The pace of change continues to accelerate. From disruptive, fast-moving technologies like generative AI to an increasingly diversified and diasporic workforce, businesses across all industries are scrambling to adapt and capitalize on innovation opportunities. While the focus of many digital transformations has been on integration of technology–leader transformation and integrating various mindsets and perspectives into supporting these major change initiatives needs equal consideration.
Authors Steven T. Hunt and Lori Mazan explore what it takes to successfully transform an organization and how to best support leaders tasked with implementing and managing change.
Here are highlights from their conversation:
Adaptability and Learning Opportunities
“It’s the competitive niche of humans,” says Steven. “Is our ability to adapt to changing environments. It’s called learning.” He argues that as long as people feel supported, then they are better able to manage and lead change — crucial in digital transformation initiatives.
Steven emphasized the importance of creating more inclusive and supportive environments to leverage people already within your ranks. While education is more equally distributed than ever before, opportunity isn’t. Creating a supportive community that is actively engaged in the development of employees helps to ensure greater success and impact within your organization.
The Role of Coaching
Coaching plays a pivotal role in managing productivity and learning in an organization. Effective coaching can help individuals and companies navigate changes more effectively.
Coaching focuses on the coachee’s experience and development, helping them adapt and apply new behaviors. This leads to sustained developmental gains, encouraging a continuous application of new skills.
Coaching should complement skills management solutions. While training provides the foundational skills, coaching helps apply these skills effectively in real-world situations.
Amplifying Coaching with Technology
Coaching must be widely applied within the company for it to have a significant organizational impact. Sounding Board’s scalability and tracking capabilities can help achieve this.
Sounding Board’s software facilitates scheduling, communication, and continuous engagement with their coaches, empowering employees and supporting their development throughout the engagement.
Utilizing tools within the software to track progress, such as the Leadership Roadmap, can help measure the impact of coaching on individual and organizational development.
Steven T. Hunt, PhD
Award Winning Author, Advisor & Keynote Speaker
Dr. Hunt’s work focuses on understanding the intersection of human psychology, work technology, and business performance. An internationally recognized thought leader in the field of Human Resource technology, he has helped thousands of companies positively transform methods used attract and retain high performing talent through building more engaging, agile, productive work environments. His work has taken him around the globe, supported dozens of industries, and touched almost every aspect of human resources from job design and workforce analytics to talent acquisition, management, and development.
An award winning author and sought after keynote speaker, Dr. Hunt’s books include Talent Tectonics: navigating global workforce shifts, buiding resilient organizations, and reimagining the employee experience, Commonsense Talent Management: using strategic human resources to improve company performance and Hiring Success: the art and science of staffing assessment and employee selection. Dr. Hunt was awarded the honor of Fellow in the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology for advancing psychological science through creation of technology solutions that have positively influenced the quality of work for millions of employees.
His career is devoted to the belief that better work environments create better world environments, and that every person deserves the opportunity to have a fulfilling career.
Lori Mazan
Co-Founder, President and Chief Coaching Officer | Sounding Board
Lori Mazan is the co-founder, president, and chief coaching officer at Sounding Board, the most adaptive solution for leadership development on the market. Lori has spent more than 25 years as a certified coach, developing C-suite executives in critical leadership capabilities to drive business impact. Companies that have benefited from her expertise include Chevron, Sprint, Citibank and 10xGenomics. Lori is also the author of the book “Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders.”
