Executive management coaching is a tailored development process designed to enhance a leader’s effectiveness, strategic thinking and standard overall performance within their organization. This training emphasizes cultivating leadership skills that align with both personal and organizational goals, providing a structured but flexible framework for growth.

From a leader’s perspective, executive coaching is observed as a collaborative partnership that fosters self-focus and personal improvement. Leaders seek coaching as a treasured opportunity to gain insights into their strengths and areas for improvement, empowering them to navigate complicated, demanding situations, expanding their influence.

To facilitate this growth, Lisa Dean‘s Executive Leadership Coaching engages numerous strategies, combined with tailor-made objectives designed for each leader. Her goal-setting techniques results in clear, actionable goals set by the clients and reached through the partnership of her coaching.

Working with both aspiring, growing leaders as well as established leaders, Lisa’s effective strategies within executive coaching focus on strengths-based development, scenario planning and accountability. She encourages leaders to undertake a visionary mindset, developing innovative, long-term thinking and empowerment. She serves as an essential resource for leaders who aspire to excel in their roles and influence change inside their organizations.

Embracing New Challenges

In college, Lisa faced indecision regarding her degree, torn between becoming a teacher or an attorney. She had a passion for helping people but was also driven and ambitious. Ultimately, she chose to teach and found great fulfillment in the role, especially after transitioning into the gifted and talented department, where she created innovative challenges for her students.

Lisa’s desire for continuous learning and growth prompted her to enter the corporate sector. This ambition fueled her rapid ascent within the corporate hierarchy as she sought out new challenges. While she remained committed to helping others, she was also eager for larger titles and greater financial rewards.

The Power of Intentional Career Development

Lisa understands that while many believe hard work and long hours lead to promotions, a deeper strategy is involved. While she made a lateral financial move when she transitioned into the corporate world, she was confident in her ability to advance quickly. She recognized that her promotions were not solely due to her exceptional skills but rather the result of intentional strategies.

She became highly efficient and effective, ensuring her contributions were noticeable. Initially, this did involve long hours, but subsequent promotions relied on 5 key principles:

• Excelling in her responsibilities, willing to take on challenges others wouldn’t.
• Developing her leadership skills through external coaching, internal mentoring, and attending professional conferences.
• Helping the company succeed while enhancing her boss’s reputation.
• Employing advanced communication skills and emotional intelligence.
• Advocating for herself by initiating conversations about her career goals with her leaders and ensuring her value was recognized and rewarded.

Confidence as a Catalyst for Professional Growth

Lisa highlights the critical role of confidence in her transition from teaching to the corporate environment. Although she lacked confidence initially due to her limited corporate familiarity, she maintained a strong belief in her ability to learn and adapt. This mindset led colleagues to depend on her for solutions when others struggled. She recognized that projecting confidence fosters trust in one’s capabilities, enhancing influence and the ability to advocate for oneself.

Lisa notes that a significant aspect of executive leadership coaching is focused on elevating confidence. The journey begins the moment an individual chooses to invest in coaching, signaling a belief in their potential for growth.

This investment inherently boosts confidence, and when management learns of such initiatives, it enhances their perception of the individual’s capabilities. As clients engage in executive coaching, they gain leadership insights and new experiences. Additionally, they track their achievements and successes, thus reinforcing their confidence.

Corporate Life to Coaching Success

Over the years, Lisa advanced to the position of Chief Experience Officer before transitioning into recruiting. Although she enjoyed recruiting, she profoundly missed the development and coaching of her direct reports and other leaders within her organizations.

This led her to start leadership coaching as a side business. After a couple of years, Lisa realized she could no longer continue a full-time job while simultaneously building her business, prompting her to make a pivotal decision. She chose to focus on her business and resigned from her full-time position.

Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey required her to wear multiple hats within the company, including handling tasks outside her areas of expertise. Embracing challenges has always been a passion for Lisa, and she committed to her new venture with enthusiasm and determination, never looking back.

Pillars of Effective Leadership Coaching

Lisa believes that everyone has the potential to be a leader if they possess the desire to grow. In her leadership coaching practice, she focuses on each client’s strengths and areas for improvement. When a client reaches out to explore coaching, Lisa instantly believes in their potential.

She nurtures this potential by introducing them to the core pillars and ideologies of leadership. While discussing general principles, she ensures that the conversation is always tailored to their specific life experiences. Lisa emphasizes the importance of supporting clients as whole individuals, not just as leaders, promoting their overall development.

Mastering Project Management for Leaders

Lisa identifies several key pillars of leadership that her clients must engage with to advance their careers. She emphasizes that both confidence and communication are essential skills for successful leadership. The focus on other topics varies based on each client’s unique journey. In her initial 13-week leadership coaching program, she integrates these two foundational topics while offering various options for growth.

Among the pillars that may be designed are developing influence, speaking with authority, fixed versus growth mindset, proactive project management, accountability, and managing relationships effectively, whether upward, downward, or laterally.

The Impact of Diverse Experiences in Coaching

Lisa’s diverse background and experiences have enabled her to work with a wide range of individuals across multiple industries and various levels of the corporate structure, from entry-level employees to C-suite executives.

Lisa has provided support in both individual settings and large group environments. She believes that the greater the input she has as a mentor and coach, the more impactful the outcomes will be for her clients.

A New Approach to Leadership Development

Lisa describes her concierge-style coaching approach as one that prioritizes meeting clients where they are in their leadership journey. For example, a client who has led a team of 50 for 15 years will require a different focus than someone with the goal of stepping into a leadership role for the first time.

Rather than forcing clients to conform to a predetermined framework, Lisa tailors her program to fit the individual leader’s needs. She remains available to support clients who may be facing challenges at work that require attention outside their scheduled sessions. For Lisa, the client experience is the top priority.

Exploring Leadership Flexibility in Startup Environments

Lisa observes that in startups, leaders often wear multiple leadership hats simultaneously and enjoy greater flexibility with boundaries.

In contrast, more established companies tend to be more structured, with each leader having defined roles that require them to adhere closely to their responsibilities. However, the organizational culture and structure are influenced by the philosophy of the leader at the top of the company in both situations.

Building a Leadership Community

Lisa aims to assist more clients by expanding her coaching business beyond one-on-one interactions. Her current added focus is on developing content courses and creating videos for her Executive Empress Leadership Academy Community, which provides access to leadership growth for individuals who may not yet be able to invest in 1:1 coaching.

She is streamlining her processes to enable scaling while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Lisa also works with business leaders as an executive recruiter, helping them hire members for their management teams.

The Power of Self-investment

Lisa advises individuals to take the next step and invest in themselves. She emphasizes that there is no need to navigate the journey alone when they can have guidance to help them reach their goals more effectively and efficiently.