Executive Coaching
An example of my executive coaching experience was with a CEO who wanted to improve leadership and interpersonal skills with her staff. After administering a series of assessments, feedback was provided and specific goals set to increase communication, morale and team work. Over a nine month period we had frequent coaching sessions both in person and via telephone as well as some monthly meetings with the staff. Our focus was evaluating her commitment to the business, creating her vision for the future both short and long term, removing internal and external obstacles, creating life balance and developing options and action plans to move forward. The results included an increase in employee morale, greater team work in producing sales, retention of key employees, and increased career and life satisfaction for her and her staff.

Leadership Development
One example of this type of project involved the managers of a corporate division who had recently participated in a leadership-training program, which had concluded with 360 degree feedback. My role was to coach these managers through the following five stage process:

1. review and interpret the feedback report,
2. discuss areas of strengths and improvements,
3. discuss strategies for eliciting more specific examples of feedback from staff,
4. discuss how to work with staff to get recommendations, and
5. develop and implement an action plan.

The managers were encouraged to meet with me as a coach both individually and/or as a group on a monthly basis to assess progress, discuss obstacles and approaches to overcome them, and celebrate successes.

Team Development
The following is an example of one of my team development consulting projects. I was asked to coach a manager and his team for a period of six months. The presenting issues were team conflict, lack of cohesiveness and lack of communication between team members.

The first phase of the project was to interview the manager and each team member to assess their view of the team dynamics, what was working and not working, what were organizational issues and what were issues among team members.

Phase two involved providing feedback to the team and manager from the assessment and together developing a team plan. The agreed upon strategy was for me to meet monthly with the team and have individual coaching sessions with the manager.

Specific issues that were addressed and resolved through this process included: meeting management, valuing different styles, strategies for resolving conflict, building trust, setting norms, opening communications to be direct, giving and receiving feedback constructively.

As a result of this work, team projects were now completed on time, the manager spent less time resolving team conflicts, the overall work environment became more harmonious, and there was a marked increase in resource sharing among team members.

Strategic Planning
One example of this type of project is with a manager and his team who wanted to clearly identify their current situation and then articulate a vision for their future that could meet the changing needs of their organization.

We began with an initial assessment in which I conducted interviews with all of the team members individually and appropriate members of the management team. We then had a one-day offsite to develop the vision, tactics, allocation of resources and an action plan to go forward. To ensure results and the implementation of the plan I was asked to provide ongoing coaching and follow-up.

This project is representative of many Strategic Planning sessions that I have conducted with small businesses and teams from larger organizations in one- to two-day offsites. My consulting begins with interviews and an assessment of the manager and the team. I then design the preparation for the offsite in conjunction with client, and provide the coaching as needed for the implementation and follow-up phase of the project.

Change and Transition
One example of this type of project would be the work that I did with a small business that was being bought out by an international company. To facilitate the best possible transition for all members of the company, I consulted and coached with the CEO and CFO and Director of HR to develop strategies for a smooth transition. I began by conducting one-on-one interviews and focus groups with staff and management to assess the current situation and develop a six-month strategic transition plan. The project lasted four months during which I was initially on-site 2 -3 days a week, tapering off to once a week. During that time a management team was formed to deal with issues and put together a transition plan until the new owners were in place. Strategies were developed and implemented to reduce conflict, increase communication and deal with the anxieties of change. Workshops and individual coaching sessions were provided to help employees during this major reorganization.