Coaching Pilot
Purpose & Benefits
Often, coaching is only available to executives, and is not staff members and employees.
Coaching Pilot allows a coach to be available to any staff member who opts-in to coaching. This is a rare offering that only a few progressive companies have the structure, time, and resources to offer.
Why offer this to everyone?
People know about coaching, but they have no experience of it. At best, they think it's therapy or advice-giving.
I'm having this challenge at work, how do I overcome it? That's typically where coaching starts.
A coach offers a way to talk about a challenge without blame or judgment. Coaching is about working with a third party who is knowledgeable and experienced, but outside the situation, and not mired in the politics. They can offer an unbiased perspective.
Employees are more engaged and aligned with their work after working through these challenges.
Here's a comprehensive list of what happens after my clients work with me:
Coaching is tailored to the individual. There's no script. I coach who you are now to see who you are now differently. Because you can't see yourself.
You're a fish in water. I point to the water and also the power within you already, helping you step into it and act from it, until it becomes second nature. There's no technique to follow, other than the one you create as you learn more about who you are at your highest self. As you learn to be that person more and more of the time. As you embody it, truly.
JK: who you are when you let go of baggage, stress, fears, roles, positions, ideas about the future, ideas about yourself.
The reason I call myself a coach is because I'm coaching you towards a place of your highest possibility. I have absolutely no idea what could happen. I'm blind to the outcome and sometimes even the process, because you are the process and the outcome.
Support in the form of working through their work challenges with someone. That's what I offer.
This is working, but it could be working even better. We already have a great culture, a successful company, a strong bottomline. We already are change makers making a difference, but what else can we do to strengthen our culture? Where our internal values match our external products in every way? Where we're creating from an aligned place?
Some people call this "flow", and I value that term as long as it doesn't limit a person. Often, we come to a term with a prior understanding of it. We know it intellectually. What actually happens when you let go of that definition, and become open to acting from a place of possibility is transformational. But no one can know the actuality beforehand, and that's what makes it beautiful.
What I don't do
Productivity
Life mapping
SMART goals
How does it work?
In my experience as an in-house coach in both in-person and remote situations, I've found it most effective when employees and staff book phone or video-based coaching sessions as a multi-session package of 10, 15, or 20 sessions. This provides consistency, the ability to reschedule easily, and work around vacations or work-based travel. Typically, coaching sessions are every other week, allowing room to experiment with the outcomes of each session and reflect on lessons learned and next steps. Coaching sessions are usually 60-90 minutes in length, and vary in length over time as the coach/client relationship develops. Coaching can either be completely confidential or transparent, but I encourage reporting of progress and outcomes on a regular, pre-defined basis.
Another unique approach is offering "Office Hours" once a week or every other week for 2 hours during a designated time period. For example, office hours typically work best during lunchtime (12-2pm) on Tuesday or Wednesday, because the difficulty or situation has some context and enough time to be acted upon. "Office Hours" can either be confidential or public.
Confidential "Office Hours" are first come, first serve, where anyone interested can sign up for 30 minutes and be provided a unique link which no one else can access. If a longer session is needed, another time will be scheduled.
Public "Office Hours" are also first come, first serve, with the difference being that the coaching can be viewed or accessed by anyone with the link. For example, if someone comes online to ask a question or discuss a situation, anyone else logging in will be able to watch or listen to the coaching discussion. There are multiple benefits to this approach: 1) many people have the same or a similar question and are coached along with the person asking the question, 2) observing coaching in action educates viewers on what coaching looks like so they become familiar with the process and are also able to adopt it if interested. NOTE: this is not group coaching where others can offer their perspective. As the coach, I am also the facilitator, and encourage everyone else to remain muted while the person is being coached 1-on-1.
Impact/Outcomes/Results
More specifically, think of a sticky problem that you're struggling to get through right now. You've tried everything, you've hired people, you've tried different techniques, you've approached it from multiple angles. But it's something that you can't shake. It could be cultural, it could be about a specific person or team's performance, it could be that your shipping gets delayed over and over again. It's particular to you and your situation, and you'll know it as you think about it. Typically it's the first thing that comes to mind.
Now consider that problem solved. Sounds nice, and maybe even like an over-promise. But time and time again, I've worked with clients and they've solved these problems, whether for themselves, their team, the leadership, or the board.
Example 1: Scaling a Global Team Culture
One of my clients went from a Team Lead to a Division Lead, going from managing 4 to now 24 employees across the world. He wanted to maintain a collaborative culture with a 40-hour workweek while the company grew rapidly. We worked together on improving cross-cultural communication, developing effective meeting approaches, and providing constructive feedback to team members. Most importantly, we defined a mindset that let him own his new leadership style outside of coaching calls.
