Other Research

North America Population Demographic Breakouts (i4cp login required)

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 19:39:00 GMT

This deck provides an overview of recently gathered overall population and workforce demographic data from publicly available sources in the U.S. and Canada. It covers the following demographics, employment trends, and predictions for North America:

Race
Ethnicity
Gender
Age
Disability
Total employed population by race
Occupation distributions

See the global demographic data series here for more.

APAC Countries Population Demographic Breakouts (i4cp login required)

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 19:39:00 GMT

This deck provides an overview of recently gathered overall population and workforce demographic data from publicly available sources. It covers the following demographics, employment trends, and predictions for the APAC region:

Race
Ethnicity
Gender
Age
Disability
Total employed population by race
Occupation distributions

See the global demographic data series here for more.

The American Upskilling Study: Empowering Workers for the Jobs of Tomorrow (i4cp login required)

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 17:27:00 GMT

This report from Amazon and Gallup covers the resuts of a 2021 suvey that asked 15,066 U.S.adult workforce members about their interest in participating in upskilling programs, their reasons for doing so, potential obstacles to participation, if they have recently (within the last 12 months) participated in such programs and, if so, the details of that program.

Hired's 2022 State of Tech Salaries Report (i4cp login required)

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:07:00 GMT

Hired's 2022 State of Tech Salaries report provides analyses of the hiring environment today, based on extensive proprietary marketplace data and a talent survey, spanning the U.S., Canada, and the UK.

The Every Breath Paradigm (i4cp login required)

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 09:00:00 GMT

Many life coaches today make a living by showing people how they can find happiness. There have been several recent bestsellers, such as Greetchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, which explores the ways in which we can become happier in our lives. Much of the advice from these writers and thinkers involves being attentive to the small things, being appreciative of the moment, not taking for granted the good we already have.

Of course, despite the popularity of these books and these notions, they go somewhat against one of the prevailing notions of our modern society: Happiness is just around the corner — if we buy more, dress right, drive the right car, get the biggest raise, apply the most alluring perfume.

Happiness coaching is popular because many of us still, despite our best wishes, fall prey to the lure of the siren call of our consumer culture: "I'll be happy when…."

As I mentioned, some of my high-achieving clients find it hard to grasp the concept of my Every Breath Paradigm since their goals are so different from genuine fulfillment. These clients are always either looking forward or backward — the present moment doesn't come into it.

Gradually I chip away at my clients' forward- and backward-looking attitudes. When clients beat themselves up over a recent or old blunder, I say "Stop," and ask them to repeat the following: "That was a previous me. The present me didn't make that blunder. So why am I torturing myself for some past error that the present version of me didn't commit?"

Then I have them make the universal hand gesture for shaking off a problem and repeat after me: "Let it go." As silly as this routine may sound, it works. Clients not only begin to see the futility of belaboring the past, but they also embrace the psychically soothing notion that the blunder was committed by someone else—a previous self. They can forgive that previous self and move on. In my initial meetings with clients, I may employ this routine a half dozen times in a one-hour conversation. But eventually they get it—usually at a critical or fraught moment when they finally appreciate that the Every Breath Paradigm has utility in their daily life, not just in their career.

Ten years ago, I began coaching an executive in his early forties who had been tapped to be the next CEO of a media company. Let's call him Mike. His natural leadership skills set him apart from the standard C-suite issue of smart, motivated, underpromise-and-overdeliver types. But he had some rough edges that needed smoothing. This was where I came in.

Mike was a charmer when it served his interests. But he could be insensitive and dismissive to people less useful to him. He was super-persuasive, but sometimes aggressive when people didn't immediately concede that he was right and they were wrong. He was also too visibly pleased with his success. This gave him an off-putting air of entitlement. He was special — and never let people forget it.

Insensitive, rarely wrong, and entitled — these weren't career-killing flaws, just issues that came up in my 360-degree reviews with his colleagues and direct reports, which I shared with him.

