I was intrigued by this short article on CBS Moneywatch, "What Great Coaches Do — and Leaders Should, Too." In part because it's great advice, and in part because it stops short of providing concrete steps on how to carry out the advice it gives.

Warren Buffett made some news recently with an essay in Fortune magazine about women in leadership, writing that America is using only half its talent, and that women are key to our realizing country's future achievement. It caught my eye because of the work Interaction Associates is doing around women leaders – more on that in a minute.

First, from Buffett's essay, this excerpt is particularly telling:

Leadership is not about making all the decisions, as most business leaders know (or come to learn quite quickly) in running organizations and competing in the shifting sands of today's economy. In fact, while results per se are vital, we at IA teach the importance of widening the lens on results to look at three critical dimensions of success: results, process, and relationship. Leadership success is about balancing all three – as we have detailed here.

Interaction Associates is in the final stages of our annual workplace trust research, Building Trust in Business 2013. We will release this year's findings in early summer and we expect to show some interesting new trends at the intersection of trust, leadership, and collaboration.

I had the pleasure to speak at the recent 2013 Spring Conscious Capitalism conference in San Francisco, whose theme was Elevating Humanity Through Conscious Business. I continue to be impressed by the groundswell of interest and desire to participate in what is simultaneously a rising business movement, a new paradigm, a philosophy, and a non-profit organization.

How can leaders overcome the barriers to innovation and drive more good ideas to powerful implementation? That question and others are the focus of this exclusive on-demand webcast for executives, leaders and managers called "Collaboration: The Spark Plug for Innovation." It's led by Interaction Associates Senior Consultant Justin Jones, who has deep experience in applying collaborative practices in large, global organizations.

In a recent webinar that Patty McManus and I led — "Three Strategies to Succeed at Change (and what to do if it goes sideways)" — many change leaders in the audience expressed concern about sponsorship. The short headline: "Lack of sponsorship can wreck a change effort."

It’s been an exhilarating couple of weeks at Interaction Associates, with several important validations of our work and the issues that we track in the world.

The Conference Board is out with its summary report on the top ten business challenges for 2013, identified in its annual global survey of CEOs, presidents, and chairmen.  As someone occupying the CEO position, the most intriguing news this year is item number ten on the list: trust in business.