Executive Coaching

The ROI of Coaching:  Ensuring The Organization Gets Value

Recent Coaching Engagements

What is Your Approach to Coaching?

Success in one’s technical discipline does not guarantee success as a leader. I coach leaders who have a track record of success, and who are committed to increasing their leadership effectiveness, impact and self-awareness.

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• Is your technical expertise not enough to influence organizational decisions?
• Do you want feedback to help you be even more effective?
•  Do you see a performance problem with a team member but you’re not sure how to address it?
•  Are you struggling to get your direct reports to function better as a team?
•  Are you unclear about the next role you want to pursue?

Leaders need trusted advisers. They need a sounding board.  They need a partner to think through problems and solutions.  They need honest feedback. That’s what a coach should be. My clients have included scientists, physicians, engineers, finance leaders, information technologists, marketing leaders and HR leaders.

Dave:

“When I work with leaders, I challenge them to step beyond their comfort zone. Through dialogue and exercises, I guide the leader to reflect and gain insights about themselves, their successes and their challenges. Then they take action in situations where they might hesitate, and lead with greater courage, clarity and conviction. I help clients develop and flex their leadership muscles, strengthening their existing skills while expanding their range of motion and flexibility to take on even greater challenges. I have 20 years experience as a leader and people manager, so I bring an abundance of real-world, practical “know-how”.  My coaching is not “pie in the sky” or academic.”

The ROI of Coaching:  Ensuring The Organization Gets Value  

Executive coaching is a uniquely effective tool for leadership development.  Through 20 years experience in corporations as a leader, people manager and subject matter expert, I bring an abundance of real-world, practical “know-how”.  My coaching is not “pie in the sky” or academic.  I work with the leader to analyze situations, develop a deeper understanding of their strengths and development needs, and then take practical action as a more effective and authentic leader.

As an internal HR / Organizational Effectiveness leader, I have hired and managed executive coaches.  I know when a coaching engagement is working and when it is a waste of time and money.

The following components of my coaching engagements ensure value for the organization and the leader/ client:

• Willingness and commitment to be coached:  The leader must be open to coaching, and not feel that it is punitive or unnecessary.  Coaching that is a last ditch effort to “fix” a leader who has been struggling rarely succeeds.
• Partnership with the leader’s manager:  As the sponsor of the engagement, the manager of the leader being coached is critical to success.  I work with the leader’s manager in all aspects of the engagement to understand the need, agree on process and timeline, set goals and outcomes, and assess progress.
•  Partnership with the leader’s HR partner: HR partners play an invaluable role in ensuring the greatest return on investment of coaching.  I work with HR to ensure alignment and share responsibility for supporting the leader during the coaching.
•  Feedback from stakeholders: When I coach leaders, I collect feedback from their stakeholders so that we have a baseline of how the leader is perceived.  We incorporate the feedback into our coaching goals and work.
•  Specific coaching goals and outcomes:  Based on discussions with the leader’s manager, HR and stakeholder feedback, we agree on a few specific goals and outcomes that will enhance the leader’s effectiveness.
•  Commitment to the leader / client: Throughout the coaching engagement, I work with my client to gain clarity about who they are as leaders – what their fundamental values are – and how to articulate them and more importantly, to live them.  These values become their compass point, their “true north”, to more consciously guide their decisions and actions.

The relationship I develop with my clients is built on trust, integrity, hard work, and a commitment to action. The coaching is rigorous and focused on developing insights and then moving into action.  And we assess progress with feedback from key stakeholders.  We adjust as we go to ensure the client and the organization gets value from their investment.

Recent Coaching Engagements

• Coached senior executives in a global pharmaceutical company to drive greater accountability and new behaviors as part of a culture change initiative.
• Coached a Chief Marketing Officer to be more disciplined and effective in his communication and delegation.
• Coached Information Technology leaders to assess their leadership development needs and define career development plans.
• Coached physicians to improve their leadership skills and lead organizational change.
• Coached and consulted with the head of a hospital-based research center to restructure his lab and develop his senior scientists to accommodate expansion of the lab’s work.
• Coached an executive at a regional bank to improve her communication and engagement of staff for greater productivity and improved morale.

Read client Testimonials

What is Your Approach to Coaching?

I use a structured 5-step process to ensure coaching produces results for the leader and the company.