Most companies are reexamining their strategies and making fundamental or incremental changes to their strategic direction, organizational structure, and employee engagement efforts. Executing these changes requires leaders who are ready to lead others through ongoing change. In this month's Podcast episode, special guest, Sheryl Unger joins us once again to discuss Strategic Change and Developing Leadership Agility. During this episode, you'll hear Wendy and Sheryl share insights from nearly thirty years of experience working with hundreds of clients, and how The 5C’s of Transition Leadership® can provide a structured framework to help leaders improve their change execution capabilities and more effectively lead others.

In this this month's Podcast episode, we have special guest Sheryl Unger join us to discuss the Great Resignation, retention-related struggles faced by employers, and provide you with practical tips you can implement.

As the world continues to grow through new pains presented by the pandemic, implementing and managing large-scale change has become even more challenging. The impact on organizations, teams, and individuals has been profound; and while employees may be used to the organizational churn, the past couple of years have taxed leaders far beyond anything we could have ever imagined. In today's Change and Thrive episode, I am pleased to talk to Andrew Moore, General Manager of Pfizer CentreOne, as he shares some insights into navigating large-scale change during these uncertain times.

You can see the disruption in the healthcare marketplace everywhere you turn, but few issues are louder than that of The Great Resignation.

While employees have been able to leverage the surplus of job openings against their employers as bargaining chips for better benefits, compensation, and opportunities, employers still hold a great amount of power in shaping cultural norms and the employee experience. This emerging power imbalance has sparked challenges for employers and employees alike.

The truth is, retaining and motivating high performing talent has become much more complex and challenging. Some of the complexity and challenges stem directly from post-pandemic fatigue and stress. Our clients have diligently worked to reach some level of equilibrium in their human capital strategies to help mitigate chaos and stabilize work environments.

In today’s podcast, I want to share three considerations to help assess your organization’s human capital strategy and how to make talent management a priority for thriving during change.

Agility is no longer an option, it’s a requirement. In the last two years, everything and everyone was disrupted… The level of disruption varied. Most organizations revisited their strategies and made significant changes across the board.  We have seen deep change in the macro environment of pharmaceuticals, biopharma, and life sciences. A global pharmaceutical company reported to have cut its US sales force as meetings with healthcare providers continue to shift to virtual. This is just one high profile case that depicts fundamental go-to-market shifts resulting from the pandemic.  The way work gets done is being reshaped and as we enter this new next normal. Organizations, teams and individuals need to keep flexibility and agility as top priorities in order to thrive.  Today I want to share three tips to help you renew your commitment as a leader so that you can achieve your organizational, team and individual goals.

Culture is created either intentionally or unintentionally. As they enter 2022, many organizations are redesigning their organization and striving to build a more desirable and sustainable culture. Tune in for this week’s podcast as Wendy provides 3 tips to help leaders begin their organizational redesign journeys.

We are in the part of January when those who made New Years’ resolutions struggle to maintain their resolution. That is okay, change is hard! Don’t give up, keep going!  Many leaders are also struggling with their New Year’s resolutions to develop their leadership agility. Many leaders understand the need to be agile because their leadership agility has been put to the test over the last 2 years and they want to adjust how they navigate change, especially when the change is unknown.  In this week’s podcast, Wendy shares 3 tips to help develop leadership agility and builds the business case for leadership agility being the differentiator in today’s professional landscape.  ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR BLENDED SOLUTIONS?  WLH helps organizations, teams, and individuals think, plan, and execute with excellence. Schedule an Exploratory Call to learn more! Visit www.wlhconsulting.com

New year, new me! That is what many organizations are saying as they transition into a full or hybrid virtual environment, or adjust to other large-scale organizational changes. As organizations adjust to large-scale changes that include new leadership, new teams, or new structures, they are presented with new challenges.   Jump starting your team to address and combat these challenges is one of the most effective ways to ensure they are overcome.   In this week’s podcast, Wendy dives into three tips to help jump start your team to align, adjust, and embrace the positive elements of change.   

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR BLENDED SOLUTIONS? WLH helps organizations, teams, and individuals think, plan, and execute with excellence. Schedule an Exploratory Call to learn more! Visit www.wlhconsulting.com

Happy New Year! The new year brings great promise and allows for another opportunity to drive your organization forward. As such, opportunities are presented to realign on goals and key business priorities.

