Coaching & Mentoring
Motivating Professional Development in Your Federal Employees—Challenges and Opportunities
read more3 Questions to Answer for Your Employees
It seems basic, but many employees don’t really know what their company or agency’s purpose is. Creating a mission statement and posting it on the wall is a start but involving your team members in conversations and strategy sessions to create those statements, or implement action to help achieve those goals themselves adds a level of engagement most employees will welcome.
read moreLeading as a Courageous Follower
In The Courageous Follower, author Ira Chaleff proclaims that the days of all-powerful leaders and subservient followers are long gone, if they ever existed at all. He makes the case that neither leaders nor followers can reach optimum effectiveness without the other, especially in an environment where technology and information are constantly changing. The following is my interpretation of how Chaleff’s Dimensions of Courageous Followership can be embodied in the workplace by exhibiting the courage to:
read more3 Challenges to Modernizing Federal Government IT
Unlocking untapped potential within Federal data will help grow the economy, increase efficiency in government, and better address complex problems using data-driving approaches. To stay competitive globally, it is imperative that we make data more usable and accessible.” Suzette Kent, Federal chief information officer.
read moreFederal Spotlight Interview: Nathaniel H. Benjamin
I’ve been in Federal Service excluding military time for about 15 years and my main responsibility is managing the Human Capital Office for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Under that responsibility, I’m responsible for talent acquisition for general schedule employees.
read moreFederal Spotlight: Lawrence Gross
Federal Spotlight: Lawrence Gross retired recently from his role as Chief Information Officer, Chief Privacy Officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Here is our Federal Spotlight interview:
read moreMentoring: A Win-Win Situation
As National Mentoring Month comes to an end, let’s reflect on the importance of mentorship and its impact on an individual’s professional development. The support and guidance from well-respected and seasoned executives is instrumental as individuals strive to achieve career ambitions. As Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Good mentors are more than just successful business people – they offer their time, network, and willingness to help others because they genuinely want to see someone else succeed.
read moreGrowing as a Coach – Tips from a Seasoned Expert
Whether you’re new to your coaching role or have logged countless hours coaching many kinds of professionals, there’s always room to hone your skills. The better you are, the better you can be.
read moreCoaches Succeed When They Have the Right Mindset
Command and control isn’t the only way to relate to employees, nor is it the best approach when you want to engender staff who are more creative or empowered. Coaching skills also help managers demonstrate their interest in their employees, a key factor for retaining and engaging employees.
read moreCoaching Questions that Help Individuals Move Forward
One way that coaching stands out from other types of performance focused conversations is its inherent perspective on who has the answers. So, if you’re tired from “coaching” your employees, maybe it’s because you’re working too hard giving answers instead of asking questions that elicit the solutions from employees’ unique experience.
read moreFederal Spotlight: Georgia A. Thomas
Georgia A. Thomas serves at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the organization’s Southeast and Southwest Area Manager, Communication and Stakeholder Outreach (CSO), Field Operations. Here is our Federal Spotlight interview.
read moreTo Overcome Anxiety in the First 100 Days, Coaching Is Clutch
As someone’s boss, you likely influence the psychological safety a person experiences, even if you cannot change the objective uncertainty of the present moment. How you demonstrate transparency, trust, and yes, even care, for your employees can influence how they experience a sense of security at work.
Your role is even more critical in steadying your team while they work through fears, anxiety, confusion, apprehension, and other negative emotions that can be brought on by significant transitions in the workplace.
read morePresidential Transition Worries? Good Coaching Gets You Through It
A transition can be like a roller coaster, and even if you’re in front leading the way, or have even finished the ride and are ready to move on, remember that the rest of your team might still be hanging on through loops, corkscrews, twists, and turns behind you. Same as having great internal communication, coaching helps get people through the roller coaster ride.
read moreHow Coaches Overcome Generational Differences
Increasingly, research is finding that differences we often attribute to someone’s generation have more to do with a person’s age, maturity, and experience than the grouping of years in which a person was born. With a growing number of millennials and later generations taking leadership roles in organizations, it’s important to understand how to more effectively coach these emerging leaders to build the capabilities organizations need to thrive in the future.
read moreAre you a #ChangeAgent: Be the Change You Want to See
On September 29, 2016 we sponsored an event with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) on the topic of “Positive #ChangeAgents Transforming Work Cultures By Delivering Results Differently and Better”.
read moreThe HUD Federal Coaching Conference – Our Take
For anyone who was still skeptical about the value of coaching in the workplace, the HUD Federal Coaching Conference unabashedly put stakes in the ground, with…
read moreValue of Peer Coaching
Perhaps you have heard of the practice of coaching, where individuals receive coaching from external professional coaches, internal coaches, or managers…
read moreDemocratization of Coaching
You name it, it’s being called for. Bringing to the masses what has previously been available to only a few. From leader development, to information and data, to…
read moreAMA: Mentoring
Whether you’re a millennial, baby boomer, someone who wants a mentor, or thinking about mentoring yourself, this information can be useful throughout your career…
read moreIs It Coaching or Mentoring?
Have you ever found yourself listening to someone tell you all about how to avoid the pitfalls they experienced in their career, and to heed their advice, when what…
read moreProviding Difficult Peer Feedback
As organizations move towards cultures of coaching and real-time feedback, the ability of peer groups to provide meaningful performance feedback will need to grow…
read moreBreaking Up Is Hard to Do
We all know the value of productive mentoring relationships for career growth and development. But, like any relationship, the relationship between mentor and protégé…
read moreMaking Waves: Observing Yourself and Employee Performance in 2016
January is a popular time to reflect on personal and professional change. Creating New Year’s resolutions is a powerful way to implement meaningful change. As a…
read moreThe Art of Coach Matching
A strong coaching relationship is based on just that…relationship. While some of the factors that we’d think to be important are meaningful matching criteria, some considerations carry more…
read moreCoaching’s Impact on Training
How many times have you left a training program excited to implement newfound skills and ideas, only to get caught up in old habits and fast paced office life, leaving…
read moreEstablishing a Successful IT PM Mentoring Program
Welcome back and if you did not read my previous blog post for August, you might want to quickly do that as it is background material for this follow-on post…
read moreCan You Be an Anytime Coach?
We would all like to create a more encouraging and empowered workplace, and see better performance from our employees, colleagues and leaders. One way to do…
read moreThanking My First Mentor
I’ve recently begun following the #thankyourmentor series on LinkedIn where various bloggers, some famous and some not, are sharing a letter of thanks to those who…
read moreHow Sponsors Are Different
Professional guidance comes in a variety of forms. It is important for leaders to recognize the different roles they may play in others’ professional development…
read moreHolacracy and Coaching and Being A Manager
This month I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Human Capital Institute’s Summit in Orlando. The keynote speaker – David Novak, Executive Chairman of Yum…
read moreSupport Your Mentors
Throughout my career, I have had the good fortune of having several excellent mentors. They naturally took me under their wing, took an interest in my development…
read moreInside the Minds of Chief Learning Officers
On March 10 Steve Maier, President of Management Concepts moderated a thought-provoking panel discussion at a recent Training Officers Consortium (TOC) luncheon…
read moreConsiderations for Building a Strong Coaching Culture
So you’re thinking about bringing coaching into your organization, but not sure where to start. How do you know what kind of coaching is…
read more