on-target® coaching

Coaching is undeniably an important leadership practice for aligning talent with your organizational priorities. It can also boost performance, develop your leadership pipeline, engage employees, and reduce turnover – if done well.

Many respected MBA programs, including the Wharton program at the University of Pennsylvania, the Harvard business School, and ESMT in Germany, have taken an interest in executive coaching and are implementing it into their curriculum to prepare future leaders.

The mean ROI for companies investing in coaching was seven times the initial investment, according to a recent global survey reported by Forbes. And, for more than 25 percent of respondents, the ROI was 10-49 times the investment.

The on-target® coaching product is designed to accelerate the success of your leaders and positively impact your organization’s business performance. Leaders, their managers, HR partners and other key stakeholders are all involved in the process. 

Redefining the organizational coaching experience

We use innovative and practical approaches to help leaders and high potentials understand the impact their leadership styles and performance have on them, their teams and your organization.

THE on-target® DIFFERENCE

There are many coaching options in the marketplace today. Unfortunately, most options lack structure and organizational involvement. Without those aspects, the coaching results are often very subjective, and ROI is sketchy. on-target® delivers ROI and clear results through our uniquely defined process.

Discover

on-target® identifies the real potential of a leader and provides a clear path to improved effectiveness.

 

The expertise and objectivity of external Connect the Dots professionals coupled with the insider view of stakeholders, provides a multi-tier involvement process that complements the client’s business model.

Define

Early in the process, data collection defines the current state.

 

From there, we define formal objectives and communicate expectations.

 

Then, a multi-tier road map and a specific coaching plan are created and implemented for a finite period, usually six-twelve months.

Implement

on-target® takes care of the coaching, feedback and progress reports.

 

Our on-target® professionals work closely with leaders to ensure they stay on track.

Measure

on-target® has built-in progress review meetings with stakeholders, utilizing unique feedback instruments.

 

The process culminates with a final report detailing progress, ROI, and recommendations.

THE on-target® DIFFERENCE

There are many coaching options in the marketplace today. Unfortunately, most options lack structure and organizational involvement. Without those aspects, the coaching results are often very subjective, and ROI is sketchy. on-target® delivers ROI and clear results through our uniquely defined process.

on-target® identifies the real potential of a leader and provides a clear path to improved effectiveness. The expertise and objectivity of external Connect the Dots professionals coupled with the insider view of stakeholders, provides a multi-tier involvement process that complements the client’s business model.

Early in the process, data collection defines the current state. From there, we define formal objectives and communicate expectations. Then, a multi-tier road map and a specific coaching plan are created and implemented for a finite period, usually six-twelve months.

on-target® takes care of the coaching, feedback and progress reports. Our on-target® professionals work closely with leaders to ensure they stay on track.

on-target® has built-in progress review meetings with stakeholders, utilizing unique feedback instruments. The process culminates with a final report detailing progress, ROI, and recommendations.

 on-target® COACHING BENEFITS YOUR ORGANIZATION

Today’s modern work environment demands measurement. You get it, plus interpretive analysis that produces actionable results.

We don’t leave anything to chance or drop the ball. You can rely on our on-target® professionals to be with you every step of the way.

Two of our professionals published books on solving employee issues and how to help train new employees. We know our stuff and work with others who are just as experienced.

This is our “secret sauce.” We help you look beyond the typical identifiers of a leader and go deep to discover how their dormant traits can be nurtured and strengthened.

We get it. Budgets are tight and you have to do more with less. Our on-target® professionals will evaluate your current resources and leverage them for your organization’s success.

We make it simple. We will provide you with a specific, actionable plan that will take your employee even further toward being an effective leader excelling in performance.

Our methodology is customized to work seamlessly with your internal strategies. We learn what your priorities are and deliver a plan to help you reach them.

This is when it gets exciting. Not only do you have a leader who is equipped to do the job right, but she can also help train her own people to do the same thing. It’s a win-win for everyone.

IS on-target® RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?

Here are a few leadership roles and situations that benefit the most from coaching:

  • High-potential talent
  • New leaders to the organization
  • Newly promoted leaders
  • Strong leaders with developmental needs
  • First-time leaders with “stretch” assignments/performance expectations

In addition, coaching isn’t just for individuals. Sometimes a team needs that extra boost that will push them across the finish line.

For this situation, on-target® brings:

  • Understanding the strengths and needs of the team
  • Surfaces barriers and gaps
  • Positions the team members to learn from one another
  • Builds trust and alignment 

Every minute counts.

In this fast-paced world, your competition is working just as hard to keep up with developing technology, new products and services, and creating a culture that fosters engagement and connectivity. One of the biggest challenges facing organizations is obtaining human capital and optimizing human capital investments. 