As you step into 2022 with your team and begin realigning on goals and key business priorities, take a listen to this week’s podcast where Dr. Wendy Heckelman discusses four tips to realign your team in the new year.

In summary, Wendy discusses the following tips:

1. Align your plan with the organization’s business strategy
2. Revisit your marketplace analysis
3. Assess past performance
4. Focus on accountability

What if I told you there is a way to highlight the strategic account management skills and mindset needed when calling on large, organized customers? Whether it is commercial payers, IDNs, medical groups, government care providers or other models, a different business to business customer engagement strategy is needed to provide value and support better outcomes. In today’s Change and Thrive episode I want to share four tips to improve your skills.

Retaining top talent continues to be a critical issue for organizational leaders. As many employees are making the decision to leave their jobs, leaders must employ strategies to combat what experts are calling "The Great Resignation." Tune in to this week's podcast to learn 3 strategies that leaders can employ to more effectively retain top talent.

Culture is created intentionally or by default. Many key decision makers within organizations find it difficult to intentionally create the shared beliefs, experiences, and actions of the people within their organization required to achieve desired cultural results. Often, lack of intentionality in culture creation lends itself to undesirable cultural results. Tune in this week to better understand how to intentionally create culture by leveraging what we call the BEAR model.

As we all know an alarming number of employees began quitting their jobs in the Spring of 2021. This increased level of turnover is referred to as “The Great Resignation.”  Up until now, “The Great Resignation” has taken the spotlight for many organizations. However, a new trend is surfacing. This trend is called, The Great Regret. The Great Regret is being used to describe the fact that many employees are not finding what they are looking for in other organizations. Instead, they are beginning to “regret” their decision to leave their previous company.  In other words, the churn is creating an endless cycle of leaving and longing. What can organizations do to break the cycle of resignation and regret? Listen to today's episode to learn more!

Life science professionals in customer-facing roles need to develop their business acumen to “connect the dots” and identify opportunities to deliver value. One of the more important elements of developing business acumen skills is to effectively assess the local healthcare ecosystem. When assessing a local healthcare ecosystem, it is helpful to evaluate the following factors. Listen to today's episode to learn more! 

Good business planning helps you and your team work effectively and efficiently. The challenge is that most business plans end up being disregarded as another document in the pile accumulating formality without execution. In today's episode I share some insights on how to plan effectively. 

Life science professionals in customer-facing roles need to develop their business acumen to “connect the dots” and identify opportunities to deliver value. A key behavior in developing business acumen is gathering information and generating actionable insights. In today's episode I share 3 helpful practices for distilling key insights. 

To fully grasp business acumen, it is important to understand the art of asking questions. More specifically, how leveraging questions helps better understand the challenges and pain points of an organization and how to take appropriate action based on information learned. In today's episode I share key questions to ask to drive insight. 

At its core, business acumen is about understanding how your company or your customers make money.  Business acumen is also about understanding what information is used by your accounts when making critical decisions. Tune into today's episode as I share a suggested framework for applying business acumen. When you process turning insights into action, you begin “connecting the dots” and gain an understanding of the complex marketplace. Need help with developing your team’s business acumen skills? Feel free to reach out and learn what WLH can do for you!  www.wlhconsulting.com

This past month, we've been talking about the importance of empathy. Earlier in the month, we shared our approach to leadership, empathy. And last week I started to talk about our approach to empathetically engaging your accounts. And today, I'm so pleased to have Cheryl Unger and Loretta Kate trusted members of the team here today to share our lessons learned on empathetically engaging your accounts. Listen to the episode now! #wlhconsulting #empathy

Empathy is the ability to build understanding around another person’s thoughts, feelings, and rationale through inclusive behavior. In today’s disrupted healthcare marketplace, it is imperative to build a greater level of understanding of customers’ thoughts, needs, and challenges. Empathetic engagement builds trust and makes customers feel understood, valued, and respected. However, despite the importance of empathy, not every employee has the skills to empathetically engage with customers. In this episode I share tips to help you empathetically engage with customers. Listen now to learn four tips to improve your empathetic engagement skills. #changeandthrivepodcast #wlhconsulting #wendylheckelmanphd

Empathy is an incredibly important skill for leaders in any and all domains. Having awareness and understanding for the feelings and experiences of one’s peers and employees can set the tone for company culture and communicate that all members of an organization are cared for. At WLH, we have shaped four key steps to engage more empathetically with others to build deeper understanding:

1. Understand someone else's current circumstance
2. Seek their perspective
3. Ask for their feedback
4. Follow-up on agreements

As we move forward in a complex working environment, it is going to be increasingly important to understand how to create space for people to show up. WLH brings deep expertise and leadership development in helping leaders activate their empathetic engagement skills. Visit www.wlhconsulting.com today to learn more about our services designed to help you change and thrive. #changeandthrivepodcast #wlhconsulting

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Leadership is about empathy.”

