Coaching

Coaching is really about moving valuable people from where they are to where they want to be.

It’s simple and powerful.

Even individuals at the top of their game can benefit from individual coaching to improve their performance. Athletes have known this as far back as ancient Greece in the original Olympic games in using trainers and coaches.

Having a performance coach allows you to work on real problems in real time. A coach provides a confidential resource with whom to talk and work through challenges you face or goals you wish to achieve. Coaching allows a highly personalized approach to development that is tailored to your needs.

Using a coach provides a safe environment in which you can explore and develop new skills and behaviors and gain new insights that can benefit your effectiveness overall. We use a specific coaching process following Columbia University’s coaching program to address the needs of our clients.

The Coaching Process

Context: Each manager has his own unique context. We start with understanding the challenges and environment you face every day.

Content: While there are many different areas that could be addressed, we seek to help you focus on those areas that will truly make a difference in your effectiveness and are top priority to improve.

Conduct: With learning new skills, comes learning new behaviors. Your conduct has to change. This is not about changing who we are, but what we do. We focus on a specific development plan to move forward and on learning and practicing those behaviors that support your effectiveness.

© The Columbia Coaching Certification Program. All rights reserved (2007).

Executive and Organizational Coaching is a four-way partnership including:

• the person receiving coaching (the client)
• the coach
• the client’s manager
• and often Human Resources (or the Sponsor).

All roles are clearly defined before the coaching process begins. This ensures communication is clear, responsibilities are explicit, confidentiality is upheld and expectations are shared.

Examples of coaching engagements:

• New Manager struggling with knowing how or what to delegate
• Manager is thinking of making a transition in her career but wants to take a pulse check for how it is going now.
• Manager is doing well in current role, but senses there is something more she could be doing
• Manager has been promoted and is having trouble thinking more strategically
• Manager has received some feedback that indicates his interpersonal skills might need a little polishing.

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Melodie Howard’s firm, In Perspective Consulting, focuses on designing and executing sustainable systems for development. Her particular specialties are: succession planning, corporate values, performance management systems, senior leadership competency development, executive coaching, 360o feedback and talent management. Melodie’s previous experience includes serving as the Group Director of Organizational Development for leading international re-insurance company, Partner Reinsurance, Ltd., based in Hamilton, Bermuda. She continues to work with them on a retained consultancy basis. Prior to her role at PartnerRe, Melodie spent 16 years at the Center for Creative Leadership in both operational and profit and loss responsibility roles. Melodie received her Master’s of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine University in August of 2000 and a B.S. in Psychology from Guilford College in 1980. You can find Melodie’s profile on TheCoachingAssociation.com.