One of the most effective tactics of meeting the identified challenges of retaining and rewarding the best people and attracting high quality candidates to the organization is providing professional development through coaching. This is one area where you can help your organization stand apart from your competitors with leadership that is equipped for the future.

Why settle for flat webinars and training seminars that don’t stick when you can have a proven program that will produce lasting results and an on-going leadership legacy? Our experienced consultants keep leaders engaged in the on-target® coaching process and we’re ready to do the same for your organization.

Powerful, effective leadership development is just a phone call away. Give us a call at 855-316-8161 or contact us by email.  We can’t wait to introduce you to our team and together, make a difference with your leaders, your teams, and your organization. 

Call and set up a no-obligation discussion today.

 email:  info@connectthedotsconsulting.com.

looking for a more targeted coaching solution?

Our quickconnect® coaching product provides a quick, affordable, targeted, virtual coaching experience – for right now!

Check Out Our on-target® Information Sheet

Link to quickconnect page

Coaching News & Updates

Coaching, Teams

News

It’s wishful thinking to imagine difficult conversations will never arise in the workplace. As inevitable as it is uncomfortable, you’ll likely have to initiate a challenging conversation with a colleague sooner or later. Whether dealing with differing opinions, navigating sensitive topics, or addressing conflict, finding the right way to approach this tough task will help you improve the likelihood of a successful outcome.

When Are Challenging Conversations Necessary?

As much as you may try to avoid getting stuck in a difficult conversation, many issues within the workplace will not dissipate if they’re not addressed. Still, simply ignoring the problem at hand is the way that 53% of employees choose to handle a “toxic” situation. Only 24% of employees would choose to address the situation directly. Avoiding a challenging conversation can prolong the problem, lower team morale, and hurt business productivity.

For context, let’s imagine a scenario warranting a difficult workplace conversation. You and a colleague may share responsibilities–whether that’s managing client communication, handling administrative tasks, or producing certain deliverables–but you find them delegating tasks to you. Maybe they’ve started to hand off client onboarding, report generation, or other tasks they also should be managing. As your workload increases, finding the right way to discuss this imbalance with your colleague can help you remedy the situation and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. Without the right communication skills, you could be among the 49.7% of individuals who don’t report a positive outcome, such as increased stress levels, resentment towards your colleague, or lowered performance as you struggle to get all the tasks done.

Preparing For a Successful Conversation

Challenging conversations are difficult for a reason, but taking the time to prepare can help you effectively communicate your point of view without sounding accusatory or aggressive. Here are a few steps you can take to make the conversation productive and successful:

  1. Determine Your Talking Points: Start by jotting down the key points you’re looking to communicate with your colleague. This can help guide the conversation, but remember, you don’t need to prepare a script. While you can try to predict what your colleague might say, the real-life conversation may not go as planned. Instead, approach the conversation with a flexible mindset and have a variety of potential responses ready to go. This will help you maintain a forward momentum throughout the discussion.
  2. Focus On The Facts: Many workplace issues can stir negative feelings and strong emotions. While you want to convey to your colleague how the issue is affecting you, you’ll also want to focus on the facts of the situation. By focusing on the facts, you can help to separate what might be assumptions from the truth. Armed with facts, this can help you support your argument and avoid making the matter too personal.
  3. Seek Understanding Over Agreement: When dealing with some challenging situations, it can be difficult to see eye-to-eye. Many workplace conflicts stem from misunderstandings, so establishing a mutual understanding between two individuals can ensure you’re not missing out on vital information. During the conversation, ensure your colleague feels heard and has the chance to express their perspective as well.
  4. Work Together to Find a Solution: These conversations are not about who’s right and who’s wrong. If your conversation has been successful and productive, it should result in actionable steps you and your colleague can take together to resolve the issue. You can also seek to agree on a timeframe for a follow-up meeting to revisit the situation and ensure everyone is on the same page.

 

Difficult Conversations Pay Off

Even with the best preparation, tough conversations will never be fun. Still, they can have a significant, positive impact on colleagues and the larger organization. These benefits can include:

● Strengthening workplace relationships and fostering an environment of trust
● Clearing up misunderstandings or misconceptions
● Reducing workplace stress by de-escalating issues
● Improving productivity and collaboration by removing roadblocks
● Enhancing communication skills

Thus, individuals within an organization need to identify when there is an opportunity for them to address issues with a challenging conversation. Not only will they be able to seek a better outcome for themselves, but these colleagues can also drive valuable change within the organization.

For leaders who are unsure where to start tackling their team’s issues, Connect the Dots can help teams develop new tools to engage and be productive with their teammates.

Contact us to learn more about our team development and performance solutions.

Coaching, Teams

News

As leaders continue to navigate an organizational landscape of virtual, hybrid, and in-person work, they need new competencies to foster connection of their teams and employees.

