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Innovative professional development approaches are needed to address the ongoing lack of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. Developed from the research on women who persist in engineering and computing professions and essential elements of women’s leadership development, the Leadership Lab for Women in STEM Program was launched in 2014. The Leadership Lab was created as a research-based leadership development program, offering 360-degree feedback, coaching, and practical strategies aimed at increasing the advancement and retention of women in the STEM professions. The goal is to provide women with knowledge, tools and a supportive learning environment to help them navigate, achieve, flourish, and catalyze organizational change in male-dominated and technology-driven organizations. This article describes the importance of creating unique development experiences for women in STEM fields, the genesis of the Leadership Lab, the design and content of the program, and the outcomes for the participants.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the application of intentional change theory (ICT) at the organizational level through the lens of a case study.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a case study of Roadway Express, a leading transportation provider of industrial and commercial goods throughout North America, which embarked on a journey of cultural transformation in 1999, using a popular change process known as appreciative inquiry (AI). The Roadway case study illustrates both the theory of intentional change and the method of AI in use and provides a platform upon which to observe change at the organizational level.FindingsRoadway Express serves as a solid benchmark for organizations considering how to succeed in cultural transformation. The implementation of the philosophy and methodology of appreciative inquiry, played a key role in that success. Analysis shows the link between ICT and AI. From this observation, ICT emerges as a stand‐along theory upon which to interpret the success of Roadway's organizational change efforts.Practical implicationsDrawing insight from the Roadway case study, ICT provides us with a comprehensive model for understanding how to approach and sustain change at the organizational level.Originality/valueFor the past three decades, most of the work using intentional change theory has focused on individual change. This paper presents a different view of the same theory, this time at the organizational level. This insight may be of interest to leaders, managers and change agents.

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Emotional intelligence has been considered a hallmark of successful leaders for nearly three decades. During the same period, executive coaching emerged as a beneficial resource for leader development in organizations. The purpose of this pilot study is to investigate the impact of emotional and social competence (ESC) and executive coaching on leader job performance, personal vision, engagement, and career satisfaction. Eighty-five senior leaders in a North American financial services organization completed a development program, which included classroom learning, ESC assessment using a multirater (or 360-degree) feedback instrument, and executive coaching to encourage ESC development. Survey responses were collected and triangulated with job performance data and 360-degree feedback. Results indicated a relationship between ESC, coaching and desired leader outcomes. What does it mean? Findings suggested that emotional and social competence and executive coaching can have significant impact on leader performance and work engagement, and quality of a coaching relationship moderates the relationship between dimensions of leader ESC with work engagement and career satisfaction. Additional results indicated a direct connection between quality of the coaching relationship and personal vision, work engagement, and career satisfaction. The results of this pilot study have important implications for scholars and practitioners interested in emotional competence and executive coaching and organizations focused on developing leaders through coaching.

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Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspectives define interpersonal work experiences such as positive work relationships and high-quality connections by the mutual growth and empowerment experienced by relationship or connection partners. Listening has been implicated as a key mechanism for building such positive interpersonal work experiences, but it is unclear how listening spurs on mutual, rather than one-sided growth, in relationship and connection partners. In this paper, we argue that management education currently focuses on the intrapersonal capability of listeners to execute key verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Less emphasis is placed on the mutual experience co-created between speaker and listener and, thus, on the potential for mutual growth and empowerment. We articulate what “being relational” in the listening experience means, and use experiential learning theory to articulate how educators might create learning spaces for “being relational” through conversations between listener and speaker. Throughout the paper we contend with issues of individual and structural power asymmetries inherent in understanding listening as a relational process.