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Colleagues from Kenning discuss leadership, learning, and how to grow and advance at work.
Episodes
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
How is leadership like time travel? Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden explains to Mike Merrill an important tool he employs in his coaching practice: “The Leadership Continuum”. In this framework, Leadership is composed of three elements, all intrinsically associated with a facet of time: Administration, with the past; Management, with the present; and Vision, with the future. A good leader is one who can skillfully navigate through time, first gaining the measure of how much effort they expend on each element, and then intentionally focusing in turn on each with the amount of attention it warrants. Daryl explains how to Manage successfully in the present, plant yourself in the future to gain Vision, and even animate the past through inspired Administration.
Mentioned in the pod:
Neil Stroul, In Memoriam
Contact:
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
On the eve of her announced retirement from Xbox Game Studios, longtime Microsoft veteran Shannon Loftis met with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden to discuss her storied career. Shannon talks about the early days of gaming at Microsoft, and what it was like to be a woman in that hard-driving environment. She explains how Microsoft’s culture has changed in the intervening years, and how she has as well. A timely talk by Melinda French Gates provided some rules to live by for Shannon, guidelines she still shares with the women she supports today.
Daryl and Shannon dig deep into how she arrived upon own leadership philosophy–one defined by the values of individual development, diversity & inclusion, and respect. They talk about how to handle failure gracefully, and how to support individuals proactively. Shannon identifies some of her favorite career moments. She then examines the challenges posed by pandemic to the culture she and her team had built, and how they overcame those challenges.
In wrapping up, Daryl and Shannon explore the impact of coaching–for Shannon, and for her team. On the eve of her retirement, she feels good about her team’s readiness to step up to fill the void she is leaving.
Mentioned in the pod:
Contact:
Shannon on LinkedIn
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Kenning Associates Partner Jen Lachance says that facilitating a meeting means “creating space for group level sense-making”. With that benchmark in mind, she and fellow Kenning Partner (and facilitation veteran) Thom Shaw discuss some of the best ways to prepare for a meeting, conduct it, and what you should do once it's done. How do you define goals and outcomes going into a meeting, and how can you create a sense of progress during? What are some of the ways you can profitably arrange the meeting room, where should you stand, and when does it even make sense to sit down? What are some of the ways to deal with disruptive behavior, and why is some level of conflict actually a good sign? And finally, what’s “the bike rack”?
Thom and Jen draw upon their deep experience to speak to these issues and many more. In the end, Thom and Jen promise that facilitating a meeting–helping a group solve problems and build alignment–can be rewarding, meaningful, energizing, even fun.
Contact:
jennifer.lachance@kenningassociates.com
thom.shaw@kenningassociates.com
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Kicking off our Women in Tech Series, Kenning Partner Cathy Boeckmann welcomes Katie Brown, Founder and Chief Education Officer of EnGen. Katie charts her course from academia, to EdTech startup, and now to a public benefit corporation. Katie describes the dire need for high-quality English Language Learning for immigrants to the U.S. She explains how EnGen’s pedagogy, founded on real English language examples, can aid learners in achieving a level of English proficiency that enables employment and offers the potential for economic mobility. Katie goes on to note how EnGen’s technology allows for a true “flipped classroom,” in which out-of-class individualized language activities can support in-class learning.
Katie and Cathy discuss Katie’s own journey: How she learned to adapt her academic communication capabilities to business needs. And they dig into both what it takes to be a “B Corporation” as well as the fundraising landscape for women founders. Finally, Katie paints a picture of where she would like EnGen to be within 5 years' time.
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller speaks with Mike Merrill about leadership versatility, a trait she has found to be especially important for collaboration and effectiveness. Leaders with versatility have a kind of multilingual fluency: they are better able to adapt to stakeholders both inside and outside the organization and meet the needs of a particular person in a specific context.
