President

Peakinsight LLC

Half Moon Bay, California

With more than 20 years of global executive coaching and consulting experience, Katherine Holt helps leaders around the world design business strategies for todays complex, multicultural workplace. A large part of her talent management and leadership development expertise involves transformational coaching, the practice of leveraging leaders unique skills to achieve breakthrough possibilities for themselves and their organizations.

Holt established her firm, Peakinsight LLC, in 2000, and works primarily with executives based in California, Japan, and China. Previously she served as the chief architect for Personnel Decisions Internationals PROFILOR suite of 360 tools before starting its offices in Asia. She has consulted for firms such as Agilent Technologies, Apple, Diageo, Microsoft, and 3M.

Holt received her doctorate in industrial relations from the University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Management. Her latest article, "Global Leadership: A Developmental Shift for Everyone" will be published in the June 2012 issue of Industrial Organizational Psychologist (IOP).

Q| What is required of a global leader to be successful in todays complex and multicultural organization?

The first requirement is self-awareness, especially for leaders who are working cross-culturally and dealing with paradoxes. Global leaders need a sense of "being" that goes beyond "doing." Their personal energy, presence, and authenticity is a vital part of communicating across culturesas I discussed with my colleague Kyoko Seki in our IOP article. It also helps to operate with a "both-and" mindset rather than an "either-or" framework.

Some people tend to underestimate the cognitive processing skills that leaders need, given the massive and potentially conflicting amount of information available today. It is becoming much more difficult to make fact-based decisions when global markets, consumers, and players are constantly changing.

Mega-agility is also imperative. The VUCA acronym (which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) captures whats going on in our world, and was popularized in a book by Bob Johansen called Leaders Make the Future. Leaders need tremendous agility to anticipate and navigate change; continuous learning is obviously important as welland thats one of many instances when ASTD can make a difference.

Q| What can you share about transformational coaching?

Transformational coaching enables leaders to shift the paradigm for themselves or others. It involves working with leaders on their vision or purpose, helping them to see the bigger picture, and then encouraging them to set their goals even higher, beyond what they thought they could do. My Chinese colleague Lynn King thinks about this as discovering ones "Great Work."

People come into coaching with a lot of different goals, and coaches must adapt to client needs and expectations. Many people I work with are not interested in transformation, and thats OK. They may simply want to increase their day-to-day happiness or effectiveness rather than pursue their manifest destiny.

However, my favorite clients tend to bring questions and challenges into coaching that are really provocative; theyre eager to transform their current and future reality for themselves or others. Sometimes Ill pose "what if" questions or nudge clients to ask questions that could be life-changing, but ultimately we work on whatever they want to work on, not the possibilities that I see for them. For example, if people want to improve their listening or influence skills, we can work on behavior changes that might transform particular relationships. Other leaders may want to develop a vision for major organizational shifts, skills, or leadership; or empower a large number of teams to make some significant changes.

After leaders set goals, I work with them to develop a success mapa picture of what will be happening once the changes are made. That map helps them to stay focused as theyre making those changes. Helping people to maximize their insights is the first step; then translating that insight into actionable change is key if you want to see results at work. Some coaches help clients explore what impending change wants to happen. I help clients imagine new possibilities for change, and then make things happen.

Q| You are also passionate about innovation. What role do you see innovation playing in the global workforce within the next several years?

As I think about the last 10 or 20 years, the appeal of innovation seems to come and go. Its more popular in times of prosperity when companies think they can afford to invest in a variety of new capabilities or ventures. The current downturn has scared a lot of people (me included). Many people want safe, risk-free innovation, which is almost a contradiction in terms. Others recognize that this is a good time to make some bold bets, and Im hoping that theyll be rewarded.

Innovations often lead to growth. Companies need to pay attention to their core business (the cash cow) and invest in their next core business, but they also have to plant seeds for future business. That investment includes lots of experimenting. Paradigm shifts such as sustainable business wont come from making incremental changes. And were not going to get there if people are afraid to try new things.

Michael Kirton, a researcher in the UK, began examining what leads to successful versus unsuccessful projects back in the 1960s. He developed a theory of creative problem-solving that I find useful when I work with companies today. According to Kirton, at one end of the spectrum are the adapters, the people who want to improve the system and make it better. At the other end are the innovators, those who want to change the system and make it different. We need to engage people from both ends of this continuum in change making, along with the people in the middle who can bridge the differences, set common goals, and get the parties aligned to implement strategies.

