Leadership Development and Coaching
During Crisis, Focus on ‘What is’ versus ‘What if’
There are always people and businesses who emerge as leaders instead of victims during crisis. Which will you be when you look back on Covid19 at the end of the year? I received some excellent advice recently from my Psychologist wife about the need to focus on what you can control when everything around you seems increasingly uncertain, and decidedly
Elements of Good Judgement
If you haven’t read HBR’s recent article “Elements of Good Judgement” it has some great insights. Over decades of working with Leaders as an Executive Coach, I have found the best ones do them intuitively, having learned the techniques in a Coaching or Mentoring environment. Such as… Smart Leaders demand quality rather than quantity in what gets to them. People
Building Our Agile Mindset – Growing Our Coaching Skills
Like many of you, Agile has become a hot topic for both ourselves and our clients. Organizations are seeking to reap the quoted benefits of increased collaboration, accelerated speed to market, improved quality, reduced risk, and enhanced transparency, to name a few. There is great value in an Agile approach. At L9, we believe the greatest value of Agile comes
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
When Did You Know You Wanted to Be a Leader?
I recently asked this question of a very successful leader, “when did you know you wanted to be a leader”? Her response was, without hesitation, “when I was five. My friends told me I was bossy – I knew what we were going to do and just started organizing the other kids to get it done – that was an
Everything Happens In-between
“The meeting of two individuals is like the contact of two chemical substances, if there is a reaction, both are transformed” C. J. Jung Over the past 30 years, I have had the opportunity to work with amazing people in some incredible companies. As I reflect on my work and personal experiences I believe the most essential ingredient to success
The I/We Ratio: Listen Carefully
I’m often amazed and almost always disappointed when I hear leaders speak with a vocabulary peppered by more than its fair share of I/Me/My. What I’m really listening for, are leaders who speak using the words We/They/Our. If you hear a leader who uses those phrases, my experience suggests you will also find a highly effective individual, being rewarded with an above
Being ‘On Purpose’
There is lots of recent management literature about purpose and creating meaning in life. The old adage is ‘do what you love and the rest will come’. In the chatter, we often see the soundbites, but not the substance. As Executive Coaches, we spend time with Clients deeply understanding how clear Executives are on their purpose. There are normally 5 reasons
Leadership in a Disruptive World
It’s been frequently noted that the Chinese symbol for crisis is composed of two components; one represents danger and the other opportunity. In today’s highly disrupted world can there be no more appropriate symbol of our times? To paraphrase the great Charles Dickens, the modern business environment might best be characterized as “it was the best of times, it was
The Coming Technological Disruption and What to Do
A convergence of advancements will cause extensive disruption to business-as-usual; no industry will be spared the effects of what is coming; and, what is coming, is coming fast. “The train has already left the station.” This was the reply to my point that 40% employment attrition from rapid technological advancements would cause upheaval greater than the Industrial Revolution ushered into