Executive Coaching
Executive Coaching
Senior executives have benefited from our executive coaching since 1980. Back then, the terminology wasn’t even used. Coaching existed in the sports world but not in the world of business. It was also initially viewed as something you did if you had some personal and/or professional deficiencies that were getting in the way of your success. But, times have changed.
Inner Resources always embraced the coaching of executives as a way to help them tap more of their potential. We focus on looking at how the demands of one’s role as CEO or the inherent challenge of building an executive team or changing an organizational culture to meet new market demands can be more effectively addressed by tapping one’s potential.
Today there are many types of coaches that validate the need for providing support to others for a wide range of reasons. But at Inner Resources, our executive coaching continues to support CEOs and executives who are striving to bring new visions of possibility through their strategic growth plans to their business and industry and figuring out what more they need to learn and do to make it reality.
Our approach is highly customiz
ed and results-driven. The timetable is generally three to six months of intensive focus followed by periodic check in to track actual progress to intended results. We draw upon a number of assessment tools as a way to gain immediate visibility on an individual’s preferences and tendencies so that we can play to their unique combination of strengths. And we find the actual work that one does offers the best laboratory to explore and test what is possible, what works and what’s next.
Over our many years, we have also found that there are some fundamentals of good work habits and disciplines that support any individual’s capacity to tap more potential. These are offered to our clients as a way to help them sustain the learning and evolve to higher levels of performance.
Here are some of the executives who have gained from our coaching offering and expertise.
Here is a case study…
Company Background:
The CEO of an emerging, outsourced financial and accounting services company was looking for a way to build and sustain a corporate culture within a virtual organization. The company, in its second year of existence, was doubling its account base each quarter and the CEO was experiencing a growing number of issues around customer dissatisfaction with the assigned staff.
The Situation:
As a first-time CEO and sole owner, this executive was interested in learning how to build the best staff and create the right culture in the early stages of the company’s growth. As a virtual organization, the CEO’s strategy was to use the staff and culture as a competitive edge and differentiator in delivering a consistent, high level of customer service.
There were two key challenges to address:
- How to develop the right staff with the unique combination of contributing not only the best financial expertise but also the critical skills in building successful client relationships.
- How to keep the professional staff of independently working CFOs, controllers and accountants connected and committed to the company’s goals, processes and initiatives while engaged full-time at customers locations.
The Process:
Inner Resources worked one-on-one with the CEO in helping to design and execute on a Corporate Development Program that would actively engage the staff’s ideas, perspectives and efforts along with those of the CEO. An initial focal point for the CEO was learning how to use a recognized behavioral assessment tool in doing a better job of identifying the best personal traits of staff that was naturally oriented toward developing strong customer relationships. The tool was used as part of the recruiting, training and assignment of staff to client accounts.
The CEO also learned how to drive the future growth and strategy of the company through staff participation by instituting an annual planning and quarterly performance review process. Inner Resources worked with the CEO in staging a series of staff sessions to develop a Five-Year Strategic Plan. The CEO was coached throughout the process on how to use the CEO’s Vision as a catalyst in engaging the best ideas of the staff in executing on the Vision. A set of Strategic Growth Initiatives (SGIs) were identified that were led and developed by different members of the staff.
The Outcome:
After more than a year of implementing the Corporate Development Program, the CEO has built a more customer-centric staff of finance and accounting professionals. Team Leaders on SGIs report progress at the quarterly performance review meetings and all are following company processes (designed by staff) that enhance the customer’s experience.
The results is that there are fewer customer complaints and more unsolicited testimonials from clients on the assigned staff saying how great they are. The company is now in the process of formalizing a customer satisfaction survey to measure the ongoing effectiveness of their Corporate Development Program.