The ability to relate and connect with people, to inspire, and empower their life is a paramount leadership skill. It has become a top management priority, particularly due to blending of their personal and professional lives throughout the pandemic.

At WLH, we define leadership empathy as the ability to build understanding around someone's thoughts, feelings, and rationale through inclusion. We identify three benefits to leaders developing empathy:

1. Enable their people to seek perspectives, ideas, and solutions
2. Develop deeper insights to coaching direct reports
3. Build trust with others by ensuring they feel involved, valued, and respected

WLH brings deep expertise and leadership development to helping leaders activate their empathetic engagement skills. Visit www.wlhconsulting.com to learn more about our services designed to help you change and thrive!

Renowned football coach Pete Carroll once said, "each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen."

Coaching is a critical skill. However, coaching skills can be difficult to develop in times of transition, particularly right now in the midst of a completely disrupted marketplace wherein leaders are redefining and redesigning their organizations. Luckily, we offer 6 key steps for coaching through transition, particularly in these challenging times:

1. Establish/renew your working relationships
2. Identify transition challenges
3. Identify strengths and development needs
4. Set transition change goals and timelines
5. Develop individual transition plans to help direct reports meet goals
6. Evaluate and recalibrate the transition plan against progress

Following these steps will increase the likelihood of your teams successfully navigating their transition. We at WLH are here to help you every step of the way—visit our website  www.wlhconsulting.com and schedule a call with us today!

We have all heard the phrase, what you measure matters. This is why when undergoing large- scale change, organizations, teams, and individuals should put metrics in place to determine if matters are going in the right direction. Let's be honest. It's rare to get everything right out of the gate. Just like a pebble dropped in a body of water. There may be ripples and unintended consequences. That is why it is so important to take the time to reflect on what is working and where we need to adjust. In today’s episode we'll discuss the fifth and final C in The 5C’s of Transition Leadership® - CALIBRATE to ensure success.

John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

As leaders transition to new roles, it is crucial for them to adapt quickly so they can “know the way” and “show the way to go.” Transitions can create challenges, whether that be learning a new role, adjusting to working with a new team, or becoming familiar with a new organization’s culture, strategy, priorities, and goals. 

We at WLH can help new leaders face these challenges in 4 key ways:

1. Developing a personalized learning plan
2. Assessing the current state of the organization and team
3. Gathering information on what is working and areas for improvement
4. Aligning expectations with their new managers

As you navigate your new role, please reach out to us for support—we share a Leadership Transition Toolkit with clients that can help you change and thrive in your new role and offer personalized experience and informed coaching through transition.

Henry Ford once said, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself."

As the workforce begins to transition back to in-person work, it is imperative for leaders to realign with their employees on organizational priorities, as well as working together through unprecedented challenges. As teams restart and reset their work, a best practice for leaders is to Jump Start their teams.

Here are four critical steps for Jump Starting your team:

1. Reflect on this year and re-engage with your team
2. Share a clear vision for the team’s purpose and coordination
3. Clarify roles, responsibilities, and collaborative partners
4. Develop or revisit the “rules of engagement”

WLH brings nearly 30 years of change management and leadership agility experience. Schedule a call with us to personalize your Jump Start and discuss how our proven and adapted approaches have helped other organizations.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” - Winston Churchill 

As professionals re-enter the workforce and are faced with an unprecedented pivot back to in-person work, we find ourselves in the midst of a major transition. Leaders are now tasked with implementing large-scale change by accommodating employees who have worked from home for over a year. However, large-scale change implementation efforts are hardly ever executed perfectly on the first try. Recalibrating one’s business strategy in the midst of change is often critical to successful transition. Recalibration is essential for three reasons: 

1. It increases the likelihood of making progress 

2. It allows for the pinpointing of milestones  

3. It strengthens agility skills

We at WLH have decades of experience and expertise in change implementation of all scales. If you would like to better understand how to recalibrate your plans or receive guidance that is tailored to your specific goals, challenges, and needs, ​please feel free to schedule an appointment with WLH today by visiting www.wlhconsulting.com.

