Marnie Smith
Recurrent Discovery – A Leadership Story
How many leadership assessments have you completed? Have you taken MBTI? Kolbe? Insights? DISC? (I could go on and on). There are a plethora of leadership instruments that exist to help us better understand ourselves. As a leadership development professional and executive coach, I have used many of these tools with my clients, as well as on myself. Pattern of
Think You Are Good at Delegating? Take this Quiz
If you Google “Why is delegation important?” you will get over 11 million hits. Everyone knows that delegation is important. Delegating is a great way of encouraging your team members to develop themselves and for you to develop coaching and mentoring skills. Delegation enhances the empowerment of employees. It is critical to the success of any leader and any organization.
Tapping into Your Most Trusted Resources
Employees – Your Most Trusted Resource We recently attended a conference showcasing the results of the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer. Most of the results shared focused on a decline in trust across business and government. This is not likely a surprise to you, nor was it to us. However, a key finding that did resonate with us here at Lighthouse
What is Your “Go-To” Conflict Mode?
I recently worked with a leadership team who was striving to improve their collaboration. They had a consistent pattern of decision-making that did not encourage or even allow for collaboration on crucial business imperatives. Many thought that this pattern was a result of the work/pressure/stress they were under. This was only partially true. There are some key ingredients required to
Making the Shift from Telling to Listening – How to Talk to Your Team about Change
I recently had a client comment that the most valuable role their leader played during a change in their organization was “patiently listening to me, not correcting or defending, just listening to me as I worked to come to terms with the change”. The employee was able to move forward as a result of the effective listening skills demonstrated by
What Role Do You Play in Developing Talent?
We work with a lot of organizations who are focused on developing their talent. Many leaders see this as ‘promoting’ talent; boosting your best performers up to the next rung on the ladder. Undoubtedly this is important, and we know that it is a desirable outcome, but what if there are not enough rungs on the ladder? What if the
Learning to Wear the Facilitation Crown
I have had the privilege of doing a lot of facilitation over what seems like many years now. I have facilitated small team meetings, large scale events, training programs, university courses, and even bicycle building (team building in disguise). Each facilitation requires something different, in terms of content, tone, pace, or energy but they all have something in common –
What Marathons Have to do with Managing Change?
Imagine yourself sitting around the leadership table, discussing why such a small change (insert any change here) feels like such a huge change to your team. Why are they not seeing the benefits that are so apparent to you? Why are they not just accepting and moving forward the way you are? Leaders are often flabbergasted at the reaction they
The Power of Being Purposeful with Positive Primes
I recently completed a virtual course on Positive Psychology. It is a rising area of study that is making waves, especially in the coaching world. Caroline Adams Miller, MAPP, offered the course during which she shares an evidence based approach to being positive and flourishing. One of the most critical learnings I took away from the training is the importance
