Coaching for New Leadership Challenges

Goal: When executives encounter new workplace challenges — transitions to new leadership roles, added job responsibilities, difficult colleagues or demanding bosses – they tackle those new circumstances using the interpersonal and leadership skills they have honed throughout their careers. Sometimes, however, a leadership style that worked well in the past is imperfectly suited to a new situation, an issue that may become apparent only after problems develop.

Dr. Judith Klimoff’s coaching for new leadership challenges is designed to head off such problems before they start, preventing excess turnover, loss of good will, or failure to meet company goals. Through a targeted, short-term program, she helps clients identify potential pitfalls and adjust their approaches to fit their new circumstances.

Process: Although every program is tailored to the client’s specific needs, it will usually include the following steps:

• Preliminary planning: Judith meets with the client’s manager and a coordinating human resources liaison to discuss the opportunities and potential challenges of the client’s new workplace situation.
• Initial assessment: Through psychometric testing and a detailed, one-on-one interview, Judith gathers information about the client’s strengths, weaknesses and individual leadership style, seeking common threads running through the client’s life and career history. The assessment aims to pinpoint those skills and attributes that will work well in the new job situation and those that will require modification.
• Feedback: Judith and the client review the findings of the initial assessment, teasing out the client’s personal leadership style. They discuss how the client’s strengths and weaknesses will affect the new job situation and identify the interpersonal and leadership skills that the new situation will require.
• Plan of action: Judith and the client develop concrete goals based on the findings of the initial assessment and outline specific, individually tailored behavioral strategies for achieving those goals. This plan is shared with the client’s manager and the coordinating human resources liaison, and their feedback is integrated into the plan.
• Coaching: Judith meets with the client for three follow-up sessions to measure progress in implementing the new strategies in the workplace. Judith offers support, encourages reflection on the real-world situations the client encounters each day, and helps come up with solutions to leadership challenges.

Time frame: Four months.