ChoinqueCast

Our Academy Leadership group, a terrific team of former military officers who are also senior civilian executives, often share our stories. With his permission, I would like to read to you an email from Kevin Derbin , 1979 Naval Academy Graduate. It’s a powerful coaching story from Kevin and his wife Pam. Their words. Their story: I wanted to share a very personal story about the power of our...

In Episode 23, we meet Dan Pontefract , Dan is the founder and CEO of The Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture. Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review and The Huffington Post. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business and has garnered more t...

My friend and colleague Susan Packard recently sent me a copy of her new book Fully Human . My hope is that it reaches a larger audience than her first work New Rules of the Game, which was written primarily, although not exclusively for women. Her book is subtitled, 3 Steps to Grow Your Emotional Fitness in Work, Leadership, and Life . This reminded me of a sentence in my Personal Leadership Phil...

In Episode 22, we visit Cornell University , and Professor Barry Strauss ’ history and classics course “War and Peace in Greece and Rome.” Professor Strauss led a conversation between the two of us about Leonidas and Leadership, engaging the students as well. You can hear Barry & I pretty well, but it might be a bit of a challenge hearing the students. Enjoy the discussion and let us know what...

How many of you request feedback in order to learn and improve, or benefit from a 360 evaluation? This past week, at Cornell University , we went back a bit further and explored Leonidas I , the legendary warrior-king of the Greek city-state of Sparta. Most of us know of Leonidas I by way of Steven Pressfield ’s wonderful book Gates of Fire . Or, we may have seen the movie 300 . Both showcase the...

In Episode 21, we meet Lisette Sutherland , who describes herself as a remote-working German-born American living in the Netherlands who is today jazzed by the fact that it is possible to work from anywhere. Not just possible, but completely, productively workable — if you do it right. Lisette is a public speaker, workshop leader, and the director of Collaboration Superpowers , a company that help...

The past couple weeks have included multiple Academy Leadership Energize2Lead, or E2L, Workshops. Intentionally, this workshop is offered first during multi-day Leadership Development Programs so that attendees can understand themselves and others at a much deeper level. One of the attendees on day one of an Advanced Leadership Course declared to the participant group “I was not a fan of the E2L P...

In Episode 20, we meet Kristen Lowers and learn how the development of a Personal Leadership Philosophy has shaped her leadership journey, both at work, and in life. Kristen first attended an Academy Leadership Excellence Course in December 2013 and an Advanced Leadership Course in September 2014. She has sponsored numerous in-house leadership events for her teams and is certified to facilitate Ac...

An interesting series of leadership discussions started this month with a dynamic and intellectually curious colleague in Australia. Turns out we connected in May 2017 when I was speaking down under about Strategies for the Agile Leader , basing my talk on General Stanley McChrystal ’s book Team of Teams . My colleague has a new role now, Director of Enterprise Agility at a well known global firm...

This past week we held our annual Academy Leadership Conference in south Florida. A lot happens over three full days, and we usually leave very energized. One of the reasons for this is that we share knowledge with each other. This brings to mind   Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton ’s The Knowing-Doing Gap , in that we frequently seem to focus much more on knowledge than doing, exemplified...

Just received an email from a client this past week: We’ve stayed connected since she first attended an open enrollment leadership course about three and a half years ago. She is an accomplished and talented HR director. She will be leaving her organization very soon. The message wasn’t a surprise and in fact, she should be very proud of her decision. We had a long phone call a couple months ago....

Twenty-four books were reviewed this year: Work Without Walls Working With Difficult People Disrupt Yourself Counter Mentor Leadership The Genius of Opposites Pacing for Growth Out of Our Minds Violent Leadership Thinking in Bets The Introverted Leader Career Leap Crash Radical Candor Five Stars Brave Leadership the culture engine Let There Be Water Build An A Team Creating Things That Matter Why...

