Executive Coaching

Call (619) 624-9691 or e-mail kevinandjackie@freibergs.com to set up a free initial consult.

The single biggest factor that influences people’s commitment, accountability and performance at work is the relationship they have with their boss. We work with executives to help them become leaders people respect and want to follow. We serve as thought leaders and objective sounding boards to executives seeking outside, objective expertise. Some want a coach to challenge and affirm their thinking. Others want help in formulating and delivering a message. Still others want to focus on more personal issues such as their own happiness or the impact of their attitudes and behaviors on others.

The nature of our coaching relationships depends on the client’s objectives—every assignment is uniquely tailored to the individual, but often involves helping them:

• think through how they handle major strategic initiatives and key changes in the organization
• adopt the leadership behaviors and engage in the activities necessary to support a performance driven culture
• fine-tune their message, develop more confidence and improve their communication skills
• improve relationships with employees, reduce turnover and re-recruit key players
• inspire higher levels of commitment and accountability among colleagues
• create more meaning, happiness and fulfillment in their work

The Executive Coaching Process Usually Involves:

1. An assessment that identifies the client’s objectives and when appropriate, feedback from the organization via confidential interviews with the client’s key stakeholders to assess the client’s strengths and developmental opportunities.

2. We will then work with the client to define mutually agreed upon outcomes and establish a game plan for achieving those outcomes.

3. Together we will work the action plan through monthly phone conversations, email support, face-to-face meetings (when appropriate) and shadowing the client in meetings, speeches and other work-related activities.

We Think the Role of an Executive Coach is to:

• listen objectively
• and apply a combination of intuition and experience that will help clients gain clarity, fresh perspective and more options
• look for teachable moments that are relevant to the client
• ask thought-provoking questions that empower clients to arrive at their own solutions
• tell clients what they need to hear vs. what they want to hear
• be a champion, an advocate that draws the very best of clients and fuels their ongoing development

Culture Development

What do we know? We know that the single biggest predictor of overall success is a company’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate world-class people. People ARE your major point of differentiation. We know that the most important lever in enhancing this capability is corporate culture.

EVERY ORGANIZATION HAS A CULTURE
Is yours purposeful or accidental, intentional or haphazard?

When it comes to culture, great companies leave nothing to chance. Our firm works with a small number of clients each year that want to build a BRANDED CULTURE—a place where the culture is as well known as the company’s products and services. These organizations are serious about creating the BEST PLACES, where the BEST PEOPLE, can do their BEST WORK.

A brand is a promise of a pending experience. It says to the customer: If you do business with us, here’s the kind of experience you can expect. It says to the employee: If you come to work here, this is the kind of experience you can expect. When you deliver on the brand promise to your employees you have a much better chance of delivering on the brand promise to your customers. The message: The way you treat your people is the way they will treat your customers.

We serve as a strategic partner and sounding board in helping companies purposefully shape the hundreds of little things that make up a branded culture. Based on our experience with some of the world’s most admired firms, we help business leaders envision the kind of cultures that will set them apart. Then we get on with helping them find new and fresh ways to promote and protect the cultures they want.

Leadership Assessment — 360 Degree Feedback

Who’s the YOU that others experience?
Ever wonder why people react to you the way they do? Do you see yourself the way others see you? Do you assume that others can see your INTENTIONS clearly? Fact is, people can only see your behaviors and, based on what they see, they assess your effectiveness as a leader and make interpretations about you as a person. Accurate or inaccurate their perceptions are their reality. Knowing how you come across to others can have a powerful impact on your ability to understand why people react to you the way they do. This in turn, can dramatically improve your ability to establish trust, earn respect, rally a team, motivate staff, increase performance and commitment.

Are you AWARE of your blind spots?
Research from Stanford, Harvard, and the Carnegie Foundation shows that INTERPERSONAL INCOMPETENCE accounts for 85% of the reasons most executives derail! We all operate with blind spots or distorted perceptions of ourselves. One of the differences between world-class leaders and those who aren’t, is a willingness to eliminate the blind spots.

Do you have the GUTS to ask for feedback?
Peter Drucker said, “The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be the person who knows how to ask.” Great leaders are acutely aware of their own ignorance and incompetence because they actively seek to uncover it. Rather than blaming others for their shortcomings, they take ownership and assume responsibility for addressing their weaknesses. Gutsy leadership starts with a commitment to the truth and a willingness to confront reality.

Ask, learn, act and grow!
The Leadership Assessment gives participants candid, detailed, and useful feedback on their leadership behaviors from their boss, direct reports, colleagues, (in some cases customers and suppliers), and self. With this information leaders are challenged to consider the impact they have on other members of the organization and establish a personal development plan for increasing their leadership effectiveness.

From the Leadership Assessment, participants will receive information on 14 dimensions of leadership. The results from this instrument are broken down as follows:

• By category - self, boss, subordinates, peers (customers and suppliers)
• By dimension - problem solving, communication, integrity, etc.
• Scores for each question that make up a dimension
• Top 10 strengths and developmental opportunities
• Verbatim comments from respondents
• Overall leadership effectiveness score

Each participant goes through a debrief with a member of the Freibergs.com team in which the feedback is analyzed and suggestions for improved performance are discussed. This debrief is the basis from which a participant can establish a development plan. We recommend implementing the Leadership Assessment annually so that participants can track their progress.

Customized Training

We deliver longer programs that build on the themes from our books and research and then expand upon the material in our speeches. These programs are designed in collaboration with our clients and tailored to their specific objectives. Each program usually involves some combination of videotape vignettes, brief case studies, guest interviews, lively discussion and short lecture. Whether the objective is to create a critical mass of people who take charge of their lives at work, becoming a gutsy leader, inspiring creativity and innovation, radically differentiating your business or re-recruiting your best people and your best customers, our desire is to create long-term, sustained change in attitude and behavior.

Some of the areas where we can provide highly customized training programs include:

• Gutsy leadership development
• Inspiring higher levels of commitment and accountability
• Embracing change courageously
• Re-recruiting great people
• Creating customer loyalty
• Executive presentation skills