Time investments and Leadership Development

The two crucial aspects of my work that differentiate me from other coaching providers are my clinical training and my approach of working with professionals over time. Human behavior is predictable in that learning takes both time and reinforcement to permanently sink in. How many training forums have you provided, and of that data, how much that involves changing professionals’ lifelong behavior (e.g. communication, conflict management) actually stuck? In my experience, the answer is little. Many aspects of leadership training make perfectly good sense theoretically, but it is the actual application of that learning – in real time, in the thick of it – that makes it stick.

I provide several levels of professional development:

Introduction to Leadership Principles – four to six months work. Ideal for new employees to introduce organizational standards for leadership and interpersonal skill, for new leaders in any position, and also applicable to apply to a full team of high functioning, natural leaders who you wish to be “culture carriers” for the organization. Nuanced or even significant redirection of leadership presentation can be obtained in this brief format.

Master’s Level work – My most significant development work with clients has been attained over an 12 or more month time frame. When top performers process and work at a more complex level, they can absorb more sophisticated levels of development. When the outcomes demand high levels of interpersonal and leadership skill, this work must be at a pace that develops maximum trust in the relationship and therefore ability and willingness to risk new behaviors. By working with me in the midst of organically developing challenges, clients are able to respond real time and assess and refine their leadership skill. My experience is that this longer term Master’s level is a valuable ongoing investment in both performance and perceived support from the organization to the leader.

Prospective Employee Assessment – Bad hires are expensive for many reasons. They also undermine the momentum for an organization. This point needs little documentation here. A 2-hour interview is focused on both the core leadership principles and pre-determined organizational needs and concerns for a quality hire. This is a worthwhile investment to pre-screen a candidate or assist in choosing between closely matched candidates. This includes the CPI260 assessment and a detailed recommendation based on the data I collect.

Problem Team members / Containment – not the most common reason for my contracts, but every company can have one. 4-6 weekly sessions to directly address the issue or behavior. Not a plan to change a personality, but to alter specifically identified problem. After a session or two, I will give you my assessment and prognosis. If fit within the organization is there, and the employee is motivated to change, this is solution focused work to immediately address behaviors and get an employee back to work. In my experience, these issues are rarely indicators of a bad employee. Rather, they may be based on interpersonal problems within the workplace or problems in the employee’s personal life–both of which can impact performance.

In a similar time frame, Critical Incident Response can address incidents within the organization as well as personal crises – death, accidents, family upheavals, traumas. Not a common occurrence, thankfully, but I am trained and experienced in response to these unfortunate workplace issues. I provide this service in the form of immediate group counseling or an EAP model of 2-3 individual sessions to assess and refer.