During a recent executive coaching session, our primary focus was reviewing organizational changes made over the past 90 days. You see, the client is restructuring several groups, with the specific objective to improve operational results, eliminate redundant work, and vastly increase team accountability. The beginning of the presentation would please any executive interested in measuring operatio...

Day three of the new 2019 Academy Leadership Advanced Leadership Course took place this past week. Our Advanced Communications and Effective Decision-Making workshops were fantastic, each covering well over two hours. The contest winners in the Effective Decision-Making workshop received copies of Counter Mentor Leadership , The New IT and Lead From the Heart which was a lot of fun. Having two lon...

Day two of the new 2019 Academy Leadership Advanced Leadership Course took place this past week. The client and I decided to switch days two and three allowing our group of eight to launch the Core Values Alignment Workshop as soon as possible. At the beginning of the workshop we watched a short video clip by Jim Collins describing Core Values & Company Culture featuring Jim Collins , Tony Hse...

Last year at a conference in Australia I was asked to participate in a debate. The topic to argue for or against was: “Co-located teams are always more productive than remote teams,” or something like that. Our team of three argued against the point and won the debate. However, the topic keeps coming up in leadership courses and coaching sessions. This brings to mind the definitive work on workpla...

During a recent in-house Academy Leadership Excellence course, the topic of feedback came up. One of the attendees mentioned Kim Scott ’s recent book Radical Candor . More specifically, the client wanted to bring up the behavior Ruinous Empathy. Several in the course mentioned that not enough helpful feedback occurred within their organization, in particular coaching. One specific attendee, during...

In a recent coaching session, the client shared a revelation which occurred after attending an Academy Leadership Excellence course. She realized her everyday work rhythm was an exhausting attempt to get as much done as possible, often performing multiple tasks at the same time. That’s right - multi-tasking. We all do it. And it’s a really bad habit we should avoid as leaders. A quick exercise wil...

In a recent coaching call, the client, who is in a senior leadership role in her company, shared her desire to elevate herself, and to learn to breathe. One of the improvements listed in her action plan is learning to say no more and to avoid low payoff activities and interruptions which take away from time she is trying to block off. How many of you also struggle like this? In our Academy Leaders...

This week afforded time for an extended discussion with a Chief Information and Innovation Officer, starting with 360 survey results for a key direct report we’re using to set up executive coaching sessions. It’s always fascinating how different groups in a single organization rank organizational priority of six leadership competencies and six leadership characteristics. Recall, leadership compete...

This choinquecast was scripted while on a morning flight from Denver to Tampa, after we finished a three-day Academy Leadership Excellence Course in Colorado Springs. A common theme during our several days together was the desire to occupy a leadership role, but the tendency to stay in a management, or task-oriented mode most of the time. One of the more courageous in the group admitted exasperati...

Executive presence. What it that? This has come up several times during coaching sessions recently, including a one-on-one with the advocate for a director who will soon move to the C-Suite. In both sessions, the discussions included meetings, and how performance could be improved during them, along with increased executive presence. Here’s a couple ideas to consider. Try the 2 + 2 Rule, mentioned...

One of my coaching clients is eager to implement numerous improvements in a rapidly changing information technology organization. Among the targeted improvements is more open and candid communication, especially in meetings. Over lunch, we discussed techniques and ideas worth trying. Three topics came up. First, use of our personal leadership philosophy . Setting expectations, which may include ho...

During a “catch-up call” with a client, my colleague shared that her prior company was acquired by a larger one. During the acquisition, despite a generous offer, she made a decision to seek a new opportunity at another small company rather than stay with the larger one. The new firm sounds technically sophisticated, hip and rapidly growing - overall a fun place to work and develop at the same tim...

During a recent in-house Academy Leadership Excellence Course , we shared ideas at the end of day one to improve the second and third days of the course. The first suggested improvement was that we share more with each other. Well, by day three the group really took the comment to heart. One attendee was struggling with an underperforming subordinate meeting a critical deadline during the course,...