Services
Scope
Below are my three sets of services: Leadership Coaching, Organization Development and Group Facilitation. Coming soon: Workplace Wellness!
All are interrelated to complement one another. They can also be delivered separately.
Services are determined by conversations with decision makers and customized to fit your unique business and culture. All services are reliant on the same Socratic Method where I ask a series of questions and synthesize the answers into common themes focused on opportunities and recommended actions. My professional advice is always provided throughout.
Besides the services listed below, I deliver professional seminars for groups of any size. If this interests you, please Inspirational Topics at the bottom of this page.
Leadership Coaching
Introduction
Leadership coaching is a process where a trained coach (yours truly) works with a leader to determine improvement opportunities and actions to grow and succeed.
Leadership coaching involves several one-on-one sessions with the coach, spread out over enough time that the leader can make progress on their goals.
Typical time commitment: four hours or more.
How It Works
- Identification of a need. Needs are usually identified through conversations, performance assessments, personality and leadership styles assessments and self opinions and opinions from others. Not all methods are always applied. In fact, conversations are usually the best way to identify a need. Please see the Methods page for more information.
- Clarification of the need. Needs can sometimes be vague or overly broad or narrow. Through the use of the Socratic Method, the coach and the leader will explore needs until a clear focus is obtained.
- Goal setting. Here the coach and the leader set a goal that is well defined, measurable and achievable. Note that the goal should be aligned and directly attributable to the success of the business.
- Understanding what has been tried. This is a reality check of the leader's current situation related to the goal. This includes what has been tried before and what obstacles or challenges have been identified.
- Understanding what could be tried. This is a brainstorming or research activity intended to explore options or strategies to move forward. The coach here encourages creativity to produce a strong list. From the list the best options are chosen and discussed. Please see Inspirational Topics for ideas.
- Commitment to an action plan. After choices and actions are determined, the coach and the leader commit to an action plan. In order to achieve the plan, adequate time should be allowed for the leader to meet commitments. Milestones, progress checks and flexibility of the plan should also be discussed and applied.
- Follow up. This should occur on a regular basis between the coach and the leader, with sound measurements and evidence of progress.
- Repeat the process where necessary. This depends on what was set from the start. Has progress been made on the actions assigned to the goal(s)?
Outcomes
Outcomes should be discussed before action plans are initiated. Ideally the measurements used at the start should also be used at the end.
Discreet polling of the leader, the leader's followers and the leader's supervisor should also be considered. My professional advice is also provided here.
Schedule a Free Sample Session
If you are intrigued, please try a free 30-minute sample session. This would occur as a voice or video call. In the call, a shorter, faster version of the first few steps would be covered to demonstrate how the experience would work for you or others.
Organization Development
Introduction
Organization Development refers to reshaping the collective values, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize an organization's identity and culture. It encompasses communication, decision making, leadership styles and employee engagement. Factors influencing organizational development include industry norms, company history, employee demographics and the culture of the external environment.
Organization Development promotes cultivation of a positive culture by gaining awareness and understanding of current and desired states and then taking deliberate actions to reinforce desired values and behaviors. This means elevating transparency and trust, empowering and developing employees, and adapting to changing circumstance while staying true to the organization's purpose and goals.
Here the consultant and key internal stakeholders define current and desired future states of the culture. From there, actions are set to bridge gaps between today and tomorrow.
Typical time commitment: several days to several months.
How It Works
- Identification of need. This is the client's initial opinion about the need for this work. A stated correlation between organizational culture and business goals is required here, as well as the influence that the culture has on business results.
- Assessment of the current state. This involves a collection of information that accurately depicts the current state of the organization's culture and how it influences business results. See Methods for details. Results of this step would be a findings and recommendations report that informs the next step.
- Definition of the future state. This involves creative discussions about how the desired, future state should look and feel. The findings and recommendation report provides good guidance here. A correlation of culture and business results should be identified and confirmed here. The results of this step would be a prioritized list of opportunities to be actioned.
- Action planning. Action plans include all of the tasks needed to address three opportunities from the step above. Essential would be prioritized objectives, project guidelines, task assignments and time frames.
- Activation of plans. Activation can be big or small depending on the priorities set above. Activation typically involves several weeks to several months with varied degrees of consultant, leadership and employee involvement.
