Executive Coaching

Innovative Leadership International LLC Demonstrates Masterful Executive Coaching Services

©Suzi Pomerantz, MT., MCC. All rights reserved.

General Definition:

According to the Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey, “Executive coaching means regular meetings between a business leader and a trained facilitator, designed to produce positive changes in business behavior in a limited time frame.”*  Executive coaching, often called Corporate Coaching or Leadership Coaching, is a powerful system of specific conversations directed by a highly trained professional. Basically, coaching is executive, professional, leadership, or career development, delivered on a one-to-one basis. Team coaching is when the coach facilitates coaching results with a team or group, usually an intact leadership team. Coaching is a relationship of support and partnership between a Coach and a high-level individual or team in an organization.  The relationship is typically sponsored by the organization with multiple stakeholders, because the executive or team being coached typically has high levels of responsibility and broad scope of impact.  The focus of coaching is both organizational and personal development, typically around leadership results. Outcomes are observable and measurable, and match organizational objectives and performance requirements.  Forbes Magazine posted an article online written by Douglas McKenna, which I found to be a provocative, yet solid explanation of when and why to hire an executive coach:  Check it out here:  https://suzipomerantz.com/executiveexcellence/when-to-hire-an-executive-coach/

“Given how vitally important it is for the CEO to be getting the best possible counsel, independent of their board, in order to maintain the health of the corporation, it’s concerning that so many of them are ‘going it alone,’” says Stephen Miles, CEO of The Miles Group. “Even the best-of-the-best CEOs have their blind spots and can dramatically improve their performance with an outside perspective weighing in.”

The results of a Stanford Business School 2013 study on executive coaching reveal that CEOs want coaching, but many are not yet taking advantage of the opportunity:  https://suzipomerantz.com/stanford-executive-coaching-study-reveals-most-ceos-want-coaching/

If you are a CEO and have not yet worked with your own coach, give us a call!  We have over 28 years experience coaching top leaders and their teams and would be happy to discuss how you can get the advantage of  having your own trusted strategic thought-partner.

Executives and leaders face unprecedented challenges and often seek the trusted thought-partnership of a master executive coach for many areas including (but not limited to):

• Executive Presence
• Leadership Presence
• Managing Up
• Dealing with a Difficult Leader
• Dealing with a Challenging Board
• Personal Branding
• Influence Skills
• Time Management
• Dealing with Overwhelm
• Handling Stress
• Presentation Skills
• Productivity versus Procrastination
• Self-Management/ Self-Leadership
• Strategic Networking
• Navigating Internal Politics
• Cultivating Relationships of Influence
• Increasing Confidence
• Developing Others
• Motivating Employees
• Impacting Organizational Culture
• Collaborating with Competitive Peers
• Increasing Impact and Visibility in the Organization
• Increasing Team Cohesiveness
• Getting Your Ideas Heard
• Getting Sufficiently Mentored
• Leading Alignment Conversations
• Securing Advocates, Allies, and Champions Internally
• Owning Your Personal Power
• Driving Your Career
• Increase Sales Revenues
• Getting Recognition

Approach:

Coaching uses a process of reflective inquiry and personal discovery to build the executive’s level of awareness and responsibility, and provides the client with structure, support and feedback. Executives set goals for the outcomes they intend to achieve, and use a coach to motivate them, to keep them focused and on track, to identify limiting beliefs and other self-imposed roadblocks, to inspire them to excel, to enhance their personal or professional growth and development, and to provide partnership for their ultimate success. Your coach carefully observes your performance from the sidelines to help you determine those actions or non-actions, which define your current performance ability.  We utilize our expertise in Appreciative Inquiry, Emotional Intelligence, Ontology and Somatic understanding to improve leadership capacity in the individual executive and leadership bench strength in the organization.  We customize as you evolve so that we may best serve you as your thinking partner and sounding board.

Methodology:

Masterful coaches empower people to identify how behaviors, thought systems, and ways of being produce unintended results and consequences and to transform these systems into more effective or more powerful choices. Armed with this knowledge, clients use the coaching relationship to fundamentally shift their frames of reference, thereby producing winning results in the targeted areas. A coach is a visionary, a change agent, and a leader who enables others to exceed past performance and tackle their challenges with freedom, creativity, choice, and power. Coaching is continuous, individual, change-management, performance improvement rather than a one-time effort, quick fix, or training session.

