I’ve coached executives and startups alike, and people often ask me how to:

• gain skills to grow their business,

• build a startup team or repair a corporate leadership team,

• make career transitions or help their employees do so, and

• learn more about themselves and what they should do.

These executives are from organizations including (among others): Accenture, Cognizant, Danone, Deloitte, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Heidrick & Struggles, McKinsey, Microsoft, PWC, Citibank (via INSEAD), Honda, Larsen & Toubro, LG, Oracle, Matsushita-Panasonic, Samsung, TCS, Vodafone, DKSH, Government of Australia, Yale-NUS, Lexus/Nexis, MSD (Merck), Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Genpact, SEWA, Singapore Institute of Management, & VFS Global.

If you’re in a leadership workshop with me, you’ll most likely want to take the following tests: Entrepreneurial style questionnaire, 16 types, and DISC. We might even go through the Influencing Style Questionnaire, including Pull and Push.

Business innovation and growth strategy are covered elsewhere in this website, and below are a few of my favorite assessments, articles, and books for career guidance and transition, as well as high-performance teams. (Note: Numbers at the end of references are product numbers at Harvard Business School Press.)

A question we used to ask as teenagers we’re asking again at every stage of life: What should I do when I grow up?

Now, we never stop growing — and learning — changing ourselves and the world around us.

Whole-Brained Thinking:

Hermann Global. (2019). HBDI [contact them for an online test on their app plus a coaching session].

Basadur Applied Creativity. (2019). Basadur Innovation Profile [online test].

Herrmann, N. and Herrmann-Nehdi, A. (2015). The Whole Brain Business Book: Unlocking the Power of Whole Brain Thinking in Organizations, Teams, and Individuals (2 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Leonard, D. & Straus, S. (1997). Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work. Harvard Business Review. 97407-PDF-ENG.

Mapping & Managing Your Strengths:

Gallup. (2019). Clifton Strengths [online test].

123 Test. (2019). DISC [online test].

Rath, T. (2017). StrengthsFinder 2.0 [book summary]. New York: FastDigest.

Critical Thinking:

Watson, G. & Glazer, EM. (2019). Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking [online test].

Paul, R. and Elder, L. Learning the Art of Critical Thinking. (2014). Rotman Management Magazine. ROT221-PDF-ENG.

Sostrin, J. (2017). How to Act Quickly Without Sacrificing Critical Thinking. Harvard Business Digital. H03MQ7-PDF-ENG.

Positive Psychology & Stress:

(about 70% of “success” is NOT your IQ!)

University of Pennsylvania. (2019). Authentic Happiness Questionnaire Center [online tests — see especially PERMA & VIA Survey on Character Strengths].

Gielan, M. (2016). Optimists Are Better at Finding New Jobs. Harvard Business Digital. H02TD8-PDF-ENG.

Seligman, M. (2011). Building Resilience. Harvard Business Review. 10189-PDF-ENG.

Seligman, M. (2012). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Atria Books (Simon & Schuster).

ikigai

Let’s balance what you love, are good at, need, and what earns money. How might you best pursue your passion, mission, profession, and vocation? How might you combine them all into your work/passion/life or balance them, if they do not currently come together?

Energy and personal success:

How to avoid burnout and maximize both your energy and productivity/impact. Dr. Edy’s pioneering resilience work Restore Yourself includes diagnostics and recommendations on how to flourish, by managing well what you have to do and expanding what you love to do. She’s also a contributing author to new bestseller Triumphs of Transformation. Since Gallup found 85% of workers are disengaged, costing USD 7.8 trillion worldwide, and since stress-related issues cost US businesses USD 300 - 500 billion / year, this is a key issue for you, your organization, and your entire industry and economy. Dr. Edy coaches executives, and her tech-enabled coaching company is Resilience Oasis.

Work, Personality, & Psycho-Neuro Patterns:

What Color is Your Parachute (the super-best-selling book) is now online at eParachute.com — “Chart a path to work you love”.

Myers & Briggs Foundation. (2019). MBTI [online test].

A free version is available from 16 types.

Entrepreneurial style questionnaire (you can answer for yourself, not your supervisor, and then investigate independently your entrepreneurial style)

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2017). Could Your Personality Derail Your Career? Harvard Business Review. R1705M-PDF-ENG.

Keirsey, D. (1998). Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence. New York: Prometheus Nemesis Book Co.

Creativity & Whole-Brained Teams:

Test My Creativity. (2019). Creativity [online test].

Grenny, J. (2019). How to Be Creative on Demand. Harvard Business Digital. H04PVI-PDF-ENG.

Harvard Business Press. (2009). Human Creativity: The Starting Point of Innovation (chapter 11). 3462BC-PDF-ENG.

Emotional Intelligence & Empathy in the Workplace:

Global Leadership Foundation. (2019). Emotional Intelligence [online test].

Greater Good Science Center, University of California – Berkeley. (2019). Empathy [online test].

Gentry, W., Weber, T., and Sadri, G. (2010). Empathy in the Workplace: A Tool for Effective Leadership. (whitepaper) Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Goleman, D. (2005). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.

Waytz, A. (2016). The Limits of Empathy. Harvard Business Review. R1601D-PDF-ENG.

Work & Life Purpose & Personal Branding:

Garcia, H. & Miralles, F. (2017). Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. New York: Penguin Books.

Kahn, S. (2019). Reflective Letter from 2019 Self to 2009 Self [letter].

Rangarajan, D., Gelb., and Vandaveer, A. (2017) Strategic Personal Branding - And How it Pays Off [Business Horizons / Indiana University note]. BH842-PDF-ENG.