Leading Change: 10 Essential Actions

In the modern business environment, change isn’t an initiative. It’s a constant. That makes leading change a critical – perhaps the most critical – skill for leaders. Whether you’re in the C-Suite or on the front lines, the leadership skills that help your team successfully navigate change and achieve the business goals that come with it must be continuously cultivated. While every situation is unique, I’ve identified a universal “top 10 list” of essential actions that enable leaders to create successful change within their organizations.

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Ben Colvin
Leadership Ah-ha: High-Performing Teams Are Built on These 4 Pillars

In recent months, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate several workshops on elevating team performance, and it led me to an ah-ha moment. Of course, leaders are essential to bringing people together and developing a high-performing team. It’s literally in the job description. But I realized that the small, day-to-day ah-ha moments often do the heavy lifting to elevate team performance. And that made me think about how leaders can actively cultivate those day-to-day ah-has to further enable and optimize performance. Take a look.

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Ben Colvin
Taking on Leadership of an Existing Team: A 6-step Framework for Success

When you step into a new leadership role, 99.9% of the time, you’re inheriting an existing team with established intrapersonal dynamics, processes, and inside jokes. And 100% of the time, you’re all experiencing significant change. As a leader, the approach you take plays a central role in the success you’ll have and the time it takes to get there. (No pressure!) Several of my coaching clients have recently taken on new teams, so I’m sharing a six-step framework for success based on from my experience as a business leader and a coach.

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Ben Colvin
Making the Business Case for Coaching in 2022 and Beyond

The days when a manager’s job revolved around telling employees what to do and then assessing their performance are long gone. Instead, leaders are called upon to guide their teams through rapidly changing situations, evolving technologies, and unprecedented challenges. So, how can companies set today’s leaders up for success – and prepare future leaders to step up in the years ahead? It’s time to make a business case for coaching as a core part of how companies operate and succeed.

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Ben Colvin
WFH Lessons Learned (And How to Apply Them in a Hybrid Work World)

Even as we continue to navigate the uncertainties of the COVID-19 virus, many companies are defining what work will look like in the months ahead. Based on what I’m hearing from clients, now is a good time to assess what we learned from our work-from-home experiences – and how we can apply the lessons to create a hybrid work culture that works.

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Ben Colvin
Leading a Hybrid Team? Here Are 3 Must-Dos

2020 was an accelerator no one saw coming as companies and their employees figured out how to make working remotely work. Now, as companies blend the old normal with the new normal, many are adopting a hybrid work model, which presents new challenges to leaders looking to optimize their team’s capabilities while also managing and developing each employee equitably. As you adapt to what hybrid work looks like for you and your team, apply these three must-dos.

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Tackling the Back-to-Work Challenge

As the pandemic surged, companies and employees were forced to rethink how and where work got done. Now, as the world emerges from the pandemic’s restrictions, much has been written about how large corporations are adjusting and redefining their return-to-work strategies. Less focus has been given to small and medium-sized businesses. What challenges are they facing? What actions can they take? And what happens next? Coaching Works NYC, in partnership with PG Research, conducted a survey designed to provide insights and help answer these questions.

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Ben Colvin
How to Hire for Culture Fit and Diversity

The debate about whether hiring for culture fit undermines an organization’s diversity is ongoing, with valid points on both sides. However, instead of taking an either/or approach, companies can successfully integrate both culture fit and increased diversity into their hiring practices. All it takes is a thoughtful and honest assessment of current processes – and a commitment to making changes if needed.

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Are You Ready to Lead Your Team Through This Election Season?

On top of navigating the global pandemic, civil unrest, and new work-life stressors, leaders are now facing another challenge – a tumultuous and particularly polarizing election season. Understanding that passions will be high, it's business-critical to ensure political differences don’t derail your company culture or sidetrack hard-won team chemistry. Read on for three insights to consider to help refine your leadership plan in preparation for a tumultuous close of a tumultuous year.

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Leading Forward: 3 Steps to Take Now

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every facet of our lives. Why should how we think about leadership be any different? The pandemic put a brighter spotlight on the leadership skills companies need in the years ahead and why they’re essential. Whether you’re in a leadership role now, searching for a new job, or working to develop your skills to lead in the future, here are three areas to focus on to ensure you’re putting the right skills forward.

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Why Leaders Need to Cut Themselves Some Slack (and How to Do It)

Raise your hand if you have a case of crisis fatigue. Let’s face it, who doesn’t? From the pandemic and economic distress through civil unrest, 2020 has served up an overwhelming amount of stress. For leaders, the responsibility to provide support, direction, and answers amid all this uncertainty adds an extra sense of pressure. We all need to cut ourselves some slack right now. But many leaders struggle with how to practice self-compassion while leading. Here’s a perspective on how to start.

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What the World Needs Now: Empathetic Leaders

Leadership requires a delicate balance between the human needs of our employees and the business needs of our company — especially right now as we navigate civil unrest in our communities and the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. As I consult with clients, a common theme is how leaders can show up for their teams in ways that matter and make a difference. It all starts with an empathetic conversation. Here are some dos and don’ts.

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How to Stay Motivated in a World of Uncertainty

With everything that’s happening in the world, the “new normal” is feeling decidedly not normal. While our individual reactions are shaped by highly personal perspectives and experiences, I’m hearing common themes from clients — How do I stay motivated and productive? How do I continue to motivate and lead my team? How can I better balance work and life as demands continue to shift? In this post, I share insights about the three basic components of motivation and how understanding them can help leaders adapt to changing circumstances, and motivate themselves and their teams.

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How to Get Comfortable Leading Through Uncertainty

Uncertainty in the business world is nothing new. Back in the ‘80s, Peter Vaill, a management consultant and author, described the challenge as leading through “permanent whitewater rapids.” Now, as the COVID-19 situation evolves, we’re navigating uncertainty like most of us have never experienced in our lifetimes. What does it take to get comfortable with uncertainty – and successfully lead a team and a company to succeed? Start by taking three steps.

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Why Resilient Leadership is Critical Right Now

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, business leaders – and their teams – are navigating unprecedented situations that combine the challenges of remote working, a significant economic downturn, and, in many cases, the need to reinvent or downsize the business. For the most part, the enterprise-level programs have focused on communication, connectivity, and productivity. But, resilient leadership also includes recognizing one size won’t fit all. Read on to explore how you can build team resilience in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

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Are You a Future-Friendly Leader?

Leading a business today is challenging. Plus, you have the added complexity of transforming your business and yourself to address the demands of the future marketplace. It’s a transformation that will require you to tap into completely new leadership skillsets. But, there’s another facet to consider. Are you future-friendly? Ask yourself three questions to assess your readiness to lead your team into the future.

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5 Must-Have Leadership Characteristics in 2025

Today’s business leaders face a choice. Adapt and lead their companies forward in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment, or stay the course and run the risk of getting left behind. For many leaders, developing the necessary skills will require a conscious change in approach. Here are five must-have characteristics all leaders will need in order to thrive in 2025.

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