Executive advisory
The problem
When pursuing high performance, executives face a myriad of challenges: chasing ambitious goals, expanding scope and span of control, leading in new environments or functions, guiding change or restructuring, building culture, and adapting to more senior roles and expectations. In this context, they need a dedicated space to pause and reflect on how to adapt their leadership skills, an approach tailored to them and the topics they care about, and trusted advice to support them as they climb.
What the engagement involves
- I guide you through a process to build a robust development plan, complete with goals and actions that will strengthen leadership skills.
- We meet with your supervisor or Board Chair to gather their input on how to strengthen and finalize the development plan, and to ask for their support in executing it.
- We gather for a series of one-on-one sessions to facilitate making as much progress on the development plan as possible.
- The entire process takes about 1 year.
What's different
- Post-session analytic memos. After every substantive meeting I send post-session analytic memos that summarize key insights discussed, and new ideas that occurred to me since meeting. This creates a written record of all the most valuable ideas generated during our engagement. You can review these in between sessions to promote further reflection, learning, and action.
- Advisory expertise rooted in leadership and psychology. Advisory sessions are more than just reflective listening. I bring 20 years of accumulated, deep knowledge about leadership and psychology, including perspectives on what approaches work and what research evidence supports. In addition to guiding you through a process on how to develop, I can share views on what great leadership looks like, how it affects others' psychology, and how research evidence supports those perspectives.
- Guidance on how to challenge for high-performance. I provide novel and practical suggestions about how you can achieve high performance goals with your teams, while preserving motivation and relationships, all based on results from 37 executive interviews I conducted on the topics.
- Availability. I make myself available in between sessions for short calls or email correspondence.
What the client receives
- Guidance and personalized suggestions about how to create a robust development plan including goals and actions, delivered over several sessions.
- A detailed development planning template that guides you in creating a robust set of goals and actions, which can be used in this engagement and in future.
- A facilitated review meeting with your supervisor or Board Chair, to gather feedback on how to strengthen the development goals and actions further.
- A high-quality, finalized development plan, created in partnership with me and your supervisor or Board Chair, which will remain relevant for at least 1 year.
- Monthly 1 hour advisory sessions scheduled across the year, with additional ones added as needed, to facilitate making as much progress on your development plan as possible.
- Post-session analytic memos after every substantive meeting to consolidate learning, promote reflection and action, and to create a record of the most important insights.
- A final review session with your supervisor or Board Chair, to highlight milestones achieved, and what remains to be done.
- Availability for short calls or emails between sessions as needed.