"Joel is one of the few people I've known who combines practicality and vision in balance. He also has great respect for process, people and results involved in his endeavors."– Daria Paxton, Owner, Gaia Gardens LLC
“I have hired Judy for personal coaching on more than one occasion and found that she has a unique blend of business experience and coaching skills. It is obvious that Judy has held very senior business and HR roles throughout her career, and is able to leverage her experience and connections to help her clients get clear on their goals and then achieve them. I have worked with a number of executive coaches over the years, but never found one that possessed this rare - and highly effective - combination of skills and experience.” – David Ingerman, Internet Marketing Executive
“Joel is a great guy! He trusts people and delegates authority and responsibility. He devised a unique retail space that surprised customers with its beautiful and vast selection of pottery from around the world. Joel is a good listener, follows through and keeps his word. Joel has innovative ideas and integrity.” – Rebecca Bergstrom, Owner, Yoga Desha LLC
“I have been working with Judy on exploring my career options, and I am impressed with her grasp of how to self-market. Her fun yet firm guidance is really helping me to shape my future career. What a great voyage of discovery!" – Kate, Career Coaching Client
“I came to know Joel through my involvement with Greenworks on Grove, the adaptive reuse project in which Joel and his partners turned the former World Pottery location into Montclair NJ's first LEED certified commercial space. Joel was a driving force throughout the project, championing the Sustainable aspects of the project. He led a "dream team" of partners all of whom shared Joel's vision for Greenworks on Grove. I am very grateful for the trust placed in me by Joel and his team. He is a smart, thoughtful manager, and showed great business judgement while incorprating green elements into the project and produced a unigue, gorgeous commercial space. I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again at some point. I have met few people who "walk the talk' as Joel does.” – Gerry Hazel, Owner, Sustainable Systems, LLC
“Working in a small, highly-leveraged team with global responsibilities, Judy was able to develop strong relationships with colleagues - down the hall and around the world. Judy also played a key role in the formation of this team. She has excellent coaching skills – and didn’t hesitate to effectively address internal team issues head on, in a supportive and constructive manner.” – Niti Badarinath, EVP, Global Direct Banking, Citigroup
”It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Joel Patenaude and J2 Partners I am well qualified to judge what makes a great business coach as I currently try to manage a number of companies around the world and I need lots of help, and I have tried a few coaches along the way! Joel has sound business experience with an entrepreneurial flair. With J2 Partners you will be tapping into a wealth of knowledge and experience, with a network ranging from one man bands to the biggest corporations in America. Joel maintains a professional yet comfortable style, well suited to getting his points across without ruffling the egos of us sensitive owner types. With Joel, honesty and integrity are all just part of the package. Joel & I have jointly developed the marketing strategy for my latest U.S. venture (currently on hold due to the economy. I hope he will be available to work with me on executing it once we start up again). The strategy involves obtaining suitable customer lists, verifying them via telesales, then directing a multi media advertising campaign. He has a lot of experience in this area.” – Andy Milne, Owner and M.D., Mim’s Group
“Judy is a highly effective leader that balanced results leadership with a sensitivity to employee needs that created a strong following for her.” – Jim Routh, Chief Information Security Officer at KPMG
“Judy has always impressed me with her keen insight and strong customer-orientation. This served her well as she led strategically-important product development and marketing initiatives, but also helped make her a unique leader of people. Her ability to quickly assess her team's capabilities and then proactively support their development led to stronger organizations. Her ability to coach both people and process is a strength of hers.” – Andy Yost, Vice President, CRM, MTV Networks
“Judy Hoffstein is a deeply thoughtful business strategist with cross-functional experience and insight. But what truly distinguishes Judy from the hordes of talented strategists is her ability to meaningfully apply theory and experience to complex situations. Judy is especially adept at defining the interpersonal dynamics that either challenge or support a business situation and devising a plan of action and coaching strategy to cross seemingly insurmountable hurdles. I have seen Judy bring leadership, tact and insight to sensitive circumstances in order to refocus on objectives that were lost to political or cultural challenges. The ability to bring vision -- supported by credibility -- to senior level problem solving makes it possible for Judy to achieve results where others may be either incapable or frustrated to the point of surrender. Judy is exceptional...smart, capable and productive.” – Leslie Stenull, Director of Marketing, Chadbourne & Parke LLP
“Judy Hoffstein has a unique blend of management expertise coupled with a profound knowledge of human dynamics in a business setting that make her an excellent senior-level executive coach. Judy is particularly insightful in understanding personalities and the challenges that the business environment brings. In addition, she is exceptionally smart, she relates well and is sensitive to many different types of people and business styles, and is genuinely likable while appropriately demanding. When I reported to Judy directly, she was extremely helpful to me personally in strengthening my skillset and positioning me to deal more effectively with the business issues our team was encountering. At a number of critical junctures for the business I was managing at the time, Judy’s insight and understanding of the organizational politics allowed me to get controversial changes approved quickly through the chain of command. She is an astute, thoughtful and passionate people strategist who possesses the practical know-how and business savvy that a senior executive will demand and relate to.” – Ron Turbayne, Sr. Vice President, Card Services, Silverton Bridge Bank, N.A.
