Being & Becoming

Coaching facilitates integral, developmentalchanges that involve the heart, mind, and body. The process engages all of our faculties, thus cultivating a more informed awareness of our internal and external environments, including how we view the situation, our emotional terrain, what we are sensing in our bodies, the relationships that support us, and our interconnectedness with others in the world.

Working one-on-one or with teams (both on-site and in workshops or retreats), Being & Becoming partners with clients to identify the new behaviors they want to practice. We then work together to implement a plan of action designed to achieve lasting change, with an ultimate goal of helping them maximize their potential both personally and professionally.

Clients seeking Being & Becoming coaching services often find themselves asking deep questions about their personal and professional lives, including how to:

• Be more authentic and connected in personal and/or professional relationships
• Communicate and influence more powerfully
• Lead more effectively and deliver impactful results that add personally satisfying and meaningful value to the team/organization/family/community/world
• Integrate, balance, and be more intentional in our actions
• Make choices that align with our values, beliefs, and existing personal and/or professional circumstances

In addition, when it comes to the business world—where rapid change, information overload, and technologies enabling round-the-clock availability have resulted in a more competitive environment—effective coaching can mean the difference between running in place and breakout success, or even between success and failure.

Whether using coaching services for personal or professional reasons (and many of our clients use Being & Becoming for both), those who have worked with us report feeling more grounded, balanced, and self-aware, and tell us they enjoy an enhanced sense of meaning, fulfillment, and well-being. They also display greater confidence and an increased ability to achieve success.

Development is about both external and internal change. Outer, or horizontal, change pertains to developing new skills and competencies in order to achieve our goals, to deliver results, and to be more effective in the world. Inner, or vertical, change is about developing meaning and fulfillment in our lives. When we begin to ask the question “To what end?” we gain clarity about “Who am I?”

It is not enough to read a book about learning how to play the piano or to speak effectively in public. Research has shown that our brains are elastic and that new neural pathways are formed throughout our lives—whether we are 8 or 98. We need to practice these skills so that new learning is impressed upon our bodies at a cellular level. It is only through practice, and the resulting neurological change, that real learning takes place.

• Understanding the Context: Initial meeting with executive and company sponsor to determine the team situation, business context, and goals.
• Understanding the Executive: In-depth interview with the executive to understand their perspective of the world in which they work, their commitments, and leadership style.
• 360-Degree Interview: A “360-degree” assessment of the executive’s key stakeholders, which might include a manager, peers, direct reports, customers, and suppliers.
• Assessment and Custom-Designed Program: The coach makes an assessment and designs a customized program encompassing mutually agreed-upon Purpose and Intended Outcomes. Practices, exercises, reading, and other resources are tailored to the executive.
• Executive and Sponsor Alignment: Key themes and program shared and appropriate changes made so that all are committed to an agreed-upon outcome.
• Individual Coaching: Typically 3 hours of coaching per month (over a 6-to-12-month period) covering urgent concerns and long-term competencies, with a goal of leaving the executive more self-aware, competent, and fulfilled.  These meetings are a mixture of person and/or video.
• Mid-Program Review: Coach formally reviews current progress and intended outcomes with executive and sponsor, course-correcting as needed.
• End-Program Review: Coach formally reviews the actual and intended outcomes with executive and sponsor, and successes are acknowledged and celebrated. Executive continues to develop on his own and/or contracts for another period of coaching.

• Understanding the Context: Initial meeting with management and team leader to understand vision, business strategy and context and team situation.
• Assessment of Team Dynamics: In addition to evaluating the team’s patterns and how members communicate with one another, how strategy is operationalized; summarize key outcomes of the team development project.
• Assessment of Individuals: Understand each team member’s goals, strengths, and development opportunities.
• Custom-Designed Program: Program designed to meet business goals and team success. Typically lasting 6 – 9 months, the leaders reinforce their learning with weekly touch points that range from:
  • Big group experiential learning
  • Small group coach-facilitated practice
  • Small group self-facilitated practice
  • 1:1 executive coaching
• End-Program Review: Coach formally reviews actual and intended outcomes with management, team leader and team, and successes are acknowledged and celebrated. Team takes lessons into next assignment.