We support, foster, and guide the development and growth of leaders working in complex and challenging environments, particularly during times of uncertainty, ambiguity, and change.

• Establishment of a coaching relationship based on mutual trust and shared values with clearly-identified goals and expectations for the engagement.
• Use of valid assessment instruments to raise self-awareness, identify gaps and opportunities, and support change, transition, and growth.
• Application of our proprietary Five Leadership Practices framework to optimally leverage performance.
• Implementation of a highly personalized Leadership Action Plan, supported by confidential and regularly-scheduled sessions and on-site shadowing. We employ a practice of listening and reflection, providing constructive feedback, and challenging leaders to go beyond their comfort zones.
• Incorporation of Polarity Thinking™ tools to effectively anticipate and sustainably address problems, difficult issues, chronic tensions and dilemmas.
• Access to wide range of resources to enhance ongoing learning, sharpen skills, and expand capabilities.
• In the process of coaching for performance and development, clients have also asked for specific support in areas such as: team building, enhancing executive presence, creating an inspired vision, effective communications and public speaking, career planning, crisis management, strategic planning.

OUTCOMES:

Our program enhances and improves a leader’s ability to:

• Create a visionary path forward AND construct realistic expectations
• Possess depth of expertise AND pursue breadth of knowledge and skills
• Lead with resolve to reach goals AND remain open and curious to new ideas
• Demonstrate operational competence AND model healthy relationships
• Perform with high degree of autonomy AND be a team player

• Should we focus on our mission as an organization to ensure a purpose-driven culture or do we emphasize margin as a top priority to ensure the organization remains cost-effective?
• Do we invest in technology that supports the integration of care across the care continuum, or do we invest in building people’s capacity to work together across disciplines to provide quality care?
• Do we encourage experimentation & innovation or demand excellence & consistency in execution?
• Do we value candor or diplomacy; visionary leaders or pragmatic leaders; task or relationship?

Our clients have made use of the Five Leadership Practices to optimize individual and organizational performance on a number of strategic initiatives. Here are a few of them:

• Launch a new Team or Project
• Integrate a New Acquisition
• Support a New Leader to Assimilate
• Design a Leadership Development Program
• Strategic Planning
• Communications and Employee Engagement

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND DECISION MAKING

Our strategic planning and decision-making consulting and workshops focus on leveraging the following leadership capabilities:

• Strategic Visioning AND Engaging for Action
• Plan Thoroughly AND Execute Well
• Communicate with Inspiration AND Execute with Clarity and Commitment
• Data Driven Decisions AND Decisions Informed by Experience and Intuition
• Ability to Take Smart Risks AND Perform Thorough Due Diligence

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND MESSAGE ALIGNMENT

Our strategic communications consulting helps leaders and their teams ensure alignment and accountability between:

• Visionary Market-Facing Brand AND Internal Employee-Facing Practices
• Depth of Expertise in Marketing & Communications AND Breadth of Corporate Strategy Alignment
• Communications Infrastructure AND Robust Two-Way Communications Flow
• Strategic Messaging AND Employee Engagement
• Strong Identification With Brand AND Culture of Innovation

• You didn’t have to know the answer to every question employees ask you?
• You welcomed requests for help as opportunities to develop employees?
• You knew the right questions to ask to encourage employees to find their own solutions to problems?

On any given work day, leaders at all levels of an organization hear dozens of requests for help from employees. Many requests require only simple answers-do this, say this, follow these steps. Others require more thought and more time. Time you may not have.

The Call to Coach allows leaders to practice the ‘no tell’ method of responding to questions and challenges that guarantees both people and performance thrive in your organization

DISCOVER YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Conventional wisdom for effective work teams contains a built-in ‘Catch 22.’

• The most effective work teams comprise a mixture of diverse work styles
• Mixing different styles may result in interpersonal conflict

The good news is that people can effectively work together with all behavior styles when they practice mutual respect and mutual trust, and when they are willing to adapt their behavior. DISCover Yourself and Others helps you understand four styles of human behavior; helps you gain awareness of your own behaviors and behavior tendencies in others; and will show you how to relate to all types of people. The result is better relationships and more productive teams.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR MBTI TYPE

Effective work teams contain people who…

• Do their thinking as they speak AND people who need time to gather their thoughts first
• Like established procedures and routines AND those who thrive on change, new ideas, and variety
• Make decisions using objective principles and facts AND those who focus on personal concerns and the people involved
• Like to get things settled and finished AND members who like to leave things open and gather more information

No leader would choose one behavior in these dynamic pairs over the other. The most effective leaders—and the most effective teams—understand, embrace, and leverage the full range of personality types.

Our unique approach to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator emphasizes the four dichotomies as polarities. Not ‘either/or’ choices but rather ‘both/and’ thinking. Guidelines, not hard and fast rules. When teams and organizations leverage both poles of a dichotomy, the result is improved decision-making, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

COLLABORATIVE CONFLICT: THE ULTIMATE BALANCING ACT

How do you handle conflict? Do you…

• Approach conflict calmly, or do you become frustrated and impatient?
• Meet conflict directly and constructively, or do you go out of your way to avoid it?
• Find yourself wishing that you had handled a conflict differently?

We have all experienced the stress of unresolved conflict. Disagreements are inevitable-no two people can possibly have the same opinions, expectations, and needs. But conflict doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There are five styles for dealing with conflict, each with its own place in creating constructive solutions. Each can open a door for more effective interactions. In this program we offer an overview of all five, and then focus more deeply on one in particular… collaborative conflict. Why just one?

A collaborative style is best when…

• Results and relationships are equally important.
• Your goal in the face of conflict is to find solutions, not to fix people.
• People who bring out our worst—who push our buttons-represent an opportunity to learn and grow.
• I need an alternative to using positional power.
• I understand that he only person I can manage and change is…me.

Participants in Collaborative Conflict: The Ultimate Balancing Act will…

• Learn how to recognize their preferred conflict style and behavior ‘triggers’
• Explore and practice the benefits of remaining collaborative in the midst of conflict
• Learn how to face conflict with a more neutral, calm approach
• Learn what to do when colleagues say ‘no’ to collaboration

WISDOM IN THE RESISTANCE: MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU, RATHER THAN AGAINST YOU

How are you impacted by the resistance encountered in others? How are others impacted by the resistance they encounter in you? Are you a fighter? Do you acquiesce? Develop underground work-arounds?

Explore when and how to engage the wisdom behind the resistance. Get unstuck, get unhooked, and get more done through the power of Polarity Thinking.

Polarities, or both-and tensions, are like gravity. They act on us whether we believe in them or not. When we fail to see, map, assess, learn and leverage Polarities, today’s solutions become tomorrow’s problems. We are criticized for “fixes that fail.” This is a vicious cycle AND it can be transformed into a virtuous cycle. In this 2-hour webinar you will learn why and how.

POLARITY THINKING 101

A 4-hour experiential, interactive workshop that:

• Provides an overview of the Five Leadership Practices
• Introduces Polarity Thinking — a powerful and practical tool to optimize performance
• Engages participants in the creation of action plans to enhance individual leadership and organizational effectiveness.

We offer certification for clients who want a deeper understanding of Polarity Thinking