The Enlightened Executive

There's a simple yet powerful tactic for driving the sort of diversity that bolsters the performance and health of your business. In a word: sponsorship. To do well in a system that favors the "in" group, those outside need a champion or a sponsor. Women, it turns out, have plenty of mentors, but not nearly as many sponsors as men do.

Sponsorship occurs whenever one person of influence promotes the achievements, capabilities and future potential of someone else.

What is the difference between a mentor and a sponsor? Although mentoring conversations can be useful, these happen privately. Sponsorship is public. Mentors proffer friendly advice, sponsors pull you up to the next level.

So, what sponsorship behaviors are most effective?

Susan Drumm, CEO Coach, shares a list of ways that you and your senior colleagues can sponsor a woman on your team and make all the difference in their career.

Without mutual trust, how can your team members be open to receiving important feedback?

Building a strong and collaborative team for your company takes being a conscious leader. So how can executives and entrepreneurs build deep trust within their teams?

In the latest episode of The Enlightened Executive podcast, Christopher Michel shares how encouraging open communication and giving direct feedback regularly, will help you create deep trust within your team and a company culture of trust and excellence.

Why is emotional intelligence so important in the workplace? EQ is one of the key ingredients in better business relationships, smoother meetings, and higher morale. Soon, emotional intelligence will decide who has a job and who doesn't. Companies will always need employees who communicate well, think critically, and can adapt to changes with ease.

Can a Gratitude Process Improve Employee Retention?

Every single company wants to work with the best employees, because talented people are the reason what helps make a company successful. But what if despite offering the best working opportunities, your employee retention rates are very poor?

In the latest episode of The Enlightened Executive podcast, Chris Schembra shares the transformational power of gratitude and how to foster a sense of community in a virtual and in-person workplace.

How do you run virtual meetings that are impactful and keep your employees feeling connected? With so many people working remotely nowadays, it's more important than ever for leaders to know how to do this. Here are 10 leadership insights that will help you plan and run incredibly effective virtual meetings with your team.

What does having true wealth mean? For most executives and entrepreneurs, wealth means having more money. But true wealth is so much more than a number. It is a combination of your time, relationships, purpose, physical and emotional wealth. After all, you can have all the money in the world, but how can you enjoy it when you have no time? Yet, it is very common for leaders to lack time wealth. They don't have true control over their schedules because their time is ruled by the demands of their company. In this video Justin Donald, an expert, lifestyle investor, shares with host, Susan Drumm, how to create more time as a busy leader, why delegating helps you work smarter, why you need an annual freedom vision and how to create your own freedom vision.

Want to improve employee well-being in your workplace? Leaders can sense the anxiety rippling through their teams as the impact of the pandemic lingers into 2022 (and they may feel it themselves!). How can leaders respond in a way that diffuses that anxiety and promotes employee well-being, engagement, and performance? Employee well-being refers to all aspects of working life. This includes their workplace environment and how a workforce feels about their day-to-day work. In this video Gaurav Bhatnagar and Susan Drumm share how to improve employee well-being.

Want to know how to keep your employees motivated? If you think money is the main reason for motivation, you would be wrong. People are motivated by development opportunities and are more likely to leave a job if they feel their unique strengths aren't being recognized.

Brittany Hodak, superfan expert, shares ways to inspire employee loyalty. Showing employees how their work matters is the first step to creating superfans and improving employee retention.

Motivating employees to become "superfans" requires going beyond the expected and superficial tokens of appreciation, like sending birthday cards or putting a foosball table in the breakroom.

Instead, Brittany believes that super-fandom is a two-way street. Superfan employees are created when leaders become superfans of them. In other words, when leaders truly care about each employee as a full person and are able to show that abundantly, employees respond with loyalty.

Workplace emotions are inevitable. Rather than trying to control them, effective leaders learn to recognize their emotions and work with them productively.s.

A great leader identifies and understands varying employee emotions and their own. They harness the positive aspects and reduce the negative impacts they can have in the workplace environment.