behavior and it blinds us to the opportunities of a more balanced, albeit more paradoxical, approach.
Life is full of light-hearted paradoxical sayings: slow down to speed up, tough love, stability through change, and more. Most leaders easily understand that these behaviors sound like opposites ends of a continuum but are really very complimentary. We know there can be great benefits in using “both” of these […]
The Purpose of Servant Leadership
The Purpose of Servant Leadership
Leadership comes in many colors. In today’s world, we see leaders who demand respect by putting others down and elevating themselves. We see leaders who know something is right or wrong, but in order to keep the peace or achieve an agenda, they don’t speak up. We see leaders who drive their people for results at all costs. And, occasionally we see a strong leader who emerges as a true servant leader. In my experience it is far too infrequent to […]
Emotional Intelligence for Teams
Emotional Intelligence for Teams
When we think about how to best develop leadership skills in those around us, we frequently encounter the need to strengthen Emotional Intelligence (EI). Likewise, most leadership development programs identify EI as a major objective. However, little attention has been given to developing the emotional intelligence of teams, despite the fact that organizations strongly rely on teams for delivering a wide range of results. We see this as a major oversight. Research has found a clear correlation between team emotional intelligence and […]
Successful Skill Secrets…Scream Top Executive!
Successful Skill Secrets…Scream TOP EXECUTIVE!
The evolution of our best executive self is an ongoing, never-ending quest. As executives, we evolve with each new position, new responsibilities within a current position, or with new circumstance in our lives. If you are a freshly promoted executive, you will need to assess and adjust your existing skills to be your best in your new position. Sometimes this requires adding skill sets. I once worked with a Division President who had previously been praised for his ability to get […]
The Veggies of Leadership: Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is not the cake, or even the icing on the cake: it’s the veggies of leadership.
A decade ago, emotional intelligence was newly recognized as a characteristic of effective leaders. Today we know that EI is not only important, but it is also the very thing that distinguishes great leaders from the rest of the pack, especially at the highest organizational levels. (On Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Review Press, 2015, p.3.)
Although EI seems intangible, specific EI competencies have been defined, and as you consider […]