The Power of a Coaching Culture on Organizational Performance

I'd like to invite readers of this blog to attend a complementary webinar on Thursday, November 8 (2pm EST). The topic, "The Power of a Coaching Culture on Organizational Performance", is one that should be of particular interest to business owners, executives and senior managers.

There’s little doubt that creating a coaching culture within organizations positively impacts business performance. Recent studies show organizations that embrace coaching (enhancing their managers’ abilities to effectively coach others) increased employee engagement as much as 33% and improved business results as much as 133%!  Even Harvard Business Review says “The goal of coaching is the goal of good management: to make the most of an organization’s valuable resources.” 

The webinar features distinguished panelists who are eager to share their stories and successes. It's an hour long, and absolutely free to attend - well worth your time!

To register, please go to www.cpiworld.com/webinars

Succession Planning

LiveScience.com suggests we are living a lifespan longer than ever. As an employer, extended longevity has implications with regards to your workforce and presents unique challenges in succession planning.

It's not just that we're living longer, but in many instances, we're still productive and capable of making valuable contributions - even as we near the age where we're expected to hang up our gloves. And we know it too! Statistics suggest Baby Boomers (those born between 1946-1964) and even Traditionalists (those born between 1927-1945) continue to make up a significant portion of the workforce. The fact is older workers are likely to remain a continuing presence in your workplace than you had originally planned for.

So what does this mean for your succession plan?

Undoubtedly you have younger workers ready to assume greater responsibilities within your organization. Should you leave older workers in place? How can you make room for the next generation? One possibility is to create new roles for your older workers - roles where they can assume responsibilities for special projects that stand to benefit exclusively from the experience and lifetime of accumulated knowledge they possess. You can even bestow upon your older workers a new title that respects the contributions they have made in service to your organization.

Start today! Begin the grooming process by providing your protégé with an opportunity to learn from a mentor - one already on your staff!

As the adjustment moves forward, the transition will be easier for all concerned and less traumatic too.

Sherry's Corner: Celebrating Seniors

Recently, we attended the Saskatchewan Senior’s Mechanism “Celebrating Seniors” gala at the Delta hotel in downtown, Regina. As expected, most of the attendees were over 65 years of age.

Far from being a languid affair, the atmosphere was crackling with youthful energy.

Many of the stories told were inspirational in nature. None more so than the tale of Antoinette Simard, winner of the “Centenarian Volunteer Award”.

Antoinette just celebrated her 100th birthday, but you’d be hard pressed to believe it. Displaying the vigour of a person one third of her age, Antoinette is still out there, volunteering her time and making a difference in her community - Wow!

I love stories like this. Do you know of similar ones? I’d love to hear your comments.

Sherry

My First Official Blog

At the behest of my staff, not to mention friends, family and other associates, I am now blogging. I'm told that this will be a much more effective means by which to stay in touch with regular readers of Knight Views, a monthly print and email newsletter my company, Dimension 11, has been producing for over ten years. If all goes as planned, we'll be able to complement our regular readership with an expanded online audience.

This is just the latest of several social media related initiatives I've been encouraged to embrace. A couple of months back, I began "tweeting" - imagine that! For those of you that dare, you can follow me on Twitter. But this, my first official blog post, is about my introduction to the world of blogging.

As with my posts on Twitter, I can't always guarantee I'll have something profound to say, but I promise to always try and write something interesting. Assisting me will be staff members of the Dimension 11 team, whose informed views on various subjects I know you will appreciate. I also plan to open this space to guest bloggers taken from a pool of Dimension 11 clients, peers, experts on various subjects and people who qualify simply as being interesting by any measure.

In the printed version of Knight's View, I've always encouraged feedback from readers. That won't change here. I wholeheartedly encourage you to comment on what you see and read here - even if (heavens!) you might choose to offer a dissenting point of view.

I hope not to need it, but wish me luck. Belated as it may be, I'm excited to join the ranks of the blogging community.

If you like this blog, please tell others about it and be sure to follow (and comment).

Cheers!  

Sherry Knight