Every specialist in leadership and organizational development is unique. We use the same words, such as executive coaching, organizational assessment, and team development.
But how each of us approaches our work is a function of a unique blend of values, character, personality, education, and critical experiences that have shaped our assumptions and beliefs about people at work and the methods we use to help our clients.
I specialize in the assessment of organizations and accelerating leadership, team, and cultural development. My work often involves re-building trust and communication within troubled teams and organizations. I’ve been developing and refining a body of work over the course of my career. I know what I’m good at and what I’m not. I never take on a project unless I can exceed your expectations.
From the very first contact, I am adept at quickly understanding the issues faced by my client.
I can’t tell you how other organizational development specialists approach their work. We are rarely in the same place at the same time. But my clients have provided me with feedback about my work to help me understand why they bring me back to work with them again. This is what they’ve told me…
I am able to build trust with a broad range of people, from executives to people on the front lines.
My projects begin with an “Organizational Snapshot,” a series of confidential interviews throughout the organization. During the interviews, I promise to organize my findings so that my report to management represents what I learned from the group as a whole. Anonymity is absolute.
To this day, I am moved by the trust people put in me as they share information that would damage their careers if I didn’t keep my word regarding anonymity. At the end of the interviews, people often comment that they ended up talking a great deal more than they had intended to coming into the meeting.
My reports are more than a passive rendering of group comments. I include my own perspectives filtered through years of experience working with so many organizations.
My reports capture both the content and emotional tone of the interviews, organizing a massive amount of information that is organized and easily understood. Reports include topics such as structural problems, unresolved issues, what people think management needs to know but doesn’t, barriers to communication, ideas for improvements, as well as what people hope will happen as a result of my presence in the organization.
As I write my report, I offer my own perspectives and make recommendations regarding what is necessary to move the organization forward. Included is an analysis of the effectiveness and developmental opportunities of the key individuals on the leadership team.
I provide an in-depth and personal analysis of your key leaders and their teams.
You’ll benefit from an analysis your executives, managers, and their teams. At the appropriate point in the interviews, I move into an analysis of individual leaders by saying, “To understand the culture and effectiveness of this team, I need to know how people in leadership positions are doing. I am going to ask you about a list of people by name. I want to develop a balanced perspective. What do these people do particularly well? What would you have them do differently that would make them more effective to work with and for?”
My written report analyses the strengths and developmental needs of the members of your leadership team, including behaviorally detailed descriptions of individual leaders.
My reports are printed and ready for analysis and decision-making the day after the last interview.
I’ve developed a unique format for my reports, organizing comments into categories, including a section devoted to comments made regarding individual leaders. I write for a few minutes between interviews and I complete my analysis of each day’s interviews during the evening. The report is printed and ready to hand my client the day after the last interviews have been completed.
As a coach, I present my findings to individuals with a commitment to the truth as I see it.
I treat people with compassion and respect, giving my message the best chance of being heard.
People rarely have the opportunity to hear, in such great detail, how they are perceived by their colleagues and direct reports. 360 assessment instruments are useful but often fail to provide the behavioral descriptions necessary to expand self-awareness and help people understand what they need to do to improve.
Coaching helps people develop a greater awareness of their strengths and developmental needs and to discover “blind spots” in their self-perception. When people see what has been invisible to themselves but painfully obvious to others, they have taken the first step toward meaningful and lasting change.
Working with teams, I create a safe environment in which any issue can be discussed.
In the early stages of working with groups, your leaders and associates will develop a practical understanding of teamwork. Most teams lack a shared model of teamwork that enables them to build teams quickly and to “professionalize” rather than “personalize” conflict. They will learn how to raise issues, focusing on the work to be done. They will be able to defuse the emotions that can make issues appear to be too dangerous to discuss or that derail conversations between people with good intentions.
Then we are ready to get to discuss issues affecting your company and set action planning into motion. My clients often report surprise at the openness of these discussions and how much work gets accomplished in a short time.
“No psychobabble. No embarrassing games.”
Some consultants use games and simulations in pursuit of team development. I don’t. My clients report that some of these activities are embarrassing and are of limited value when people return to the workplace. We’ll focus on empowering people with an understanding of teamwork, a method to identify the sources of the inevitable glitches that occur, and communication and problem-solving strategies that are grounded in common sense and easily put to use.
We’ll devote time putting these approaches to use in discussing and resolving real problems. This ensures the transfer of learning to the workplace while, at the same time, accomplishing real work.
About Off-Site Retreats.
When possible, leadership, team development, and planning sessions should be designed as off-site, residential events. Taking your team off-site represents a significant investment of their time. We’ll collaborate in defining the deliverables expected of the event.
Spouses and significant others are not invited to attend residential retreats. After dinner, I lead a short and non-threatening exercise in acknowledgment that never fails to raise the energy level of a group that has been working hard all day.
After this exercise, the group is asked to spend at least the next couple of hours together for informal conversation in a relaxed setting. Time and again, people comment that this informal time is very valuable. They have the luxury of extended conversations to get to know each other better. In addition, a good deal gets accomplished as they pick up on conversations and issues identified during the daytime sessions.
Evaluating External Resources