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Katy is a managing partner at Leader Success Inc. and has over 25 years of experience as a leadership development executive. She has worked with leading organizations across industries from start-ups to large, global organizations. Leader Success offers virtual and in person team and leadership programs with a focus on coaching, feedback, communication, strategic thinking, managing inclusively, leading virtual teams, and career development. Leader Success has facilitators, consultants, and coaches across the globe. Katy has a BA in International Relations from Duke University and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.Katy is a Fulbright Scholar. She is a certified Executive Coach through the International Coaches Federation.

Katy Sharon

When we develop leaders who approach conversations with curiosity, notice what’s going on around them, and really listen, employees are engaged, motivated, and empowered to do their best work.

Build Meaning and Connection: Develop a Mindset of Curiosity

Let’s look at five practical, workable, and powerful questions that leaders can ask their teams and when to use them. Don’t forget to make them your own.

The Top 5 Most Powerful Leadership Questions

Teamwork allows us to engage in important work, and teams hold immense power. Those on teams share perspectives, brainstorm ideas, and produce results beyond what’s possible alone. With organizations relying increasingly on teams to deliver impact, teamwork skills are needed more than ever.Part of the ATD Soft Skills Series, Teamwork in Talent Development is for talent development professionals who serve as team leaders or team members and wish to improve their collaboration abilities, build successful teams, and maximize their team performance for solving business problems, meeting learning needs, promoting culture change, and more.Author Thane Bellomo is an organizational development innovator, author, and speaker who has spent more than 20 years working with Fortune 500 organizations and leaders in manufacturing, healthcare, government, and the energy industry. We recently spoke with him to get some insights on key takeaways from the book.1. Why write another teamwork book?I often get called on to help organizations with teams. In such cases, leaders are struggling to create high performing teams and don’t quite know how to do it. There are a million teaming models and formulas out there that outline the attributes of high-performing teams, yet I still see leaders and organizations wrestling with this problem. My observations are that many leaders don’t often think about the upfront work of team creation. What circumstances are most likely to drive the development of team performance? What are the attributes of team support that help high-performing teams develop? I haven’t seen many resources that address the upfront work needed to create the circumstances most likely to develop high-performing teams.An analogy for this is trying to grow crops in unfertile soil. You can read all the books about how to plant, when to plant, and how much to water. But if your soil is poor, then none of that matters. What I address in this book is how to ensure that you are working with fertile soil. When we create the correct conditions, the likelihood that we will end up with high-performing teams is much greater. This book addresses a gap in teaming literature, which will help leaders.I also wrote this book to outline the far-reaching impact that creating high-performing teams can have on your organization. People often think that teams are just groups of people that complete a task or packet of work. That is such a limited view of how powerful teams can be in your organization when done well. In terms of the development of trust and community, high-performing teams have enormous downstream benefits. Leaders don’t often approach teaming with this in mind. This book will help leaders not only recognize that value but work to create it.2. What is the one thing that you hope people take away after reading this book?I want leaders to understand that well-formed and well-led teams solving important problems lead to the development of trust and community within the team. Teams accomplish a lot of work, which is a good thing. But when people struggle together to accomplish important things, they develop high levels of trust and relationships that end up resembling what we might call a community. Communities care about one another; they want each other to succeed; and they create circumstances where people will provide high levels of discretionary effort to ensure the success of not only the project itself, but of each other.The relationships forged in these instances live on long after the team is disbanded. Team members continue to collaborate, maintain communication, and help each other succeed. The result is often high levels of cross-functional and cross-departmental information sharing and innovation. This dynamic can be a big differentiator in your organization’s ability to compete in the market.3. What is the biggest gap you see in how leaders lead teams?The biggest gap in how leaders lead teams is in the initial framing and formation of the team. Leaders often throw a group of people together and tell them to go do something. This approach undercuts some of the most powerful factors