“ If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - African Proverb 

Employees often cycle through varying degrees of engagement while going through change. Here are four tips to help reengage employees to ensure higher degrees of engagement and successful change implementation:

1. Reemphasize the why behind the change

2. Anchor everyone around your company culture and values

3. Train or retrain on skills that are needed

4. Seek to understand how each of your employees is reacting to and transitioning through the change

Take a moment to watch today’s episode and find out how to set yourself, your team, and your organization up for success!

Are you looking to redefine the future direction of your organization or team? If so, here are four things to consider when you are defining the future direction. Tune in to the today's episode! #wlhconsulting #wlhlearning #changeandthrivepodcast 

https://wlhconsulting.com Leaders are you prepared to support your team as they re-enter the workplace? In today's podcast my guest Dr. Julianna Hynes and I share some insights to help you. Tune in to today's episode! #wlhconsulting #changeandthrivepodcast 

Senior leaders across every industry are facing many challenges. Leaders are now being required to focus more than ever on four main questions.

1. Where will we work?
2. How will we work?
3. What skills are needed in our new way of working?
4. What culture do we want to create to support our new strategy?

In this week’s podcast, I provide an example of how the Pharma industry has answered the questions of where and how they will work. I provide five tips a leader can follow to position themselves and their teams well to ensure they create the culture they need to support their efforts in reimagining their future.

Take a quick listen and find out how to set yourself, your team, and your organization up for success!

Everything we know about healthcare and the way it is delivered has changed forever, forcing organizations and leaders to re-evaluate their barriers to empathetic leadership. As urgency from the pandemic shifts and businesses return to the “new normal,” the need for empathetic leadership is critical. In today's Change and Thrive podcast my guest, Dr. Loretta Cate and I share three (3) tips to help activate Empathetic Leadership within your organization and prepare your employees for re-entry. 

1. It is important that leaders sharpen their empathetic leadership skills and connect with their employees.

2. Create a network of support so leaders can continue to focus on leading with empathy.

3. Empathy will enable your leaders to thrive during change.

Cultivate empathy within your leaders as early as possible. Their involvement will greatly increase the likelihood of a successful re-entry! 

Listen to the full episode here: https://anchor.fm/wendy-l-heckelman-phd/episodes/Activating-Your-Leadership-Empathy-for-Re-entry-evrtqo

If you are interested in learning more about our blended solutions, WLH helps organizations, teams, and individuals think, plan, and execute with excellence. Schedule an Exploratory Call to learn more by visiting https://calendly.com/wlhconsulting/exploratorycall

Change defined the past year of living and working through the pandemic. Our daily lives were completely disrupted and organizations had to rethink and reshape work practices across all business operations. At this point, we are all experienced with change, particularly unexpected and widescale change. However, this is not enough to say that we are change-ready. It is no longer sufficient to respond to change—we must expect that the coming years will be characterized by change at every level and be prepared to change and thrive with the times.

Change readiness is more than a mindset where we accept and adapt to the pace of change. Change readiness means thinking through the potential implications any large-scale change has for individuals, organizations, and society at large. At WLH, we have worked with organizations through change and studied the characteristics of success for over thirty years. From this experience, we have created our Change and Thrive blended learning solution that readies leaders to deal with change at the organizational, team, and individual levels.

Listen to this podcast to learn how our approach is key to ensuring that goals and skills cascade throughout the entire business. Broadly speaking, we start with the organization to ensure that it has developed a well-thought-out plan that accounts for risks and rewards. Next, we share the importance of leaders to guide their teams through ongoing change. Lastly, we work with individuals to ensure they can relate their role to these broad goals, as well as accurately assessing their own change-readiness. Individuals are the backbone of any successful organization and they must be open to an honest assessment of how they react to organizational change, as well as their willingness to commit to change goals.

WLH Consulting, Inc. has deep expertise in consulting on large-scale change initiatives and developing custom solutions to address organization-specific needs and challenges. Schedule an Exploratory Call today to learn how your organization can become change ready!