Example 2: Inspiring Small Team to Ship Large Projects
When we started working together, my client didn't know if he could do the job assigned to him with the team he had. We worked to develop a Team OS (operating system), identifying how to best communicate with each team member, in a way that would maximize their ability to ship. He empowered each IC to show up in an excited and engaged way, showing how the project was a challenge that linked to their values as contributors at work, and their family at home. Operating from this level of alignment, his team became one of the highest-producing teams at the company, in terms of quantity and velocity of shipping.
Example 3: Collaborating Successfully with Colleagues & Senior Leaders
I worked with an entrepreneur whose company was acquired by a major software firm, and he struggled to lead in a structured corporate environment. He was applying his innovative skills to correct every problem, which was unwelcome by his peers and colleagues. The company hired me to help him adjust to corporate culture and be a more collaborative leader. We worked together on understanding the best contexts in which to pitch, listen, advise, and contribute. He has since risen, ironically, to become the Chief Innovation Officer.
Example 4: Developing Leadership with a New Team
Another client had accumulated a large holding of real estate assets over 20 years and wanted to convert them into sustainable, socially-responsible investments. He hired 9 people with expertise in this area, a mix of designers and PMs, but their ideas weren’t aligning with his goals. As an independent investor, he had never managed a team before, so we worked together on delegation skills, facilitating collaborative brainstorming sessions, and more effective 1-on-1s. He now trusts his team’s abilities, and there is greater alignment overall.
Example 5: Saving Team during Major Restructuring & Change
As the company was undergoing major consolidation of different teams and projects, this client wanted each member of his team to land in the place best fit for him or her. We worked together to coach each employee to represent their value more effectively, and create a concrete vision that aligned with the mission of the company. All employees remained at the company, and those that moved to other teams did so because they wanted to. The outcome for my client was a leaner team of 11 ICs (from 18 ICs) that was no longer reactive to change, but learned to navigate and even shape that change to improve their productivity and the company's bottomline.
Whenever we operate out of fear and uncertainty, we limit what we can produce. It's not in alignment with who we are. Defining the highest level of success is just the start.
Here are other focus areas of my coaching:
In many ways, the outcome of my coaching is "knowing what to do when".
Pricing & Fees
This is a new way of offering in-house coaching support, which is why I recommend a pilot program at the start.
Pilot Program
Make in-house coaching available to 3-5 interested leaders and ICs. I provide a coaching assessment that an interested client can take to decide whether coaching is right for them. In addition, an initial 30-60 minute "get to know you" call is encouraged to finalize the need or desire for coaching. If there's interest, commitment, and fit, we engage in bi-weekly coaching for 12 months (~24 sessions).
A retainer of $5,000/month for 12 months
2-year Program
This program is for companies who want to offer continuous and dedicated support over a longer term. In-house coaching is available to 3-5 interested leaders and ICs, and "Office Hours" are available for 2 hours once every two weeks (confidentially or publicly) to anyone interested in coaching.
A retainer of $8,000/month for 24 months
Full Program
This program is for companies who are all in, and want multi-session and ad-hoc coaching, with "Office Hours" on a weekly basis. This program must be customized to fit a company's exact needs. I would need to goals, and the level of commitment you are seeking, and see if I can offer that based on my current capacity.
Due to limitations of my client practice, I can only do
FAQ
What's my highest self?
I don't know. But I know it's there. It's an unsatisfactory, but true answer. I can start by defining what it's not. It's not your best self or a better self or a future self. It's not who you could be, or who you were in some other moment. That all implies that you are not enough right now. And I believe you are enough. I believe in your power as you are already. And that's what I notice, talk to, and bring out.
How do I measure success?
There's no standard measure, rather we define what success means to the company and the client, specifically using a shared coaching worksheet. It's critical to define success specifically, because then you can work towards it full-force, and everyone else will do so too. Living up to your highest level of success is very contagious. It's a good virus, and like a viral video, it catches on. People want to work with you and around you and be part of your mission and what you're about. But it's not because of ego or achievement. It's because you call out the highest success in others by pursuing your own highest success. Even if you don't pursue your "calling", you are called from within to a higher way of being.
(That being said, most of my clients say, "I got this" after working with me for six months. Past examples have included pitching an entirely new department within a company, to starting a new company, to quadrupling the size of the team.)
What if a client realizes their highest self means quitting their job?