“I have known Judy for more than 15 years and she has always impressed me with her intelligence and strategic skills coupled with a practical ability to get things done. I first worked with Judy while at American Express. Judy was a terrific manager who was clear and direct in terms of the priorities for the team and what needed to be accomplished and when. She is politically astute and effective in working with different personality types. She is a great people manager and mentor, and is a pleasure to work with. She has been very helpful to me in providing candid and useful feedback as well as helpful suggestions on career next steps. I’ve also seen her quickly assess the key issues within an organization and then provide coaching on how to personally navigate through such issues.” – Mitch Lubin, VP Marketing, Pitney Bowes
“Judy is a strong and experienced leader. I have known her since 1997 and experienced her high energy leadership style and her caring for people's development. Judy also provided me with feedback that helped me grow as a leader. At one point, Judy was leading a very complex project which I was supporting as part of an extensive cross functional team. Judy was able to influence and guide the team to success, despite significant challenges. – Julia Menichilli, SVP, CitiCards
“Judy is a talented and seasoned executive with a strong record of success leading diverse business units. She has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills while managing complex analytic and operational areas and has shown equal adeptness in sensitive human resource situations. While overseeing a New Product Development function, she developed and implemented new processes requiring a thorough understanding of marketing, operations and technical requirements. Importantly, she recognized the need and navigated effectively through cross-functional groups, obtaining necessary support through impactful influence management.” – Brian K, EVP, American Express
Joanna Barsh of McKinsey is continuing her research efforts on behalf of promoting women into senior leadership positions. Her latest study, according to the WSJ, indicates that companies must begin systematically watching and supporting women in the middle management level. She suggests that this effort should include coaching women and offering leadership training, as well as rotation through various management roles. She also recommends that the performance of top managers be judged partly on their ability to groom and promote female talent.
Initiatives such as these might go far towards developing the kind of committed sponsorship needed from senior men, which I discussed in my original 2009 post on this topic.
We would welcome your comments. Or if you need training or coaching support, please contact us!
Young. Impressionable. New on the job. And assigned to one of the worst bosses in the company. Unfortunately, that is the all-too-likely experience of a young employee at a large company.
Why? Because the most junior, inexperienced managers generally manage the youngest, newest employees. It makes sense – a new people manager certainly isn’t going to be assigned to lead seasoned, senior executives. So a talented individual contributor is promoted to manager, usually with very little training for the new role, and is let loose with limited supervision. They may have been great at their prior role, but managing people requires a completely different skill-set, which they may not realize until they have made a number of very common mistakes: micro-managing; failure to delegate; authoritarian rather than engaging. And more.
Even Google, famous for its exciting, high energy culture, made a common mistake – until they did a detailed study, Google believed that technical expertise was one of the most important traits of a good manager. (See the NY Times article, Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss.) But – as Google learned in their study – technical skills barely make the list. Coaching and interpersonal skills are the top required skills for managers, yet our ability to evaluate these skills before a newly promoted leader takes on a management role is quite limited. And training in management skills for leaders generally comes much later – after a few years of on-the-job learning.
