Who is the most “difficult person” you work with? Someone who is disrespectful, makes rude comments during meetings, is constantly late on deadlines, the list goes on. For many of the leaders we train and coach, that person is a colleague. For some, it’s a direct report. For others, it’s their supervisor. No matter who it is, the common thread that we notice is the tendency to avoid a conversation with them. As humans, we hate conflict and facing discomfort, vulnerability, or uncertain outcomes. Here are some of the most common reasons tough conversations get avoided, as well as reasons why we think you should have them anyway.

Engaging your direct report with these following questions may help mitigate burnout or departure; remember the great resignation? Asking communicates care for their growth and development.

What an exciting moment and well-deserved nomination! Malika Begin, our founder and CEO, will be honored as a nominee at the Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing Inspirational Women Forum and Awards event. This event recognizes female business leaders who have demonstrated noteworthy success and accomplishments during the last 24 months. The event is scheduled for October 18, 2022, at the Beverly Hilton from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Since graduating from business school with a degree in Organization Development this fall, I’ve received many kind congratulations and support. I’m thankful for the many in my network who champion me and are excited about good development work in organizations. I’ve been asked many interesting questions about Organization Development, or OD, and how it’s best utilized in our companies. One repeat question I often receive is, “What is the difference between training and development?” I want to highlight the differences and what I’ve learned about Organization Development.

Healthy organizational culture is for every organization, not just big global enterprises or small high touch local teams. Here at Begin Development, we believe that healthy organizations are made by healthy individuals. We offer DiSC assessments and workshops as part of our many growth and development services. Last week we led a DiSC intensive session with all 300 employees in our client’s all-hands training day. It was a smashing success!

We’re answering some FAQs about coaching in today’s post! Good chance you’ve asked one of these questions too.

There are a few myths out there about coaching. In today’s post we’re busting two of them!

When someone starts their coaching journey with Begin Development for the first time, their calendar is normally full to the brim. Sound familiar? Overwhelmed by tasks and responsibilities, it’s difficult at first for them to try to squeeze in a weekly or biweekly coaching time. But they do. And then the coaching journey begins. During the early journey, we take a good hard look at that calendar and at those commitments. How do the commitments line up with your goals? Are they evidence that you’re being driven by your dreams? Or driven by your fears?

Professional coaching is not for everyone. It is truly only for hungry people—the same kind of “hungry” it takes to sign up to run a marathon. You may have been steadily running 5K and 10K races in your professional life, but are now ready to make that bigger jump to say “I’m in. Let’s go big!” That’s where a professional coach comes in.

“I have a counselor; is coaching the same?” First of all, awesome that you have a counselor. We are firm believers in the value of professional counseling; it just serves a very different purpose than professional coaching. In very broad terms – counseling/therapy is generally geared toward the past and on healing past roots of current mindsets and issues, whereas coaching focuses on the future and moving toward your goals.

When left to our own devices as humans, psychological research shows that we tend toward a negative mindset. Something else intriguing is how our productivity is lower when we work alone vs. when another person is simply there in the room. In our busy work lives, we rarely have a consistent space or “room” to reflect, feel heard, get re-focused on our goals, and not have to prove anything to anyone. A good coach creates that “room,” meeting us there to ask eye-opening questions, shift our negative defaults, and offer simultaneous encouragement and accountability. A good coach calls out our blindspots and helps us get unstuck so we can become our best self. 

Employers should be taking intentional steps to get to know their employees well. It is human nature to want to be connected, included, and known. So it should come as no surprise that when employees feel part of their work community they are more productive, motivated, present, and 3.5 times more likely to contribute to their fullest potential.

Teams with inclusive leaders are more likely to report to be high performing, more likely to say they make high-quality decisions, and more likely to report behaving collaboratively. To become an inclusive leader one should focus on the following six traits. (Harvard Business Review, 2019)

When you research “the benefits of Manager Training” you discover that this type of development can have a massive impact on your organization. In one study, individuals who received leadership training increased their learning capacity by 25% and their performance by 20% (Research Gate, 2017). With increased competition in the job market for top talent, how can you retain your best employees who carry your institutional knowledge and may be your best culture carriers? You can create less turnover and more stability so your organization can move quickly. This is an area you can build value for your organization. Invest in your managers!

Today we want to share with you the Situational Leadership® Model. We’ve built some of our practices on this framework and have found it invaluable; so let’s dive in deeper! This model focuses on the relationship between leaders and followers. The framework provides leaders a method to analyze each situation based on the “Performance Readiness Level” a follower shows when completing a task, function or objective. After observing, a leader can diagnose and implement the necessary amounts of relationship and task behavior to the follower to support their needs and advance development. 

“At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them. AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of organizational change, but AI is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to ‘inquire’ into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes.”

Did you know we offer professional one-on-one coaching? Work with Corrie Napier, MDR, to focus on developing your overall effectiveness as a leader, especially your confidence to progress professionally, navigate challenges and work through conflict in the workplace.


Think of this list as Begin Development's version of Oprah's Favorite Things! We love it when we're asked what leadership development books we recommend or are reading ourselves. We've compiled our list of favorite books, including the ones we use within our programs, just for this reason.

Major congratulations are in order for our wonderful client, BOND, on winning the 2021 Agency of the Year Clio award!

2021 was a year of exponential growth, for our clients and for Begin Development. When I first launched Begin Development in 2019, the dream was to help people grow in leadership no matter their level. Nothing is more gratifying than helping a client accelerate and achieve their goals, whether those are individual or company-wide.