This is a sensitive question and one I like to address up-front. Ultimately I coach the individual, while recognizing the coaching is being subsidized by the company. If this situation comes up, I encourage the client to think about what the job lacks for them, and what it needs to be for them to stay. And then work to make the company a place they'd want to stay. Can they become an advocate for the change needed for the company to be a better place to work? If they're feeling uncertain, others at the company may also be feeling similarly. They do everyone a service by doing this work. If they can't, then it might be time to re-evaluate and I don't shy away from that either. If it's truly not a good fit, neither the company or the client benefits.
Why are you doing this work?
Because a world where everyone acts from a place of their highest self is a world I want to live in and I want my daughter to live in.
Why should I, the CEO, or HR Exec, care?
If you're asking this question, you're in the wrong place. My coaching is not for everyone. It doesn't mean that you should work with me if you do care. There are lots of coaches out there, and I encourage you to do your research. What I promise, sell, and deliver is knowing how to act from your highest self. Some companies really want that in their employees, others prioritize something else. We are all on the path we are on now.
What makes you different from other coaches?
I'm me. And I hope other coaches are fully themselves. I want everyone to be fully who they are.
What credentials do you have?
I'm a spouse, a parent, a son, a brother, a colleague, a friend. I've worked as an analyst, consultant, executive, and entrepreneur. I've acted out of fear and still do sometimes. I've acted out of love and seek to do so all the time. I care about my clients. I care about their work. I care about what they're creating. I care about the mission of their companies. I'm human and so I'm fallible, but I work every single day to understand, research, and work on my fallibilities. To welcome them, whether or not they have something to teach me. If you're looking for an "official" bio, please visit my LinkedIn page.
Often, coaching is only available to executives, and is not staff members and employees.
Coaching Pilot allows a coach to be available to any staff member who opts-in to coaching. This is a rare offering that only a few progressive companies have the structure, time, and resources to offer.
Why offer this to everyone?
People know about coaching, but they have no experience of it. At best, they think it's therapy or advice-giving.
I'm having this challenge at work, how do I overcome it? That's typically where coaching starts.
A coach offers a way to talk about a challenge without blame or judgment. Coaching is about working with a third party who is knowledgeable and experienced, but outside the situation, and not mired in the politics. They can offer an unbiased perspective.
Employees are more engaged and aligned with their work after working through these challenges.
Here's a comprehensive list of what happens after my clients work with me:
- You become comfortable with being uncomfortable
- Things start feeling much easier for some reason
- You engage in work and play without all the usual noise in your head
- You more easily enter "flow" in different situations
- You feel more safe in yourself and risk feels less risky
- You catch yourself smiling more
- You feel happier just because
- You get more of what you want done
- Your team, colleagues, friends, and family comment on how relaxed and easy-going you seem
- You see even the smallest things differently, enjoying them more and not minding so much
- You complain a lot less
- You worry less what others think of you, but care more about them in general
- You feel greater affection and love for your friends and family
- You cherish and even savor your life as it is
- You learn to live in what's possible, and create it without losing sight of the present
- You live from your dreams, with excitement and ease and simplicity
- You focus your time and energy on what you really, true care about
- You are less distracted and less reactive
- You know what to do when you feel off, tired, frustrated, bored, or angry
- You have the capability of being yourself and showing up even in difficult situations
- You are not shaken as much by outside circumstances
- You realize talents and possibilities about yourself that you didn't know before
- You have more fun
- You know when to stop
- You know how to start
- You make a habit out of being
Coaching is tailored to the individual. There's no script. I coach who you are now to see who you are now differently. Because you can't see yourself.
You're a fish in water. I point to the water and also the power within you already, helping you step into it and act from it, until it becomes second nature. There's no technique to follow, other than the one you create as you learn more about who you are at your highest self. As you learn to be that person more and more of the time. As you embody it, truly.
JK: who you are when you let go of baggage, stress, fears, roles, positions, ideas about the future, ideas about yourself.
The reason I call myself a coach is because I'm coaching you towards a place of your highest possibility. I have absolutely no idea what could happen. I'm blind to the outcome and sometimes even the process, because you are the process and the outcome.
Support in the form of working through their work challenges with someone. That's what I offer.
This is working, but it could be working even better. We already have a great culture, a successful company, a strong bottomline. We already are change makers making a difference, but what else can we do to strengthen our culture? Where our internal values match our external products in every way? Where we're creating from an aligned place?
Some people call this "flow", and I value that term as long as it doesn't limit a person. Often, we come to a term with a prior understanding of it. We know it intellectually. What actually happens when you let go of that definition, and become open to acting from a place of possibility is transformational. But no one can know the actuality beforehand, and that's what makes it beautiful.
What I don't do
Productivity
Life mapping
SMART goals
How does it work?