He accepted the criticism with grace, however. In less than two years (through a process that is the essence of one-on-one coaching), he changed his behavior to his own satisfaction and, more important, in the opinion of his peers (you need to change a lot to get people to notice even a little).

We remained friends after he became CEO, talking at least once a month about his job and, increasingly, about his family life. He and his wife—college sweethearts—had four grown kids, all out of the house and on their own. The marriage was solid after years of tension when Mike was focused on his career while his wife, Sherry, raised the kids and built up a seemingly unshakable resentment of Mike's self-absorption and insensitivity.

I asked him, "Is Sherry wrong?" I pointed out that, if he had been perceived as insensitive and entitled at work, he probably was the same at home.

"But I've changed," he said. "She's even admitted that. And we're much happier. Why won't she let it go?"

I explained the Every Breath Paradigm to him, stressing how hard it was for Westerners to conceive that we are not a unitary mass of flesh and bone and emotions and memories, but rather a steadily expanding multitude of individuals, each one time stamped in the moment of our most recent breath—and reborn with every breath.

I told Mike, "When your wife thinks about her marriage, she can't separate the previous Mike from the man who is her husband today. They're one character to her, a permanent persona. It's how we all think, if we're not careful."

Mike struggled with the concept. I understood. I was offering him a new paradigm, not a casual suggestion. We achieve understanding at our own pace.

A couple of years ago, he called me out of the blue, excitedly announcing, "I got it!" I had no idea what he was talking about, but it soon became clear that the "it" he mentioned concerned our Every Breath talks.

Mike described a conversation with his wife, Sherry, as they were driving back from a Fourth of July reunion with the kids and their partners and friends. Mike and Sherry were reliving the high points during the drive, pleased at how the children turned out, how engaging and helpful their friends were, how the kids did most of the cooking and cleaning up. Basically, they were congratulating themselves on their good fortune and their successful parenting.

Then Sherry said, "I just wish you had contributed more when they were growing up. I was so alone most of the time."

"I wasn't hurt by her words, or angry," Mike told me. "I turned to her and said very calmly, ‘You're right about that guy ten years ago. He was clueless about many things. But that's not the guy in this car right now. He's a better man now. Tomorrow, he's going to be someone else trying to be a little better. Another thing—that woman who suffered back then is not the same woman today. You're faulting me for the actions of someone who doesn't exist anymore. It's not right.' "

The car was silent for a long ten seconds. Then Sherry apologized, "You're right. I have to work on that."

Mike had required years—and an emotionally heightened situation to which Buddha's teaching applied perfectly—to understand the Every Breath Paradigm. His wife got it in ten seconds.

Everyone works at their own pace. Understanding can be immediate or eventual. I'm okay with both timetables. I am always glad to be an accomplice in other people's epiphanies.

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

On Impermanence and the Earned Life (i4cp login required)

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 10:53:00 GMT

I have spoken about Buddhism and my approach to coaching, which uses one of the Buddha's main tenets regarding living well: Everything is impermanent, and we are constantly renewing ourselves with every breath, changing constantly. This is a very different perspective than most of Western thinking, which looks toward the future or the past, and rarely the present. I wrote about how I came up with the concept of the Every Breath Paradigm, based on my understanding of Buddhist teachings, to help clients move forward.

You might be wondering why I'm going on about spiritual matters. The reason is that the Every Breath Paradigm can have immediate effects on your well-being, and your sense of fulfillment.

If we accept that everything of value that we have earned is impermanent and it's subject to the whims and indifference of the world — from the small stuff like a teacher's praise to the big stuff like our good reputation or the reciprocated love of the people we love — then we must also accept that these prized "possessions" need to be constantly re-earned, practically on a daily or hourly basis, perhaps as frequently as with every breath.

One of my most valuable contributions to my clients has been reminding them to stop torturing themselves about their past failures ("That was a previous you. Time to let it go."). It very often clarifies for them that they are no longer at fault — sometimes they need the permission of a third party to give them leave to accept this.

