John Bennett, Lawton Associates

01/01/2025

New Year, new adventures… I have accelerated my phased retirement from Queens University of Charlotte and am taking a leave from new work through Lawton Associates. Effective February 1, I will begin a new role as Interim President of Fielding Graduate University.

The invitation from the Fielding’s Board of Trustees to serve as President of the university is an honor and is humbling. As an alum and former trustee, I feel a strong urge to lead Fielding as it begins its 51st year of graduate education for adults in a distributed learning model.

My 20 years at Queens have been an excellent opportunity to do things I love: teach, research, write, and collaborate. Working with colleagues to develop and revise academic programs, build scholarship funds, and impact the lives of students and our community has been extremely rewarding. I am so grateful for all the opportunities Queens afforded me to make a difference.

As you may also know, in 1997, I founded Lawton Associates, a consulting and executive coaching firm focused on helping individuals, teams, and organizations prepare for, excel through, and improve from change. Since then, my client work has ranged from Fortune 50 companies and international not-for-profit organizations to local and federal government agencies and small entrepreneurial firms. My work has been with organizations across sectors and industry groupings, including biomedical, construction, education, financial services, manufacturing, and retail. In the short term, I look forward to wrapping up some existing engagements in which I am directly involved. The firm will continue to function with the help of my valued colleagues while I focus my attention on the work at Fielding.

11/18/2024

WINNER!! 2024 Goody Business Book Awards

So proud and honored that The Manager’s Guide to Coaching for Change has been named a Goody Business Book Awards winner in the Leadership: Mentoring/Coaching category.

“The annual Goody Business Book Awards shine a light on social impact authors making a positive impact - with words. These Winners and Finalists are being recognized for books that help the reader live longer, start a company, be a better marketer, be a better leader, build wealth, use technology to improve, start a charity and more.”

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To spotlight social impact authors making a difference with words, the Annual Goody Business Book Awards announces 193 Winners/Finalists for 2024.

10/08/2024

Empower Your Leadership this National Boss's Day with 'The Manager's Guide to Coaching for Change'!

The role of a manager continues to get more complex, and the time to perform it seems to be diminishing. Leading and managing people and teams can be challenging. The Manager’s Guide to Coaching for Change is designed to support people leaders as they address the challenges and opportunities to assess, challenge, and support others. It can be a perfect gift for your boss to help them help you perform, develop, and transform to be the best possible version of you while meeting business needs.

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The Manager’s Guide to Coaching for Change

09/25/2024

Honored to be a guest on The People Dividend Podcast discussing my new book, The Manager's Guide to Coaching for Change, with Mike Horne. We discuss why coaching skills are essential for managers, the necessity of prioritizing development, and the significant impact of coaching in today’s workplace.

John Bennett is president of Lawton Associates, a consulting and executive coaching firm focused on helping individual, teams and organizations prepare for, ...

09/10/2024

I was delighted to join Kayshia Kruger for a conversation about the important role people leaders can play as coaches. With the speed, volume, and complexity of change continuing to increase people are critical to business success. We were able to talk about the importance of coach to equip, engage, and empower team members.

Kayshia asked great questions and we engaged in a powerful conversation that can be useful to leaders at ALL levels.

Dr. John Bennett, author of The Manager's Guide to Coaching for Change, discusses his journey to coaching and the importance of coaching for managers. He emp...

09/03/2024

📚 Exciting News! 📚

I'm thrilled to announce the release of my new book, The Manager's Guide to Coaching for Change!

Whether you're a leader at any level, a human resource professional, or a graduate student eager to elevate your skills, this book is crafted just for you.

📖 What you’ll find inside: 🔹 The foundation of coaching 🔹 The process of change coaching 🔹 6 essential coaching skills 🔹 How to coach across differences 🔹 Specialty coaching 🔹 Ethical considerations 🔹 Continuous development

Available on degruyter.com and amazon.com

This book is for leaders at all levels, human resource professionals, and graduate students interested in improving performance and supporting transformation.

08/19/2024

Coaching can be beneficial for a wide range of individuals, but certain groups may particularly benefit from a coaching approach.

08/05/2024

People leaders should use coaching to support the development, performance, and transformation of team members.

People leaders can benefit from adopting a coaching approach to enhance the development, performance, and transformation of team members and teams.

07/22/2024

Some people use these terms interchangeably. Both are helping relationships focused on helping a person (or team) thrive. Here are some similarities and key differences.

I've discovered that some people use these terms interchangeably. Both are helping relationships focused on helping a person (or team) thrive.

07/15/2024

Over the past two years, I have tracked workplace and workforce trends. The following details USA-oriented trends; some of the implications of these trends were developed based on my study of more than 25 publications and other media, my work with more than 100 organizations over the past 27 years, and discussions with dozens of leaders and thought leaders.

There is no doubt that both the workplace and workforce are changing, and companies, leaders, and employees need to adapt.

04/16/2024

This is a curated list of books and articles related to coaching. These recommended coaching books & articles are organized into categories: adult development, change, coaching skills (asking powerful questions, listening for understanding, and providing feedback), executive coaching, group and teams, practice development and management.

A curated list related to coaching organized in categories: development, change, skills, executive coaching, group and teams, practice, and management.

10/24/2023

As part of the Learning Society Equity & Justice Series, the McColl School of Business hosted a virtual Food For Thought: “Dismantling Castes in the Workplace” on Tuesday, October 17. The discussion featured Loretta G. Evivie, MBA, Ed.D, Ivory Toldson and Reggie Willis and was moderated by me.

Click through the view the discussion.