- Change management. Change management is necessary when changes are predicted to significantly impact employees. This step requires attention to change impacts so changes are accepted and adopted by stakeholders.
- Evaluation of actions. Evaluation is a comparison between the current and desired states defined above. This step provides an opportunity to check the results of the actions compared to expectations.
- Institutionalization. This means putting reinforcers in place to ensure that the intended changes endure. Reinforcers are built into organizational charters, business goals, performance expectations and evaluations and any other controllable levers that characterize the new culture.
Outcomes
Outcomes should be thoroughly discussed before action planning and activation are initiated. Typical outcomes include strategic charters, organizational structures and roles, role descriptions, succession plans, leadership and employee development plans, and communications; all directly aligned to the goals and direction of the business.
Schedule a Free Sample Session
If you are intrigued, try a free 30-minute sample. This would occur as a voice or video call. In the call, a shorter, faster version of the first few steps would be covered to demonstrate how the experience would work for your organization.
Group Facilitation
Introduction
Group Facilitation is a process or event where the consultant guides a group through discussions, development seminars or workshops; all aimed to achieve your business goals.
Facilitated sessions take advantage of the Socratic Method to achieve the group's goals. My professional advice is provided throughout.
Typical time commitment: a few hours to a few days.
How It Works
- Objective setting. Prior to a group session, clarity is sought around its purpose and objectives. This can also be reviewed in the session.
- Agenda setting. The agenda, order of topics, time allocations, ground rules, and group activities are determined here. Expected outcomes are usually decisions, new knowledge or anything else determined above.
- "Go Time." This is the session itself. Here the facilitator ensures a safe and respectful space where everyone participates. The facilitator uses techniques to foster constructive dialog, mitigate disagreements and guide the group to its intended outcomes.
- Next steps. Typical next steps could be refinement of decisions and application or adoption of new knowledge and skills. Most importantly plans are set for how to move forward.
Outcomes
Due to the varied nature of the purpose and objectives of a session, outcomes are dependent on the quality of the session before, during and after "go time."
With so many quality assurances built into the sessions (e.g. shared expectations, well managed dialog and associated time allocations) outcomes usually exceed expectations.
Schedule a Free Sample Session
If you are intrigued, try a free 30-minute sample. This would typically occur as a voice or video call. In the call, a shorter, faster version of the first few steps would be covered to demonstrate how the experience would work for you or others.
Inspirational Topics
Introduction
These are typical topics covered in each of the three sets of services. While each service is dependent on the Socratic Method, these topics can be considered for inspiration. Please note that I also deliver professional seminars on any of these topics and more.
Let's have fun imagining some of these topics for your organization.
Leadership Coaching Topics
- Strength building
- Career building
- Personality and leadership styles
- Balancing authority with influence
- Improving leadership presence
- Improving creativity
- Work, life integration
- Coaching employees
- Managing upward and downward
- Conflict management
- Employee advocacy
- Diversity and inclusion
- Prioritization of work
- Monetizing and selling ideas
- Overcoming customer rejection
- Communication with stakeholders
Organization Development Topics
- Organization models
- Organizational structure
- Strategic charter (mission, vision, values)
- Decision making
- Accountability
- Engagement
- Performance measurement
- Diversity and inclusion
- Leadership roles
- Succession planning
- Business expansion and steps to do this
- Communication content and methods
- Technology adoption
- Merger or acquisition integration
- Department designations
- Regular pulse checks
Group Facilitation Topics
- Work, life integration
- Turbo charging ideas or actions
- Strategic chartering (e.g. mission, vision, values and operating principles)
- Strategic planning (e.g short and long term goals and strategies)
- New growth opportunities
- Action planning and follow through
- Problem solving and issue resolution
- Project creation and management
- Talent management practices
- Diversity and inclusion
- Employee engagement
- Skill building
- Team building
- Ethics and conduct
Next Steps
Do Your Research
Besides this website, I'd encourage you to do your own research on topics and services that pertain to your business. The more education you have here, the better your decision will be to engage an external consultant.
Ask Yourself
Where are my opportunities to improve? Who would be involved in this kind of work? Who would direct this kind of work if a consultant wasn't involved? What might engagement with a consultant look like? Most importantly, ask:
What would be the value of this work for my business?
Contact me
If your interest is elevated to where you'd like to have a discussion or a free sample session, then please contact me. Discussions are free and easy!
I'm excited to talk to you.