Management Coaching

Charter school 2, one of the largest such schools in southern California, has an experienced senior management team. They were interested in the continuous development of their leadership skills but had little time to attend more management training courses. The OCC was invited to discuss the advantages of a flexible and personalized management coaching program. A nine-month one-on-one program was developed for the top management team. Each manager first participated in a confidential management and personal assessment process that was conducted under the supervision of a consulting psychologist. Then a survey was launched the permitted colleagues to anonymously rate and comment on the manager’s skills and style. Each coach and manager used this information to develop some personalized priorities, goals and strategies. They then continued to meet regularly in the manager’s or the consultant’s office, or by telephone, to review ongoing management issues and to mark progress toward the agreed upon goals.

A San Diego county department, which is one of the few revenue producing departments of the country government, implemented a management development program to improve its collections. All five department chiefs, and the 28 managers who reported to them, participated in a 3-part program that consisted of bi-weekly management training meetings, assignment to action teams working on department wide projects, and coaching. Our OCC consultants were responsible for the 6-month coaching component which involved management assessments, multisource (360 degree) management rating and then goal setting and regular coaching meeting.

A rehabilitation hospital near Los Angeles hired a human resources specialist who had previously worked with a San Diego county department at which our consultants coached 32 managers. She hired our consultants to deliver a 9-month coaching component of a leadership development program for 12 managers at the hospital. The program was so successful that she was able to include several physican-managers in her program in the following year. In both cases, our consultants participated in all aspect of program design as well as the graduation celebration that was held at the completion of these programs.

A cell phone manufacturer had promoted one of its top hardware engineers into a management position responsible for both the hardware and software development. The individual was often referred to as brilliant but unfamiliar with the role of a manager and with a tendency to be more critical than supportive. The specialist from the human resources department who had the responsibility of developing this individual’s management skills decided that her efforts needed to be supplemented by a coach. The consultant had a challenge in building a bond with the manager who had little patience for such “soft stuff.” However, after the management assessments and the 360 feedback sessions were done, he was convinced. After 9 months of coaching he was promoted to an even higher level position in the organization.

Charter school1 was a small but rapidly expanding organization when they recognized that many of their managers had found themselves in key leadership positions when they had little previous experience in managing more than an administrative assistant. They managers attended management and administrative training workshops and had their own assigned reading program of management texts. Our consultants were engaged to provide individual coaching services to the CEO. The coaching relationship was productive so we soon were providing coaching in six-month programs for anyone in the organization who had management responsibilities. Each manager agreed to participate in a confidential management and personal assessment process that was conducted under the supervision of a consulting psychologist. Then a survey was launched the permitted colleagues to anonymously rate and comment on the manager’s skills and style. Each coach and manager used this information to develop some personalized priorities, goals and strategies. They then continued to meet regularly in the manager’s or the consultant’s office, or by telephone, to review ongoing management issues and to mark progress toward the agreed upon goals.

A private university that has locations in all of the major cities in the United States engaged the OCC to provide executive team coaching and team building. The university had recently replaced its successful but very long-tenure CEO with a new CEO who brought a very different leadership style to the organization. In addition, they had recently acquired another university and had increased the size of the top management team with the previous CEO of the other university. One objective was to provide one-on-one coaching to help each member of the management team assess and strengthen their management capabilities. A second objective was to help team members identify and understand and deal with the management styles differences that are influenced the interpretation and implementation of the organization’s strategies and policies. A combination of assessment, coaching and teambuilding helped to identify and resolve some differences in perspective and opinion that were interfering with the smooth operations of the university.