Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is an opportunity to address the organizational and business issues most on your mind, while also exploring and cultivating your leadership identity and voice.

My Approach

Effective coaching relies on a trusting and collaborative partnership between the coach and the leader. We work together to explore the most significant leadership challenges of your role and to discover new and more effective ways of working. I support clients to build comfort and confidence with these new approaches.

Addressing common challenges

While each leader and each circumstance is unique, some of the common challenges I work with leaders to address include:.

Transitioning into a new role

Stepping into a new leadership role requires leaders to build new relationships and take on new responsibilities. I work with leaders to..

Explore what new responsibilities may demand of them as leaders and how they may need to adjust their approach to doing work and working with others.

Navigate new types of relationships with colleagues and peers, including transitioning from peer to supervisor and vice versa and nurturing horizontal relationships appropriate to the new role.

Manage new demands on their time and energy, particularly during the transition phase when so much is new and in some cases the leader may not have fully transitioned out of their old role.

Establishing and cultivating influence

Leaders in large and complex organizations often rely as much on influence as on authority to achieve their goals. In these settings leaders need to understand the concerns and motivations of their team members and develop several different ways to engage and align colleagues and team members around their desired outcome.

Managing multiple and competing demands

Leaders are frequently called on to manage tradeoffs between different mission areas and priorities. These tradeoffs are rarely resolved with a once-and-done decision, but require ongoing attention. They often involve stakeholders with strong passions and can feel emotionally charged, and are further intensified when time is tight and stress is high.

Maintaining accountability and follow through

Setting expectations and holding team members accountable can be uncomfortable, particularly in settings in which professionals are accustomed to relying on their own judgment to guide their work. I work with leaders to develop an effective approach to these conversations that doesn’t place an excessive emotional burden on either the leader or the team member.

Setting boundaries

Leaders have limited time and energy to put into their roles. Yet, the demands on them can feel endless. To sustain themselves in their roles over time, leaders need to determine both what kinds of boundaries are important to them, and to develop effective approaches to communicate and enforce those.

From doing to thinking

Some leaders grow into their roles by cultivating their capacity to solve problems and organize people to get work done. As they advance they find that their roles demand different types of skills and pose different challenges. Many find that at some point their jobs require them to make a shift from “doing” to “thinking.” It can be challenging to both organize their work life to make time and space for this thinking work, but also to determine where to focus their thinking energies.

Client Testimonial

"Elizabeth has a unique talent for guiding others to make effective decisions by asking the right questions, truly listening to the answers and gently leading people in the right direction."

Client

The leaders I work with navigate more complexity than most.

Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare organizations, particularly academic healthcare organizations, are among the most complex organizations there are.

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Higher Education

Universities, colleges and research institutes manage the tension between the need to sustain a safe community conducive to inquiry and learning, while remaining open to the surrounding community and the world.

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Nonprofit Institutions

Nonprofit organizations navigate the same challenges as other businesses, but also face distinct tensions that stem from their mission-driven nature.

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Services

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I offer distinct consulting and coaching services, but I find the greatest value often lies in making connections between them.

To ensure we are focused on the most impactful intervention, every engagement starts with an exploration of your specific goals and challenges, and a review of relevant data. I can then design a targeted scope and process with real value for you, often combining aspects of multiple services, such as:

Strategy Development

A strategic plan is, at its most basic, the answer to two questions: “What is success?” and “How will we get there?”

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Organizational Design

Complex academic and service organizations often grant considerable autonomy to department and local leaders. At the same time, they must coordinate activity across multiple functions and sometimes large distances.

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Change Management

Getting the most from your teams and colleagues in a rapidly changing environment is hard, particularly when teams are challenged just to keep up with daily demands.

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Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is an opportunity to address the organizational and business issues most on your mind, while also exploring and cultivating your leadership identity and voice.

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Team Development

Effective teamwork can amplify the impact of talented individual leaders and team members.

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