Lupus Foundation of America (LFA): Long-Term Coaching for a Senior Vice President

in Executive Coaching

A Senior VP at the LFA needed some support from an executive coach. Her desired outcomes for the coaching included better managing interpersonal conflict, finding time for strategic thinking, spending focused time with family, and implementing an exercise routine.

We worked with her over a 12-month period to develop leadership skills in the following areas:

  • Communications style and best practices, giving and receiving feedback, and managing difficult conversations
  • Characteristics of effective leaders
  • Time management best practices – prioritizing, managing interruptions and change, blocking time, and finding time for strategic thinking
  • Personal development and the impact of personal areas on work
  • Managing stress and change
  • Building effective teams

The coaching consisted of 14 90-minute sessions and approximately 10 shorter, targeted coaching calls to discuss a specific agenda that the Senior VP brought to the table. Throughout the process, she worked on several specific commitments/goals, including a review of potential project management systems, email management, time blocking, managing To Do lists, physical exercise/activity, and creating individual goals for each member of her team. She reported a self-assessment score of between 6.5 to 10 across each of the initial areas she identified a year previously at the start of the engagement, as compared to her original self-score of 2 (meaning she increased her score in each area by at least 4.5 points in 12 months).

The CEO of the LFA said about this Senior VP: “She is a central player as an executive at the LFA and her role is central to everything that the foundation does. With limited staff and resources, her department is overwhelmed on a daily basis. Having her in command of her time and how she views priorities, does her work, and instructs her staff is key to the operations of the foundation. Her coaching has helped her to run her department more efficiently and has made an important contribution to the success of the LFA.”

Due to the success of the initial 12-month engagement, the Senior VP requested ongoing coaching support from her SBI coach which her organization approved without hesitation.