I see the essence of my work as an executive coach as a virtuous circle of insight, impact, and trust. I work with clients so they can generate deep insight into what drives their success as leaders and how they enhance their effectiveness.

Working closely with clients, we will convert those insights into strategies and behaviors whose implementation will have a substantial positive impact on their performance.

Enabling them to deliver impact earns the trust that is the foundation of a credible coaching relationship. This relationship serves as a platform for still deeper insights and more significant impact.

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
R.D. Laing

What to Expect During Coaching

Coaching can be transformative, and yet people are often confused about how coaching really works. Coaching requires the client to have a tolerance for discomfort, an openness to experiment with new behaviors, the ability to look beyond the rational, and take responsibility for one’s actions (Steinberg, 2020). If you are open exploring how to increase your leadership effectiveness, then coaching could be right for you. Here is what you can expect:

In company-sponsored coaching there is always a session with the executive sponsor and/or supervisor in the beginning. The supervisor is a part of an alignment discussion on goals, and a final session will include the supervisor to discuss progress over time and next steps beyond the coaching engagement.
In individual coaching, there is no executive sponsor but a mid-engagement check-in and end-of-engagement wrap-up and transition session is still a part of the process.
The first session always include a review of the coaching engagement agreement and International Coaching Federation (ICF) confidentiality and ethical guidelines. This session is an opportunity to establish our “rules of the road”.
Additionally, success is always defined by you and the goals you want to achieve. This picture of what success will look like provides the frame and focus for every coaching session. We start by focusing on your goals in this relationship.
We usually start with one or more leadership assessments that have the power to exponentially expand your “field of vision”; your understanding of who you are, how you can be your very best, what gets you stuck, and how co-workers view you and your contribution. These tools give the coaching a more tangible structure and reveal how to make the coaching as fruitful as possible.
Typically, this includes a series of stakeholder interviews that are conducted along with the Leadership Circle Profile or Hogan Assessment.
The Leadership Circle Profile
The Leadership Circle Profile is a competency-based 360° profile measuring two primary leadership domains: your Creative Leadership Competencies and Reactive Tendencies.
Your Creative Leadership Competencies are those that support and enhance your effectiveness as a leader, and your Reactive Tendencies are those that detract from your effectiveness.
Knowing the results of this comprehensive assessment will help you understand yourself better so you can focus on areas of improvement to get better results.
Hogan Assessments
Grounded in more than four decades of validated research, Hogan assessments were the first to measure personality scientifically and provide a range of measurements required to understand people’s strengths, weaknesses, values, and approaches to problem-solving. These assessments measure three core aspects of personality to help uncover areas of growth. These aspects are:
- The Bright Side, or the attributes we display when we’re at our best.
- The Dark Side, or the qualities that emerge in times of increased strain.
- The Inside, or the core goals, values, drivers, and interests that determine what we desire and strive to attain.
A DiSC or Thomas-Kilman assessment may also provide valuable insight into how your personality shapes communication, collaboration, and conflict management style.
We review the results of the assessments and what they mean in practice, building a concrete plan to get your leadership impact to the next level without feeling overwhelmed.
We create a confidential space for you to “get raggedy” and discuss what’s comes up as you “experiment” with new behaviors and manage the business of “now”. We explore how to use your natural strengths to overcome challenges and expand your comfort zone.
Executive coaching often addresses multiple challenges and opportunities over the course of the engagement such as:
Executive presence and trust
Managing energy and wellbeing
Influencing, managing change and storytelling
Developing a high-performing team
Transitioning into a new role
Stakeholder management