As business management expert Peter Drucker once said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” An organization can carefully craft its strategic plan with great care and detail, but at the end of the day, its goals will not be accomplished if the company culture does not support the vision.

Today, I speak with Andrew Moore, the General Manager of Pfizer CentreOne. We discuss his journey with shaping organizational culture at Pfizer and the learnings he garnered through these experiences. Since his time in the military, Andrew had an appreciation for how team culture can shape expectations, goals, and values to drive performance.

Everyone reacts to change differently. Coaching through transition is not about performance coaching or development coaching, but in helping someone acknowledge what has changed and what they need to get to the other side and begin to perform. If you have been tuning into our leadership podcast series this month, we have discussed committing to change, constructing a plan to address business impact and risks, and creating high performing teams. In today’s episode, we continue our discussion on leadership agility, as I share with you the fourth C in the 5C’s of Transition Leadership® – COACH direct reports through transition.

During this past March, in honor of Women’s history month, we created a spotlight series on those women that have changed and thrived throughout 2020 and they shared how they pivoted and brought forth lesson’s learned to apply in 2021. Today I would like to briefly recap those lessons learned. Tune in!

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we at WLH are presenting another spotlight interview on an exceptional leader who has changed and thrived through the difficulties of the past year. I speak with long term friend and colleague, Janet Loesberg about how the pandemic has disproportionately affected women workers and how leaders can be more flexible and amenable to the increased demands that have been placed on these employees. Given the ways that women have had to adapt and take on more responsibility throughout the pandemic, Janet illuminates some ways that leaders can ease this burden. Leaders ought to give their employees the space and freedom to manage their own workdays by reaffirming the organization’s overarching goals and trusting employees to direct their time as they see fit. Tune in to this week’s podcast and subscribe to hear more spotlight interviews and valuable learnings!

As we progress through Women’s History Month, we at WLH are continuing to shine a spotlight on the women who have changed and thrived throughout the turmoil of this past year. Women leaders around the world have demonstrated their capacity to adapt and lead through these challenging times with strength and empathy. In fact, one study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that women were rated as more effective leaders on most levels of competency throughout the pandemic than their male counterparts. Specifically, the report concluded that “female leaders expressed more awareness of fears that followers might be feeling, concern for wellbeing, and confidence in their plans” (Zenger & Folkman, 2020). In this week’s podcast, I interview Laurie Cooke, who is the CEO and president of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association. Laurie’s leadership throughout the past year exemplifies some of the qualities that the report outlines. As Laurie points out, leaders usually have a toolkit of experience and precedents on which to base their decisions when confronted with new challenges. Tune into this week’s podcast to hear the full range of lessons that Laurie presents, and subscribe to keep up with this month’s spotlight interviews!

Here at WLH, we hold Women’s History Month in high esteem. It is a time to reflect on the progress that women have made across all domains of life, and in particular, how they have impacted the business world. Over the course of the past 50 years, women’s presence in the workplace has risen rapidly—in 1950, only 34% of women held jobs. By 2000, that number had increased to 60% and has only risen since while increasing in diversity (Bureau of Labor Statistics). We also seek to acknowledge the resilience of women leaders and explore the lessons learned from the challenges posed by the past year. In this week’s Spotlight Podcast, I interview Kelli Rodriguez, Chairperson of the HBA Southeast Region and President of the Vincent Group. Kelli and I discuss her experience in leading throughout the pandemic, the ways that she adapted to the new normal, and key takeaways that she plans to apply to work and life as we move forward together. Tune into this week’s podcast to learn the importance of being an authentic and empathetic leader in a time of unprecedented challenges!

As the pharmaceutical industry continues its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, there seems to be some semblance of a return to normalcy on the horizon. With 15% of the US population already vaccinated and these numbers rising every day, a wave of healing is hitting the country as we enter into what some are calling the “next normal.” Getting ready for the next normal requires reflecting on what major challenges have emerged and what must be re-imagined in a new disrupted healthcare marketplace.

As we consider the significant challenges that lay ahead as businesses try to reestablish office life while balancing the new protocols that are necessitated by the pandemic, leaders must reflect on just how prepared they are to undergo wide-scale transitions. Transition preparedness is a loftier goal than one might expect — in fact, research shows that 70% of change initiatives fail. To be a part of the 30% club, organizations must follow the patterns that have been set forth by other organizations that have cracked the code.

