How do you scale your leadership without simply scaling your effort?
If you've been thinking lately...
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“I want to lead at the next level. How do I become not just promotable, but someone who can help drive our future?”
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“This role is more complex than I expected. The stakes are higher with competing interests. Decisions aren't obvious and I don't have a year to figure it out.”
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“I’ve stepped into a big role. I need to understand the culture, build the right relationships, and start delivering quickly.”
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“I need a place to think through the decisions and relationships I can’t easily talk about with anyone else.”
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“As a leadership team, we spend too much energy negotiating across functions and not enough creating together.”
Whatever brought you here, growth doesn't mean starting over.
The opportunity is to build on your experience for what comes next.
Vescent coaching helps you create...
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Inspirational leadership that keeps pace, responding to what matters now while preparing for what’s next.
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Greater clarity and wiser decisions, seeing the bigger picture and focusing on what matters most.
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Greater executive presence, communicating with confidence and having more impact with executives, boards, and other key stakeholders.
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Stronger partnerships, building trust and candor, and sharing ownership for results.
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Leadership teams that work as one, aligning across functions and taking shared responsibility for the strategy, culture and future of the business.
Coaching builds the ability to work through differences candidly, make sound decisions, and move forward together. It grounds leadership in the strategy, culture, and future of your business
Getting our bearings
Stronger leadership starts with the whole picture.
Leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum. Neither should coaching. We begin by understanding you and the world you're leading in, drawing perspective from the larger system. We use the Vescent Compass with its four bearings to keep the whole picture in view.
Understand the leader. Understand the system. Understand the future.
We determine what this moment asks of your leadership: what to build on, where to stretch, and how to move toward what’s next in a way others can engage with and follow.
Cases in point
Mapping a path to the future that preserves the culture
The challenge
A savvy professional development organization with global operations recognized the imperative – and challenge – to grow in an increasingly complex world. They needed updated systems and thinking as their reach grew. At the same time, they wanted to honor their heritage and roots as esteemed experts. Augmenting executive capabilities would take several years, yet a promote-from-within strategy was the right approach for business and cultural continuity as well as risk mitigation.
The question:
“How do we work differently with capable, established senior leaders
to get them ready for the C-suite?”
The solution
The company had previously identified high potential junior executives. We mapped candidates to prospective executive level roles. We used assessments and a success profile to target capability gaps. Select leaders received 1:1 development coaching tailored to their situations. These engagements lasted 12-16 months. Aggregate data indicates clients nearly doubled their proficiency in their stated executive development areas by the end of coaching. Moreover, those who subsequently earned a promotion and engaged in individualized transition coaching significantly shortened their ramp-up time in their new roles.
Client quotes:
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“I now feel confident engaging with the CEO and the Board.”
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“The business plan was approved by the Board unanimously; the CEO, throughout my first ten months, consistently provided positive feedback.”
Datapoints:
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Clients nearly doubled proficiency in stated development goals.
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Benefit from Vescent coaching:
9.5 out of 10
A team performs for clients, but struggles with colleagues
Client quotes:
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“Coaching benefits my peers, my direct reports, and key internal partners. We have built a stronger sense of mutual concern.”
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“The progress we made has significantly helped communication and relationships with others.”
Datapoints:
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98% would engage in Vescent coaching again.
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Data showed the team’s greatest improvement was learning agility and engaging differently with partners.
The challenge
A department of the US federal government experienced excellent relationships with their constituencies but struggled with other government departments and stakeholders. While they prized their expertise and their ability to champion community interests, team members felt colleagues in other departments viewed them as isolated and aloof, even misfits. Some were reluctant to engage in coaching, due to bruised relationships and a sense the situation was beyond their control.
One key question we addressed:
“How does this team create value with our colleagues for
all of our constituents?”
The solution
Through a team 360 and stakeholder interviews, we were able to use data to scope how accurate and representative the team’s perception truly was, cultivate a desire for greater inter-team partnerships, and create a shared internal messaging plan. During the coaching process, there was a noticeable shift from finger pointing to learning and ownership. These gains were also reflected in the follow-up assessment. Stakeholder interviews at the end of the engagement showed more open colleague partnerships, greater understanding of the team’s role by other teams, and stronger engagement with the team by other departments.