Creating focus through collaborative change

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM/EXECUTIVE COACHING

Overview

Cole Consulting’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) is designed to increase motivation, improve the performance of managers and create powerful, productive leaders within an organization.  The key components include: a 360 Degree Review, on-the-job observational coaching, regular reflection with a brief written communication summation, and a personalized, off-site team-building event.  Peter Cole, program developer, lead coach and trainer, has been coaching CEO’s, managers and supervisors for over twenty-five years.  Peter is a Lominger Certified coach.  Lominger provides the research and development for the Center for Creative Leadership, one of the world’s premier leadership development institutes. 

Confidentiality is emphasized throughout the entire program.  A carefully selected Cole Consulting coach uses observation; constructive, confidential, challenging feedback; and probing instructional techniques to help the leader explore his/her personal and professional competencies. The leader then targets specific areas for growth and improvement.  Benefits to the leader and the organization are almost always immediate.

The Leadership Development Program involves eight weeks of actual coaching and instruction, with the first six meetings typically scheduled consecutively and the last two sessions scheduled approximately four weeks apart, allowing the full program to stretch over a 4-6 month time frame.  The program is always modified to fit the leader’s current work schedule.  Cole Consulting’s Leadership Development program is customized for each individual and therefore rarely looks exactly as is presented below, although common themes are consistent.

Assessment

The Leadership Development Program begins with an initial assessment interview, the goal of which is to establish a basis of trust that will sustain meaningful conversation about the perceptions and experiences within the work place. During this meeting an in-depth assessment tool, typically a ‘360 Degree Review,’ is introduced. The coach invites the leader to choose several colleagues, from all sides of the organization, whom the leader believes will give honest, direct, and clear feedback about the leader’s work habits, skills and level of commitment. These colleagues are invited to complete the review questionnaire and the leader completes his/her own 360 Self-Review. The combined responses provide a complete framework for understanding the leader's performance and competency gaps.  This enables the leader to choose one or two leadership competencies to improve upon that are critical to achieve mastery in his/her career.

Observational Coaching

This is the heart and soul of the LDP, and is what differentiates it from more passive, leadership development programs in which the coach merely serves as a process advisor.  During the last part of the initial assessment interview, the coach schedules observations of the leader during typical team/staff meetings.  All observations are scheduled with the leader's permission and the coach’s “shadowing” of the leader is explained to the other meeting participants prior to the first meeting.  The shadowing takes advantage of existing meeting schedules, thereby minimizing extra demands on the leader’s time, resources and focus. The observations are set up to provide examples of how the leader’s progress is being received by his/her coworkers.  The coach does not participate in the meetings, but observes the leader and takes notes for feedback, which is presented in one-on-one follow-up meetings.   A critical outcome achieved through this process is in bringing the perceptions of others in line with the new skills and competencies of the leader, bridging the perception/reality disconnect.

At the follow-up meetings, the coach and leader review the leader's role and behaviors, with an eye towards increasing the leader's effectiveness in the identified areas and making the leader’s strengths more productive. By actively viewing the leader in real time, constructive feedback can be tied directly to the individual’s development plan.  As an additional coaching/shadowing resource, we often utilize the books Masterful Coaching, by Robert Hargrove and For Your Improvement, by Lombardo & Eichinger. These valuable resources are filled with specific examples and tools and can be used throughout the LDP, and beyond.

Communication Strategies

The leader and the coach each write brief reports on a weekly basis that provide immediate feedback to improve motivation and performance and create a forum for frank identification of program progress. The reports cover accomplishments, suggestions and a general assessment that is clear and concise. The coach’s and the leader’s reports are combined into one and sent back to the leader for final edits (deletions, no additions). The accepted reports are sent to upper management as weekly progress reports. The reports are also used to gauge the growth of the leader towards his/her personal goals and his/her effectiveness within the organization. The reports provide a powerful platform to better understand the leader's on-going development, and are often adopted as an internal communication tool after the completion of the LDP.

Team Building

At about the middle of the program, a team building session is held.  Created collaboratively, these sessions typically provide an opportunity to model authentic communication and a chance for the coach to witness the leader in a different setting than the usual meeting format.  If more than one leader is going through the program at the same time, a combined team building session is often created.  The team building activity provides another powerful opportunity to help bring the organizations old perceptions in line with the leader’s newly emerging skills and competencies.

The Value

Cole Consulting’s Leadership Development Program is largely based on Peter Senge’s work in building learning organizations, where the components of personal mastery, team learning and results-based management are essential elements in creating effective work environments. At the forefront of these efforts you will often find a leader who is functioning as a coach, offering encouragement, modeling appropriate behaviors and values, cultivating leadership potential in others and managing the creative tensions that differentiate great organizations from mediocre ones. Cole Consulting’s Leadership Development program is customized for each individual to optimize the time and effort it takes to turn managers into effective leaders.