The Coaching Engagement

The coaching process begins with an initial 360-degree assessment that requires leaders to engage in a self-assessment of their leadership skills, along with soliciting feedback from supervisors, peers, and direct reports. The results are analyzed to show trends and areas for growth that are used to set leadership development goals.

Using the analysis from the initial assessment and jointly crafted leadership goals, coaching sessions begin with introspective conversations about what ideal leadership is as well as what implicitly holds leaders back from achieving their highest potential. The goal of these sessions is to understand how leaders currently see themselves within the context where they live and work. After the reckoning, leaders develop new insight with equity in mind and begin to test new behaviors they can apply in their work every day.

Leaders will craft tests to conduct in real work settings. By intentionally drafting tests ahead of an interaction, leaders can track their behavior, the reaction of others and the outcome of the test behaviors.

Conducting and debriefing tests with a coach provides data that can be tracked from session to session so leaders can see the progress they are making in shifting their behaviors and leading for equity. Each leader’s context of their developmental journey is different and progress will ebb and flow as they navigate with new skills, courage and authenticity.