The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Accountability is at the heart of all high-performing teams and successful organizations. Employees at all levels take full ownership and responsibility for their actions, decisions and performance—and for the achievement of business outcomes—without excuses. Healthy cultures that prioritize accountability see better results in productivity, collaboration and engagement, high morale and a greater capacity to thrive. If that doesn't sound like your organization, then as a leader, you have to find out why. It's time to determine how teams can align their tasks with the organization's big picture.

Leading NOW, the award-winning leadership authority and advisor to organizations seeking to create more equitable cultures, announces the expansion of its global team of experts. Joining the team as Senior Consultants are Abby Wen Wu, Allison Conigliaro-Hubbard, Joyel Crawford, Quendrida Whitmore, and Alison Lazenby––all accomplished business leaders with impressive credentials, to contribute to Leading NOW's work with its growing roster of clients. "As our business continues to flourish, I am thrilled to add such amazing talent to our global team of senior consultants, each of whom bring with them a broad range of leadership knowledge," said Kelly Primus, CEO Leading NOW. "One of our key differentiators is our focus on bringing together experienced business people to solve the problems businesses face. These successful and inspiring women are a natural fit for our team and the work we do, as they can speak from their own unique experiences to help our clients achieve successful business outcomes." Abby Wen Wu joins Leading NOW with an extensive background in Leadership, Organizational Transformation and Change. Abby worked in private equity and corporate finance at Bank of America and as a consultant for Deloitte where she supported organizations, including Apple, Celgene and Amgen, through large-scale change projects in HR and digital transformation. Allison Conigliaro-Hubbard joins Leading NOW with over 26 years in global tech enterprise Sales and Product Marketing Leadership within large and mid-sized organizations that include Cisco, Brocade, Autodesk, Riverbed, and a start-up exit to Microsoft. Allison holds coaching certifications from the International Coach Federation (ICF), Co-Active Training Institute (CPCC), and Cornell University in Women's Executive Leadership, and Diversity and Inclusion. Joyel Crawford joins Leading NOW after an 18-year career at Verizon Wireless where she was a Manager of Management and Employee Development in charge of the Leadership Development programs for over 20,000 Verizon employees. She is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC), hosts a podcast called "Career View Mirror®" and is author of the Amazon Bestselling book "Show Your Ask: Using Your Voice to Advocate for Yourself and Your Career". Joyel holds an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Quendrida Whitmore, a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC), joins Leading NOW after a successful 25-year career in the retail industry where she gained extensive leadership experience at Target Corporation culminating in the role of Senior Director in Operations. Her retail trajectory took her to Ross Stores where she was promoted up to Regional Vice President of Operations before her career led her to become a Senior Vice President in hospitality and operations with WeWork as Head of Community. Quendrida holds a EdD in Organizational Change and Leadership from USC and an MBA from Texas Woman's University. Alison Lazenby re-joins Leading NOW after a brief hiatus while completing her permanent move back to her native United Kingdom. Alison's decades-long cross-industry experience as a change and leadership expert, includes a 15-year run as Managing Director of Leadership Development at Root Inc. Prior to Root, she was an executive in the premium drink industry in Europe for Diageo's iconic brands, Archers, Smirnoff, Malibu, Cinzano, Gilbey's Gin, Bombay Sapphire. Please join us in welcoming these dynamic business people to our global team of experts. To learn more about all of our experienced business consultants visit Leading NOW's Team page.

For over 20 years, Leading Women, a division of Leading NOW, has been advocating for gender parity in leadership by supporting women’s organizations around the globe. But did you know that one of the many ways we do this is through providing our proprietary leadership content to conferences for associations and organizations across all industries? Our skill-building and development workshops focus on business, strategic, and financial acumen; strategic relationships; and mentoring, and provide the kind of training needed for career advancement and success. To reach as many women as possible, we have been bringing our exceptional leadership development content to our partners’ industry conferences, creating customized certification programs, and creating events that have literally changed an entire industry. Here are just a few examples of the different kinds of programming we offer.

Five years ago, I read Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First, a book by corporate governance expert Ram Charam, Dominic Barton of McKinsey & Company and Dennis Carey of Korn Ferry. Immediately, I knew these visionaries were onto something big. They forecasted the need for organizations to deploy talent as a critical function of business, warning CEOs that if they wanted to be successful, they needed to pull the talent initiative into the C-suite. Given where we are today with the war for talent, I'm still amazed at the foresight. CEOs must prioritize people and can no longer leave talent solely in the hands of HR. They need to focus on developing the next generation of leaders if they want their organization to survive, thrive and outperform their competition.

Many organizations that have implemented a hybrid work environment are now faced with the challenges (and reality) of how to navigate it. At the top of the list is keeping employees engaged and connected. The big question is, how do you do that if they’re not physically working together, side by side, every day? It’s not as hard as you may think if you consider there is one thing that all employees have in common — a desire to feel psychologically safe at work, whether working remotely, in person or both.

For nearly twenty years, Leading NOW has been a champion for the underrepresented and supported the advocacy of diversity, equity and inclusion for all. We believe all rights are human rights and recognize that everyone must do their part in order to foster a true culture of inclusion. As we kick off Pride month, we encourage our clients, partners, colleagues and associates to proudly let your LGBTQIA+ team members lead discussions in your organizations and incorporate their ideas into your plans whenever possible. To innovate, you must have all perspectives and voices at the table willing to speak up and be heard. Let’s encourage that and celebrate Pride all month long and beyond. #pride #LeadingNOW

BOSTON, MA – May 2, 2023 – Leading NOW, a global consultancy that provides customized leadership development solutions, is pleased to announce it has been recognized by HR Tech Outlook as a Top 10 Leadership Development Services Provider for 2023, and featured among an elite group of companies in the Leadership Development special edition of HR Tech Outlook magazine.

According to a recent article in CEO World, among the top 3 things that are keeping CEO’s up at night is the strength of their people. But it’s not physical strength that keeps them awake. It’s the strength of their current and future leadership talent that has them concerned.

Having a culture of Inclusion is not only about checking off the boxes for diversity. It’s about diversity of thought, and making sure everyone in the organization feels secure enough to express themselves without fear of retribution. It means creating a psychologically safe workplace where those on teams feel comfortable enough to take risks, express their ideas and concerns, ask questions, and admit mistakes – all without fear of negative consequences. How do you create a psychologically safe workplace and what are the benefits of doing so?