JDA

Welcome to JDA Insights

Welcome to our blog where members of the JDA team share insights and advice on improving corporate leadership, driving team performance and enhancing communication... based on our work with thousands of business professionals at Fortune 100 companies.

This blog is a team effort with posts authored by Jeff Dorman, Stephen Giordano and Joan T. Cook.  Visit often or subscribe to our blog's RSS feed here--or sign-up to receive posts directly to your inbox by adding your email to the form located in the middle of the sidebar on the right.  

We are constantly adding new content, with all posts beginning directly below this welcome message. We value the time you spend here, and look forward to engaging in conversation with you. For more information, please visit our Web site or follow us on Twitter.

L&D at the crossroads of today and tomorrow...

by Joan Cook

Big Question: What new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

This month's Big Question at the Learning Circuits blog asks, "What new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?"

At the intersection of the classroom, with all its traditional tools, and the web, with its new ones, stands the learning & development professional.  In a world seemingly gone mad for social media and new brain science research, how do we know what embrace and what to let go of, or indeed, what to develop and implement in terms of tools and skills? 

I've come to admire Clive Shepherd's blog, Clive on Learning, and his take on the question is that while we still have the same overarching goal (to enhance organizational performance through employee learning and development), those who have sidestepped new media in the hope that it will all blow over have done themselves a disservice.  Too many L&D professionals, in his opinion, have fallen behind in their development in regards to the contemporary tools of their profession in ways that would have been unimagineable back in the day.  I would also suggest that from what we've seen here at JDA, a great many L&D professionals aren't proficient at presenting, either, regardless of the tools they're using.  Lots of us fell into the profession and learned on the go, and the demands being created by new media and new tools are throwing those whose training skills are lacking into sharp relief. If you've never been trained as a trainer, you need to add that to your list of things to accomplish in this brave new world as well.

We're sufficiently interested in this question here that we're exploring the idea of adding social media training to our offerings.  More later.

Subscribe to this feed • Visit JDA's Site • Contact Us

How coaching should be viewed

by Joan Cook

If an Olympic figure skater doesn't take to the ice without their coach, why should a senior exec (one of the "Olympic athletes" of his/her organization), someone who's out on that figurative "ice" every day and whose performance is critical to business success?

I have a colleague who's teaching in a coaching skills certificate program at a major university in New York.  She recently told me that when she suggested to her students that they should each hire a coach so they could experience what it's like to be coached (which in my opinion is as important as being trained), the class was taken aback, with the response being,  "Why would I need a coach?"

I've become aware over the last several years that coaching is increasingly being viewed as the tool you use for "people who need help," with the obvious connotation that if you wind up working with a coach you're somehow lacking or need "fixing."  I'm not sure how we got to this perception because nothing could be further from the truth, and it's an important distinction to understand.

How can financial advisors overcome increasing skepticism - particularly in a down economy? (Part 3)

by Jeff Dorman

The last post in this series--the first post is here and the second post is here-- is all about communication.

As discussed in the previous two posts, you can have the right consultative mindset, and a strong meeting process, but without being adept at balancing a set of crucial communication skills, an FA (financial advisor) will stumble.  FA’s talk more than anything else. It turns the client off. It’s that simple. The communication skills that distinguish an average FA from a great one are:

•    Listening – not just focusing and “getting what they’re saying”, but truly demonstrating to the client that you “got” what they’re telling you. We call this skill “reflecting”.

•    Questioning – being able to naturally lead the client to reveal all kinds of key information. Not just the financials, but their hopes, dreams, and fears. And, not making it an interrogation but a conversation.

•    Speaking – you can call this suggesting, advising, recommending, pitching, sharing or explaining. Whatever you call it, it needs to be clear, concise and relevant. And followed by checking and listening.

•    Flexing – the ability to FLEX (adapt) your communication style and build rapport based on the client’s communication style and preferences is one of the toughest, yet most high leverage skills you can have in your toolkit.

The best FA’s are incredibly “self-aware” of their behavior in front of clients and balance these four skills elegantly. They develop trust. They grow their share of wallet.

Happy to answer any questions about any of this, and would love comments as well.

