ChoinqueCast

Have you ever left a business due to lousy service? Of course you have. How about afterward? Did the business, upon realizing you no longer wished to be a customer - magically seem have unlimited resources, processes and procedures available to regain your loyalty as a customer? This past week such thoughts are on mind. A colleague who I’ve had the privilege to coach, on and off over the years, sh...

On the first day of a Leadership Excellence Course , we share the first draft of our Personal Leadership Philosophy . By the end of the course, we have a working draft of the document to share with others and to help hold ourselves accountable. On day three of an Advanced Leadership Course , we explore our organization’s Core Values, defining them and attributing Normative Behavioral Statements to...

A common question after facilitating a Leadership Excellence Course is: “How do I know when I’m actually living my leadership philosophy ?” Good question. One of the best indicators is when we make a tough decision, an uncomfortable decision, and realize - often after the fact - that something violated our leadership philosophy. Over the past month an informal coaching session formed with a Linked...

Are you a marathoner or triathlete? In Episode 16, we meet Dr. Alison Eyring , author of Pacing for Growth - Why Intelligent Restraint Drives Long-Term Success -  who has run marathons and is currently training for a triathlon. Dr. Eyring is a growth expert, organizational psychologist and CEO of Organisation Solutions in Singapore which combines her 25+ years advising the “Fortune and FTSE 5...

Ever notice how some of the greatest lessons are found by looking to the past? As what we may call a purpose-driven economy expands, and the global competition for talent likewise increases, the importance of communication skills in leaders becomes paramount. Leaders must be able to communicate well with different constituencies, from the board room to customers, and perhaps most of all, to the in...

Ever have a life-changing event? In Episode 15, we meet Carla Moore , author of Crash - Leading Through the Wreckage -  who has. An empowering and proven leader, Carla currently serves as Vice President of Sales Strategy and Education for Home Box Office (HBO) in New York. She began her career with HBO as an entry-level sales trainer 20 years ago and worked her way up, working in multiple dep...

We’ve learned through authors such as Mark Crowley that engagement in the workplace has been flat for about thirty years. Maybe old habits don’t die at all. Maybe we just need a fresh way of looking at things. In Kim Scott ’s refreshing book Radical Candor , she challenges the classical Nine-Box Matrix Talent Model , developed by McKinsey , which positions individuals into a box based on potential...

It’s refreshing when a professional reaches out and asks for help during a period of career growth - for executive coaching. Since this has happened quite a bit this month, Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter ’s terrific coaching book, Triggers , came to mind. You may have heard of Marshall before, he’s a really good coach and he’s been doing it at a very high level for decades. Powerful and lastin...

Retention. Talent pipeline. We keep hearing these HR terms. In the past couple weeks, a military commander reached out wishing to improve low reenlistment numbers for first term airmen, a federal bankruptcy court shared plans for a 12-month regional leadership development program for junior team members and a local CEO seeking executive coaching connected on LinkedIn. What’s going on? In Dr. Sydne...

Has watching professional poker ever fascinated you? In Episode 14, we meet Annie Duke , author of Thinking in Bets , who has leveraged her expertise in the science of smart decision making to excel at pursuits as varied as championship poker to public speaking. For two decades, Annie was one of the top poker players in the world. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World S...

Has anyone ever said to you that they or their organization embraces “continuous improvement.” It’s a pretty common buzzword, and don’t all of us want to get better at something? How can we think, and more importantly, do, something about that? In Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool ’s masterwork Peak , they describe a significant term —  deliberate practice — as a combination of purposeful pract...

Have you ever made a decision with incomplete or imperfect information? How did it feel? Many of us struggle with daily distractions, and the pressure of making decisions with imperfect or incomplete information. In Annie Duke ’s amazing new book, Thinking in Bets , Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All The Facts , she informs us that is the normal state in poker, where over the course...

