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ATD NYC Volunteer Spotlight – gothamCulture’s Kate Gerasimova

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Kate Gerasimova gothamCulture Senior Associate

By Rosemary Okoiti, ATD NYC

1. What three words describe you and why?

•Empathetic: I always make a good effort to make sure I’m considering the other person and the other side of the story. This is one of the reasons I love human-centered design so much as well. 

•Ambitious and driven: If I set my mind on something, it would be extremely hard to get me off that road. I have a high inspiration for myself which comes with higher standards. Knowing this about myself helps me realize when to let things go and be more agile. 

•Versatile: I am curious about a lot of things and have a wide range of interests, psychology, design innovation, learning, art, business, tennis, biking, and the list continues. I once was going to major in math and law.  Read More…

How To Motivate Others By Starting With Yourself

By gothamCulture
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Shawn Overcast

One of the toughest parts of a leader’s job, regardless of whether you’re leading a corporation, in the community or at home, is to motivate and develop the people on a team toward a common goal. gothamCulture’s Shawn Overcast talked with Moms That Lead podcast host Teri Schmidt about how it all starts with self-leadership. Shawn shares inspirational stories and practical strategies for helping those you choose to lead to excel beyond their expectations by starting with your own self-reflection. Shawn and Teri discuss the application of those strategies to leadership at work, in the community, and, perhaps most importantly, at home.

Episode 18: How to Motivate Others by Starting with Yourself

How Do I Find Hope?

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Quoc Pham - Photo provided by Dave Bushy

by Dave Bushy

“Always Have Hope.”

This philosophy informs the simplest and most profound outlook humans can hold in their hearts.  It is a quote from one of the men I admired most in the world.

I often ask those around me how they feel about the times in which we live. Many point to the headlines and express various emotions, including a declining sense of confidence, a level of fear they have not had previously, or, sadly, a void in their own sense of hope. They struggle to find the armor of optimism that will allow them to gain perspective and realize that this world has always had enormous challenges and has inevitably overcome them.

Perhaps it is the endless nature of the news and social media cycle that weighs on everyone today. But many of the feelings we have originate within each of us, for it is we who do the work of convincing ourselves, allowing our perspectives to be overshadowed by emotions and the weight of “information” overload that currently exists in our society today.

But we have choice. And we can choose to lean into our own curiosity and regain critical thinking that will allow us to begin to see other possibilities in today’s world, helping us to understand that the totality of today’s issues, while daunting, are not insurmountable. We can once again allow hope to inform our journey in the process. Read More…

High-Potential Programs Can Help Some Employees And Hurt Others. Here’s How We Can Design A Fairer System

By gothamCulture
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High-Potential Program

By  and 

Companies invest in high potential programs with the goal of developing their star employees into future leaders. As exciting as these programs seem, poorly designed versions of them might cause more harm than good. While there is no secret recipe for a high potential program, here are three ideas to keep in mind when designing your company’s program to ensure it is effective and fair:

1. Companies that invest in high potential programs financially outperform their competitors.1

High potential programs sit in talent management, a practice that focuses on identifying and developing the ‘A players’— those who have the highest leadership potential and are of great interest to companies — with the potential to fill future leadership roles.2 This segmentation of the workforce allows companies to achieve their business objectives and motivates those labeled as high potential A players to strive and thrive. After tracking 300 organizations across 31 countries over 7 years, researchers found that investment in high potential programs correlated with better financial performance.1

These programs are not faultless, however. Regardless of intention, high potential programs can alienate the B players who make 80-85% of the workforce,3 leading to demotivation, a decrease in productivity and engagement,4 and even at times, higher turnover.5 Read More…

Attend to Others – Give Them the Gift of Yourself

By gothamCulture
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Listening

I learn from every client.  One lesson in particular that comes to mind came from a young leader with whom I recently worked.

My client was extremely curious about how others saw her.  She worked hard at becoming aware of her own well-developed sides and those she discerned might be less developed.  She was a veritable sponge for learning!

Her growth as a leader was amazing, as she honed skills at dealing with others who might have different styles and perspectives, recognizing her own resistance to change and then setting judgment aside, using the lens of learning and appreciation for others. She worked hard in listening and in taking the time to pause.  It was a remarkable journey to watch. Read More…

How to Actively Engage Your Remote Team Members

By gothamCulture
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gothamCulture’s Kate Gerasimova discusses how to actively engage your remote team members on the Working with People podcast.

Host Harrison Kim and Kate address these questions:

  1. What are the most common reasons for employee disengagement in the remote workforce (are these reasons different than in non-remote workforces)?
  2. What are some tell-tale signs of employee disengagement in the remote workforce?
  3. What are some initiatives to engage disengaged, unmotivated remote employees, and maintain a positive company culture?

The Leader as a “Heat Sink”

By gothamCulture
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In everything from soldering circuit boards to dissipating the thermal energy created by computer server farms, the technological world appreciates the value of a “heat sink.”  Without heat sinks, we would have far more component hiccups or even outright failures.

Heat sinks serve a vital purpose in dissipating energy and allowing a device to function.

But what happens when the leader becomes the metaphorical “heat sink,” taking in all or most of the heat and energy that is emanated from the crisis, the organization and the people with whom he or she is dealing?

Coaching women and men these past four months, I have found myself using this heat sink metaphor often  – inviting the leaders who deal with the current crisis to think about the human emotion and “heat” that has been built up on their teams and themselves.  Some of the calmest and most centered individuals I know today are now struggling as never before, with the weighty issues and unknowns facing their personal and professional world.  And the “heat” from that often finds its way into a ready conduit – the leader himself.  Some call it stress, others call it workload.  My clients readily appreciate the metaphor of “heat.” Read More…

The Two Best Bosses You’ll Ever Have – Continuing Lessons From My First Sergeant

By gothamCulture
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It seems like a lifetime ago that I was sitting with another G.I., commenting about my commander in the military.  The animated discussion I was engaged in was with a non-commissioned officer – a “NCO” –  commiserating about actions my commander had taken and how I wish he could somehow be different.

The NCO, a U.S. Army E-8, listened intently and heard my complaints – and my venting – for long minutes.  When I finally stopped, he simply smiled and asked,

“So who are the two best bosses you’ll ever have in your career?”

Non-plussed by the question, I sat there in silence, not really knowing what to say.  By then I had spent enough time in the Army, though, to realize that a senior NCO draws on a lifetime of experience leading people.  For those open to learning, top sergeants are always ready to provide perspectives, often in the form of parables or aphorisms. Read More…

Going Slow To Go Fast

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Going Fast to Go Slow

In a recent discussion with one of my colleagues, she compared the work she is doing with teams to rebooting her computer. Every once in a while, we realize that we have opened so many files, folders, web pages, and software programs in the course of our work and life that things just aren’t operating as smoothly and quickly as we might expect. To get things back in working order, we need to carve out some time to reboot- to close everything out and to start over. To go slow in order to go fast again.

[LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION WITH MY COLLEAGUE HERE]

When this happens, and it happens to all of us, you have a couple of options. First, you can ignore it and muddle through, hoping to avoid the dreaded “blue screen of death”. You can shut the computer down and walk away. Or, you can take a pause, reboot, and clear the decks of all of those things that are no longer serving you well. Read More…

Podcast: A Citizen-Centered Approach to Police Reform

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gothamCulture Podcast

In this episode of the gothamCulture Podcast, Chris Cancialosi talks with customer experience expert and CEO of TribeCX, David Hicks, and law enforcement officer and mindset and wellness expert, Joe Smarro about taking a citizen-centric approach to police reform.

Released: June 24, 2020

Show notes and transcript: