TOOL
This Google Docs worksheet will help you prepare for a difficult feedback conversation with an employee.
This worksheet includes questions to help you process through the issue and behaviors and provides a template for a feedback conversation.
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Before you jump to building a slide deck for your next presentation, take the time to craft your message and consider what’s most important.
The worksheet includes questions to help you consider the context, audience and messages that will help you design your presentation for success.
Read MoreThis 4-page takeaway accompanies the workshop titled Maximizing the Manager/Employee Check-In, which helps people leaders think about ways to better utilize their one-on-one touch points with team members.
Read MoreCASE STUDY
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) launched an annual cohort leadership development program (LEAD) in 2021. Because their members have diverse experience and goals, and work for a variety of organizations throughout the U.S., executive coaching would play an important role in tailoring the learning to each individual leader’s needs.
Download our case study to explore more about our partnership with CSTE over the years.
Read MoreThis takeaway accompanies the OneHour Workshop titled Managing Time to Reduce Overwhelm. This workshop helps people leaders prioritize, focus, and ultimately find more space to serve their team members.
Read MoreAs executive coaches, we’re trained in conversation strategies that can unlock our client’s potential. What’s interesting in our coaching conversations is that we’re often talking to leaders about how THEY can unlock the potential of their employees or team members.
Here are a few scripts that can get you started if you’re also trying to achieve the same thing.
Read MoreHere are a few questions to consider for your next Manager/Employee check-in. If you’re a manager, try a few out on your employees. If you’re an employee, try to answer them ahead of your check-in and see if they inspire a different kind of touchpoint.
Read MoreGreat public speaking begins weeks before the actual event, when you figure out what you’re going to say. Then, in the moment, it’s about knowing how to say it just right.
Download this resource for some easy and digestible tips and tricks to help you determine what to say and how to say it so that your communication counts.
Read MoreVoices have rhythm, beats, texture, and timbre… all qualities of music. By thinking about our vocal chords as if they’re instruments to practice playing, we can open up an entire world of vocal delivery techniques that are both learnable and measurable in their impact.
Read MoreInstead of providing direct instructions and advice to employees, a manager who acts as a coach will ask open-ended questions to help their employees reflect and move forward with intention.
Download this resource to learn how managers who are empowered to be coaches support a culture of continuous improvement throughout the performance review process.
Read MoreTOOL
This Google Sheets template will help you diagnose the quality of your manager/employee check-ins. Discover whether your time is well-spent, or if you have opportunity to have more meaningful, effective, and inspiring conversations.
Read MoreProcess Conversations focus on alignment around HOW work gets accomplished. This is different from the typical conversations at work about WHAT needs doing. Often, HOW work will get done is rarely discussed. And if it is considered with any kind of intention, it’s usually considered by a leader in isolation, who believes that how the work is done should be a decision they make unilaterally.
Process Conversations are great opportunities for leaders to inspire others, generate buy-in, and drive engagement. AND they’re an access point through which to engage and inspire UP the chain of command as well.
Read MoreManager check-ins, one-on-ones, touchpoints… Whatever you may call them, they are the foundation of a strong manager-employee relationship and the lynchpin for supporting your employees in many ways. This 30-minute-or-so recurring meeting between manager and employee seems so simple that it’s often taken for granted and therefore underutilized. They are used as opportunities to get project updates or chat about anything, when they could be so much more supportive of the employee’s professional growth and development. More often than not, we hear about employees or managers who simply put them off, postpone them indefinitely, or end up using the time as status report opportunities rather than truly leveraging their power.
It’s time to go back to the basics. Here are 4 things that go wrong with your manager check-ins and how to avoid them.
Read MoreFall is conference season. For many professionals, at some point in the fall, they’ll pack their bags, head to a hotel and mix with industry peers. There’s a lot to gain at conferences—knowledge, skills, relationships—but it can be hard to capitalize on all that conferences have to offer in the moment. Here’s a step by step approach to maximize the conference value when you’re back at your desk the following Monday and have a chance to take a breath.
Process Conversations are great opportunities for leaders to inspire others, generate buy-in, and drive engagement. AND they’re an access point through which to engage and inspire UP the chain of command as well.
Read MoreMaking people feel seen, heard, and understood is one of the most fundamental and important skills of a coach. In our work over the past decade, we’ve come to believe that it’s also one of the most important, yet underdeveloped, skills of a leader.
Read MoreAs a manager, you can create a predictable and safe environment for those conversations at your regular manager/employee check-ins. Many of us have had these meetings on our calendar but there’s a big difference between a well organized, predictable, thoughtful check-in and the rushed, distracted, “default” check-in. Scheduling the check-in and inviting your employee to meet with you is not enough.
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Download a pdf with prompts and questions designed to help you inspire you to have an intentional and productive manager/employee check-in.
Read MoreWhen organizing a working group meeting, you may decide that part of the reason for gathering is to collect input and expertise from your members. Remember that giving your participants something to DO is a powerful way to engage them and give them purpose, so don’t hold back. Then, focus on giving your conversation structure so that you can manage the loud voices and democratize the input.
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This Google Docs reflection document includes prompts and questions designed to help you prepare for a conversation when you want to influence someone.
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This Google Sheets template will help you map your power on a specific issue. You’ll identify the relevant people and then evaluate their power, support and the quality of your relationship with them to understand your champions and detractors.
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