Everyone needs a coach...
Bill Gates
"… fantastic coach and partner. His approach helped me develop and dramatically improve my leadership, communication, and overall effectiveness in a very short time."
GM - Biological Ventures LLC
"… superb clinical skills and is highly effective working with successful executives who may not be reflective but who nevertheless quickly come to recognize how much the coach has helped them… a consummate professional and provocative thought partner when it comes to the difficult and complex arena of organizational dynamics. "
Managing Director -- White Wolf Capital LLC
Why Coaching is a Vital Developmental Experience
Many leaders, such as Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt, consider working with a coach an experience that enables their success. One reason is, that with the relentless pace of business, the quiet space carved out to work with a coach is the only time they truly step back, look at the big picture and at themselves. Big company or small, it doesn’t matter. Top athletes, top surgeons, top executives and most importantly, developing leaders; all benefit. No one is a sees themselves as well as a trusted objective observer.
Why Our Clients Request Coaching
The reasons are varied: I need an objective sounding board; I want to be more effective managing direct reports; desire to build confidence as a communicator, and to enhance emotional intelligence. These are a few of many. All are valid.
What is coaching?
Coaching is partnership in a thought-providing, creative process, that inspires clients to maximize personal and professional potential. It is the coach’s responsibility to:
- Discover, clarify, and align with what you want to achieve
- Encourage your process of self-discovery
- Elicit solutions and strategies that resonate with you.
- Hold you responsible and accountable in pre-agreed way.
Setting Up for Success
Success in coaching relationships is the result of working a shared process. Perhaps the most important contributing factor to that success is the coach-client chemistry. We put serious effort into matching clients and coaches. While interviewing clients to get an initial take on their goals, we listen carefully to understand the sort of coach they want to work with.
Chemistry Check
We offer each client an initial selection of three coaches so they check “chemistry.” Each client engages potential coaches in a free-flowing conversation or sample coaching session, prepared with suggestions to maximize session utility. Though it is rare, if a client wants to speak with more coaches, no problem. Your goal is our goal.
Our Coaches
All Truebridge Partners coaches have been certified through rigorous programs approved by the International Coaching Federation. Many are graduates of the prestigious Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership. All have significant histories of accomplishment. They come from a wide variety of disciplines and industries, many with significant post graduate education including MBAs, LLBs and PhDs.
CASE STUDIES
A Young Leader Connects
Raj knew science. He was able to quickly identify the critical issues impacting this late-state biotech startup. The leadership challenges involved translating his scientific expertise into effective action on the part of his teams and his board. We tackled these hurdles in tandem.
To keep the investment stream flowing, the board needed to know that Raj’s teams were making progress and production issues would be fixed. They needed to know they would succeed before the money ran out. The team leaders needed to know that Raj would do two things; insulate them from anxious board members, and address performance issues in the unit.
Seeing 360 data visualizing his leadership impact made it real for Raj. It gave him a way to help manage his performance improvement priorities. Working with his coach, Raj determined to make changes. He developed a compelling communication presence and moved the board from skeptics to supporters.
With his team, he took on the obstacles directly. Performance issues, which had been simmering beneath the surface, were now addressed effectively. It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen. The team succeeded, the investors were rewarded and Raj went on to greater success as the head of a new well-funded business.
Fast Track
Carly was talented, a hard worker who finally got the VP promotion she’d wanted. Our goal became helping her make a smooth transition to her new role.
An eager contributor to brainstorming in the past, Carly met with her new team to get acquainted. She worked at getting a sense of the people and being accessible. They kicked around ideas for a new marketing initiative. A few days later, Carly found her team deep into executing an idea she’d casually thrown out during the session. She was horrified. It was “a half-baked idea,” not an example of a well -thought-out strategy which had been the hallmark of her stellar track record.
This was a transition wake-up. She saw a powerful reflection of her greater invisible power. In her organization VPs were demigods and challenging your new VP was career-limiting behavior. Carly had achieved the stature she wanted but increased power came with increased responsibility to be mindful. She had to work at letting go of the tactical execution at which she excelled. Now she stepped into the role of building the team’s capacity to all be experts...and that’s what she did. Her team was humming on its own, when she made her next big move.