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Forbes
22-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
14 Coaches On The Benefits Of Joining A Professional Association
Staying connected and informed is essential to long-term career success, and one of the most effective ways to do that is by joining a professional association. There's no shortage of available options—from local and niche groups to national industry-based entities—depending on one's specific needs and interests. The members of Forbes Coaches Council are well-versed in how joining the right professional association can accelerate career growth. Here, 14 members share the benefits of joining one of these organizations and reasons why doing so makes networking, continuing education and gaining essential industry insights more straightforward and enjoyable endeavors. 1. Connecting With A Broader Community Joining a professional association connects you to a broader community that sharpens your skills, expands your perspective and keeps you current on trends in your field. They offer a space to exchange ideas, grow your influence and strengthen your professional identity. Want more impact? Join an event or volunteer for a committee. It's where deeper learning and relationships begin. - Kathleen Shanley, Statice 2. Building Alliances In today's climate of rapid change and increasing complexity, joining a professional association is a powerful form of alliance building. These communities represent values-driven space to build collective influence. Leaders can benefit by co-creating cross-sector task forces that surface emerging challenges, share diverse perspectives and propose actionable, systems-level solutions. - Olivia Dufour, Olivia Dufour Consulting 3. Developing Qualifications And Credibility Professional associations bring qualifications, credibility and, more importantly, a sense of community. We are all braver and wiser when we surround ourselves with respected peers. Now, more than ever, is a time to work in a community with leaders whose values you align with. Engaging with professional associations is one way of achieving this. After all, you are the company you keep! - Dr. John Blakey, John Blakey Ltd 4. Increasing Your Authority Aligning with a professional body is an excellent way to raise your authority in your field and show potential customers that you are serious about your craft. Often, professional associations require a commitment to continuing professional development, an exam or an interview process, thereby demonstrating that as a member, you are a qualified and experienced professional. - Tanya Edgar, Tanya Edgar Coaching and Consulting Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify? 5. Learning And Connecting The three key reasons to belong and engage with a professional association are: learning, connecting and possibly creating your own thought leadership avenue. Making time to learn is like an antidepressant in today's stressful world. Networking casually with peers is essential, and think about how you could position yourself as a thought leader while you are engaging. - Brenda Abdilla, Management Momentum LLC 6. Showcasing Commitment To Craft An underrated benefit of professional associations is that they demonstrate your commitment to your craft. Whether you're looking for a new job, aiming for a promotion or positioning yourself as a thought leader, being part of an association signals that you're invested in your industry. It shows you've taken the time to engage with your community and are committed to continuous growth. - Dr. Kyle Elliott, MPA, CHES, 7. Supporting Career Development Belonging to professional associations is crucial for career development and networking. One key benefit is access to valuable resources like training, certifications and industry research, which enhance skills and knowledge. These associations also provide networking opportunities, promoting collaboration and mentorship among professionals, leading to potential job leads and career advancement. - Jay Garcia, Jay Garcia Group 8. Gaining Access To Vetted Minds Professional associations offer something LinkedIn can't: depth over scrolling. One standout benefit? Access to vetted minds in your lane. You're not just swapping business cards; you're pressure-testing ideas with people who get it. In a world of noisy feeds and fast takes, that kind of intel is rare and ridiculously valuable. - Anastasia Paruntseva, Visionary Partners Ltd. 9. Leveraging Membership For Learning Professional associations can be an unexpected learning platform. Often, professionals belong to associations to network or gain notoriety; however, using an association as an educational institution to gain insight can make it an unexpectedly rich environment. This exposure can enhance business knowledge and offer fresh perspectives to deepen expertise. - Alecia Wellen, Alecia Wellen Coaching 10. Laying The Groundwork For Transformation Belonging to a professional association creates fertile ground for transformation. It's not just about networking; it's about surrounding yourself with the right stimulus to spark new neural connections, expand your perspective and elevate your leadership through meaningful exchange and shared purpose. Growth is fueled through collaboration, and it all begins with connection. - Patricia Arboleda, Arboleda Coaching 11. Exchanging Peer-To-Peer Insights In Context One key benefit of professional associations is the opportunity to discuss industry-specific challenges with peers who truly understand the context. These peer exchanges often lead to more practical, experience-based solutions than external consultants can offer, grounded in real-world insights rather than theory. - Stephan Lendi, Newbury Media & Communications GmbH 12. Expanding Perspectives Professional associations expand your perspective. They connect you to peers outside your company, expose you to industry trends early and give you a sounding board beyond your day-to-day bubble. It's a place to build meaningful connections, share best practices and grow in a broader community. - Mel Cidado, Breakthrough Coaching 13. Plugging Into Key Conversations Professional associations plug you into conversations you didn't even know you needed to be in. The real value isn't the newsletter—it's the side doors into emerging trends, deals, shifts and decisions that never show up on Google. If you're not in the room, you're just catching up. And by the time it hits LinkedIn, the real opportunity's already passed you by. - Alla Adam, Adam Impact Institute 14. Helping To Shape What Is Relevant Joining a professional association isn't just about networking—it's a power move. You plug into a pulse of industry shifts, bold ideas and game-changing leaders. One key benefit? Proximity to influence. When you're in the right rooms, conversations spark opportunities, and you stop chasing relevance; instead, you help shape it. - Shikha Bajaj, Own Your Color
