Generational Interchanges: Top 5 Drivers of High Potential Engagement

Hi folks. Here’s a great post from a colleague about what Millennials and High Potentials expect from their workplace. Let me know what you think. -db —The science of Human Resource Management was literally developed in the 1920s and 1930s during a time when the generational ethos was one of self-sufficiency, organization, and productivity. HR practices today remain tethered to these tenets, and it is striking to see how ill-suited most companies are for the Millennial generation’s values of creativity, community and equality.  Millennials will set the tone for employee engagement and the changing employer contract for the foreseeable future. The pure size and influence of this generational cohort will affect the perceptions and attitudes of Generation X and Baby Boomer employees as well. To determine the best high potential engagement strategies for companies, we must look to the Millennial generation for insight. Using Millennials as the norm, here are the […] Read More »

Why People Work With Coaches

At a recent Los Angeles Chapter meeting of the ICF-LA, I heard my friend and colleague Damian Goldvarg (and current president of ICF-Global) present about the 5 simple reasons people hire a coach. This information came directly from the ICF (International Coach Federation) 2014 global survey. As much as Damian and I are absolute geniuses about coaching, these simple words come straight from the report summary: Why people participate in a coaching relationship: -Optimize individual/team work performance -Expand professional career opportunities -Increase self-esteem/self-confidence -Improve business management strategies -Manage work/life balance  So, yeah. What they said. The simplest 20 word description of why people work with coaches I’ve seen.   Read More »

Leadership Remix: Beyond the Corporate Snooze

As a culture, and as a community, we are only recently beginning to understand, ask ourselves, and define, or actually redefine, leadership. The word’s been around, and we hear it often. Yet the composite snooze we experience around the word is a result of its apparent emptiness. It feels like tired corporate jargon because when the so-called leaders of business, industry or culture are asked about leadership they seem to have nothing to say that is inspiring, profound, or relevant. OH, IT WAS NOTHING, REALLY Maybe they’ll point to decisions they made, or anecdotes or experiences that may have inadvertently and unconsciously shaped them. Or missions, agendas or strategies that they seem to have led or overseen, and are thus receiving and happy to take ownership in, some bit of public, corporate, or artistic success. Read More »

Leadership Definitions: The Journey Begins

(This is a work in progress. I’m still synthesizing and simplifying many of my notes and writing about leadership over the past few years. My apologies in advance for any potential redundancies.) Hope you like it, here it goes: DEFINITION/RIFF #1: Leadership is the art of facilitating collaborative creation toward a powerful goal. Leaders guide and empower a team of willing participants towards a visualized, articulated, actualized and constantly evolving end. Leaders bring forth a deeply accessed vision, nurture their teams by facilitating inspiration and collaboration and manage results through supportive accountability. Leadership can be practiced and applied by anyone at any level of a team or organization. Read More »

Hollywood Leadership: Where Star Power Meets Team Power

It’s the central leadership paradox for creative industries. How do we create and configure true collaborations among members of a group, company, crew or team while still maintaining the essentially hierarchic format of the history of creative development and production? Or to paraphrase my friend Rob Brezsny “How can we be both a charismatic star and a cooperative team player?” STAR POWER Let’s use Hollywood as an example. Hollywood has always been and probably always will be fueled by Star Power. Whether it’s an “A-List” actor, a “name before the title” director, or a “mini-mogul” producer films, studios and projects will always have a “star.” Star Power can fall anywhere on the spectrum between box office muscle to creative visionary to financial alchemist. The “star” is the driving force, the person without whom the camera does not roll and the phone calls do not fly which generate the mounds of […] Read More »