Leadership Coaching in Government
- Kim Miller
- Sep 12
- 4 min read
How
Good managers solve problems. Great leaders prevent them.
This is an anonymous success story for a government organization who chose to invest in key personnel using the Leadership Coaching for Managers program. Along with other important initiatives, they were able to elevate their entire organization and make it more effective and efficient. More importantly, they are now able to deliver much higher value to their customers in a shorter amount of time.
Leadership Coaching Logisitics
They enrolled ten first-level managers the first year. The next year, they enrolled ten more participants, consisting of both first and second-level managers. The participants came from a variety of departments across the organization including human resources, information technology, accounting, finance, and operations. The number of years of management experience ranged from one to well over twenty-five years.
Each participant was given 12 one-hour sessions to use as they wished, targeting one session per month for a year. Some participants chose to meet once a week at times. The leadership coaching was customized to each participant so they could focus on what was most important to them at that moment in time. All sessions were governed by a confidentiality agreement so everyone could be more open and honest.
Each participant went through an independent 360-degree review prior to the coaching so they could better understand their strengths and opportunity areas. They were asked to set three goals to work on during the program.
The manager of each participant had an initial meeting with the coach to provide additional information on their participant and the areas they would like to see them improve. An additional manager meeting was scheduled about halfway through the program for the coach to check on progress and receive additional direction. Some managers chose to meet with the coach more frequently on a monthly basis.
Leadership Coaching Topics
A wide variety of topics were discussed from these seven categories: communication, customers, leadership, management, people, projects, self, strategy, and team.
Communication
Improving your presentation skills.
Practicing active listening skills.
Speaking clear, concise, and precise.
Owning your communication.
Tailoring your message and communication style to your audience.
Creating a safe environment for open communication.
Customers
Focusing on your customers.
Creating a thriving partnership.
Delivering exceptional customer service.
Maximizing your value and becoming the vendor of choice.
Leadership
Creating an inspiring mission, vision, and values.
Creating an empowering culture and safe work environment.
Inspiring others to follow.
Being a servant leader.
Leading innovation and change.
Leading in difficult and challenging times.
Management
Becoming more effective at delegating and motivating your team.
Achieving higher levels of excellence, precision, and quality.
Holding your team accountable.
Creating the proper incentives to create desired results.
Creating effective policies and procedures.
Managing and inspiring low-performing, difficult, and problem employees.
People
Developing others.
Building relationships.
Resolving conflicts.
Coaching for success.
Creating innovative win/win solutions.
Projects
Delivering projects on time, scope, and budget.
Delivering projects that delight your customers.
Implementing agile processes to quickly deliver a minimum viable product that maximizes customer value in the shortest amount of time.
Accurately tracking project performance.
Managing change, scope, and risk.
Improving time estimates.
Measuring project success from the customer’s perspective.
Self
Feeling more confident, being more assertive, and taking more initiative.
Being more curious and open minded.
Being more creative and resourceful.
Getting the most important things done through effective time management.
Changing habits and achieving desired results.
Having high integrity.
Better managing your emotions, fear, anger, stress, and worry.
Achieving important, meaningful goals.
Taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility.
Elevating your influence, effectiveness, value, and impact.
Embracing change, quickly adapting, and being more resilient.
Developing a service mindset.
Overcoming any personal limitations that are holding you back.
Strategy
Identifying key changes, threats, and opportunities.
Assessing current capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Understanding your customer's needs.
Using new perspectives.
Determining probabilities and managing risk.
Improving your analytical thinking, creative thinking, and decision-making skills.
Using root cause and first principles thinking.
Team
Unleashing the power of your team.
Embracing diverse perspectives and opinions.
Empowering your team to make decisions.
Creating higher levels of employee engagement and satisfaction.
Improving teamwork, collaboration, and innovation.
Increasing productivity, accountability, and ownership.
Leadership Coaching Results
In order to measure the effectiveness of the Leadership Coaching for Managers program, surveys were sent to each participant. The surveys revealed that all of the participants met their top three goals. Of those, 61% exceeded and 22% greatly exceeded their goals. The average improvement on a ten-point scale across all nine categories was nearly two points, or 19%. More than half of the participants asked for extra coaching sessions.
Participants talked about their increased confidence and the higher strategic value they now provided. They delivered more effective presentations. They volunteered for additional responsibilities and applied for open positions, which they wouldn't have done before. They felt better about their careers and were more excited to come to work each day. They improved key relationships and collaborated more with their stakeholders. They learned to be better leaders and how to be more effective at working with and influencing others.
Participants appreciated the strategic coaching sessions, learning about new perspectives, and evaluating the many different options available to tackle their biggest challenges. They resolved long-standing issues. The successfully motivated their challenging employees to improve their performance or to find opportunities elsewhere.
Participants harnessed the power of their teams. Creativity and innovation increased. They realigned their group's offerings to deliver much higher value to their customers in a shorter amount of time, which led to higher customer satisfaction levels. Their teams performed better and had higher productivity, engagement, and satisfaction.
Summary
Managers at all levels of an organization have a tremendous impact. Elevating their performance has a multiplying effect. Organizations of all kinds can benefit from investing in their managers and turning them into more effective leaders. The results are felt across the organization and have a direct impact on customer satisfaction.
