Dear Resourceful Leader:

Who are the best resources to speak with to find out the keys to being an effective leader? Leaders who have earned respect for their success. Leigh asks provocative and thoughtful questions of top leaders in their fields and then writes up their answers so you can learn the secrets of their success.

Shattered Magazine debuted in June 2006 and was distributed globally to a high-level professional audience. Welcomed by Wall Street firms and corporations as an affirmation of women breaking the glass ceiling, the publication recruited Leigh as editor of their monthly e-newsletter, Spyglass. Each issue of Spyglass took a look at what was new on the business horizon.

Click on the links below to see Leigh's interviews and articles for Spyglass.

• Helen Reddy: The Power of a Woman
• BPWI: International Federation of Business & Professional Women Celebrate 60 years of Consultative Status to the United Nations
• Trusted Advisors on Risk Management Interviews on Information Security and Privacy
• Do you need a CISO? Chief Information Security Officer
• Rusty Kanokogi: Girl Gang Leader Breaks Olympics Judo Ceiling
• Shaun Budnik: Tumbling to the Top at Deloitte & Touche
• Global Voices: The Impact of Sports on a Career

Leigh was a contributing writer for PINK Magazine, a nationally distributed publication for women striving to achieve equity in the workplace. Click here to see Leigh’s full interviews with:

• Candi and Sarah Kaplan, the mother-daughter partnership of Kaplan Financial Group
• Helen Reddy, Singer, songwriter,and author of The Woman I Am
• Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Executive Producer, American Idol, CEO, FremantleMedia North America, Inc.
• Liz Dolan, President, Mud Bath Productions, Inc.
• Suzi Weiss Fischmann, Executive Vice President and Artistic Director, OPI Products
• Kathy Lewis, President and CEO, Christopher Reeve Foundation
• Rita Benson LeBlanc, Owner/Executive Vice President, New Orleans Saints

If you know of a top leader you’d like Leigh to interview, let her know.

Temping with Tycoons and other level playing field special reports will be posted soon..

Until then, if you’d like an article for your publication or assistance with coaching to frame your own story, contact Leigh@LTR-NYC.com

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There:  How Successful People Become Even More Successful! written by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter (Hyperion, 2007, 256 pgs.) contains practical wisdom from one of the world’s premier executive coaches and author on executive performance.

Leigh coaches successful leaders to be even more successful and has found ideas contained in this book very helpful with her clients.

Goldsmith’s methods for changing behavior are straightforward and relatively simple.  For instance, a 360 assessment consists of gathering feedback on an executive’s behavior from meaningful colleagues and constituencies.  The client is asked to listen carefully to how others experience his behavior, formulate ways to improve interactions, give thanks for the feedback, apologize where needed, and practice feed-forward.

Marshall led a group exercise in feed-forward at meeting Leigh attended of the New York City Chapter of the International Coach Foundation.  She found it a powerful experience.

Here’s how the feed-forward process works.

1.  Identify one behavior you want to change in your life---one that would bring about a positive difference in your life.

2.  Describe the behavior you want to change in a one-on-one dialogue with someone:  a spouse, child, best friend, or coworker—or as it was at ICF-NYC meeting---a perfect stranger.

3.  Ask that person for two suggestions for the future that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior.

4.  Listen attentively to the suggestions.  Take notes if you like.  Your only ground rule:  You are not allowed to judge, rate, or critique the suggestions in any way.  And you are not even to say anything positive such as, “That’s a good idea.”  The only response you’re permitted is, “Thank you.”

You can then repeat the process with someone else—until you have a good sample of ideas to improve your behavior.

For those of you at the beginning of your career, you might find another book from Goldsmith—with contributions from well-known executives—helpful.  The book is Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders by Marshall Goldsmith (Davies-Black Publishing, 2000).  Read a chapter at a time, do the exercises at the end of the chapter, and reflect on how you can be a better leader.