What is the effect of this common pattern? High turnover in the front line. Angry, frustrated employees. Dissatisfied customers who are handled by poorly trained, unmotivated employees. Lower quality and productivity. Reduced innovation. The list goes on and on.
What can a company do about it? This is the real challenge. Providing management training to front-line leaders can be costly; and without consistent, on-the-job reinforcement, it may not drive sufficient change. But investment in leadership skills has been proven to pay off in measurable change and bottom line impact. A number of studies have been published demonstrating the value of training and coaching. Leadership is a Contact Sport by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan, shows that leaders who are coached and then follow up can make significant, positive changes in perceptions of their behavior; the Nations Hotel Case Study, showed measurable, bottom line impact and positive return on investment, as did a McKinsey case study, and a Manchester Review study.
Plus, a discussion of some efforts by BP to build its front line leaders, published in Harvard Business Review in 2005, demonstrated that concerted focus and efforts can improve the performance of front line leaders even in dispersed organizations.
Are organizations ready to make a commitment to their young leaders and front-line employees? It would be terrific to see more companies taking the plunge – providing leadership training to all leaders, and measuring their successes.
We would welcome your comments. Or if you need training or coaching support, please contact us!
Google recently conducted a fascinating study, reported in the NY Times, about the characteristics of their best managers. They took it one step further than usual – they actually prioritized the key characteristics.
What came out on top? Not a surprise to many of us in the coaching world. The most important characteristic of top managers is to be a good coach. I.e., provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing the negative with the positive. Have regular one-on-ones with your direct reports, developing solutions tailored to their specific strengths. Next most important? Empower your team and don’t micro-manage. Third on this list of eight? Express interest in team members’ success and personal well being.
Of course, if a survey were conducted of young, newly-minted people managers – or even more experienced leaders – I would expect that giving honest and constructive feedback is one of the most difficult tasks they face.
What do you think?
We would welcome your comments. Or if you need training or coaching support, please contact us!
There are plenty of books about managing your boss. Along with maintaining a great track record of performance, managing one’s boss should be part of every basic job description. But I have found little commentary on the notion that the boss-subordinate relationship involves more than “management.” There is a certain amount of “chemistry” required for a truly successful relationship, in business or in your personal life. If there’s no chemistry, the relationship won’t last for the long-term. And no amount of “management” can remedy a serious underlying problem – although, as in relationships, it can help delay an inevitable parting of the ways.
In business, the kind of chemistry I’m referring to is sometimes described blandly as “synergy.” It’s seen as a combination of complementary skills, mutual trust and respect, and aligned values. But in the best cases, there’s usually a touch of the indefinable – chemistry. Over time, the most successful of these business relationships can result in a form of dependency on the part of the boss. Hence the pattern we often see, where a new CEO joins a company and soon fills the senior ranks with people who have worked for him or her in the past at other companies.
Why does paying attention to this matter? It matters if you want to be successful over the long term. Think about some obvious cases – Dmitry Medvedov of Russia is a perfect example. Would he be president of Russia today were it not for the extreme trust that Vladimir Putin placed in him? Medvedov worked for Putin in one role or another beginning in 1991.
Some other examples – Kenneth Chenault, current CEO and Chairman of American Express worked closely with Harvey Golub, former CEO and Chairman, for a number of years before becoming Golub’s anointed successor. Marge Magner, once one of the most senior women in Financial Services, ran the huge Global Consumer Group at Citigroup for many years. She also reported to the same man – Bob Willumstad – for over 15 years.
One question this notion raises for me is can you ensure success by finding a boss with whom you have chemistry? I imagine not – although it is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the executive you are aligned with may not in turn be aligned with their own manager or board of directors.
Another question is how can working for a boss without good chemistry be bad for you? For me, that tends to increase my daily stress levels – which can’t be good!
I’d love to get some personal examples of chemistry (or lack of it) in the boss relationship. Please leave comments with your own stories.
