Challenge: A firm’s growth depends on its leadership to be strong and effective. Lisa has worked with many executives who have outstanding skills, and need the polish and additional confidence that comes from working with an executive coach. Many of these individuals have recently been promoted, and can benefit from “transition coaching” as they move into the higher level responsibilities.

Solution: We use rigorous self-assessment to establish a base line of understanding. This includes behavioral style, values and underlying cognitive structure. In some cases, we solicit feedback from co-workers in order to identify how others perceive them. We use the outcome from these assessments to work on the competencies that need improvement, providing practical solutions to be applied immediately on the job.

Outcome: Since the executives are applying their new knowledge on an ongoing basis, the results can be subtle. In many cases, they demonstrate significantly better performance: they have better communication with their people; they delegate better; they spend more time on strategy; they develop strong self-management skills. In other cases, the executives may decide to move in a different direction that would be better for him or her individually, as well as the organization.

In both scenarios, a win-win outcome has occurred, because the people are working in their areas of passion and core competency.