Results:

Coaching is often used as executive intervention to help executives change, improve their performance, and develop as leaders. Executives, managers, supervisors and team leaders find that they must guide and lead their people and projects with little or no preparation or support. In many organizations politics guide a leader’s decisions and actions more than vision. Business leaders thrive in the action-based, commitment-oriented partnership that coaching provides. Here are a few recent examples of what ILI coaching has helped leaders achieve:

• Team presentation coaching of the leaders of a large healthcare construction company competing for an $80 million hospital building contract
• Leadership team coaching for the team of scientists/program directors who co-lead a public research consortium within NIH
• Business development coaching for an executive coach who doubled his six-figure revenues after one year of coaching
• Team and executive coaching for the development and growth of the nationally acclaimed DuPont Legal Model, which cut outside legal expenses by 48% producing bottom-line savings in excess of $50 million.
• Executive and leadership team coaching for the strategic design and enhanced communication between the owners and partners of a law firm.  Transformed command-control style of leadership to a collaborative, facilitative leadership model resulting in enhanced partner communication, and improving employee and partner engagement by 89%.
• Executive coaching for leaders of a government contractor/ leadership development firm to articulate and achieve their vision and accomplish “that long-sought-after clarity” about the future growth of their business, which contributed to expanding into two new target market segments while doubling their number of associates.
• Executive coaching for small business owner resulted in increase to his business revenues by 300%.
• There are more!  Just ask us if you don’t see your size organization or industry represented above.
• Why Coaching Works:  Check out this informative infographic for research results about coaching.

Service:

Executive coaching is provided both in-person and via telephone, as designed jointly by the client and the coach.  Coaching, which is not therapy or counseling, may address interpersonal savvy, career transition, communication or leadership strategies, executive presence, internal branding, navigation of the political landscape, improving visibility, specific personal projects, business successes, performance and productivity, or general conditions in the client’s role or profession.  Likewise, coaching is not consulting, and while your coach may have expertise to share with you in a particular area, the goal of coaching is to partner with you to create your own results, solutions, and actions.

We can do a combination of face-to-face meetings and phone work, depending on the executive’s goals and challenges. Usually it works out to 3-4 sessions per month. Phone sessions are typically an hour, in-person sessions are 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the work we’re doing. For example, if executive presence or presentation skills need improvement, we will meet more often in person. If it is more about interpersonal savvy or communication skills, we may do some shadow coaching in person and the rest by phone.

Most frequently, senior leaders value having a trusted resource for Sounding Board Coaching.  We adapt and customize our coaching process to the needs and style of the specific individual executive in the context of their organization’s culture and politics, their industry, and career.

We employ a proprietary methodology with regards to executive and leadership skills coaching.  Our coaching work is customized specifically to take into consideration factors and variables such as:

• Individual executive’s strengths
• Individual executive’s personality style
• Individual executive’s experience
• Individual executive’s leadership brand (executive presence)
• Purpose of the coaching
• Intended outcome
• Metrics
• Culture of your organization
• Optimal blueprint for success
• Ability to communicate with impact and for influence
• Alignment with Core Values

Innovative Leadership Process:

Taking into account the above customization factors, our process includes the following:

1.  Initial meeting to assess the interests, challenges, strengths and skills of the executive and create action plan (leadership development plan).
2.  Work with the executive to customize and design achievable, measurable goals for the coaching program that align with the broader objectives of the organization and the executive’s role and key priorities.
3. Design customized coaching program.
4. In some cases, where warranted or strategic, conduct interviews, aggregate data, and deliver/ process the feedback with the executive.
5. Conduct regular coaching sessions in support of the executive’s strategic initiatives, optimal success, and career advancement.
6. Monitor progress of the executive towards stated goals.
7. Assign relevant and timely homework in the form of conversations, action experiments, and additional practices for the executive to utilize between coaching sessions.
8. We recommend 18 – 25 hours of coaching contact hours per executive over a 6-month period to work on leadership skills such as managing upwards, communication, influence, managing perceptions and leadership brand, interpersonal savvy, leverage, contributing maximum value, motivating/engaging employees, and navigating strategic relationships.

Watch a Demo:

If you’d like to hear another audio-recorded coaching demo, you can access it here: https://suzipomerantz.com/coaching-demo/ anytime.

