What Our Leadership Coaching Series Participants Learned About Working Together
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, participants worked with the Capital Area CASA Association in Baton Rouge. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) recruits, trains and supervises community volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children in foster care.Participants divided into two teams and were tasked with identifying strategies that could help boost volunteer recruitment for CASA. The teams 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 tactical details.While there were many participants who were skeptical of how a group of strangers could come together in such a short amount of time and develop a strategic plan for CASA, they found that people with a variety of personalities, skills and talents can leverage their individual strengths for the good of the project. This experience has given them confidence that they can have a positive impact on future projects within their own companies.
Team A: Learning to Listen
Indu Kheterpal, manager of the molecular analysis group at Albemarle Corp., says that while many participants hadn’t heard of CASA before the series, once members learned about it, they were eager to find solutions for it. The group set a goal of raising the number of male volunteers for the organization, and identified producing PSAs; tapping into corporate connections, law schools and religious organizations; and holding informational house parties to boost participation.That excitement drove the group’s first meeting, which turned into a brainstorming session full of ideas. With many of the participants being engineers and scientists, they were looking for trends and backgrounds to draw conclusions from, Kheterpal says.At the same time, that research and problem-solving almost turned into a roadblock. “The challenge for the team was to stop brainstorming and solving problems, and to make a strategy for the organization,” she says. The team divided up different parts of the presentation to prepare and share with the entire group.Kheterpal says that role-playing activities were most useful to her in the series. “I have a tendency to say what I want to say and not take the time to hear and process,” she says. “I’m trying to practice stopping myself and hearing people out. I can see a difference in how I handle things over the last month.”
Team B: Learning to Give Constructive Feedback
Allyson Ponsock is a customer service manager in the catalysts division at Albemarle. She moved into her management position a little more than a year ago, and her manager recommended that she participate in the Leadership Coaching Series.Ponsock says some of the participants in her group were less talkative than others, but that the group did a good job of making sure every person had a say in the conversation. “Some people had a natural tendency to not voice their opinions, so we went around the table, and that way everybody had input,” she says.Group B’s goal was to grow participation by African American volunteers, and its strategy was for CASA to target organizations that could recruit those volunteers, rather than targeting volunteers itself. The group recommended partnering with organizations like law schools, fraternities and sororities and churches.Ponsock says she learned how to give feedback more effectively through role-playing while working in a group. “When I’m dealing with people I know, it’s hard for me to deliver constructive feedback. I feel like I don’t want to hurt their feelings.” But working through the role-playing exercises made her more comfortable with giving feedback to others.“I can’t say enough about how wonderful the program was,” Ponsock says about the Leadership Coaching Series.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.