The sr4 Approach to Coaching

At sr4, we use coaching to help emerging leaders increase awareness of their strengths and develop their skills. It is a personalized, continuous, micro learning approach that provides clients with accountability, feedback and guidance to help them better thrive in their current role and set them up for success in future positions.

Establishing the foundation

Our coaching philosophy is rooted in our commitment to finding a safe place to stand, moving forward from there, and checking and adjusting along the way.

We build our coaching engagements on:

• Mutual Discovery
  It’s less about what we already know, and more about what we can discover together.

• Appreciative Approach
  It’s less about looking for what isn’t working, and more about finding what is working and building on it.

• Practical Solutions
  It’s less about inventing something new, and more about leveraging what’s available with simple, useful, and purposeful design.

• Authentic Relationships
  It’s less about imposing rigid constructs, and more about creating a bond to explore what’s possible.

Managing transitions

Clients will typically contact us for coaching when they need help embracing what is new and different. The following transition points have emerged most frequently:

• Considering career options
  Professionals considering their options often need help realizing their strengths and uncovering roles that enable them to leverage those strengths.

• High potentials
  High potentials often need help finding meaning in their current roles, navigating their career paths and developing the skills that will make them eligible for promotion into roles with increasing levels of responsibility.

• New leadership role
  Leaders in new roles often need help creating and communicating clarity about their plan for their first 100 days so they can make an impact right away, and prepare to sustain that impact over time.

• New managers
  New managers are not always promoted for their managerial skills. More often they were high performing individual contributors who must learn how to empower people and inspire their teams.

• New parents
  New parents can struggle with a more demanding home life and shifting priorities. They often need help adjusting expectations, regulating emotions and managing their energy.

• Returning to work after leave
  Like new parents, professionals returning to work after leave often need help navigating shifting priorities, managing their energy and dealing with stress.

Focusing on strengths

We use the Strengths Profile assessment to gain awareness of our clients’ strengths and check in on progress. The Strengths Profiler aligns with our appreciative approach to coaching. Its foundation is in positive psychology, which tells us that when we use our strengths, we are more engaged, happier and more likely to achieve our goals. Strengths are broken into four categories based on performance, energy and use:

• Realized strengths
  Strengths you use and enjoy

• Learned behaviors
  Things you do well, but may not enjoy

• Weaknesses
  Things you find hard and do not enjoy

• Unrealized strengths
  Strengths you don’t use as often

Customizing our Engagements

At sr4, we customize our coaching engagements to meet our clients’ situation and goals. A typical engagement will begin with an opportunity to meet (either in-person or virtually) and build rapport. From there we identify goals, review Strengths Profile results and develop a plan that typically includes a series of weekly/bi-monthly 30-45 minute sessions. Learning continues between sessions with coach recommended action items, development resources and messaging. We’ll conduct a progress check about 2/3 of the way through the pre-determined scope, during which we check in on goals, provide documented feedback, make adjustments, and re-take and review the Strength Profiler results. The engagement concludes with a final session during which we discuss how to continue to make progress without coach support.

We’ve found that working with a dedicated sr4 coach helps our clients: manage transitions, become more effective in their roles, improve their workplace relationships, focus and become more present in their work and home lives, and increase their impact overall.

If you or your team members are approaching career transitions like the ones described above or could benefit from coaching in general, we’d love to hear from you. Our goal is to make coaching accessible to leaders at every level of the organization and we’d be happy to put together a plan that works for you.