I think it's equally valuable when the opposite occurs: when my clients have felt the need to replay their career highlights reel for me. I see this most vividly in former athletes and CEOs who are struggling to create their next life. When they talk nostalgically about previous triumphs, whether it's winning a gold medal fifteen years ago or leading an organization of twenty thousand people six months earlier, it's my duty to yank them back to the present. I remind them that they are no longer that admired athlete or commanding CEO anymore. That was someone else.

This is no different from preferring to live vicariously through someone famous whom you follow religiously on social media. That famous person doesn't know or care that you exist. You are strangers to each other. It's the same with your constant returning to the glories of a previous you. It's not that the honors and attention and respect, each well-earned in its time, were never real. But they have faded. To recall them is no longer an expression of fulfillment; it's actually a regret about their impermanence, about how swiftly and unceremoniously they slipped away.

Recapturing that sense of fulfillment cannot be accomplished by wallowing in memories of who we were and what we accomplished. It can be earned only by the person we are in the present moment. It can only be earned again, and again, in subsequent moments when we become someone new.

"You're only a success in the moment of the successful act. Then you have to do it again," said basketball coach Phil Jackson, a student of Buddhism, after winning two consecutive NBA championships in the mid-1990s with the Chicago Bulls and then going for a third ring in 1998.

The truth is, we are never finished earning our life. There is no hard-stop moment when we can tell ourselves, "I've earned enough. I'm done." We might as well stop breathing.

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

Don’t Fall Into the Advice Trap! (i4cp login required)

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 09:27:00 GMT

Michael Bungay Stanier is the senior partner of Box of Crayons, a company best known for its coaching programs that help organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. Michael recently ranked as one of the top 8 coaches in the world, has written two books which have sold close to 600,000 copies, The Coaching Habit and Do More Great Work.

This week, Michael and I talk about one of the patterns of leadership behavior that needs to shift, Michael calls it the Advice Trap. Learn more about this trap to avoid in the excerpt from our interview below.

Marshall: Michael, I love what you're doing because you're really focused on avoiding something called "The Advice Trap." Tell me what you mean by that.

Michael: Sure. So, there's a pattern of behavior that we need to shift. Leaders of the past were very good at downloading knowledge and expecting it to cascade down the organization. That just doesn't work anymore. What we're looking to do is shift behavior so people stay curious a little bit longer and rush to action and advice giving just a little bit more slowly.

It's not to say never give advice. What we're trying to shift as a basic behavior, is can people stay curious just a little bit longer?

There are three reasons why advice giving doesn't work anymore.

Typically, the problem that you think is the problem isn't really the problem, because the first problem that somebody comes to you with is just the first thing that's come to mind. It's a symptom. It's their best guess at what the real problem is.

The second challenge is even if, let's say, they've come to you with the exact problem, they've defined it perfectly, almost certainly your advice, as the leader or as the manager, isn't nearly as good as you think it is. It's your best guess. You've made it up. I've heard you say before, if you as the leader know more about, let's say, marketing than the person who's doing the marketing, you have a real problem there.

Now, let's say a miracle has happened. Not only do you have the right problem, and you have a brilliant idea that is an outstanding solution to the challenge. The third challenge, and this is perhaps the most dangerous, is this is not potentially good leadership. Because even if you have the best idea, is that the best form of leadership in the moment?

What's more important, you being right, having the best idea, or giving the person you are leading the opportunity to come up with their own idea, doing their own thinking and claiming ownership of their own insight.

Alan Mulally is an inspiration for this - if anybody role models this ability to be the leader, stand aside, and let other people find their solutions, it's Alan. He's a real champion for that piece around ‘even if I know the answer, is it really the best move for me to give the answer?' Part of Alan's philosophy of leadership is to resist giving the answer as long as possible until it's the right moment. Because there becomes a moment where it is the right time for you to give advice.

