Create mutual trust and alignment between the new President and his senior leadership team to advance initiatives.
The Players:
New college president and his 18-member cabinet, including academics, administration, and staff.
The Challenge:
The President, who took the helm during COVID-19 lockdown, was experiencing considerable resistance campus-wide to his message, his change initiatives, and his overall leadership style. His style of leadership was often directive, and his standards were very high. Although seeing himself as a consensus builder, that is not how he appeared to everyone. Accreditation, enrollment, and fiscal issues were pressing him to act quickly.
The Solution:
All 19 clients completed a self-assessment using the Leadership Agility 360 instrument and determined that as a group they needed to move to higher stages of leadership development in the areas of building and leading their own teams, holding pivotal conversations, and driving organizational change. Everyone participated in 1:1 coaching and in group coaching.
The Outcome:
Within 5 months, the clients and their stakeholders reported a substantial change in their willingness to rely on one another, in meeting deadlines, and in broadening and deepening the conversation they were holding with all their constituents. A number of grants that had been at risk were awarded to the college during the time of the coaching engagement, re-accreditation of several programs was achieved, and the commitment of cabinet members to one another and to the President and his vision was unanimous. The President expanded his leadership style ‘portfolio’ to address the feedback (and feedforward!) he received from his Cabinet. The greatest accomplishment to which coaching contributed is that, after 50 years of existence, the college was awarded university status by the state system to which it belongs.