A coaching chemistry call, sometimes referred to as a discovery call or consultation, is an initial conversation between a prospective client and a coach.

The executive coaching industry has grown significantly over recent decades, So, how do you select a great executive coach? A review of research indicates five critical factors:

Two new books on work that are meaningful reads.

Recent research on leadership has highlighted several evolving trends and critical insights that are shaping how we think about leadership in 2024,

I often get asked which books I would recommend to sharpen coaching skills, either as a leader or an external professional coach. These books offer a mix of theoretical insights, practical tools, and real-world case studies to help you develop and refine your executive coaching skills.

Leaders I coach often report that they don’t provide enough positive recognition. Positive recognition and feeling a sense of progress are two of the biggest motivators for performance, so why don’t we do more of it?

Fascinating research recently from McKinsey shows that employers are going beyond burnout and stress to consider employee well-being more holistically, including different factors that impact holistic employee wellbeing and how predictive each factor is to overall health.

Coaching the team as a whole, not just individuals, is becoming a key leadership skill. Team coaching, whereby you use coaching practices in team meetings, has parallels to the same practices which foster team psychological safety including…

In order to understand team engagement & motivation, Google asked 180 teams: What is most important for team performance? The top responses included: making an impact, having meaning, role clarity and structure, and dependability of others. But the #1 response was psychological safety; that team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other.

Research shows that the first five minutes of your workday are critical to how effective the rest of your day is. When you first arrive at your office, what do you do?

The habits we create during our “off-work hours” can be some of the most impactful on our focus, creativity, resilience and physical and mental energy – all of which we need in large supply to successfully navigate the the average workday,

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review presented research that shows that the effective leadership performance is based less on skill in leadership competencies, and more on discrete, daily routines that are utilized to drive personal and organizational effectiveness. In other words, the most effective leaders have strong daily habits for themselves and their teams. Over time, these habits lead to higher performance.

In a recent coaching conversation with a senior executive, he started our session by expressing frustration with casual chit-chat at the beginning of meetings. He has an extensive to-do list which never gets shorter, and often works long hours, so getting down to business is a priority for him. He considers his strengths to be his ability to execute effectively and quickly, and to be someone who is reliable, trustworthy and competent. These qualities are meaningful leadership traits and important to his work in strategy and finance. However, there is a flaw in this leader’s thinking…

Research shows that energy management is the “new” time management – it’s not just about the number of hours in the day you create, it is about the quality of those hours, and how you manage your energy.

The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsay Pollack. Great insights & tips on creating, and working in, a diverse engaging workforce.

Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna. Easy to read, and full of engaging stories, this book…

The average work day of most executives is busy and complex. Calendars are overbooked, meetings run into other meetings, and days and evenings are full of activities - social events, dinners, family obligations. Each day brings new demands -- a request to speak at an All Hands, an invitation to lunch, an ask to review a proposal with a peer.

In her book "Mindset", Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck summarizes decades of research on how a person's mindset affects achievement and success. Her research shows that there are two mindsets that we all employ: Fixed and Growth.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.

Giving effective feedback is something that very few leaders do well.

Effective feedback includes positive feedback to let someone know they are doing a good job, as well as constructive feedback to improve performance. In fact, research shows that giving both kinds of feedback is critical to developing your talent, and the ideal praise-to-criticism ratio is 5:1. In other words…

What makes the best teams flourish with engaged, productive colleagues? What accounts for the fact that other teams may have highly skilled, smart individuals but they cannot bring about meaningful team-driven results? Psychological safety was coined by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson and propelled into the spotlight by a Google study. The concept of psychological safety is now regarded as a key element in high-performing, high-engaged teams…

In a recent coaching conversation with a senior leader, he started our session by expressing frustration with casual chit-chat at the beginning of meetings. He has an extensive to-do list which never gets shorter, and often works long hours, so getting down to business is a priority for him. He considers his strengths to be his ability to execute effectively and quickly, and to be someone who is reliable, trustworthy and competent. These qualities are meaningful leadership traits and important to his work in strategy and finance.

However, there is a flaw in this leader’s thinking about how to build his influence and trust with the team. Decades of research show that trust is not gained by showing only competence and excelling at execution…