Marshall: I love it. My friend David Ulrich taught me that effectiveness and execution is functional. A, what's the quality of the idea? And B what's my commitment to make it work? What I love about what you just said is we can become so fixated on trying to provide an answer that's much better. Even if we do improve the quality, we may damage their commitment much more.

So always ask, is this going to improve this person's commitment? And then is it worth it? Fantastic. Thank you.

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

The Coaching Habit: The Kickstart Question (i4cp login required)

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 10:33:00 GMT

Michael Bungay Stanier is a fantastic guy and great coach. Recently ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the top 8 coaches in the world, he is a member of our 100 Coaches and senior partner of Box of Crayons. Michael has written two books The Coaching Habit and Do More Great Work, which have sold close to 600,000 copies.

In The Coaching Habit, Michael talks about the importance of questions in coaching and in our interview this week, we discuss a special kind of question, the Kickstart Question.

Marshall: A lot of leaders have trouble with coaching. One of the reasons they have trouble is that coaching seems to them to be awkward, embarrassing, and uncomfortable. They just can't get started.

I love your idea of the Kickstart Question. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Michael: You're right on point Marshall. Coaching for leaders is a bit like trying to chat somebody up in a bar. If you could just get the conversation going, it'd be fine. But what is the opening line?

You can't, in a coaching conversation, go, "Oh, did you hurt yourself when you fell from heaven?" That's not going to work. You need a good coaching question to get things going.

I want managers and leaders and individual contributors to be more coach-like and it's really helpful to have some go to questions to ask. You don't need thousands, you don't need hundreds, I reckon 70 to get you across the line!

So, here is the ultimate kickstart question: "What's on your mind?" The reason it works so well, is that it is an open question. It says to the person, "Why don't you tell me what's going on for you?" You're giving them the autonomy, the self-sufficiency, the empowerment to make the choice.

You're not saying to them, tell me anything, or tell me everything, you're saying, what are you worried about? What are you anxious about? What are you excited about? What's waking you up at five o'clock in the morning? Let's go somewhere important somewhere that matters, because time is short. I don't have a whole bunch of time for a coaching conversation. I'd like to be able to coach you in 10 minutes or less. So, let's get into it, and let's get into it fast. What's on your mind?

Marshall: I love it! Thank you!

Work Is Love Made Visible: A Collection of Essays about the Power of Finding Your Purpose from the World's Greatest Thought Leaders, edited by Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, and Sarah McArthur is available now on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com and wherever books are sold!

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

Awe: The Best Coaching Question You Can Ask (i4cp login required)

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 17:51:00 GMT

Michael Bungay Stanier is a fantastic coach and author, who has written two books The Coaching Habit and Do More Great Work, which have sold close to 600,000 copies. Recently ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the top 8 coaches in the world, Michael is a member of our 100 Coaches and senior partner of Box of Crayons. Michael's coaching incorporates asking questions. In this week's interview Michael gives us what he believes is the important coaching question you can ask.

Marshall: Michael, I love your philosophy and I love the idea of asking questions. If you had to say what is that one question that's the most important, what is it?

Michael: I love that you ask me that because in the book I share seven questions which will be great ask nearly every time you are coaching. And then I get asked all the time, so what's your favorite question? Of those seven, what's your favorite question?

Marshall: And, what's the one?

Michael: I love them all. I don't have children, but if I did have children, they'd be like my children. They're all great in their own way. But if there was one question, I would say this is the best coaching question in the world.

Marshall: What is it?

Michael: It's three words. Just three words. The acronym for the three words is A W E, so it's literally an awesome question. And question is this: "And what else?"

Marshall: And what else?

Michael: "And what else?" I know when I tell people that's the best coaching question in the world, there's almost a palpable sense of anticlimax in the room. They think, ‘Oh I thought it was going to be something amazing. Something that would open up the universe…'

Marshall: It does!