that determine team performance. First, teams should be thought of as problem-solvers, not task-doers. This is an important distinction that is often overlooked. When we task teams to solve a problem, we have the opportunity for coming up with better solutions. This dynamic allows us to leverage the innovative capacity of the group to engage with the problem and develop solutions.Second, high-performing teams are more likely to form when they are engaged in important work. Leaders often assume that just because they want a packet of work completed, the assignment is important. However, if the team doesn’t feel the assignment is important, then they will not naturally provide discretionary effort to solve the problem or execute the work. Important work lends itself to discretionary effort, engagement, and collaboration.We know this because the inverse is true. When teams engage in unimportant work, we tend to see the hallmarks of low-performing teams—lack of discretionary effort, disengagement, variable effort, and destructive conflict. Helping the team understand the importance of the work you are asking them to engage with is key. If you can’t convince them that it is important, then that might be a clue that it really isn’t.4. What team behaviors are most impactful for creating high-performing teams?The most important attributes and behaviors critical to team performance are their level of curiosity and their ability to challenge. It is a tautology that humanity advances through disagreement. Only through wrestling with differing ideas and perspectives do we triangulate onto the most effective answers. Too many teams have cultures that stifle disagreement and frown upon vigorously challenging one another and leadership. I advise leaders to build team cultures where the expectation is that everyone approaches disagreement with curiosity. “Tell me more” should probably be the most used phrase on any team, particularly during disagreements. This opens the door for people to engage in dialogue and perspective sharing.Curiosity also permits vigorous challenges. The team norm should be an expectation of disagreeing that leads to solutions. Leaders can set a good example by asking their teams, “Tell me why I am wrong,” or maybe even better, “Tell me why this is a bad idea.”5. What are the outcomes that you hope leaders and organizations will get by using this book to guide their team leadership?I hope that leaders will recognize the “if you want teamwork, then give the teamwork.” I hope that leaders will internalize that trust is an outcome of people effectively struggling together to accomplish great things. I also hope that leaders will spend a lot more time up front thinking carefully about the importance of the work they are tasking the team with; framing the importance of that work; tasking the team with solving a problem; and honoring the importance of the work by providing the team autonomy, funding, and effective sponsorship. When all components are in place, leaders are much more likely to create a high-performing team and reap its benefits.How can organizations best drive the development of high-performing teams?Organizations can take the lessons from the book to build an effective team approach into their culture. They can define the way in which they “do teams.” Process the idea that teams solve important problems; honor important work by giving teams autonomy, funding, and sponsorship; and encourage curiosity and challenges. It is all well and good when leaders know these things, but unless they build the approach into how teams work, then it is just another aspiration that people might talk about but which they actually never do. This dynamic only ends up breeding organizational mistrust.It also ends up sabotaging efforts to create high-performing teams in the future. People end up not believing you when you say the work is important, they end up not trusting that they will be given support, and they quickly lose interest. What likelihood do we then have of a high-performing team where a sense of trust and community are built? Make the principles outlined in the book a part of how you do business, and you will do better at creating high-performing teams, solving your most difficult challenges, and creating communities within your organization that drive innovation and cross-functional collaboration.About the AuthorThane Bellomo is an executive coach and team and organization development practitioner. He has more than 20 years of experience working with Fortune 50 leaders to maximize their potential and optimize their results. Thane is an accomplished author, speaker, and coach and spends his time studying how leaders and teams most effectively form and function.About ATD and ATD PressThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD Press publications are written by industry thought leaders and offer anyone who works with adult learners the best practices, academic theory, and guidance necessary to move the profession forward. For more information, visit td.org/books.Teamwork in Talent DevelopmentISBN: 9781952157660 | 152 Pages | Paperbackhttps://www.td.org/product/book--teamwork-in-talent-development/112113To order books from ATD Press, call 800.628.2783.To schedule an interview with Thane Bellomo, please contact Kay Hechler, ATD Press senior marketing manager, at khechler@td.org or 703.683.8178.

