San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching

Executive Coaching for Authentic Leadership: Staying True to Yourself

Employees follow leaders who they believe are real. Authenticity is important for trust to develop.

One of my recent senior vice president executive coaching clients was being considered as the successor to the CEO. He told me the following story. At one of the Board of Director meetings the bulb in the overhead projector burned out. My client quickly rolled up his sleeves and changed the bulb. He received feedback from a couple of Board members that it created an impression of not looking like a CEO. My client is the heart and soul of the company. People love him.

Do you think he did the right thing by changing the bulb? What would you do in a similar circumstance?

Leading in Turbulent Times: How Resilient Are You Under Stress?

How you as a leader handle stressful situations has a dramatic effect on your people. Are you resilient and bounce back during stressful times or cover the wagons?

The most successful leaders in my executive coaching programs manage pressure well. They stay focused in the present moment. Resilient leaders convey confidence and courage in facing difficult business challenges.

How do you handle pressure? Do you model good stress management skills? The emotions of a company's leaders are transmitted to employees.

Evaluation and Alignment: Creating a Culture Critical to Success

Are your strategic talent management processes in alignment?

I am currently coaching the senior leadership team of a company in a very competitive market. They have been very successful but don't have the technology, financial resources or critical people to grow the business.

The President/CEO is currently interviewing candidates for a critical vice president of technology position. I will conduct extensive competency-based interviews with the final candidates and incorporate personality and ability tests. We want to ensure that people and processes are in alignment.

Succession Planning: Do You Have A Leadership Pipeline?

The CEO and founder of a major Bay Area Company contacted me about his retiring in a few years and the search for a successor. In collaboration with the Board of Directors and Senior Leadership Team, we created a competency model for the CEO position. I provided executive/leadership coaching for two of the company VP’s who were selected as CEO candidates.

As a result of the executive /leadership coaching, The Board of Directors and CEO selected one of the VP’s, who most clearly demonstrated the requisite CEO competencies to lead the company into the future.

Have you picked one or more potential successors?

Leadership Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions

One of the most difficult skills to learn is giving feedback. I am providing executive coaching for a senior vice president of a client company. As part of an initial assessment, I interviewed the executive's boss, colleagues and co-workers. It was readily apparent that people were uncomfortable giving feedback. The senior vice president's boss felt strongly that he shouldn't have to give the vice president feedback. He believed someone at the vice president's level should know what is expected of him.

The company culture is to be nice and non-confrontational. In my experience as a leadership consultant and executive coach, helping leaders overcome the fear of giving candid feedback is a critical competency.

Great leaders give and receive feedback in the moment. They are comfortable managing conflict.

Self Management for Leaders: How Are You Spending Your Time?

Time management is really self-management. Just about every leader I coach is pressed for time. Many of my lawyer coaching clients struggle with the billable hour requirement.

Take about two minutes to fill out my How well do you manage your time and your life? Time/Self- Management Quiz in the Self Assessment Quiz Resources section on my Working Resources Blog. You might also get some provocative ideas on managing your time and your life by reading The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.

Communicating Your Business Vision: Questions to Ask Yourself

In order for people to be engaged at work they need to know where they are I going. Martin Luther King's Dream speech has inspired millions of people to vision a preferred future.

The USA democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama brilliantly inspires supporters to vision change in the country's direction.

Are you a leader who communicates a clear vision for your enterprise? You may find it enlightening to ask yourself a few honest questions.

Leadership Scorecard: Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself

In my leadership coaching work with senior executives, I find that organizational leaders rarely have time to relect on how they are doing.

Coaches are trained to ask clients powerful questions to help clients gain clarity and insight. As a trusted advisor to many of my clients they learn to ask essential questions of themselves.

How often do you take the time to ask yourself how you are doing as a leader?

Disengaged Employees: Does your Organization Have Zombies?

A company HR manager called regarding coaching for a manager. Several employees had indicated in their exit interviews that they had left the company because of difficulty with this manager.

I work mostly with high performing leaders. However, sometimes a manager is unhappy or worse and coaching can help. In certain situations the person needs to move on.

I met with the manager in this case. She aways came to our coaching meetings in a blue business suit. As she told me her story, it was apparent that she wasn't this horrible person described by the employees. It was understandable that they may have experienced her that way.

In a nutshell, she was clearly in the wrong job. The manager had been working at the bank for seventeen years. Coaching revealed her true love was art. As a single mother, she had begun her banking career as a means to support herself and her young daughter. She was unintentionally taking out her frustrations on her direct reports.

Utilizing some career assessments in our coaching she rediscovered her true passion. She and her current husband had made a trip to Costa Rica. They started a business designing and selling surf boards. She quit her job at the bank and was happily engaged in this creative business endeavor. It was a great fit for her. Her relationships with people vastly improved.

Are you and your people engaged in the right job? 

Happily Engaged Employees: What Employees Want a Leader to Do

Great managers or leaders are comfortable having deep conversations with their people. I have found in my executive coaching practice that leaders need to connect with their people who will execute the strategy.

I am currently coaching the executive team of a San Francisco Bay Area high-tech company. We are working on a process to discover the identity of the business. Part of the process will be for the CEO and executives to ask powerful questions of themselves and their people. Who are we at our core? What do we stand for? What business are we in? What is our purpose? Where do I fit in?

Leaders need to know and deeply care about their people. The ability to do this is easier for some leaders than others. But it can be developed.

How well do you know your people at work?