A Welcome to Prospective Executive Coaching Clients
It takes courage to make the kind of commitment that has the potential to change the trajectory of your work and life. I appreciate your interest in my coaching, and offer this description of my approach to leadership development and effectiveness to help you decide if we should work together.
I call my coaching programs Personal Effectiveness Programs because of the way my coaching develops the whole person. While our work will likely focus on a specific, observable, measurable goal, it will also leave you more prepared and capable of generating future goals and outcomes beyond the term of our work together.
Expanded potential… plus concrete results.
My coaching is focused on two simultaneous tracks. On one, we will work together to address the concrete, practical goals that you present for coaching, for example, learning to communicate like an executive, expanding your circle of influence, transitioning to an expanded role, or developing the next generation of leaders in your organization. On the other track, we’ll explore the less visible and more automatic patterns of your experience to effectively “upgrade” your current operating system so that it can support the results you seek. You might for example, discover that in order to communicate like an executive, you want to change a habit of playing it safe in your conversations, or that in order to expand your circle of influence you need to be willing to challenge your pattern of keeping people at a distance.
Our coaching work is outcome focused.
Outcomes can address a variety of leadership topics: navigating an important transition at work, living and working with a sense of purpose, balancing short-term results with long-term health, empowering others, making tough decisions, and other specific leadership issues. Career and life changes, interpersonal effectiveness and relationship challenges, and the quest for passion and fulfillment are also frequent coaching topics.
Beyond the achievement of the coaching outcomes, you’ll gain real clarity about what it is that you are most committed to and why it matters. You’ll develop more effective and generative responses to your work and life, and these will sustain you, regardless of your circumstances. At the end of our work together, you’ll have a plan for continuing your development on your own.
The process.
We begin our work with an exploration to find out if we’re a good fit. If we agree to proceed, an intake process leads to a shared understanding of the coaching purpose and outcomes. Stakeholder interviews, on-site shadowing, 360 assessments, performance reviews, typology assessments, video tapes and other instruments may be used to provide a well-rounded view of you as a leader that includes multiple perspectives, contexts and evidence. We’ll synthesize these findings and review them together with you.
Next, we’ll develop the outcomes for your coaching program. It’s generally best to focus on no more than two or three outcomes during a single engagement. Once these have been established, we’ll agree on the term for coaching, which is usually six months or a year. I’ll design your Personal Effectiveness Program, including a series of learning modules comprised of reading material, observations and reflections, and field work, which will be adjusted to keep pace with your growing competence and working edge. As you begin to practice taking new actions, we’ll continue to adjust and revise your program to help you strengthen and stretch your growing capacities. Along the way, your real life challenges and “breakdowns” will provide important opportunities to fine-tune the work and to establish the supports critical to sustainability. We’ll refine and adjust as we go, during our phone and/or face-to-face conversations. Your program completion process includes a plan for the continuation of your ongoing development.
Typical program elements.
Our work will generally include:
- A thorough understanding of your expectations and desired outcomes;
- An intelligent view of your current situation, including assessments grounded in multiple perspectives and solid evidence;
- An articulate description of what success looks like to you and those with a stake in your success;
- A practical plan to bring forth your intended outcomes;
- Mid- and end-of-program assessments against program outcomes;
- A unique program of observations, readings, exercises and practices to activate new ways of seeing, experiencing and taking action;
- A series of on-going learning conversations, either monthly or bi-weekly, in person, skype, phone or a combination of these, along with as much additional support by email or phone as you request;
- A plan for your ongoing growth, development and support once coaching has concluded.
I invite you to see for yourself, to inquire about the results that matter most to you. The best way to explore what could happen for you in our working together is through a complimentary consultation. You can explore your readiness by taking the Quick Coaching Readiness Assessment, or by contacting me directly. I look forward to your inquiry.
Welcome to my work.