Leadership Development

Align4Profit Leadership Development Blog

Helanie ScottLeadership development may be the most important activity in any organization. In my quest to helping men and women become more and more effective leaders, I share weekly articles that are a quick read with a promise to give your leaders actionable tips they can implement immediately.

It’s my goal to share my experience together with candid and pragmatic advice founded on deep research.

Read and enjoy! To make sure you don’t miss any updates, let me send you a weekly article to your email.

September 9, 2013

Executive Maturity: Siri vs. Speaktoit

The great majority of CEOs (88% by one count) agree that Executive Maturity is a critical leadership skill. By maturity they mean the ability to adjust and manage change in […]
August 26, 2013

Eureka! Stop trying so hard!

The ancient Greek scientist Archimedes, directed by the king to determine if a golden crown was pure gold or an alloy, worked real hard on the solution. But he solved […]
August 19, 2013

Raising the bar on performance sparks motivation and engagement

Leadership is constantly challenged by the problem of how to motivate and engage high performance. It turns out that raising the bar or turning up the heat is the best […]
August 12, 2013

Real Feedback Creates Really Great Leaders

Why do leaders accept mediocre performance and allow their team members and peers to continue their normal dysfunctional behavior? It’s not an easy question to answer, because the answer resides […]
August 5, 2013

Mediocrity Kills Great Leadership

“Tyranny of Incrementalism will kill organizations.” —Mike Rawlings, Mayor of Dallas Most organizations and leaders resort to incremental change. Instead of following through with all the deliberate practices required of […]
July 29, 2013

How to Eliminate 14 Motivation Roadblocks

A leader’s job, as I’ve said many times, is to drive accountability and motivate engagement — the kind of accountability and engagement that deliver High Commitment and High Performance. I […]
July 22, 2013

4 Steps Toward Executive Maturity

Today’s best companies are searching for leadership talent that can act with executive maturity. What does that mean? For one thing, executive maturity is the opposite of reacting emotionally, that […]
July 15, 2013

Intimate Leadership Begins with an Accurate Self-Image

In my blog post Don’t Cut Yourself with Your Double-Edged Sword, I write about how your leadership assets can also work as liabilities. I advised you to balance the emphasis […]
July 8, 2013

Don’t Cut Yourself with Your Double-Edged Sword

Your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. This should not strike you as earth-shaking news. It’s the stuff of great stories and legends as well as real history. […]
July 1, 2013

Selecting Your Accountability Partner

An accountability partner is someone who coaches you an helps keep you focused on and headed toward your goals as an intimate leader. The relationship uses the power of positive […]
June 24, 2013

Use Environmental Reminders to Lead More Effectively

I’m not going to tell you my password, but I’ll give you a clue. It’s a reminder to me, from me, to work on one of my leadership development challenges—a […]
June 17, 2013

Your Big Five Leadership Priorities

So much to do and so little time to do it! That’s one of the most familiar complaints I hear from the leaders I coach. Too many get lured into […]
June 10, 2013

Leadership Presence: How to perfect your Touch Points

Leadership Presence is important, because how you are perceived affects your ability to lead. But if you Google “Leadership Presence,” I’m certain you will end up confused about what it […]
June 3, 2013

Improve Performance with Call and Response Redirection

In my previous blog post, How to add FORCE to your Positive Reinforcement, I pointed out that in every CoachQuest Leader-as-Coach Workshop, we practice two kinds of Call and Response […]
May 27, 2013

How to add FORCE to your Positive Reinforcement

Everybody appreciates a genuine, sincerely delivered pat on the back. But that truism can get a leader into trouble. Sincere as it might be, genuine positive reinforcement can actually work […]
May 16, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: The Value of Effective Communication

You can imagine the interesting dynamics that take place when you gather a group of people and spend day and night together for several days. There are bound to be […]
May 12, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: Intimate Connections

Today I met Mel, the founder and head honcho of the Three Parks Spectacular Ride. He created this amazing tour more than 30 years ago. He has also played various […]
May 10, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: Thankfulness

On the second morning of our horseback-riding adventure along the border between Utah and Arizona, I rose and shot this short video. Hear the birds and the stream, but best […]
May 9, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: Managing Millennials

As a boomer my research into developing and managing millennials is top of mind. Sitting here in Las Vegas, I realize we need to make space for millennials’ way of […]
May 8, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: Breathing stress away

Before we even saddled up and hit the trail, I met Kaja Michelson. She offers 15-minute Skype sessions at no charge in which she helps you relax, reduce stress, and […]
May 6, 2016

Helanie on Horseback: Packing my slacks

I’m about to head west on a week-long trek over rugged terrain on the back of a horse. Along the way I will share my observations on how such a […]