Last Leadership Coaching Series Session of 2014 Focuses on the Baton Rouge Gallery

The Success Labs Leadership Coaching Series is designed to challenge leaders to employ and expand their leadership competencies as they offer strategic and innovative business solutions and recommendations to a community organization. In the latest session of the series, which wrapped up in November, participants worked with the Baton Rouge Gallery to make plans to capitalize on its 50th anniversary in 2016, with a goal of attracting and retaining membership donors and considering improvements to the organization’s annual fundraiser.Two teams of six leaders were encouraged to focus at a strategic level -- similar to what would be expected if they were to work on a special project within their organization – and offer strategic ideas rather than the tactical details. They were to inspire a vision and path that would allow Baton Rouge Gallery staff to focus on the tactical steps to take to achieve their goals.The teams faced several challenges on top of the project itself: they met only one day a week for five consecutive weeks, and because the teams were large, members had to work hard to leverage their strengths and exhibit flexibility to coordinate with other participants who had a variety of personality types. In addition, there was a lot of investigative work that had to be done quickly to understand the Baton Rouge Gallery enough to offer fresh and valuable ideas.

Team A

John Harden’s supervisors at Albemarle recommended he participate in the Leadership Coaching Series and he was joined on Team A by two other Albemarle employees. Harden says they and the three others from other companies meshed well.“What really helped get us going in the right direction was to really think of it not in terms of generic idea generation, but really thinking to our own experiences and what makes an impact to us when approached by a non-profit organization,” he says. Team members tried to think about what kinds of concepts would interest them if they were the ones being targeted by the gallery.The team’s biggest challenge was the day they made their presentation when expected and unexpected absences required some retooling. “We very quickly had to regroup as a team and reassign speaking roles,” Harden says. “We overcame this due to our group's involvement throughout the process. All of us were up to date on the ideas and concepts to be presented and we were able to very easily shift the presentation around in a way that made sense. This wouldn't have been possible if we all came into the day knowing only our specific piece of the project.”Harden says he felt the entire program was beneficial, but that the role-playing on conflict management scenarios was especially helpful. “It really forced some good practice of these type of skills. Saying the wrong thing can make the problem exponentially worse when emotions are running high, and I thought this was a great way to practice this skill without the risks that real-life examples have. 

Team B

John Power also works at Albemarle and says in previous positions, he operated as a “working” manager -- he had people reporting to him, but he also did the same work they did. He’s now in a managerial role where he’s not doing the same work as his team members, and says he “definitely” needed the leadership coaching he received as a participant.He says his team approached the challenge by examining how the gallery could get more exposure within the community to then spark more engagement. “Rather than trying to show off their art better, we looked at what aspect of the community they should go after,” he says. In addition, the team recommended improving the gallery’s online presence and community outreach.While Power says there weren’t any conflicts on the team, some members were nervous about doing a presentation. And one of the team members was “very outspoken” – “not overbearing, but vocalized a lot” -- but the team was able to channel the person’s ideas in a useful way.As for his own growth during the course, Power says, “I clearly needed a way to address some of my weaknesses as a manager that I knew I had. For example, one of my worst attributes is I have a difficult time making decisions. I want every piece of information and I want it to be perfect and am easily swayed by opinions.” Knowing that, he and the other group members were able to look at their attributes and see them as opportunities.Let us know if you’d like to send some of your organization’s leaders to the Success Labs Leadership Coaching Series.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.