Meeting Clients Where They Are – the Adult Development Coaching GPS

JP shared his commitment to excellent patient care, which his patients and medical students expected of him. Competence, quality, and personal achievement were important to JP, as was being recognized as a great problem solver. His general demeanor was confident, bordering on a perception of arrogance, yet he was deferential to more experienced clinicians.

In thinking about the new role, JP shared some of his challenges. His direct approach, which he prided himself on, didn’t seem to work with some of the other hospitalists. A few even complained to the CMO about his abrupt and rude communication style.  He had little tolerance when the nurses wanted to modify their care based on clinical and unit circumstances because he was rather clear on the right way to conduct most aspects of patient care. When other clinicians presented a different solution or perspective, JP would get defensive and sarcastic.  He was also struggling to keep up with his workload, which now included supervising his peers and partnering with different service line leaders.

For JP, in the context of the Leadership Maturity Framework, his role seemed to be requiring a transition from a skill-centric center of gravity to one where he could see a bigger picture and consider other perspectives in service to achieving results. With JP, the coach focused on supporting him in making the transition from leading self to leading and working with others.

The coach leveraged JP’s desire for technical expertise and provided resources on topics like time management, delegation, crucial conversations, effective meetings, and lean management. JP met senior leaders he respected around behaviors that helped them to be effective leaders, expanding his lens on multiple approaches to the same problem. The coach supported a shift from “either/or” to “and” thinking by introducing polarity maps into JP’s work. This created new awareness around the interdependent tensions of direction and participation; tasks and relationships; candor and diplomacy for JP.⁸  She used the Thomas Kilman Conflict Instrument so he could appreciate different ways to manage conflict. Aspects of Conversational Intelligence were also incorporated that emphasized to JP the positive impacts of collaborative conversations from a neuroscience perspective.

With experiments that he reviewed for his own feedback process, journaling his conversations, and beginning to notice his feelings underlying his actions, JP grew into a more effective leader, as noted in the incremental meetings with his boss.

By meeting JP where he was in his hypothesized action logic stage and tailoring the tools and techniques accordingly, JP ultimately embraced the learning and was achieving the results he defined for the engagement – most notably to him, receiving positive feedback from peers, nursing staff and his boss.

What about the coach in this partnership? Just as with Google Maps, in order to meet someone at their location, it is also important to know from where you, the coach, are starting. For example, if coming from a postconventional action logic that has systems thinking and complexity online, how might you want to adapt your language and techniques to connect with a more concrete, conventional thinker that focuses on expertise?

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