George, a 30-something media executive, was well regarded by his clients and bosses but was experiencing quite a high turnover of his direct reports and wasn’t quite sure what was the root of the problem.
Greatness begins with awareness.
Susan’s Insights
Is Stress Affecting Your Leadership?
A lot of my Leadership Coaching clients come to their sessions and report feeling so stressed out that they are having trouble focusing on what they need to accomplish. That’s hardly surprising.
Making Time for Reflection Increases Leadership Effectiveness
Is your “life platter” well balanced? How often do you make time to listen to your “internal cues”? This something I always ask to my Executive Coaching clients. Why?
Are Your Beliefs Hindering Your Leadership?
Our belief system is a key to the lives we create. If you are an executive, your belief system is likely to have an impact on your leadership style – whether you are aware of it or not.
A leader’s development improves the whole firm
Todd, the managing partner of a professional services firm, was frustrated with himself and his firm’s leaders. He had an intense passion and vision for where he saw the firm going, yet he felt like none of his partners shared his vision.
Leadership onboarding facilitates quick, smooth transition into crucial role
Executives starting a new job often assume that the strengths and approaches used in previous positions will continue to work just as well in the new reality. However, that is not always the case. The Client’s Challenge The CFO of a fast-paced software company hired...
Navigating workplace conflict with better communication
The Client’s Challenge Becky, a young new manager in a fast-paced business, was having trouble collaborating with her direct report, Molly, to handle their tight deadlines. Becky’s supervisor was having conversations with the two of them separately but Becky and Molly...
Action plans are key to successful coaching
The Client’s Challenge Mimi is a senior non-profit leader in a fast-paced, well-respected national organization. She engaged in the
Help! My Team Needs “Fixing”…or Does It?
Often, business owners hire a coach with the goal of getting their team to align with their own leadership style and operational approach, thinking that if they can get others to work like them
Leading From Home: Stepping Up to the New Challenge
Awkward. Disorienting. Chaotic. You’ve been going to the office for years and now find yourself juggling your home life and leadership load all at once, in one space. Leading from home is not as simple as
Are You a Grateful Leader?
Many of us share what we are grateful for at the Thanksgiving table. Yet, the attitude of gratitude shouldn’t be something that we only embrace once a year.
What’s Possible For You That You Are Not Seeing?
One of my clients came to a coaching session with a major concern. “If I make the changes that need to be made, will I still feel like me, in my own skin?” We had just finished…
Are Leadership Assessment Tools Really Worth It?
The road between where you are and where you want to go is full of possibilities and discoveries. When you open up your eyes and embrace them, they can take you far beyond the place where you’ve set your sight.
Executive Coaching Makes Being at the Top Less Lonely
Being the boss at the top of the shop is not easy. It can be a very lonely place. You can’t confide your fears and concerns to vendors and direct reports…
How Professional Service Firms Can Gain a Competitive Edge
Professional service firms have been slow to embrace executive coaching. Yet, it is a strategic tool that could help such organizations deal with a wide-spread issue.
How Does Leadership Coaching Work, Anyway?
Sometimes, people and organizations are reluctant to engage in leadership coaching as they don’t quite know what to expect from the process. Let’s bring some clarity to the picture.
Simple Relationship Management Strategies that Drive Business Growth
The cornerstone of success in the business world comes down to one thing: the ability to build honest and lasting relationships with clients, co-workers, and partners.
Leadership and Team Coaching Irons Away Post-Merger Challenges
One of the biggest challenges a merger brings about lies in reconciling different leadership and operations styles and getting the two merging teams to build trust and work as one.
A Simple But Effective Team Building Exercise
Working on a team can either be a wonderful experience or an awful and exhausting challenge. So what creates such differences? In successful teams, people have respect for
A Tale of Team Building Success
The Talent Development team at a national financial services company brought me in to help them with team building to improve their ability to work together.
Effective Team Building Needs Talent Diversification
A consulting firm hired me to do a team building workshop to help them work more effectively together. The team was overflowing with good projects but struggled to work together.
Effective Teamwork: Creating Teams That Work In “Flow”
Have you ever had the opportunity of being part of a team that worked so well together, it was almost effortless to get things done and everyone seemed to be perfectly in sync with everyone else? Working in this state of flow can…
Kolbe tool transforms a business
I recently had the opportunity to spend time with the answerQUEST team and was quite impressed with their organization. answerQUEST is a successful executive search company that is “taking their own medicine” to improve productivity, enhance working relationships and...