Laurie explains how the Birkman Method is an especially useful assessment for executives and teams looking to deepen their leadership versatility. Offering insights on four important dimensions – motivation, self-perception, social perception, and mindset – the Birkman can help colleagues adapt in ways that suit their teammates best. Finally, Laurie suggests some simple ways that anyone can develop greater leadership versatility.
Thursday Jan 27, 2022
Thursday Jan 27, 2022
Kenning Associates Partner Mark Ledden has worked with many coaching clients on problematic behaviors. Speaking with Michael Merrill, he focuses specifically on behaviors where you know you have a problem, but cannot seem to fix it. You may even exhibit the “ideal” behavior in other–typically less pressured–situations.
Mark provides 4 steps for remedying the problem behavior. First, you need to identify the triggering cues: where, when, and what sets you off. Secondly, you must notice your habitual response in the moment. Thirdly, you devise a clearly articulated alternative ready when the behavior happens. Finally, you speed up the cycle of noticing the behavior and replacing it with the preferred alternative.
Mark explains how you can effect this change both on your own, but perhaps even more effectively with outside help, namely a coach. Finally, Mark discusses the value of mindfulness practice and describes how he works to help people not only improve their professional outcomes, but also generally to reduce some of the stress, even fear in their lives.
Reach out:
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Kenning Associates Partner Daryl Ogden talks with Mike Merrill about the 4 types of new jobs that he commonly encounters in his coaching practice, and how those finding themselves in transitions to these new roles can best navigate the challenges that await them.
The first three are moves internal to a company: moving laterally within a large organization; being promoted, often to lead the team you were once part of; and switching from a creative or managerial role to an executive one. Finally, Daryl discusses the particular circumstance that attend being hired to an external company.
Daryl explains that in all these cases curiosity and subsequent reflection are your best tools to make sense of your experience. “Grow big ears,” he says, learn as much as you can and reflect on what you are learning, on your own and, importantly, with others. By doing so, you can find a way not only to succeed personally, but also to align yourself with the organization’s values and strategies, adding your voice to theirs, harmoniously.
To contact Daryl: daryl.ogden@kenningassociates.com
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
In June of 2020, when it was clear that it would be a year like no other, Kenning Partner Mark Ledden started a conversation with his friend and mentor Barry Jentz. Barry, the founder of Learning & Leadership, Inc., is a coach, leadership consultant, and author of the book Talk Sense.
Over the course of his 50-year career, Barry has explored the way our brains are hardwired to treat people as if they are problems. As a result, even seasoned, talented people can become locked into simplistic black-and-white thinking when under stress.
The good news is that it is possible to cultivate a more complex mindset, and the transformation begins with recognizing discrepancies. In this ten-minute excerpt, Barry talks about what discrepant moments are, how he became interested in them, and how they can serve as a gateway for growth. He also explains why he insists on video recording the people he works with.
To contact Barry https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-jentz-8531989
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
Mike Merrill talks with Kenning Partner Jerry Stauduhar about what Kenning has learned over the past year or so about best practices for virtual training. Jerry talks about how Kenning adapted to the new Zoom realities, and some of the major lessons they learned in the process: Deliver your content in small bites; mix up the modalities you work in; and lean into the performance, especially with your voice. Jerry finishes up by explaining some of the benefits to virtual training, and explores the future of the virtual and hybrid training models.
Contact Jerry: jerry.stauduhar@kenningassociates.com
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Kenning Partners Jennifer Lachance and Cathy Boeckmann discuss how you can get the most out of your end of year review. They first look at two common but not ideal reflex reactions to feedback in reviews: “Not Me” and “All Me”. Since neither of these stances engage much with what you are hearing, Jen suggests a different one: “Let’s Talk”. Here you approach the feedback with curiosity: you try to truly understand what your reviewer is telling you, and you work to integrate it into your understanding. Jen delineates the power of this approach before, during, and after the review. And she explains how using it at review time can have positive after effects throughout the coming year.
Reach out to Cathy.Boeckmann@kenningassociates.com or Jennifer.Lachance@kenningassociates.com