Luckily, at WLH we have developed a proven framework called the 5C’s of Leadership Transition. This framework offers tried and true methods for addressing change and transition at the organizational, team, and individual levels. These steps guide leaders through the processes of committing by preparing to lead, constructing a plan to address impacts and risks, creating high performing teams, coaching direct reports through the stages of transition, and lastly, calibrating to ensure success.

Large-scale change initiatives fail when organizations view their transition strategies as separate goals rather than as parts of a whole. Each step within the 5C’s Framework offers a unique perspective on a necessary facet of change while fitting into the larger puzzle of smooth and successful transition. We at WLH want to help you as you embark on the new challenges as well as the shining opportunities that lay ahead in the coming months. Let us help your organization become change-ready! #changeandthrive #podcast #wendylheckelmanphd

Though change can be exciting, it often feels overwhelming. It leaves us questioning whether we can keep up with our surroundings and wondering how we can remain flexible and adaptive to the world around us in the long run. However, there is one quality and skill that is key to navigating a constantly evolving marketplace: learning agility. In this podcast, we will discuss the importance of the fundamental skill of learning agility and what you can to do attain and perfect it! Listen to today's episode. #wlhconsulting #changeandthrivepodcast #wendylheckelmanphd

More often than not, change gets the best of us. Research shows that 70% of large-scale change efforts fail. That begs the question: what are the other 30% doing, and how are they getting it right? We at WLH have spent decades examining and working hands-on with change initiatives. We have seen countless successes and failures, giving us expertise in the practices that work and fall short when it comes to large-scale change. We have mapped these practices onto our three-tiered model, finding that successful change is addressed on three levels—organizational, team, and individual. Today, I want to focus specifically on the individual and what makes them change agile. Listen to the podcast, like and share! #changeandthrive #wendylheckelmanphd #wlhconsulting 

When high performers leave an organization, the effect can cascade into distrust throughout the organization, leading more high performers to question their position. It makes sense then, why the initial average financial cost of replacing a high performing employee is more than 400% of that employee’s compensation—and that doesn’t even include the 1-2 years of lost revenues and profits while the new employee learned how to perform effectively in the job. That is why retention of exceptional talent is absolutely critical. This is especially true today, as the pandemic has forced organizations to shift to virtual work models. Maintaining relationships with clients, patients, and doctors is increasingly difficult in this setting, so organizations that are able to retain their employees (and the relationships these employees have crafted) have a leg up. In today's episode I'll give you tips on how to retain your high performing talent! Listen to today's episode. #changeandthrivepodcast #wendylheckelmanphd

As many of you plan on implementing large-scale changes in 2021 (or perhaps you are in the midst of a transition right now), you may be asking yourself: “how do I ensure that I am part of the 30% success club?”  We want to help you with that goal by leading you through our unique model that approaches change on 3 levels –the organizational, team, and individual levels. In this podcast, we will focus on the team level, and specifically our Jump Start approach. At WLH, we developed Team Jump Start to help leaders quickly address the many and varying challenges that come with leading a team through a transition. Listen to today's episode. #changeandthrivepodcast

It is a New Year with new challenges and 2021 will continue the pattern of disruption in healthcare! What is not new is the importance of developing effective geography and account plans. Life Sciences companies that take a purposeful and consistent approach to developing, executing, and reviewing geography and account plans yield better results.

Most pharmaceutical organizations conduct year beginning meetings to align everyone on goals and key business priorities.  This year, meetings will likely be virtual and the opportunities to learn from peers formally and informally could be greatly reduced.  In addition, the typical “ask” is to take these strategic priorities and translate them into meaningful plans of action. Sales and Access leaders should proactively coach their teams to resist “jumping into the deep end” without engaging in focused planning. Instead, use this year’s kick off meetings and initial one-on-one visits to ensure each direct report develops a plan that leads to better results.

All field leaders (Sales and Access) and field professionals, should keep the following four tips in mind when developing a business plan. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW! 

Large-scale change impacts teams differently and with change comes new leaders, newly comprised teams, new ways of working, and new priorities. Often team members become distracted or neglect important priorities. Whether or not the amount of disruption is large or small, involves new customers or new geographies, people still need to quickly align around the team's vision, strategies, and priorities. In today’s episode we continue our discussion on leadership agility and will discuss the third C in the 5C’s of Transition Leadership® - CREATE a high performing team to deliver results.

