A group of business leaders from our Leadership Coaching Series recently presented detailed proposals to help Front Yard Bikes, a powerful organization that is making a true positive impact on underserved children in the Baton Rouge community, expand its mission as it continues to grow.The presentations rounded out our 5-week Leadership Coaching Series, which features competency-based leadership assessments, experiential learning and individual coaching — all culminating with a community-based project supporting a nonprofit organization. For this round of our series, we partnered with Front Yard Bikes, a community bike shop that focuses on teaching participants of all ages how to fix and maintain bikes.

Two area executives recently stopped by the Success Labs office to talk with a group of emerging leaders and share their experiences and advice on everything from motivating teams to work-life balance.The talk, which featured Jason Latiolais of Barrier Construction and Lesley Tilley of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, was part of our Management Incubator, a development program for talented individual contributors who are emerging as leaders within their organizations.Both business leaders fielded questions from our Incubator participants and offered valuable insights into their career paths and leadership styles. Here’s a look at some of what they shared.

It’s not enough to just show up to the office on time. To contribute in a meaningful way in today’s complex and ever-changing business environment you need to think more like a trusted advisor and strategic partner for your business — no matter what level you’re at.Organizations of every industry and size need people who can add value when they are facing challenging circumstances. This applies to team members at all levels, but as employees take on more responsibility, competencies such as broad business perspective and strategic insight also become critical skills that should not be overlooked.If you want to be seen as someone who has high potential and positively affects the organization, make sure you focus on cultivating the skills most valued by company leaders. Here are six key areas to work on to be a stronger strategic contributor at your organization and to maximize your career development.

A century-old beverage company with dominant market share may not be the first place you think of as a center of innovation and digital transformation. But as the participants in our Leadership Coaching Series witnessed first-hand recently, the Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company is absolutely at the forefront of technology and innovation in their industry.Our group of business leaders visited the company’s Baton Rouge Production Center on Plank Road near the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport as part of our 5-week Leadership Coaching Series, which features competency-based leadership assessments, experiential learning, individual coaching and development planning.Sales Center Manager Toby Guidry shared his insights into the importance of building relationships with employees, listening to customers and managing transformation by focusing on people. We finished the day with a tour of the sprawling and impressive facility, where we witnessed up-close how this community leader continues to innovate.“We’re constantly changing our business model to stay on top of things,” Guidry says. “You cannot continue doing the same things in today’s world or you’re a dinosaur.”

George Bell, the President and CEO of Capital Area United Way, has carved out an impressively successful and wide-ranging career spanning multiple industries. From riding the boom and bust of Louisiana’s oil industry to leading fast-growing and challenging healthcare organizations, Bell has distinguished himself as one of Louisiana’s most dynamic business leaders.The Thibodaux native and 1981 Hall of Fame graduate of Nicholls State University recently sat down with a group of business leaders participating in our Leadership Coaching Series to offer insights into his career path path and leadership lessons he absorbed along the way.“You can’t do it all,” he says. “That’s why you have to be very focused on building the right structure, selecting the right people, then creating the right systems and process that help you monitor the work they’re doing and making sure it all aligns to accomplishing your goals.”Here’s a look at some of what he shared.

In today’s complex and ever-changing business environment, it’s more important than ever to develop talented individuals and emerging leaders within your organization.Success Labs has been helping companies in Baton Rouge and beyond with their people strategy through our Management Incubator and Leadership Coaching Series since 2003 (15 years). These innovative programs give rising leaders hands-on training and information about their leadership styles, potential challenges, strengths and weaknesses, and actionable ideas for being more effective in their current roles and for working on the development of skills they will need for the future.All participants receive:

While the nonprofit fundraising industry over the years has incorporated high-tech tools such as big data and analytics, the fundamentals remain focused on building human connections, says Krista Allen Raney, the Assistant Vice President for Development at the LSU Foundation.“Fundraising is absolutely 100 percent a relationship business,” Raney says. “Yes, we have a database and we leverage technology and analytics, but it does not happen without the people.”The LSU Foundation, which raised more than $56 million over the 2017-2018 fiscal year, plays an integral role in the state’s flagship university, providing much-needed funds for everything from scholarships to cutting-edge facilities that help attract and educate the talent that powers Louisiana’s economy.Those critical gifts (including more than a dozen of $1 million or more in the 2017-2018 fiscal year) are made possible by a team of dedicated professionals working behind the scenes with generous donors who are driven to make a difference in Louisiana. Raney shared with us a little about how the LSU Foundation team makes it happen, along with her approach to leadership.