And of course, there is plenty of room for innovation when it comes to sustainability because we have only just scratched the surface of what we can do when people put their imaginations to work.

Q| What can leaders do today to grow healthy, sustainable, and high-performing organizations?

The word "green" is now almost mainstream. That wasnt the case even earlier this decade. There is still an undercurrent of doubt about whether "doing good" is truly good for business, but I see no real alternative if companies want to survive.

Focusing on the triple bottom linepeople, planet, and profitis a useful way for leaders to measure their businesses. So when they think about what high performance means, they need to go beyond the profit or financial piece. For me, healthy performance implies respect and concern for people both inside the organization as well as within the communities where companies operate. And sustainability requires stewardship of environmental resources; otherwise, there simply wont be sufficient energy, food, or raw materials for future generations.

Ray Anderson was the founder of Interface. He experienced a midlife transformation and showed what leaders with courage can do in terms of setting ambitious targets such as zero waste or zero emissions to make their businesses sustainable. For example, companies can adopt so-called "cradle to cradle" processes in manufacturing to change how they make their products. They can ensure that their companies treat their employees right. They can start with treating their own employees right by going beyond the Golden Rule to following the Platinum Ruletreating employees as they wish to be treated.

Im somewhat pessimistic because I think that were beyond the tipping point in terms of global warming, and thats just going to increase the volatility and instability of the world. I think there was a windowmaybe 10 years agowhen if enough members of society had really "gotten it" and gotten behind the Kyoto Protocol, we would have had a chance to limit or mitigate the damage we were creating. However, Im also counting on all of the human ingenuity around the world to help us figure out some solutions.

Q| What are some of the greatest lessons youve learned from coaching and developing leaders in Asia-Pacific?

My biggest lesson has been humility. What I had learned about coaching in a U.S. context back in the early 1990s before I went to Asia-Pacific did not equip me to understand how language and culture affect behavior at really deep levels. Im still learning today.

For example, nemawashia Japanese word that means root bindingis about spending time with individuals prior to key meetings to develop relationships, learn each others perspectives, and come into alignment. Subsequent meetings then become more of a formal signoff, rather than a place to debate issues.

The Chinese word guanxi describes personalized networks of influence that go beyond establishing basic connections or relationships. Westerners who come to Asia tend to want to "get down to business"; in Japan or China, they often miss the fact that relationships are business. Western expatriates who go to Asia focusing on "getting the job done" often fail to appreciate the importance of context, and never see the whole picture. Similarly, Asians who are working for multinational companies or coming to the United States or Europe for school often need to learn a more direct style of interaction than theyre used to. And on top of all of this, culture is always changing, especially because the new generations have very different global experiences and expectations from their ancestors.

Its important to realize that you cannot know everything. Equip yourself before going into any kind of new international situation, but keep an open mind, be curious about what you see, and test your hypotheses with people who are there to continually refine your understanding.

Q| Are there any new books or special projects that you're working on?

After starting my own business, I have tried to spend 25 percent of my time doing pro bono work. I recently began volunteering as part of the World Pulse Voices of Our Future program, where I got assigned to coach a woman in Nepal. This year 600 women applied for 30 slots to receive training in new media and citizen journalism. Each correspondent is paired with a vision mentor like me, as well as a writing coach. We work with the women on building their capabilities so they can communicate globally to share their stories and innovative solutions with the world. It's an amazing program, and Im thrilled to be part of it.

Q| What do you like to do for relaxation and fun?

I love spending time with my dog Koko, especially hiking in the Colorado Rockies or walking on the coastal trail now that Im living part-time in Half Moon Bay \[California\]. She also travels with me sometimes and has accompanied me to ICE, as well as ASTDs office in Alexandria \[Virginia\]. I also enjoy cooking and hanging out with friends, although my BFFs live in Minnesota, New York, and Japan, so its difficult to see them very often.

I was an avid reader while growing up, and reclaimed that habit after disconnecting my TV last year. Im becoming much more intentional about how Im spending my time and trying to walk 10,000 paces every day. I particularly appreciate deep Japanese-style bathtubs where I do some of my best thinking. Ive also become a fan of quick naps, especially curled up with Koko.