Michael: Well, thank you for saying that. Here is why "And what else?" is so powerful. Two reasons. First, the first answer somebody gives you is almost never their only answer and it's rarely their best answer.

So, if you lead with any of the other questions, like "What's the real challenge here for you?" Or "What do you want?" Or, "What was most valuable from this conversation?" They'll give you their first answer and then you go, great, "And what else?" And they'll always have something else to say, so you're helping them learn. You're helping to be a teacher for them.

Here's the second reason "And what else?" is so powerful. It's a self-management tool. Most people struggle to keep curious in conversations. And when you ask something like, so "What's the challenge here?" And they give you an answer. Part of you thinks, ‘Oh, this is amazing. We've found an answer. Let's get on that.' And what I would call the ‘advice monster' springs up out of the dark and starts adding value to the conversation.

What you're trying to do, though, is to tame your advice monster. Keep it quiet in the background. Asking "And what else?" is a self-management tool to keep your advice monster quiet, to stay curious a little bit longer, and to see where this conversation leads.

Marshall: I love it.

Michael: So if you're going to add one coaching question to your repertoire, make it "And what else?"

Marshall: "And what else?" Thank you!

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

So You Want To Be A Coach, Now What? (i4cp login required)

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 08:34:00 GMT

Chris Coffey, who along with Frank Wagner leads the Stakeholder Centered Coaching® certification in the U.S., has trained thousands of coaches. Chris provides a rare combination of being entertaining and dynamic while providing advice and stories from his extensive coaching experience that is both practical and applicable. He is a person that I trust to lead the training process for our behavioral coaches.

Recently I asked him what advice he has for people who are interested in becoming Stakeholder Centered Coaches and who may be starting up their coaching practice. Following is a short excerpt from our interview.

Marshall: Chris, what advice do you have for people who are interested in becoming Stakeholder Centered Coaches?

Chris: Great question, Marshall. First, we get, a lot of people who ask if we are going to drive business for them. The answer to that is clearly no. There are so many coaches out there and nearly anyone can be a coach. All they need is a business card.

When people ask me about being a Stakeholder Centered Coach, I ask them about their background and why they want to be a coach. I ask them what they will bring to their coaching. I describe what it is like to be a coach. They will have to get business, and this can be difficult. You won't just get business because you've been certified.

So, for people who want to coach, are they passionate about helping people get better? Personally, I get a thrill when an executive calls me and tells me the coaching is working. Watching them grow and develop is hugely rewarding for me.

Being a Stakeholder Centered Coach also means working with stakeholders. I talk with each stakeholder and explain that the client has asked them to be a stakeholder. I emphasize that this is not going to take much of their time. That is number one - the coaching be a time burden to them.

I let them know that all they need to do is pay attention to what the coachee has picked to work on and be honest about his or her behavior in the minisurvey. Be honest and tell the truth. Don't overinflate it and don't hold onto the past.

Then, periodically, every four or five weeks, the coachee will ask the stakeholder how he or she is doing. Has the stakeholder noticed a difference in their behavior. And that's it for the stakeholders, be honest and pay attention. That is all they have to do.

And, so managing this process is the job of the Stakeholder Centered coach and for those think they want certification, to ask themselves, Why do I want to do this? Is helping people change for the better something that I am really passionate about?

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

Inside EY’s $22 million strategy to get workers back into the office (i4cp login required)

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:38:00 GMT

A temporary fund set up by the firm reimbursed all commuting costs, dependent care costs, and pet care costs for its U.S. workers so that the barriers would be removed for office visits.

Read this article on hrexecutive.com .

Coaching – A Super Idea for Any Startup! (i4cp login required)

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:34:00 GMT

Recently, my good friend, voted one of Boston's Top 10 coaches by Women's Business, executive coach and Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach, Alisa Cohn and I sat down to talk about her area of expertise, coaching entrepreneurial leaders and startup organizations.