Teamwork in Talent Development: Q&A With Thane Bellomo

(Alexandria, VA) September 14, 2021—In The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement (ATD Press, September 2021), leading sales enablement expert Mike Kunkle introduces a comprehensive framework to help anyone who wants to build or evolve a sales enablement function that truly drives results. Delivering a holistic and strategic approach, Kunkle focuses on a formal maturity model, with 12 core sales enablement building blocks supported by systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration. Kunkle aligns four key systems to get results—sales hiring, sales readiness, sales training, and sales management (including coaching). Kunkle’s framework is timely given the complexities of today’s fast-paced world. Implementing the Building Blocks framework requires critical thinking, creative thinking, and systems thinking, thus ensuring a thorough, multidimensional, and cross-functional approach that is both seller- and buyer-centric.Kunkle advises two main audiences on how best to use the framework and book. According to Kunkle, “First consider a problem you are trying to solve—from implementing a new sales methodology and struggling to get adoption, or buyers not responding well to the content reps are sharing, to reps pitching products rather than using a buyer-centric, problem-based prospecting approach. Then using the results of the assessments, you can start implementing or refining the appropriate building blocks that best help you close the gaps identified. Similarly, if you’d prefer to do the work on your own, you can use the building blocks or the four systems in this book as a diagnostic, assessing your organization against the best practices to create an action plan.”For sales enablement leaders, he advises, “Use the building blocks as a diagnostic tool and a road map. Assess your function against the full building blocks framework to determine what you are currently doing very well, and where you can improve. For example, if you don’t have a charter, start there and create one. Are you implementing the correct sales methodology? Getting the methodology right is critical. Are you launching a new product? Prioritizing is key.”“No matter your role, no one can implement all building blocks or systems at once. It’s like the old joke about how you eat an elephant—one bite at a time. Using a diagnostic approach and the logic outlined here, work to get the building blocks and systems in place—one (or two) at a time—based on your resources, time, and budget and always with an eye toward impact and supporting strategic objectives.”Kunkle’s framework is not meant just for people who hold the title of sales leader or sales enablement leader; it is also for cross-functional stakeholders (in marketing, sales operations, legal, and finance, and in the C-suite, as examples). Kunkle explains, “Even if you don’t have personal responsibility for hiring or product messaging or sales process or sales compensation, you want to be working cross-functionally with those other leaders to ensure the sales force has what they need and is operating at the highest-possible level. You’ll want to read this with your team to see how you can best support enablement.”About the AuthorMike Kunkle is a respected sales transformation architect and internationally recognized sales training and sales enablement expert. He is an experienced corporate leader and consultant who helps companies drive dramatic revenue growth. He also is the vice president of sales enablement services for SPARXiQ, where he advises clients, writes, speaks at conferences, develops and leads webinars, designs sales training courses, delivers workshops, and designs sales enablement systems that get results.About ATD and ATD PressThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD Press publications are written by industry thought leaders and offer anyone who works with adult learners the best practices, academic theory, and guidance necessary to move the profession forward. For more information, visit td.org/books.The Building Blocks of Sales EnablementISBN: 9781952157622 | 200 Pages | Paperbackhttps://www.td.org/product/book--the-building-blocks-of-sales-enablement/112104To order books from ATD Press, call 800.628.2783.To schedule an interview with Mike Kunkle, please contact Kay Hechler, ATD Press senior marketing manager, at khechler@td.org or 703.683.8178.

Use the Building Blocks Framework to Drive Sales Results

October 2015 - The Public Manager

When leaders teach employees, it works. When the teaching practice is formalized, it's even more effective. Yet only 17 percent of organizations have formal leaders-as-teachers programs, and 39 percent report having informal leaders-as-teachers programs. Those were among the findings of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) study, Leaders as Teachers: Engaging Employees in High-Performance Learning. The respondents to the study, sponsored by The Training Associates, came from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.Year after year, ATD and i4cp research finds that high-performance organizations are higher performers in learning, and the current survey confirms this trend. Sixty-two percent of high-performance organizations say that their "learning function helps meet our learning and development goals," while only 28 percent of low-performance organizations say that is the case. Further, 60 percent of the high performers respond that their learning function helps meet their organization's business goals, compared with 26 percent of low performers. Fifty-one percent of high-performance organizations report that they deliver learning very efficiently compared with 30 percent of low-performance organizations.Leaders serving as teachers don't necessarily need to present in-depth content. Leaders' teaching roles most often involve speaking about their own personal experiences. So it stands to reason that training is generally minimal for leaders. Thirty-one percent of the initiatives involve leaders in crafting content to be taught, 30 percent hold planning meetings to clarify roles and expectations, and 27 percent involve leaders in determining needs and planning solutions to address them.Challenges to leaders as teachers include leaders' schedule, inability to tie leaders' teaching to individual performance goals, and leaders' teaching not viewed as an important development opportunity. The research highlights some best practices that agencies can tap into to garner valuable results.For instance, the State of Florida's Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Four performance and training office serves the learning needs of approximately 800 employees and managers. FDOT is responsible for planning and developing a safe transportation system statewide. According to Kathy Shurte, manager of the office, FDOT has a program called Step Up in place, which calls for employees to take the initiative in terms of making positive change in and contributing to their workplace. The performance and training office has implemented a more informal leaders-as-teachers program that grew out of the department's Step Up program. Through it, managers and other leaders stop by training and management classes and contribute, selecting a topic they feel comfortable talking about.And at Providence Health & Services, where leaders as teachers also plays out on an informal basis, senior leaders encourage and enable learners to take risks and do things a bit differently. Across the organization, senior leaders facilitate meetings, classes, and retreats—sharing company history and linking it to the organization's mission and vision for the future.Tricia Rhine, senior organizational development consultant, says about the leaders-as-teachers program, "It not only engages the people who are the recipients of the message, it truly engages the senior leaders who, for the first time in some cases, are being heard by the people they influence."The study was conducted in May 2015, and consisted of more than 1,300 learning and business professionals. It also reported on budgets, evaluation methods of leaders as teachers, learning methods, and additional best practices for achieving success.ATD ResourcesLeaders as Teachers (ATD book)Leaders as Teachers Action Guide (ATD book)Leaders Open Doors (ATD book)

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