I was a manager for many years and a management professor for the last eight years. However, I wanted to be more involved with leaders that were looking to really change--to really make a difference. How can I best help leaders improve and change? Executive education and seminars are great, but I found that those didn't really focus on the meaningful changes that many leaders wanted or needed. Rather than settle for this, I decided to look into what the academic research had to say about developing leaders. The evidence was clear that good coaching resulted in more meaningful and long-lasting change than any kind of weekend seminar or 10-week class.
I learned that developing leaders is not about delivering content, it is about behavior change. You can read every book, attend every seminar, and earn every kind of credential, but that will not make you listen better, trust more, or hold others and yourself more accountable. What works is a process where the leader commits to a goal, involves others in the process, and tracks results. When you add in consistent follow up and follow through with humility, courage, and discipline you get powerful results.
My passion is to see leaders change their leadership behavior in positive ways through a clear and powerful process. Not so the coach looks good, but so the leader makes important and long-lasting changes in their behaviors which benefit themselves and others in the organization. These growth changes should help achieve business goals for the individual, team, and organization. But, I find that personal goals are also achieved as well.
Coaching is really the process by which another person facilitates the process of improvement for others. I don't really like the word "coach" but it resonates with most people familiar with executive or leadership development. I am more of a leader development expert who helps others become better leaders. That requires some skills related to coaching, yes, but it also taps into my expertise as a scholar and professor as well as a former manager. Whatever you want to call it, my role is to help facilitate the process by which you will verifiably become a better leader.
My approach is not for those who avoid challenges. You will need to listening to others, think about and internalize what they say, respond positively to their input, practice new behaviors, solicit regular feedback and track your behavioral results. My job is to be your "personal trainer" and keep you on course and guide you toward making steady, forward progress over the course of the journey. I bring my experience and areas of expertise to help you be successful. However, this is not a process that soaks up valuable time every week. On the contrary, the quality over quantity principle applies here--that last thing I want is to waste your time (or mine). Thus, the process is designed to be heavy on "doing" and light on "talking."
You are not doing this alone, either. Those around you will be a critical part of the process from the start--they are your stakeholders, those who have a 'stake' in your success as a leader. They will be along for the journey as you decide on goals, develop an action plan, and figure out what is working well and advise you where to focus your efforts. In the end, your stakeholders document your leadership behavior change through periodic mini-surveys. This means we can show real results!
If you are interested, I ask that we have brief conversation to help determine if you are ready and willing to take the challenge and if this program is a good fit. I hope you are!
-Dr. Josh