During a recent coaching session, a client mentioned employee turnover issues within their organization, in particular with newer, younger hires.  Among the factors brought up for the recent departures was low pay. I paused and asked how frequently coaching occurred between supervisors and subordinates. A culture check if you will. Let’s just say it got really quiet for a bit. You see, there’...

Are you a CPA, attorney, or a partner in a professional services firm? Choinquecast thirteen showcases Wesley Middleton ’s personal and professional journey in his book Violent Leadership . Unsatisfied with the practice and lifestyle found within the usual managerial-styled CPA firm, Middleton has pioneered a different kind of firm, a twenty-first century CPA firm, MRZ Financial , based on a leade...

In our Academy Leadership Excellence Courses, self-evaluation scores at the beginning of the Setting Leadership Priorities workshops usually plummet - with distractions and interruptions common culprits. Perhaps never before has the opportunity for distraction been so commonplace. Yet, there are those who are still effective getting things done and those who are effective leaders. Most of us proba...

Choinquecast twelves takes direct aim at generational differences in the workplace as we meet Kelly Riggs who has co-written - with his son Robby - Counter Mentor Leadership , a pathfinding generational work. Kelly is the founder of Business LockerRoom , host of the CounterMentors Show, and a dynamic thought leader in the fields of sales and leadership. He is also a business performance coach who...

In a recent coaching call, a client shared a significant challenge - how to grow a team from 200 to possibly 700 this calendar year - without having the proverbial “wheels come off.” We talked about the importance of front line supervisors who take care of the teams at “the tip of the spear.” The topic of accountability came up. Recall from our Academy Leadership Excellence Course s that 83% of or...

In choinquecast eleven we meet the author of “ Disrupt Yourself ," Whitney Johnson , who developed her proprietary framework and diagnostics after having founded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen. This framework is complemented by a deep understanding of how executives create and destroy value, having spent nearly a decade as an Institutional In...

“Nothing affects the learning culture of an organization more than the skill with which its executive team receives feedback.” from Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen ’s eye-opening Thanks for the Feedback candidly and systematically breaks down why receiving feedback is so difficult and what we as leaders and our organizations can do about it. Notice the emphasis on receiving feedback rather than of...

The scarcity mindset. What is that? According to Whitney Johnson in Disrupt Yourself it is the failure to see the abundance in another person’s success and is actually a form of entitlement. Her antidote: A gratitude journal, or a written list of three things you are thankful for each day and why. To some degree, we all seem to be conditioned by this both destructive, and limiting, mindset. For ex...

Two recent client exchanges are worth sharing. The first was a visit to Tesla’s Gigafactory site in Nevada, the second a series of conversations with a director at a major health care consortium. Both on the drive to the Gigafactory site with a client and as a passenger on numerous Uber trips in Reno, discussion about the local area centered on the tectonic transformation occurring in the Reno/Spa...

Choinquecast ten introduces Dr. Amy Cooper Hakim , an industrial-organizational psychology practitioner and workplace expert. She is a speaker, author, and the executive consultant and founder of The Cooper Strategic Group. She helps employees and employers to get along better, and coaches leaders and employees to improve productivity, morale, satisfaction, and overall work-life balance. Her book,...

It’s pop quiz time again. What are the four most dangerous words in a leader’s vocabulary? According to Kelly & Bobby Riggs  -- in their pathfinder book, Counter Mentor Leadership  -- the answer is: "I don’t have time." Let’s do a quick self-evaluation: When is the last time you said that to yourself, or, even worse, when was the last time you told that to someone you are respon...

In choinquecast nine we’re introduced to the power of attention management by Maura Nevel Thomas , an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity, attention management, and work-life balance. Maura has trained thousands using her Empowered Productivity™ System , a process for achieving significant results and living a life of cho...

Have you ever wondered why some days are exhausting and some days seem magically energizing? There’s no shortage of management and efficiency books and exercises offering advice how we may manage our time better. However, like the best athletes, the most effective leaders focus on energy levels, not time. In Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz ’s marvelous book, The Power of Full Engagement , two paradigm...