TEAM COACHING

TEAM COACHING & CONSULTING

Team Alignment and Transformation

The information below is an overview of my Team Alignment and Transformation approach.

If you’d like to see if this approach might be for you, please read the information on how I work with clients.

Then, if you’d like to explore working with me, fill out the short form at the bottom and we’ll set up a time to see if my alignment and transformation program may be right for your team or organization.

Corporate clients seek out my assistance when one or more of the following issues are a challenge for them:

1. The CEO or C-suite leader may be leading a team that is not moving forward together to achieve results and goals. They may be "stuck" as a governing body, and the CEO may be spending too much time facilitating disputes or being lobbied behind the scenes rather than leading company vision and strategy.

2. In some cases a new CEO or C-suite joins the organization and needs to acclimate into or refresh the team dynamic: setting clear team expectations, behavior norms and accountability measures to rapidly achieve goals.

3. Or perhaps there is an unexpected event that triggers an immediate need for the team’s change readiness.

HOW I WORK WITH MY TEAM CLIENTS

Who are the teams I work with?

I work exclusively with the CEOs and C-suite leaders of Fortune 500, midsized companies, and nonprofit organizations to support their corporate executives and teams.

I help these leaders achieve accelerated results and overcome obstacles through tailored approaches, tools and disciplines.

My clients are seasoned executives who are experts in their field.

They have challenging goals and want to accelerate their team’s performance. They want to cultivate and support healthy workplace cultures. They have a passion for helping people and making a difference.

They are a diverse group, many from around the world, from different ethnic groups, races and cultures. What they have in common is marked intelligence and a passion for leading a team to be its best.

Why is this program needed?

Leaders need to accelerate their team’s performance; they want talented team members who are aligned and who partner closely to achieve goals collectively.

But their team may struggle with establishing trust and working through conflict productively, which can get in the way of getting work done. And many leaders have a tough time identifying breakdowns, giving tough feedback, or facilitating areas of disagreement among team members.

They don’t have reliable, repeatable strategies for ensuring that the team is accountable for results and is working together to achieve goals.

These are some typical issues teams struggle with:

Lack of trust between team members, which leads to a failure to tap into their talents and strengths

Effectively managing team conflict, which creates a highly politicized environment where important issues are ignored or go underground

Achieving team commitment, which wastes time revisiting decisions, cultivates lack of confidence and fear of failure

Knowing how to leverage each team member’s strengths and respond to derailing behaviors that make it hard to get results

Team members do not hold each other accountable, which wastes time and reduces productivity.

My work focuses on these five outcome-oriented practices:

1. Understanding the company’s vision, strategy and goals. Being aware of the gap between where the team is performing vs. where you need it to be.

2. Data gathering to map the team culture profile, gaining awareness of the operating system the team has created.

3. Workshopping the group profile with team. Facilitate the group’s understanding of its behavior patterns — targeting strengths to leverage and identifying areas that need improving.

4. Creating a team action plan. Providing support and accountability with regularly scheduled coaching, stakeholder feedback, and assignments that are customized to individual and team needs.

5. Implementing a shared accountability plan and periodic follow-up measures to ensure the desired behaviors “stick.”

It’s these five practices that have proven to work the best for teams to consistently get collaborative results.

What can your team expect to gain from working with me?

You will have a strategy in place for leveraging your team’s strengths and minding the gaps. Your team will achieve alignment of goals, enabling execution.

You will increase your capability to anticipate issues before they arise so that they can be addressed more effortlessly and effectively. Your leadership will have a greater impact on your company, team and key stakeholders.

Leading will be less of a struggle and a mystery and feel easier and more meaningful. You’ll become more confident in your power and comfortable in your key relationships.

Ultimately, you’ll adopt a whole new leadership mindset. You will have a roadmap for your leadership and team, and your team will have solutions for how to handle situations as they arise — freeing you up, reducing the amount of time you spend on workplace politics and facilitating disagreements.