In my experience as an in-house coach in both in-person and remote situations, I've found it most effective when employees and staff book phone or video-based coaching sessions as a multi-session package of 10, 15, or 20 sessions. This provides consistency, the ability to reschedule easily, and work around vacations or work-based travel. Typically, coaching sessions are every other week, allowing room to experiment with the outcomes of each session and reflect on lessons learned and next steps. Coaching sessions are usually 60-90 minutes in length, and vary in length over time as the coach/client relationship develops. Coaching can either be completely confidential or transparent, but I encourage reporting of progress and outcomes on a regular, pre-defined basis.
Another unique approach is offering "Office Hours" once a week or every other week for 2 hours during a designated time period. For example, office hours typically work best during lunchtime (12-2pm) on Tuesday or Wednesday, because the difficulty or situation has some context and enough time to be acted upon. "Office Hours" can either be confidential or public.
Confidential "Office Hours" are first come, first serve, where anyone interested can sign up for 30 minutes and be provided a unique link which no one else can access. If a longer session is needed, another time will be scheduled.
Public "Office Hours" are also first come, first serve, with the difference being that the coaching can be viewed or accessed by anyone with the link. For example, if someone comes online to ask a question or discuss a situation, anyone else logging in will be able to watch or listen to the coaching discussion. There are multiple benefits to this approach: 1) many people have the same or a similar question and are coached along with the person asking the question, 2) observing coaching in action educates viewers on what coaching looks like so they become familiar with the process and are also able to adopt it if interested. NOTE: this is not group coaching where others can offer their perspective. As the coach, I am also the facilitator, and encourage everyone else to remain muted while the person is being coached 1-on-1.
Impact/Outcomes/Results
- Innovation
- Authenticity
- Engagement
- Productivity
- Alignment
More specifically, think of a sticky problem that you're struggling to get through right now. You've tried everything, you've hired people, you've tried different techniques, you've approached it from multiple angles. But it's something that you can't shake. It could be cultural, it could be about a specific person or team's performance, it could be that your shipping gets delayed over and over again. It's particular to you and your situation, and you'll know it as you think about it. Typically it's the first thing that comes to mind.
Now consider that problem solved. Sounds nice, and maybe even like an over-promise. But time and time again, I've worked with clients and they've solved these problems, whether for themselves, their team, the leadership, or the board.
Example 1: Scaling a Global Team Culture
One of my clients went from a Team Lead to a Division Lead, going from managing 4 to now 24 employees across the world. He wanted to maintain a collaborative culture with a 40-hour workweek while the company grew rapidly. We worked together on improving cross-cultural communication, developing effective meeting approaches, and providing constructive feedback to team members. Most importantly, we defined a mindset that let him own his new leadership style outside of coaching calls.
Example 2: Inspiring Small Team to Ship Large Projects
When we started working together, my client didn't know if he could do the job assigned to him with the team he had. We worked to develop a Team OS (operating system), identifying how to best communicate with each team member, in a way that would maximize their ability to ship. He empowered each IC to show up in an excited and engaged way, showing how the project was a challenge that linked to their values as contributors at work, and their family at home. Operating from this level of alignment, his team became one of the highest-producing teams at the company, in terms of quantity and velocity of shipping.
Example 3: Collaborating Successfully with Colleagues & Senior Leaders
I worked with an entrepreneur whose company was acquired by a major software firm, and he struggled to lead in a structured corporate environment. He was applying his innovative skills to correct every problem, which was unwelcome by his peers and colleagues. The company hired me to help him adjust to corporate culture and be a more collaborative leader. We worked together on understanding the best contexts in which to pitch, listen, advise, and contribute. He has since risen, ironically, to become the Chief Innovation Officer.
Example 4: Developing Leadership with a New Team
Another client had accumulated a large holding of real estate assets over 20 years and wanted to convert them into sustainable, socially-responsible investments. He hired 9 people with expertise in this area, a mix of designers and PMs, but their ideas weren’t aligning with his goals. As an independent investor, he had never managed a team before, so we worked together on delegation skills, facilitating collaborative brainstorming sessions, and more effective 1-on-1s. He now trusts his team’s abilities, and there is greater alignment overall.
Example 5: Saving Team during Major Restructuring & Change
As the company was undergoing major consolidation of different teams and projects, this client wanted each member of his team to land in the place best fit for him or her. We worked together to coach each employee to represent their value more effectively, and create a concrete vision that aligned with the mission of the company. All employees remained at the company, and those that moved to other teams did so because they wanted to. The outcome for my client was a leaner team of 11 ICs (from 18 ICs) that was no longer reactive to change, but learned to navigate and even shape that change to improve their productivity and the company's bottomline.
