Coaching Services

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Organizational performance improvement happens one person at a time. Coaching is a cost-effective way to apply employee development resources in service of organizational performance.

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After the session you did with us I asked everyone if they thought it was worthwhile and got a unanimous "yes." Believe me, that wouldn't happen unless they meant it! Beforehand we were concerned that a single session might only lead to more sessions, but I explained what you said — that your goal was to give us insights that we can use ourselves, after just the one meeting. Everyone said that you succeeded. Thanks!
—Nancy Van Schooenderwoert
Partner, Agile Rules ou have several subordinates with talent, creativity and a wealth of knowledge about your customers or your business. But something is missing. Perhaps they have trouble working together. Or despite a full catalog of training program, they aren't reaching their potential. If you're looking for breakthrough improvements in organizational performance, and you're dissatisfied with the results of purely organizational approaches, consider one possible reason — an organization changes only when its people do.

Organizational change programs are far more effective when we also coach the people in those organizations, because we can give adequate attention to the the needs of the individual. Coaching key people is a high-leverage approach to elevating organizational performance.

In dynamic problem-solving organizations, organizational performance hinges on personal performance. Coaching your people helps you to achieve breakthrough improvements in project performance and organizational performance.

In political crises in organizations, the difficulty of finding a path that preserves both our integrity and our safety can seem overwhelming. I coach managers and executives in organizational politics, especially in extreme situations, when careers or organizational survival are at stake.

I coach managers, project managers and project teams to attain new levels of personal and project performance, in organizational politics, in project management technology, and in project dynamics, especially as it relates to interpersonal dynamics.

Phone Coaching

Economics and our busy schedules sometimes prohibit face-to-face meetings. It's just a guess, but I think that's why my telephone coaching is so popular. More info

But for some situations, coaching is most effective if we can meet in person, and when we can do that, pricing depends on your location and the length of my visit. Contact me for more information.

Brief Coaching for Executives™

Brief Coaching for Executives™ answers the coaching needs of the time-constrained executive. It offers a sharply focused, time-limited program of custom-tailored training and skills development based directly on the current experience and needs of the client. The issues addressed and the means of addressing them can be carefully selected and timed to a degree that is impossible in coaching programs of wider scope or in more group-oriented skills-development modalities. More info

Crisis Coaching

As we progress in the organizational hierarchy, we sometimes find that success can depend more on political skill than on what we ordinarily think of as professional competence. In reality, the two are intertwined. This becomes especially clear in organizational crisis, when careers are on the line. In these situations, career success depends more on political skill and intuition than on professional competence. Crisis coaching clients get the guidance and objectivity they need in the crisis environment. More info

Tools and methodology

These are what we think of conventionally as the skills of a project manager — scheduling, estimation, delegation, risk management, and a variety of other techniques well described in numerous sources, including the PMBOK Guide of the Project Management Institute.

But these tools are only some of the tools in the project manager's kit. The tools of interpersonal relationship and the tools of the Self are in some ways even more important. Project managers in the thick of things sometimes lose access to things they know well. A coach can help even well-versed project managers maintain access to the project management skills and knowledge they need to keep a project running smoothly.

Project dynamics

Project dynamics includes personal dynamics, group dynamics and organizational dynamics. To work well in these areas, it helps to understand both how people work well, and how to work well with people. A coach well-versed in models of personality, personal interaction, and group interaction working with project managers running live projects can give them access to resources in real time. I can supply project managers with tools for dealing with conflict, team dynamics, and political issues — tools that enable the project manager to bring the project in on schedule and on budget.

These techniques make project managers and project teams more effective. As one project manager I've coached has remarked, "Thanks to Rick's help I have reached a new level of project leadership by working at the process level. Since working with Rick, I have found a place of calm enabling me to lead a project three times the size of any project I have previously managed."

Spreadsheet Coaching

Spreadsheet Coaching answers the coaching needs of the time-constrained executive. It offers a sharply focused, time-limited program of custom-tailored training and skills development based directly on the current experience and needs of the client. The issues addressed and the means of addressing them can be carefully selected and timed to a degree that is impossible in coaching programs of wider scope or in more group-oriented skills-development modalities. More info