Reflecting on the past is a key skill for anyone who seeks to improve and meet new, higher goals in the future. We can all learn from how we responded to the challenges of 2020, but it will take focused efforts to make the most out of our reflections and apply these lessons to the opportunities of the new year. We at WLH are here to help you do just that! Read the full article here: https://wlhconsulting.com/wlh-2020-reflections/

Last month we introduced our ABC’s of Leadership for all times to reflect leadership challenges in response to the current climate. This week’s podcast continues the series as we move into the fifth necessary skills for today’s leaders: Empathy and inclusive leadership. I will speak with trusted WLH Team Member, Loretta Cate about this area that we are both deeply passionate about. Leadership empathy is the ability to build understanding around others’ thoughts, feelings, and rationale through inclusion. Practicing empathy enables leaders to seek perspectives, ideas, and solutions by encouraging involvement in thinking through a situation. Empathy is the necessary ingredient for building deeper understanding between leaders and their team members, which allows for more effective coaching through transition, coaching to higher performance, and coaching for career advancement that creates a diverse pool of candidates. This is the key to ensuring that team members feel respected, valued, and trusted -- all qualities that are paramount to pivotal relationships in both business and personal life. Empathy is particularly important in the area of transition coaching, which is all about understanding what people are thinking and feeling about a given change and the challenges and perspectives that surround it. Empathetic leadership doesn’t mean agreeing with these perspectives, but rather understanding concerns and communicating in such a way that these concerns are both acknowledged and considered in the broader scope of company movements. It is also key to career coaching, as it elevates the visibility of transparent and fair advancement criteria, creating a level playing field for all. Given the unique and growing challenges of today, empathy is an increasingly important quality for leaders to have and exhibit in all business relationships.

In this week’s podcast, we at WLH Consulting and WLH Learning Solutions want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and share our appreciation for all of you! This past year has been challenging, and it can be hard to find gratitude in these times. That is why we took the time to reflect on the small wins we’ve had along the way and thought of you and how you have helped us transform tremendously. Your needs have inspired us to grow, think outside the box, and work beyond the status quo. We thank you for being part of the journey. In this podcast, we want to do two things: Reinforce one of our primary change and thrive principles, “effective change and transition needs are to be managed at the organizational, team, and individual levels,” and ask you to apply that principle when reflecting on this past challenging year. At the organizational level, think of your senior leaders and all of the tough decisions that rested on their shoulders this year. Thank them for prioritizing the safety and health of your employees and families in a tumultuous period. As an industry, take pride in how the life sciences field has contributed to caring for patients and supporting the development of a vaccine. At the team level, reflect on how hard everyone is working while adapting to new work environments and supporting one another. Lastly, at the individual level, acknowledge your own grit and determination and how you managed to work through problems this year. Know that you are appreciated and that we are wishing you a safe and restful holiday weekend!

A month ago, we introduced our ABCs of Leadership for all times to reflect leadership challenges in response to today’s turbulent climate. Thus far, we have discussed three non-negotiable leadership skills: Agility, Breakthrough thinking, and Collaboration that is bold and intentional. This week, we move into our fourth skill: Dare to Execute higher aspirations. We define this skill as the ability to overcome barriers to boldness, bring clarity to chaos to focus on the critical few with intensity, and build commitment and accountability to drive higher success. In this podcast, I speak with Dr. Loretta Cate, a member of the WLH team and co-leader of our WIL initiative. We discuss how the leader of a pharma company that we recently worked with set high goals and executed new operating models to reset how work is done throughout their organization, leading them to surpass 2nd quarter expectations despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. This leader’s success is echoed across other leaders who follow similar paths of questioning their assumptions, thinking bigger, and letting go of historical norms in order to find ways of making the impossible possible. In addition to setting higher aspirations, leaders must ensure everyone on the team has clarity around their role, responsibilities and expectations. When this happens, trust and respect always follow and organizational synergy is cultivated. Setting high aspirations is key, but leaders must cultivate other skills in order to ensure that their organizations meet these goals. In this way, each of our non-negotiable leadership skills builds on and reinforces each other, creating a complete toolkit with which leaders can address new challenges and succeed.