Below is the first of a series of excerpts from our interview, where we discuss the highlights of coaching entrepreneurial leaders and how it is different from coaching larger more established organizations.

I learned a lot from my conversation with Alisa, and I think you will too!

Marshall: First let me share some of my observations about coaching. One of the first things I've learned in coaching is that the most important part of coaching is picking great clients. In my coaching process, I work with people for a year or so, and focus on results. The great learning I've had is that I don't get great results if I don't work with great people.

So, to me getting great clients is very important. Alisa, what are some of your observations, reflections on coaching that you can share?

Alisa: Your point about picking people who want to change is so important. I love when people open up to changes and find possibilities they'd never considered. That is very rewarding to me. We all have blind spots. And, many of us are trying to overcome them, especially if you are into self-development, which of course, we are.

Marshall: One thing that I'm proud of is that 27 major CEOs endorsed my book Triggers. Thirty years ago, no CEO would have admitted to having a coach. They would have been too ashamed or embarrassed. Today, rather than be embarrassed, leaders are proud to have a coach.

Alisa our roles have been different in coaching. You've worked in big companies and you've also done a lot with startups. My experience with smaller companies is much more limited than yours. What are some of the experiences that you've had working with startup CEOs and startup companies?

Alisa: I agree with you that coaching has come out of the closet. The generation of people that I work with quite a bit are people who have lived with coaching and welcome it. These first-time leaders and founders recognize that they need help. Also, the venture capitalists and their boards are interested and engage with them in the coaching process. The culture values, appreciates, and accepts coaching.

The leaders I work with talk about their conversations with their coaches and they are really comfortable with the concept of this type of mentoring and growing. It translates to the organization as a whole and builds a culture where people want to get better and coaching is the way they see to do that.

Today, especially in startups, the environment is one in which people recognize that we're all here to learn ourselves and from each other, and this creates a learning organization, which coaching really supports. Coaching has become the tool for organizational success!

Reprinted with permission from Marshall Goldsmith

Culture Over Compensation: Key Findings From the Talent Imperative (i4cp login required)

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 19:48:00 GMT

The Talent Imperative, a global study by i4cp and Fortune, found that leading organizations are banking on culture - more than compensation - as a key element of their employee value proposition (EVP).

In addition to fueling talent attraction and retention, focusing on culture has positive implications for the bottom line.

Learn more about this study finding in our Culture Over Compensation brief, which is an excerpt from the i4cp/Fortune study The Talent Imperative.

Member-contributed Resource: Levi Strauss & Co.'s 2021 DE&I Impact Report (i4cp login required)

Fri, 06 May 2022 17:43:00 GMT

This reports details Levi Strauss & Co.'s DE&I data and the organzation's goals for 2022:

Moving into 2022 and beyond, we are committing to the following:

• Ensure employees of all backgrounds, and with all types of experiences, have meaningful career opportunities at LS&Co., feel supported and see a path forward for growth

• Improve how we track and measure impact, with an emphasis on better data and increased transparency

• Develop stronger leaders with essential capabilities - including, inclusive leadership, anti-bias and

anti-racism practices

• Grow as an industry leader in employee well-being by fostering a culture of empathy and implementing policies that support the diverse, holistic needs of all employees -so they can prioritize their wellness and well-being both inside and outside of work.

As we grow the impact and effectiveness of our DE&I programs, you can continue to count on us to listen, learn and use our voice as a force for positive change with employees, consumers and our global LS&Co.culture.

International Franchise Association's Report on the 2022 Labor Market (i4cp login required)

Mon, 02 May 2022 14:20:00 GMT

This report from the International Franchise Association (IFA) is based on a survey of over 200 franchisor executives representing 197 brands who reported on their experiences with current labor markets. Launched in January 2022, the franchisor labor survey sought to develop an understanding of current labor challenges across the franchise industry, and to analyze how both franchisors and franchisees have navigated the labor market during the economic recovery.