Did you ever regret how you reacted to a certain situation at work or home and wonder why you consistently react that way? If you knew how to react differently, would you change it? These are the people with whom that I work: business leaders who recognize the need to change and who seek increased business success and personal fulfillment. I thrive working with those individuals who truly want to be challenged.
As a Vistage Chair, I lead four full groups of non-competing business executives: two groups of CEO’s, Presidents and Business Owners, and two groups of Senior Executives who report directly to them. In these peer groups, I facilitate the process of my members challenging each other and giving honest, caring feedback in all aspects of their lives. Between the monthly meetings, I also provide executive coaching.
My 30-year plus career includes several leadership positions ranging from a hands-on Manager to President and Board Member. By leading difficult and complex projects, such as start-ups and mergers, I honed my unique combination of technical and people skills, and I discovered my love for working with people to accomplish change. Others describe me as having an ability to uncover hidden issues and succinctly summarize their essence.
Real personal change requires becoming aware before habitual reactions occur. The Vistage program and my executive coaching help leaders become more conscious and less reactionary which leads to better results in business while living a happier personal life.
Recent Posts by Cheryl
Ray Attiyah, founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Definity Partners, a training, process, and leadership improvement firm, recently spoke to one of my Key Executive Peer Advisory Groups. Do you want to grow your business and develop new markets or products? According to Ray Attiyah, there is best way to…
Vistage CEO Coaches recommend that their CEO and Senior Executive members meet monthly with each of their direct-reports for a developmental one-to-one (“121”) meeting . While very important, sometimes, these meetings just don't work and you may find yourself dreading a meeting with a certain direct-report. Do you wonder why,…
So far we have covered the first two ingredients of asking open questions. The third ingredient is the easiest. It is the technique or how you word the questions. When asking open questions, avoid all traces of a suggestion, action, recommendation, etc. Use “What…”, “How…”, “Tell me more…
In my last blog, I reviewed the first ingredient of asking open questions- showing up with the intention to learn and understand. The second ingredient is becoming aware of, and managing, your interference. What is interference? It is actually two things. First, it’s that incessant voice we all have in…
Peter Drucker said "...the leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask." How well do you listen and ask open questions? Most members of my Peer Advisory Groups find it very difficult. Listening has two parts: the receptive part of…
What resources do you use to improve your effectiveness? How do you learn what motivates others, so that you can adjust your leadership style to better interact with your employees? A perfect tool is the Enneagram. This powerful and respected personality system can be applied to a wide variety of…
Difficulty with focus and organization is a frequent topic during my monthly one-to-one sessions with my members. As leaders of their businesses, they often feel overwhelmed, by the sheer volume of their outstanding action items. Some of these get captured in various places while many just float in their heads.…
Last month, Vistage held it’s International Conference (“Think Big”) for its Members and Chairs. We listened to some outstanding keynote speakers. Here are my favorites Itay Talgam: “Lead Like the Great Conductors” Internationally renowned conductor Itay Talgam shared his observations that the essential elements of conducting the flow of…
Recently, a CEO member in one of my Vistage Peer Advisory Groups, asked what I meant when I told him that 80-90% of a CEO's time should be spent in meetings. If that sounds like too much, consider that anytime you are with another person and one of you…
More than 1600 Vistage members surveyed in the Q4 Vistage CEO Confidence Index reported a continued slowdown in the pace of economic growth and anticipated overall economic conditions would remain subdued in the first half of 2013. On the other hand, optimism among small business owners who took the WSJ/Vistage…
What are Self-Observation and the Inner Observer? August 14, 2017 The Enneagram personality system has changed my life. Not only…
Organizational Context = Culture March 5, 2018 We began this series with an invitation to think about…
The Art of Question Asking: The Other Half of… July 12, 2011 Elvis Costello keeps singing in my head. “What so hard…
What is Individual Context and Why You Should Care January 8, 2018 In my work, I have the privilege of working with…
Why Context in Relationships Matters February 5, 2018 Part 1 of this series covered individual (personal) context. This…