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The New Currency Of Leadership
Kathy Shanley, the Founder of Statice , served 30 years in the C-suite. She helps leaders and businesses level up their leadership skills. getty As organizations adapt to shifting structures, new leaders and post-pandemic expectations, one thing is clear: Trust is the glue that holds everything together. That was true for two organizations I recently worked with. In both cases, changes like workforce reductions, leadership transitions, restructuring and new values created environments where team members hesitated to admit mistakes, speak up or fully trust each other. Using the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model as our guide—trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results—we worked with their teams to understand what was getting in the way of trust and what actions could build it back. Here are four patterns we saw and how the organizations are working to address each one. For one client, team members shared that while they knew the organization's goals, they didn't know their team's priorities or how their work connected across departments. They valued having a plan. In their words: 'It feels like we're not being told everything we need to know,' and that uncertainty eroded trust in their leaders and direct supervisors. They described being brought into projects too late, sometimes after design decisions had been made. The result was missed opportunities, added frustration and last-minute scrambling. To address this, the team shifted to: • Hosting cross-functional discussions earlier in the process; • Clarifying the 'why' behind decisions, so teams could better understand how their work fits in with the bigger picture; and • Adding team check-ins and feedback loops to discuss what's working and what isn't. Transparency can build trust. It also creates the conditions for open, timely communication and a clear path forward. Even when team members understand their organization's goals, they may struggle to see how their day-to-day work contributes to the bigger picture. For another client, some employees described feeling 'out of the loop' because communication wasn't flowing from the top down. Others said they wanted more opportunities to give input and ask, 'What if?' This is where alignment comes in. It's not enough to share the vision. Both clients discussed the importance of: • Sharing why the vision matters, • Outlining what's next and what success looks like, • Translating the organization's vision into department- and individual-level goals and • Inviting team perspectives and making room for discussion, rather than just giving direction or orders. When organizational leaders consistently ask their teams, 'How does this task move us closer to our goal?' it helps their employees connect to the purpose of their work and opens the door to new ideas. 3. Reframe Mistakes As Learning Opportunities In both organizations, especially among highly skilled subject matter experts, there was a reluctance to admit mistakes or ask for help. Some feared losing credibility. One employee put it this way: 'Once you walk through that door and admit a mistake, it shuts behind you and you can't go back. You feel judged.' Others chose silence, fearing their feedback would be dismissed or used against them. Many employees and leaders agreed that being more open about mistakes and more willing to learn from them could build trust across their organizations. To address this, both organizations shifted to: • Create space after projects to reflect on successes, challenges and takeaways as a team and • Establish team norms that assume positive intent, especially during tough conversations. Creating a learning culture where employees feel safe asking for help and sharing challenges removes the stigma of failure and makes room for conversations and growth. 4. Create A Feedback Culture Grounded In Trust When trust is low, teams may avoid conflict altogether or escalate it in unproductive ways. Some employees described a pattern of indirect communication: telling their manager instead of their peer, who then told another manager to pass the message along. One team avoided feedback because of a colleague's perceived closeness to leadership. Another said they didn't provide input during meetings because their teammates 'had a fixed mindset.' To shift this dynamic, the team agreed to: • Practice more direct and constructive feedback, • Reinforce the assumption of positive intent, • Listen with an intent to understand others' concerns and • Start meetings with brief personal updates to strengthen interpersonal connections. Teach your teams to frame feedback by leading with the phrases: 'Here's what I heard you say ...' and 'Here's what I heard is important to you ...' The result isn't only stronger communication; it's deeper empathy and more productive collaboration. Build Trust And Everything Else Gets Easier Trust is built through what you say, how you show up and the space you create for others to do the same. These four shifts—enhancing transparency, creating alignment, reframing mistakes and creating a feedback culture—lay the foundation for a more connected and resilient team. If your team is struggling with trust, start with a conversation. Then choose one behavior to model more consistently. Because when trust grows, everything else gets easier. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