As Your Executive Coach:

I help wicked-smart, mission-driven leaders who are already making an impact  to both accelerate and amplify that impact.  I believe in your greatest success.

When I work with you I:

• Develop a trusting relationship with you and listen – carefully and objectively to what is happening in your business, in your world, and I guide a reflective inquiry to help you gain new insights and clarity
• Tailor my business model and coaching approach to reflect your particular situation, customizing in real time as you grow
• Connect the dots and help you make sense out of chaos and get clear (or see things through new eyes)
• Move the boxes that are preventing you from getting where you want to go
• Challenge old assumptions and blend fresh, new approaches with tried and true ones to maximize your particular agenda, challenge or goal
• Create a direct path to your maximum impact
• Seek customized ways to add value to your ultimate success

Break Through Process:

Among the first to be certified in the proprietary Break Through Consulting Coaching Process (described below), we partner with Break Through Consulting to provide multiple leader coaching to corporations.

Typically in a six-month coaching engagement for a senior executive, the process involves meeting in-person or by phone for a foundation session, which is usually 1.5 to 2 hours. The outcome of that initial meeting is a set of clarified goals, a strategy for the engagement,  the clarification of roles, purpose, intended outcomes, and details about the process.

Our system includes a customized series of interviews to collect 360 data, which is then provided as frank and candid feedback delivered to the executive in the context of their goals. This 360 provides much more detailed, specific, actionable feedback than the more commercial assessments on the market now.

The goals and feedback are aggregated into a behavioral action plan that over the course of the coaching engagement will cause a breakthrough in the intended areas.

We typically will guide the executive to socialize the action plan with a boss or coaching sponsor to ensure support and buy-in. At the end of the engagement we also involve the boss or sponsor in a results debrief process.

We’ve used this process repeatedly with many senior executives and have been consistently rated at the highest ratings in evaluations.

“The Reality of The Other Person Lies Not In What He Reveals To You, But What He Cannot Reveal To You.
Therefore, If You Would Understand Him, Listen Not To What He Says, But Rather To What He Does Not Say.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

 

Mini Bio:

Suzi Pomerantz, MT, MCC is an award-winning executive coach, facilitator, and author with over 29 years experience coaching and teaching leaders and teams in over 250 organizations internationally across Government Agencies and private sector clients, including seven companies on the Fortune 100 list and 7 corporate law departments. Suzi specializes in the intersection between leadership and business development and helps executives, teams and high performing, high-potential future leaders to clarify their vision and exceed prior performance. She was one of the first executive coaches to receive the Master credential from the International Coach Federation over 23 years ago and is considered a thought leader in the coaching industry.

Suzi’s strength lies in helping leaders and organizations find clarity within chaos. Her no-nonsense approach is professional, strategic, conversational, analytical and results-oriented. She provides executive coaching, team coaching, and emerging leader coaching in organizations to assist executives and their teams with setting strategic direction, managing talent, and developing leadership bench strength. She also develops leaders in teambuilding, sales, planning and conducting effective meetings, and facilitating change. She helps organizations develop and retain leadership capacity by coaching leaders in executive presence, presentation skills, personal power, communication, and vision work.

She has taught executive coaches as guest faculty at over a dozen top coach training institutions worldwide, and has spoken at industry conferences including the ICF annual conference and at Linkage. She serves on multiple international Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards in the coaching industry, and has authored 25 publications about coaching, ethics, and business development, including her book Seal the Deal. She received the 2007 Woman of Achievement Award from Business and Professional Women with the Commission for Women. In 2008 the ICCO Board of Directors established a legacy award: the Suzi Pomerantz Award for Stewardship will be given annually.  In 2010 Suzi was named one of the Coaching Heroes for TED Fellows.  More about Suzi Pomerantz can be found in a full biographical statement online at https://suzipomerantz.com/about/

Endorsements and Testimonials:

Raves about Suzi Pomerantz and her work as an executive coach can be found online at https://suzipomerantz.com/raves-about-suz/

To hire Suzi as your coach:  Call 301-601-1525 anytime.

©Suzi Pomerantz, MT., MCC. All rights reserved.

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*Annual updates of the Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey can be found at the Library of Professional Coaching. The definition quote noted above was from the 2009 survey, which can be found here: http://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/research/sherpa-executive-coaching-survey-2009/