Top posts of 2014

Tracking the most popular posts of the year helps us continue to improve—and sparks some friendly competition between our bloggers too! Linkage Executive Vice President Susan Brady’s posts on Coaching your Inner Critic (and publishing a book on the subject too!) made big news on the blog in 2014. But all of the following posts made an impact. Take a minute to peruse our most popular posts below and tell us what you want to learn more about in 2015 in the comments box.

1. Coaching your Inner Critic

Organizations have appetites and real business needs to advance female talent, and we women are just starting to admit that we might be part of the problem. In fact, being able to coach ourselves might be the secret ingredient to the recipe for developing women leaders.

2. Leadership lessons from Star Trek

We all know the story of Star Trek—a racially diverse crew from all walks of life works together, enjoys camaraderie and collaboration, and goes where no man had gone before—broke Diversity & Inclusion boundaries way back in the sixties. And since then, decades of diverse Enterprise crews have set an extraordinary example of the value of diversity. But Star Trek teaches us valuable lessons in inclusive leadership as well.

3. How to give feedback like a Zen Master

The best advice I’ve ever received on giving feedback touches on the same idea that applies to receiving feedback—the importance of having a “beginner’s mind” that Zen master Shunryu Suzuki illustrates with his well-known quote, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

4. Change is a contact sport

Leading change isn’t something you delegate to the next level down. And often the most successful implementations happen when the CEO develops a very specific 12-month change plan and views him- or herself as the driver and catalyst in its execution. Another skillful tactic is to use minimizing turnover as a key metric. When the CEO is skillfully leading the change, a company usually minimizes productivity-disrupting turnover.

5. Top 4 behaviors of highly effective leaders

Well-integrated, high-performing teams—those that “click”—never lose sight of their goals and are largely self-sustaining. In fact, high-performing teams often take on a life of their own, and it’s all due to leadership.