I was pleased to see a 2008 article from McKinsey which expands on some of the research I cited in my earlier post. Entitled “A Business Case for Women, it describes the successes of companies that have gender diversity at the top, as well as some of the leadership initiatives that helped them achieve that diversity.
The challenge seems to be a perpetual – there are never enough women in senior management at large corporations. Research done byCatalystclearly demonstrates that we are stuck – in 2002, women represented 15.7% of corporate officers – and the number is exactly the same in 2009. The same study showed that women currently represent 6.2% of top earning executives, and 5.2% in 2002. Today, women are 3.0% of Fortune 500 CEOs; they were 1.2% in 2002. So there has been some small movement in top earners and CEOs – but happiness is a low base. Given that women represent almost 50% of the workforce according to thebureau of labor statistics , this senior level representation – and lack of progress – is abysmal.
I have heard some people argue that the issue is one of “pipeline,” that is, that there simply aren’t enough women on the executive track to get them to the top. On the face of it, that doesn’t fly – women have been approximately 30% of the MBA classes at the top business schools for decades. However, women have myriad obstacles in their path that do not affect men. According to the September, 2007 Harvard Business Review article “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership,” by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli, these obstacles range from prejudice to resistance to women’s leadership and styles to lack of a strong network to the demands of family life.
A senior executive coach I spoke with recently, who has coached C-level executives for many years, including approximately 25% women, answered a few questions for me. I asked how women leaders compare to men, in his experience? His succinct reply: they are far better. I asked why he believes there are fewer women in senior management than men? Again, his crisp reply: because they are far too sane.
And yet the lack of women leaders in most major corporations has a huge potential downside for the corporations themselves. Much work has been done over the years to identify “the business case” for diversity. A recent study done at the Ceram School of Business in France determined that “Feminization of management seems to be a protection against financial crisis.” They showed that companies with a higher percentage of women in management seemed to perform better in the first few months of 2009 than those with lesser percentages. The study, done by Michael Ferrary, a professor of Human Resources, stated “Several gender studies have pointed out that women behave and manage in a different way than men. They tend to avoid risk and to focus more on a long term perspective. A larger proportion of female managers balances the risk taking behaviour of their male colleagues.” Ferrary highlights two remaining questions: More female managers = better business performance ? or: More gender diversity in management = better business performance ?
Similarly, in October, 2007, Catalyst published a study in which they demonstrated that corporations with more female board representation outperformed – on a number of important business metrics – those with fewer women. In January, 2004, Catalyst research demonstrated results similar to Professor Ferrary’s, but focused on senior management – and used a larger, U.S. based sample. The 2004 study showed that “companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance than companies with the lowest women’s representation. This finding holds for both financial measures analyzed: Return on Equity (ROE), which is 35 percent higher, and Total Return to Shareholders (TRS), which is 34 percent higher.”
So, to put this together:
Women have made very little progress in the U.S. on achieving the top levels of corporations, despite a consistent pipeline for many years
This is likely due to a wide variety of factors, some of which are controlled by the women themselves (e.g., resigning to maintain work life balance) and some of which are controlled by leadership at the various companies.
Data suggests that diversity of gender in management and on the corporate board helps generate better corporate performance.
How can we get unstuck, given the data demonstrating the benefits of change? Eagly and Carli’s HBR article makes a number of structural recommendations. My conclusion aligns with theirs. I particularly believe that this will not be addressed without deep structural changes in corporate roles. Bear in mind that the current corporate organizational chart was built on a military model and designed for manufacturing, where command and control was critical. Now, we are largely in a service industry where collaboration and team work is more important – and are documented to be (on average) greater strengths for women than for men.
But first, as we learn in coaching, there must be a serious desire for change. The change required to propel women to the top of organizations is extensive, and will not happen without enormous effort and commitment on the part of the men who currently run most corporations.While some men currently help promote women out of a sense of fairness, it is likely that an expanded pool of committed men will only come as additional, irrefutable, cause-and-effect, controlled studies emerge to prove the business case for women in management.
We would welcome your comments. Or if you need training or coaching support on women in leadership, please contact us!
