Here are a few examples of some coaching/consulting results:
Coaching a VP with great technical skills but whose collaboration skills were lacking: He was in a key leadership role for helping the organization change and survive, but was seen as rigid and didn't know how to modify that. Through 360-degree feedback, assessments, journaling, and resources/discussions on building relationships, he developed and implemented new strategies (e.g., moving from needing to win to a collaboration approach through "planting the seed" and asking questions; being more proactive in seeking solutions rather than procrastinating on unpleasant issues). He worked on having a comfortable, relaxed flow to conversations, reducing awkward silences, and speaking with more enthusiasm. Within a year, he was promoted and then selected as a key leader for a part of the organization in turmoil.
Supporting the transition of a VP: This executive had recently moved from a strategic planning role to a position of leadership with P&L responsibility for a business group requiring quick turnaround. Helped her draw on her extraordinary project management and innovation skills to bring about key process improvement changes. Although she had skills and experience in managing and leading groups, she had a very autocratic and intimidating style which was preventing her team from moving as quickly as needed through forming, storming, norming, and performing. Through coaching, she found ways to engage and motivate her team. Follow-up 360 feedback showed dramatic improvements in her style and she has since been given a second business group to “fix”.
Coaching a sales director to new levels of effectiveness and value to the organization: His team produced strong sales results. However, the firm was not getting the benefit of his very creative ideas on how to move the business forward, because peers and leaders saw him as not listening, not being open to others’ input/ideas, and forcing his ideas on others without tact. Through coaching, he began to adopt new strategies, approaches, and communication style, which led to peers and leaders starting to seek him out for his ideas instead of avoiding him. He became a thought-leader, helping the company to achieve stronger results, and has since been promoted.
Supporting a senior team after receiving low employee opinion survey results: Conducted interviews and focus groups, gave feedback to the senior team and organization, facilitated action plan development and implementation, and coached leader. Survey results six months later showed dramatic improvement (e.g., a 33 percentage point drop in unfavorability on eliminating practices that stand in the way of achieving results – a focus of the action plans; an increase from 31% to 81% favorable on how effective the organization has been at addressing issues raised in the survey).
Assisting a leader in aligning her team with a performance-driven culture: This leader was relatively new to the company and was charged with “raising the bar” for her organization. After several terminations and shifts in staffing, morale was not high and there was not a sense of the team working together toward a common goal. Through a series of efforts, including a Myers-Briggs team-building workshop, a vision/strategy setting session, and coaching the leader, the organization began to rally around the vision and leader and become more focused and comfortable with the new culture. Due to this success, two additional groups were added to her organization.
Launching employee survey for a 13,000 employee company: Served as project manager for the first employee survey that the company had initiated since becoming a separate entity from their former parent company. Involvement included developing and implementing a survey communications plan and administration plan, managing the vendor, questionnaire development, creating and coordinating a survey work team, assisting with manager training, analyzing results, developing a feedback and action planning approach, etc. The survey had such impact and benefit that they have continued to survey yearly since that time.
“Toughening up” a CIO: This executive had superb relationship building and collaboration skills, a calm confidence, and was very good at empowering his team. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t as good at influencing/saying no/pushing back or at addressing performance issues/coaching his team. Through 360 interview feedback, he realized how these areas were holding back his own and his team’s effectiveness. Coaching focused on executive presence, strategic leadership, conflict management, expectation-setting, and coaching skills. As a result of his efforts and new approaches, he began to have an increased impact on company strategy by playing a more influential and integral role on the senior team. Both he and the organization observed that the performance of two of his key direct reports improved and his team had a renewed focus on customer service. He was still able to maintain his excellent rapport with colleagues and his team.