Whenever we operate out of fear and uncertainty, we limit what we can produce. It's not in alignment with who we are. Defining the highest level of success is just the start.
Here are other focus areas of my coaching:
- Creating flow at your desk and in meetings
- Communicating clearly from a place of authenticity
- Converting expectations into agreements
- Being aware of a situation and when to act or not act
- Knowing and defining growth
- Knowing and defining what's enough
- Doing more with less effort
- Developing your own leadership style
- Thinking globally and acting locally
- Defining and acting from a clear vision of the future
- Learning to understand how to personally handle stress
- Accessing the most creative parts of yourself
- Knowing when to speak up and when not to
- Empowering others to see their highest selves
In many ways, the outcome of my coaching is "knowing what to do when".
Pricing & Fees
This is a new way of offering in-house coaching support, which is why I recommend a pilot program at the start.
Pilot Program
Make in-house coaching available to 3-5 interested leaders and ICs. I provide a coaching assessment that an interested client can take to decide whether coaching is right for them. In addition, an initial 30-60 minute "get to know you" call is encouraged to finalize the need or desire for coaching. If there's interest, commitment, and fit, we engage in bi-weekly coaching for 12 months (~24 sessions).
A retainer of $5,000/month for 12 months
2-year Program
This program is for companies who want to offer continuous and dedicated support over a longer term. In-house coaching is available to 3-5 interested leaders and ICs, and "Office Hours" are available for 2 hours once every two weeks (confidentially or publicly) to anyone interested in coaching.
A retainer of $8,000/month for 24 months
Full Program
This program is for companies who are all in, and want multi-session and ad-hoc coaching, with "Office Hours" on a weekly basis. This program must be customized to fit a company's exact needs. I would need to goals, and the level of commitment you are seeking, and see if I can offer that based on my current capacity.
Due to limitations of my client practice, I can only do
FAQ
What's my highest self?
I don't know. But I know it's there. It's an unsatisfactory, but true answer. I can start by defining what it's not. It's not your best self or a better self or a future self. It's not who you could be, or who you were in some other moment. That all implies that you are not enough right now. And I believe you are enough. I believe in your power as you are already. And that's what I notice, talk to, and bring out.
How do I measure success?
There's no standard measure, rather we define what success means to the company and the client, specifically using a shared coaching worksheet. It's critical to define success specifically, because then you can work towards it full-force, and everyone else will do so too. Living up to your highest level of success is very contagious. It's a good virus, and like a viral video, it catches on. People want to work with you and around you and be part of your mission and what you're about. But it's not because of ego or achievement. It's because you call out the highest success in others by pursuing your own highest success. Even if you don't pursue your "calling", you are called from within to a higher way of being.
(That being said, most of my clients say, "I got this" after working with me for six months. Past examples have included pitching an entirely new department within a company, to starting a new company, to quadrupling the size of the team.)
What if a client realizes their highest self means quitting their job?
This is a sensitive question and one I like to address up-front. Ultimately I coach the individual, while recognizing the coaching is being subsidized by the company. If this situation comes up, I encourage the client to think about what the job lacks for them, and what it needs to be for them to stay. And then work to make the company a place they'd want to stay. Can they become an advocate for the change needed for the company to be a better place to work? If they're feeling uncertain, others at the company may also be feeling similarly. They do everyone a service by doing this work. If they can't, then it might be time to re-evaluate and I don't shy away from that either. If it's truly not a good fit, neither the company or the client benefits.
Why are you doing this work?
Because a world where everyone acts from a place of their highest self is a world I want to live in and I want my daughter to live in.
Why should I, the CEO, or HR Exec, care?
If you're asking this question, you're in the wrong place. My coaching is not for everyone. It doesn't mean that you should work with me if you do care. There are lots of coaches out there, and I encourage you to do your research. What I promise, sell, and deliver is knowing how to act from your highest self. Some companies really want that in their employees, others prioritize something else. We are all on the path we are on now.
What makes you different from other coaches?
I'm me. And I hope other coaches are fully themselves. I want everyone to be fully who they are.
What credentials do you have?
I'm a spouse, a parent, a son, a brother, a colleague, a friend. I've worked as an analyst, consultant, executive, and entrepreneur. I've acted out of fear and still do sometimes. I've acted out of love and seek to do so all the time. I care about my clients. I care about their work. I care about what they're creating. I care about the mission of their companies. I'm human and so I'm fallible, but I work every single day to understand, research, and work on my fallibilities. To welcome them, whether or not they have something to teach me. If you're looking for an "official" bio, please visit my LinkedIn page.