Employees who feel undervalued or disconnected have been leaving organizations far more frequently in the past two years, and it is up to leaders to reverse this trend. In April 2022, we sat down with CHROs to discuss these ongoing challenges and best practices to address them. Following is a summary of our discussion.

Discussion Points

What conversations have you had with your leadership teams?

  • Leaders are focused on how to protect their culture when everyone is working in different places, as well as how to evolve their culture to meet the current state.
  • The philosophy of the leadership team is a key driver of the decision to use a virtual, hybrid, or all-in approach. Participant CHRO organizations were in very different places with regard to “return to office” following the pandemic.
  • Leaders may be in denial that employees are feeling disconnected. If productivity remains high despite higher-than-average turnover, leaders may not see the link between connectivity and turnover.

What are you hearing from employees?

  • Some employees are very interested in in-person work, while others expressed dissatisfaction about returning to the office.
  • Employees want more empathy from their managers—not just asking about their weekends, but truly showing they care for employees at a deeper level. In particular, Gen Z employees’ workplace satisfaction depends on feeling valued and heard.
  • Many leaders need additional development in their situational leadership ability.

What tactics are your organizations using?

  • Regular listening groups or informal Q&A sessions make a big difference in employee engagement.
  • Feedback surveys are especially fruitful when they are followed-up by discussing the results with employees, identifying action items, and the leaders being transparent about the changes made.
  • Work teams also benefit from weekly wrap-up meetings to share accomplishments, feedback, recognition, etc. in a more casual and informal format

Need additional support?

As your leaders continue to stretch themselves to navigate new and challenging dynamics, coaching support can help them do so more effectively. CTD’s on-target® and quickconnect® coaching models give you the flexibility to invest in targeted coaching at any level.  Effective onboarding is another tool for organizations who want to differentiate themselves as an employer. Check out our solutions for leadership and all-employee onboarding that provide a branded, customized experience for your new hires. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about your specific leadership development needs and a custom solution. 

Coaching

Blog

George Bernard Shaw said it best in his quotation about communication: “The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

The numbers are sobering:

  • 86% of senior executives, managers and junior staff at U.S. companies who report experiencing communication breakdowns that lead to reduced productivity, missed deadlines, and sales deals that don’t close, according to research from The Economist Intelligence Unit.
  • 63% of U.S. employees in 2019 who have wanted to quit their jobs because ineffective communication has gotten in the way of doing their work, almost double from 2018 (33 percent), according to a Dynamic Signal study.

So, what can organization and individual leaders do to address these significant gaps?

Communicate clearly and often to reduce the opportunities for frustration, disengagement, and performance challenges.

As we continue to adjust to our new work environments, employees are looking to their leaders for clarity even more than usual.  Although leaders do not have all of the answers and are dealing with their own questions, establishing a regular cadence for communicating priorities and expectations and providing feedback is important.  And, because most of our communication will be done virtually, by phone and email, taking the time to be deliberately clear is critical.

Establish (or re-establish) a regular meeting cadence with your team and each individual

  • Continue staff and one-on-one meetings.
  • Send meeting agendas, keeping the scope tight and relevant.
  • Establish expectations for participation.
  • Include time to recognize team members’ well-being
  • Ask your team for feedback on the cadence – what’s working? What could be better?

Make yourself available to your team

  • Let your team know the best ways to communicate with you during this time.
  • Reinforce and “apply” organizational communication and policies to increase understanding and compliance.
  • Appropriately share how you are feeling about and managing the situation.

Be aware of assumptions: They will throw you off track every time!

  • Be specific about your expectations: “As soon as possible” may mean tomorrow to you, and next week to your team member.
  • Keep the basic communication model in mind: As information is exchanged between the sender and receiver, there may be a disconnect between what is intended and what is understood—particularly when you are using a different medium than usual (e.g., email vs. face-to-face).

By not underestimating the power and impact of simple, clear and consistent communication, leaders and organizations will see the payback both immediately and over time.  Regardless of the economic picture, market landscape or political environment, effective communication is a foundational component of a healthy and thriving organization.

Our team-connect Survey Process

 

We start with thoughtfully diagnosing the team’s current culture by using available data, assessments and interviews.

This provides the team leader with a clear view of what is getting in the way of the team’s success.

We design a series of structured team sessions that:

  • Share the team culture analysis
  • Give team members the opportunity to talk through both processes and behaviors that need to be addressed
  • Productively provide feedback to one another
  • Develop both team and individual commitments that will lead to the team’s desired state

 

Measure progress by leveraging CTD’s team-connect Survey to:

  • Drive accountability and measure progress by collecting team feedback specific to one another’s engagement and behavioral change
  • Provide the team’s leader with a clear understanding of what he/she and the team need from each other to enable and support the team’s success
  • Share team and individual survey result reports