Coaching for Up-and-Coming Leaders: New MBAs, Aspiring Leaders, and New Managers

As an up-and-coming leader, you face a stiff learning curve as you take on an expanded role, often in a new organization as well.  The interpersonal demands at this stage of your career are tremendous and it is important to thoroughly assess your incoming skills and predispositions so that you can learn new strategies and make positive early impressions. More reliable and sophisticated problem solving frameworks need to be learned and integrated into a repertoire of leadership behavior. 

For some leaders, formal MBA programs can provide a foothold for career growth but a major shortcoming is that they typically offer little individualized attention to your unique personal needs.  They simply aren’t designed to do so. In contrast, a coaching partnership with us is designed as an individualized approach to leadership development.  It provides the solid foundation required for your future success by targeting efforts strategically to your individual talents, leadership skills, career goals, and ambition.  We offer ongoing knowledgeable feedback and confidential problem solving guidance.

Specializing in leadership coaching, we help you reframe your situation, see problems in new ways, and learn to think and act strategically in organizational settings to achieve your career and business goals. 

Sage Insights Coaching is a flexible process targeted to individual situations but built firmly on proven leadership development strategies.  Your situation is thoroughly assessed at the outset to determine appropriate objectives.  Through our discussions, we then identify what’s working and what isn’t.  From there, we work with you to jointly create an action plan, implement and adjust as needed, and evaluate results.

We provide coaching services, by telephone or in-person, to both individuals and businesses.  Arrangements are flexible. An initial consultation is always free.

Professionals who excel in fields such as medicine, law, accounting, engineering, science, and others frequently can find yourselves in positions where you must partner with and/or manage the work of others.  Your professional training however often leaves you ill-prepared for the relationship and behavioral issues that arise.  These include motivating others, communicating effectively, managing politics and conflict, directing a team, evaluating performance, restructuring jobs and departments, and so on.  Failure to deal effectively with these issues can impede the achievement of your professional success.

Joyce Shelleman understands the often misunderstood role of professionals and is an expert on the unique situation of professionals within work organizations.  Her own experiences working in hospitals and universities, two settings where core functions are performed by professionals, complement and ground her insight.  Because of this background, Joyce brings a special sensitivity and sense of purpose to her work with professionals. 

Coaching can guide you through and assist in developing appropriate strategies and people management skills.  Joyce steers you toward the critical knowledge and focuses on helping you develop the skills that are most essential, cutting through the buzzwords and less relevant aspects so that you can more quickly become the leader you need to be.

"This has taught me so much about how to strategically analyze businesses.  Thank you.”
 
“I have learned so much.  It has made me more excited to continue.”

Coaching for Entrepreneurs and Executives

“It’s lonely at the top” is more than a truism, it can be fact.  A coaching relationship provides you with a critical, confidential sounding board for ideas and strategies to resolve interpersonal and ethical dilemmas. It can help manage personal blind spots that eluded you in previous roles but now inhibit your success and your organization’s performance. 

Coaching can offer ongoing feedback to help you accomplish ambitious goals and competitive strategy. Joyce Shelleman’s background with strategic planning and competitive strategy affords her wide-ranging insight to many of the issues that businesses face in selecting strategy to become and remain viable and flourishing.  Hard choices, with less than complete information, are called for. Coming full circle, successful strategy implementation is usually dependent on your people management skills -- so a holistic approach is necessary.  Joyce structures the problem solving and decision making processes so that you see your best options and learn how to proceed with confidence.

Coaching for Introverts

Despite misperceptions, introversion is simply a dimension of personality that is different from (but not worse than) extraversion.  But most employers don’t reward introverted behavior, either on-the-job or during the hiring process.  During coaching, we will strategize ways that you can leverage your abilities to be a more effective team member, supervisor, or subordinate and then we’ll work with you on implementation so that you thrive as an introvert.

As an introvert herself, Joyce Shelleman knows firsthand that the work world often doesn’t fully acknowledge or appreciate the special strengths of introverts.  She also knows how difficult it can be to try to work against whom you feel that you really are.  Authenticity is an important principle of the coaching work that she does with all clients, but most especially with introverts.  It is about finding ways to leverage existing strengths to find your place and achieve your goals.  Although in some cases it may be necessary to develop new skills, they should be appropriate to the nature of an introvert.  Coaching offers a confidential one-on-one space to refine your professional goals and become all that you desire.

“Thank you for caring.”

“You do a great job!”

Coaching for Small Groups

Often a small group is an efficient and highly effective way to achieve both peer support and expert coaching.  Sage Insights Coaching sets up an ongoing, regularly scheduled session to focus on common issues among members, such as microbusiness owners or professionals in the same industry or workplace. By working in a group with an expert coach-facilitator, members can learn from one another, hastening the development process.  The small group can be a stand alone or augment individual coaching relationships with each member.