Baseline Assessments
Data collected over several years from annual employee engagement surveys confirmed that while employees loved the mission of the organization, leadership skills such as communication, employee motivation and employee development needed improvement. The majority of the 65-leader management team had been promoted to their leadership roles because of their technical expertise and technical leadership, but they consistently scored low in interpersonal leadership skills.
To kick off the executive coaching program, all managers and leaders were invited to a session with a dynamic executive coaching speaker who introduced the coaching program and inspired the leaders to opt in. There were other surveys and assessments that were presented to the leaders to identify where there were gaps and concerns. Try it in your organization with the assessment below:
1. Describe a work relationship where trust is low. What happened that caused trust to be damaged or broken? What was your contribution?
2. Is your mistrust an issue of sincerity, reliability, or competence?
3. Check for promises vs. expectations: What promise was made to you that was not fulfilled? (Who promised you and what was promised?) If no explicit promise, what expectation did you have? For whom? To do what? Did the other know about that expectation? What clarifying conversations, if any, are needed – whether this was a promise broken or an expectation unfulfilled?
4. How can you reframe the situation to find opportunities to rebuild trust? Be sure to focus on future possibilities rather than past wrongdoings. What trust building conversations/actions could you initiate?
Team Coach: During the first month of the program, Company X emailed all participants about the availability of phone coaching several times. All the LEAP group coaches reminded participants, too. In the inaugural month, sign-ups were low, but they rapidly increased in the following months. I attribute the increase to the trust built by the team coaches. Early requests for coaching ran the spectrum from leadership applications to conflict management, from influencing organizational culture to shifting self-limiting beliefs. This variable focus continued throughout the program, though in most sessions it was clear that the larger LEAP project generated many new opportunities for growth, either by sparking the thought that something could change or by requiring changes in the way leadership happened. It was interesting, too, to see the perspective on senior leadership evolve over two years, growing in confidence about the leadership and their commitment to the LEAP program.
Download Article 1K Club
