Lessons in Leadership

When implementing training programs, ensure that the programs you're considering are a fit. Consider these questions in your pre-training planning: Does the training address the  identified need?  Work with managers to determine the behavioral changes expected as a result of training. Conduct a needs analysis to determine the behavioral changes desired, the measures of success anticipated, and if/when/how expectations for these behaviors have been previously addressed with attendees. Does the training provide for skills practice  opportunities during and after the training?  Without time and opportunity for skills practice, training will create awareness only. For behavioral change, skills practice needs to occur during training with opportunities for application back on the job. Follow-up webinars, group coaching and opportunities for discussion with managers and other attendees can provide support and accountability for application of skills long after trai...

Reading can take you anywhere you want to go – a million miles away without ever moving a foot. It can provide the opportunity to be in situations, places, people, and conditions that you’ve never experienced before. It can describe problems similar to your own and offer unique processes, choices and solutions. Reading allows us to continue learning at any time, at any age, and in any place. But what do we learn by reading? Reading offers us the opportunities to disconnect from the usual and routine to experience and create something different, to discover new ideas by considering alternative views, and to skillfully navigate the range of emotions throughout life’s inevitable ups and downs.  Are these not skills needed by today’s leader?   But don’t take my word for it. When CEOs average reading about 4-5 books a month, consider the success achieved by these leaders: Bill Gates  reads about 50 books a year. Mark Cuban   reads more than 3 hours ...

"Learning and innovation go hand in hand.  The arrogance of success  is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."   -William Pollard As the quote above implies, continuous learning is a requirement to just keep up with the amount of change occurring in business, regardless of the industry. Our company core values reflect the importance that we place on education and its role in innovation. We live by what we teach. Throughout 2016, we vigorously pursued our own professional development to “sharpen the saw” and provide value to our clients by ensuring that our existing knowledge does not grow stale. Cara and I became certified facilitators of Ken Blanchard Companies First-Time Manager and Situational Team Leadership programs. Cara completed these two certifications in addition to completing her 2L year in law school. I continued my 2016 “sharpening of the saw” with two additional certifications, Blanchard’s Leading People Through Change ...

In 2016, we made a commitment to our Authorized Partners who have been certified on programs within Jill Hickman Companies Signature Service Curriculum® to provide opportunities for learning and growing through co-facilitation opportunities with other partners within our Authorized Partner Network . Rather than hosting public workshops for individuals from a variety of organizations throughout the Houston area, we took another approach. We decided that providing a leadership development curriculum to a Houston area non-profit, charitable organization would be a great way to afford our partners the opportunity to work and learn together while at the same time, give back to our community. How we chose the charity There are so many wonderful charities throughout Houston that provide valuable and needed services. We soon discovered that choosing one was not going to be an easy task for us – we love them all. Again, we took a different step. Instead of selecting the charity ours...

We have had the honor of working with leaders and employees of   BMC Building Materials and Construction Services ,   Coastal Flow Measurement Companies ,  Enbridge , and  Spectrum Geo  for several years. In that time, we have admired the consistency of their sustainability efforts and the results that they produced. We invited their Talent Managers, OD Managers, HR Directors and Managers, and Marketing Directors and Managers to a special breakfast at Irma’s Mexican Restaurant in Downtown Houston to meet each other and applaud their organizational results obtained from our workplace training implementations. From that first meeting in January, 2016, the five of us (pictured in photo from left to right: Elizabeth Wojtowicz, Jennifer Wall, Nannette Daugherty, Leah Yeglin, and Jill Hickman) agreed that there was much learning to be shared with other organizations. We continued to meet on a regular basis to plan and deliver a presentation for members o...

With work and multiple demands, many families rarely have the opportunity to get everyone together at the same time, same place. The exceptions are funeral and weddings.  Weddings come in second place. Funerals almost always bring the whole clan together. Although the occasion is sad and people are gathered to mourn the passing of a loved one, the event itself can be uplifting and filled with special memories, both past and present.   At a recent funeral of a dear friend's father, her young nephew approached me to remark about a time I visited their home and played the piano for them. After the funeral at his grandmother's home, he played for me. He said my ability to play "by ear" had inspired him to take piano lessons. I told him that once I had been inspired by mother's cousin who had come to visit.  I remarked that one day he will inspire someone else to take on the challenge of playing the piano and experience the joy that it brings ourselves and others in...