Last month I was facilitating a leadership development course when I was asked a provocative question: “Why should I care about organizational and leadership culture?” At a time when many organizations cite talent as their greatest challenge, we can easily find ourselves occupied with managing important operational tasks. Yet there…

Whatever a leader is expected to accomplish, they must do it while working with others, and to accomplish that, the leader must effectively interact with others. This is where the “basics” come into play, and why they should not be forgotten. Building a case for the basics The basics are built on the premise that there…

Creating a coaching culture is a high priority for many HR teams. The problem? Some HR teams go about building a coaching culture in the wrong way. They coach and train top-level leaders about how to coach effectively and why a coaching culture is important. …

When my bright and adorable nieces were five and eight years old, they and their parents came to visit me and my husband at Christmastime. All the way from Tennessee to Pennsylvania. We four grown-ups would be sleeping in the main floor bedrooms of our one-story house. The two kiddies…

How do you feel about feedback? Does the word “feedback” conjure up negative feelings? Maybe you’ve received feedback that has been damaging. Or maybe you struggle to share meaningful, effective feedback in the workplace. Many leaders I work with find giving feedback difficult; they avoid it because they don’t know…

If getting the most out of your team is a top priority, then you could argue that one of the most important leadership skills is effective delegation. I’ve been working with and coaching new leaders for nearly 20 years. Time and again, the biggest challenge for a new leader is…

I have always aspired to become a leader. I had an innate feeling that I would enjoy leadership. From a young age, I took the lead at the playground and served as the team captain in sports. I remember the sense of achievement I felt when I was elected captain…

As leaders, we instinctively understand that coaching helps employees perform better and companies achieve superior business results. A multitude of studies confirm a strong coaching culture positively impacts all aspects of an organization. …

In many of our leadership development and coaching engagements, DDI helps leaders in all industries learn to coach proactively, provide feedback that focuses on behavior (not the person), and recognize and nurture the potential within others to grow and change. As with anything, however, there’s both a can-do and will-do…