How do I work with my team clients?

I offer an intensive group program, Team Alignment and Transformation, tailored to the needs of your group. Engagements range from three months to two years, depending on the outcomes desired.

The engagements typically involve pre-work assessments for each team member, individualized debriefs and 1:1 executive coaching via Zoom, and culminate in a group retreat in person.

For accountability and measurement, follow-up check-ins occur every 3-6 months either in person or virtually, depending on the level of change desired.

Learning through discovery, application and measurement

Most teams fail due to lack of trust and commitment. Without these two foundational elements in place, teams don’t ever learn how to manage the productive conflict that leads to innovation and flawless execution.

Team members need to know how and why they do what they do, and to be aware of how their behavior affects others so they can influence and achieve results with you and through their team members.

It’s all about awareness of self and others. Setting team behavioral norms that all members agree to hold each other accountable for. And then following up to assess and measure how well the team is performing against its agreements, and working on outstanding issues as they crop up.

We’ll meet, gather your team’s self-assessment feedback and results, talk together as a team, and explore the team dynamic strengths and challenges. We’ll set clear expectations and create an atmosphere that enables respectful and honest dialogue (especially when we discuss the difficult stuff). The team will create an action plan and commit to holding each other accountable for its execution.

What does this program help you avoid?

Executive leadership can be overwhelming. There are hundreds of leadership team theories, business books, personality assessments, and literally a million things you could try.

And it can be frustrating and costly trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t to get the team working well together like you need. Where should you spend your time and what should you avoid?

I help you and your team avoid frustration and overwhelm. Working together, we assess your team individually and collectively, giving you information you need to assess the gap between where the team is and where you want it to perform.

We develop the foundation for clearly established expectations and accountability. I consult with and support you in successfully leading your team with greater ease and success.

And the best part? Your team members will be more engaged, and feel a higher sense of purpose and belonging. They will have a roadmap for how to work together effectively and handle conflicts directly with each other, freeing you up to set vision, lead strategy and achieve results.

How is my approach different?

My work was developed as a result of over 20 years working my way up to the C-Suite in multiple organizations, Global Fortune 50 companies and nonprofits, followed by extensive coaching training and certification and multiple years of coaching Fortune 500 and startup executives.

My approach is "insights-to-action." It is practical and informed by my real-world experience at the top companies around the globe — from being an employment counsel, CHRO, CCO, CAO, and certified executive coach. I use sophisticated assessment instruments and methods, but it is primarily about communicating and taking action.

Working together, you’ll gain insights and knowledge that you and your team will immediately put to use, along with customized assignments based on your team’s specific challenges and goals.

Groundbreaking change happens at a higher level through increased awareness of strengths and development opportunities. This type of change will also arrive at a sustainable pace. Your progress will be measured at regular intervals by you and your team against the standards you collectively set.

You and your team will work hard at this program and it will test your resolve. And if you do the work, your business will move forward measurably — and with greater ease.

What is this program not?

It is not a fluffy feel-good program that entertains everyone for a couple of days before you head back to the office and the old patterns of behavior emerge. It’s about increasing team awareness about how each team member works individually and as a team. It’s about embracing accountability as a shared value, taking action and achieving results.

It’s about implementing sustainable change that will serve your company, you and your team over your entire tenure.

It is not about the power of positive thinking, though I am supportive and nurturing, and unequivocally believe in the power of my clients to be exceptional.

It is not about simply playing to your strengths, “fake it ‘til you make it,” comforting platitudes, or unicorns and rainbows… leadership is hard work.

This program is about awareness and action. It’s about breakthrough insights that lead to positive behavior change.

It is not just a series of nice conversations where you feel good afterwards but nothing changes.

Your Next Steps…

If you think working with me seems like a good fit, we’ll set up a 45-minute meeting to answer any questions you may have and make sure this program is the right fit for you and your team. (Note: for information about my executive coaching, go here.)