Leadership Consulting

A Focus on Leadership

My consulting practice is focused exclusively on leadership. I believe that leadership is the key to business success. If the right leader is in place, a dedicated group of people can accomplish extraordinary things. Great leaders inspire, innovate and drive performance – they simply get better results. I partner with my clients to identify, develop, and coach leaders, at all levels of the organization. This focus allows me to impact the company’s leaders at the enterprise, group, and individual levels. My consulting practices include:

1. Leadership Development 

Top companies take an integrated approach to developing their leadership talent. Not only do they utilize external training resources, they also create their own internal leadership development experiences.

I have been creating flagship leadership development programs for nearly two decades – first at Yum Brands, AOL, Time Warner, and Capital One, and now in my consulting practice. While at Capital One, our Leadership Development Program (LDP) was named a Top 10 Corporate Leadership Program by Leadership Excellence magazine and the Leaders as Teachers Series was recognized with an ASTD Best Award.

Whether it’s a development program for high potential emerging leaders or a learning event that you want all leaders to experience, I can help your organization design and deliver a customized leadership program that integrates some or all of the following:

• Internal faculty (leaders as teachers)
• Business simulations
• External faculty
• 360° feedback
• Individual assessments
• Action learning projects
• Mentoring or coaching

I am a strong proponent of using “leaders as teachers”, and work closely with my clients to deliver a meaningful learning experience for both the participants and the senior leaders who teach in the program. I also believe in focusing on tangible outcomes that participants can apply immediately in their jobs.

2. Talent Planning & Assessment

Great companies have one thing in common: strong leadership. It’s no accident that the best companies develop an endless pipeline of competent executives. They invest the time and energy to identify talent, plan moves, and assess leadership potential to ensure they have the right leaders in the right roles.

I have designed talent management systems for several organizations, and can help you develop a customized process that will work for your company. I partner with clients to design a variety of tools and processes, including:

• Succession Planning
• Talent Review
• Bench Strength Analysis
• Talent Pools
• Coaching or Mentoring Programs
• Movement Guidelines
• Executive Profiles
• Career Paths

3. Executive Assessment

Does your company know its leaders’ strengths and development opportunities? The best companies do, because they conduct regular executive assessments. I work with my clients to design and conduct customized assessments that produce two primary insights:

1. A comprehensive view of an executive’s strengths and development opportunities, which may be used to plan career moves and or promotional readiness
2. Specific reports that drive individual leadership development plans

I am an organizational psychologist with years of experience in conducting executive assessments, and can help you develop strategies for integrating assessments into your overall talent management system.

4. High Performing Teams

Leadership teams are ubiquitous in the corporate, non-profit and public sector world, yet most teams fall short of their full potential. To apply a label, they fail to become a high performing team – one that reaches its maximum level of productivity and efficiency. High performing teams have eight characteristics that distinguish them from regular teams and all eight of these elements must be present for the team to achieve its highest level of output.

I believe that every team has the capability to be a high performing team. By examining current practices and behaviors and making the necessary adjustments, any team can take its performance to the next level. The objectives of my team consulting process are to help leadership teams 1) understand their current state of productivity (through surveys and interviews), 2) identify new practices and behaviors that will make them more efficient, and 3) implement and commit to a new way of working together.

Three primary beliefs drive my work with leadership teams:

1. I believe there are practices and behaviors that are foundational elements of a highly functioning team.
2. I believe that teams should focus on outcomes. While process is important, I ask teams to acknowledge current outcomes (or lack thereof) and work backwards from a desired state.
3. I believe that leadership is the key ingredient for team success, which is why much of my work with teams focuses on the team leader. The leader is responsible for the team environment and is accountable for the outcomes. Without strong leadership, working groups cannot become high performing teams.