When values demand a change
Many people have a clear definition of their values, however their daily activities do not always reflect those values. Sometimes the disconnection between values and our work becomes so intense, a career change evolves quite naturally. Catherine recently underwent...
Improve team effectiveness
Working on a team can be a rewarding experience or an incredible challenge. How well does your team work together? Are projects done on time and within budget? There are simple insights and strategies that can help your team be more productive. Susan leads teams...
Understanding relationships like NEVER before
Kolbe’s new A to A report hits a grand slam in detailing what happens in relationships. It provides: insights and strategies to be more collaborative areas where we might get challenged, and helpful tips so we can understand what is at play between us and...
Kolbe’s Follow Thru Action Mode Can Make or Break a Team
A team will have ideal synergy when its members fall into each of the three Follow Thru zones, which describe the ability to Adapt, Maintain and Systematize within this Action Mode.
How Your Kolbe Fact Finder Score Plays Into Team Collaboration
The Fact Finder Kolbe score reveals with how much detail and complexity a leader or team member needs when solving problems, and how much data they need (or don’t need) when striving.
Know Your Kolbe Quick Start Score For Good Leadership and Teamwork
In the Kolbe Assessment tool for leadership and team development, the Quick Start score tells us how much change and risk people can handle, and how that’s going to impact the way they lead
Are Leadership Assessment Tools Really Worth It?
The road between where you are and where you want to go is full of possibilities and discoveries. When you open up your eyes and embrace them, they can take you far beyond the place where you’ve set your sight.
How to Develop High Performing Teams
A high performing leadership team – where everyone is aligned and works collaboratively – is one of the most important aspects to a successful business.
Self-Awareness Is A Game-Changer For Your Work: A Client’s Perspective
(A Client’s Perspective) I had no idea the impact that increased awareness could have on my work. When Susan first told me about the importance of self-awareness to
Kolbe Wisdom™ on the Home Front
I often teach and write about Kolbe Wisdom™ in the workplace. Recently, however, the same insights helped me understand myself on the home front.
From Job Exhaustion to Thriving Leadership
One of my Executive Coaching clients, Scott came to me because he couldn’t understand why he was experiencing job exhaustion in a leadership role he really liked.
A Tale of Team Building Success
The Talent Development team at a national financial services company brought me in to help them with team building to improve their ability to work together.
Emotional Intelligence Includes Listening With Respect
“I listen to you and you listen to me, then our feelings won’t get hurt”. This statement rolled off my daughter’s tongue when she was much younger and made me think of the importance of emotional intelligence.
Making Time for Reflection Increases Leadership Effectiveness
Is your “life platter” well balanced? How often do you make time to listen to your “internal cues”? This something I always ask to my Executive Coaching clients. Why?
Wisdom Within…Or How To Summon Our Innate Strengths
“You have the innate strengths, temperament and attitude for the test before you. Breathe deeply and know you have everything within you that you need at this moment and all your moments!” – Susan Spritz Myers This week Debbie Schimberg, one of my best pals sent me an...
Going Dark: Disconnecting from Email and Phone to Improve Productivity
The other day a client mentioned that she would be “going dark” because she had to work on a big project. I was intrigued with the term, not having heard it used before. She meant that she would be heads down and not connecting with others…
Coach Training Matters
Coaching is powerful because of the objectivity a coach brings to a client. In coach training we call it a "lack of attachment", which means it is the coach’s role to help the client without any opinion or opportunity for the coach. The coach’s sole job is to help...
Are you finding lessons in your challenges?
When we encounter a challenge in our personal or professional life, we are often so busy being frustrated, annoyed, maybe even anxious and
What I love about Thanksgiving
Everything! Here are the reasons why… We always celebrate it on Thursday. There is always a long weekend after the holiday. We share it, hopefully with special family and friends. We eat lots and lots of delicious foods. Everyone forgets about their diets for the day....
Building confidence
Many times when I begin working with new coaching clients, they express a desire to increase their confidence. What is confidence, anyway? It is the feeling or belief that you can do something well and accomplish an intention or goal. When we don’t feel confident, we...
Annual goal setting
We are officially into the New Year, and moving quickly through the first quarter. Do you remember your annual resolutions and goals? It is certainly easy to forget all of those new ways of being or commitments we made in the excitement of the New Year. It is easy...
LEADERSHIP COACHING
Reach new heights in the role you love by bringing more of what’s amazing about you into it.
TEAM DEVELOPMENT
Learn how to work together in the most productive way by leveraging the strengths of every person on the team.
Subscribe to Susan’s Blog
Learn how to connect to your greatest strengths