Subscribe to this feed • Visit JDA's Site • Contact Us

On “Why Teams DON’T Work” from the May 2009 HBR

by Joan Cook

Interesting article in HBR—an interview by Diane Coutu with J. Richard Hackman, a professor of social and organizational psychology at Harvard and a “leading expert on teams.” The title is somewhat misleading; turns out teams DO work, as long as they adhere to a set of 5 conditions Dr. Hackman’s research revealed, most of which anyone who’s ever been on a team will recognize from experience:
1.  Teams must be real – people have to know who’s on the team and who isn’t.
2.  Teams need a compelling direction – members need to know, and agree on, what it is they’re doing together.
3.  Teams need enabling structures – the right tasks, members, norms.
4.  Teams need a supportive organization – they can’t be effective or successful if the organizational context (reward system, HR system, info systems) is organized around individuals rather than teams.
5.  Teams need expert coaching – as a group, in team processes.

How can financial advisors overcome increasing skepticism - particularly in a down economy? (Part 2)

by Jeff Dorman

Last post we talked about the first of three key differentiators of a successful financial advisor (FA):  having the consultative mindset of a trusted advisor.

This week, we’ll look at the second of the three differentiators:  having an effective meeting process. 

The best FA’s, in addition to having developed a consultative mindset, have also adopted their own version of running a client meeting.  We call that process the “Client Meeting Path.” It consists of:

Leaving a Legacy

by Joan Cook

Marshall Goldsmith’s most recent post is about dealing with being a “lame duck” in an organization—those senior, influential leaders who are either retiring or moving on. As usual, he hits the nail on the head.  Rather than holding off on announcing a senior departure until the last minute (which can be operationally unnerving and is what tends to happen in a lot of organizations), announce with plenty of time for the exec to be a “happy and productive lame duck” – making decisions, aligning people around goals, coaching their successor, etc.  I posted a comment to the effect that, having coached a couple of “lame ducks” in my time (including the executive administrator of a large hospital), I’ve found that framing the conversation about leaving around the concept of leaving a legacy has been both useful and helpful in keeping the exec on track as they move towards the exit.

I got a nice comment back from Dr. Goldsmith, and thought no more about it until I got an email from a colleague who was very much struck by the idea of “focusing on one’s legacy” (she called it an “amazing point”)—and encouraged me to blog about it.

Making the Six Month Review a Priority this Year

By Stephen Giordano

I know that many managers, myself included, can create a multitude of excuses why not to hold six month reviews with our staff members--the time it takes to prepare and reflect on the past six months, the time it takes to hold the discussions, the myriad of other activities that populate our to-do lists, the clients that need our attention, the projects that we have due.  The list goes on.  At the heart of it though is the critical question - Are our people worth our time? - and the answer is unequivocally yes. 

How can financial advisors overcome increasing skepticism–especially in a down economy?

By Jeff Dorman

Some of our clients are among the biggest names on Wall Street, so it’s been something of a rollercoaster ride for them over the past year. Yet more than ever, especially considering the downturn in the economy, there is a need for top financial advisors (who are among the key populations we work with) to differentiate themselves from their competition.

We see three elements consistently in the top financial advisors (FAs):
a.    Having the consultative mindset of a trusted advisor
b.    Having a client meeting process
c.    Being a highly skilled communicator

This post, I’ll focus on the mindset.  We’ll cover the next two points in future posts.

The Susan Boyles of the world are why I coach

By Joan T. Cook

Susan Boyle, for those who may have recently returned from another planet, became an overnight YouTube sensation singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables for Simon Cowell on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent” just recently. 

A forty-something “spinster” (as she was described by The New York Times) who lives alone with her cat in a London suburb, Ms. Boyle certainly doesn’t look like a potential pop star.  She could be described as homely, and until recently, unheralded. 

But what a talent.

Drop and give me 20…then deliver your keynote

By Stephen Giordano

In a recent episode of NBC's hit show 30 Rock, network executive Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin, prepares to deliver a keynote address to a waiting audience of high potential GE wunderkinds.  It’s his "pre-game" ritual, which consists of him shouting rapid-fire, passionate, positive affirmations to his own reflection in the mirror of the echoing men's room just outside the auditorium.  

"You are an icon, Jack. No one is better than you. You'll knock them over with your brilliance!"   He continues in this vein for more than couple of minutes and when he's done, he pauses, fixes the already perfect Windsor knot on his power tie, locks eye contact with himself once again and whispers, "Go get 'em, tiger."