Executive Coaching is Customized

Executive coaching engagements are customized according to specific leader and his/her institutional context, goals and priorities. In general terms, Executive Coaching:

• Cultivates a leader’s growth and self-awareness;

• Identifies, integrates and leverages a leader’s strengths;

• Develops and deepens competencies where needed;

• Optimizes leader performance for his/her particular context;

• Attends to the overall well-being and sustainability of a leader for the long run;

• Strengthens the executive team; and

• Positions the institution to successfully execute its initiatives.

Executive Coaching is for the Best of the Best

Executive coaching is an invaluable investment in institutional vitality and well-being as much as it is an investment in the leader.

• If you are new to a presidency or senior role and/or new to an institution, the value of an executive coach can be immeasurable in assisting with your integration into the role and the institution.

• If you are a mid-career executive, executive coaching can help you to adapt, optimize and sustain you and your leadership for the long run.

• If you are in the fall or winter season of your executive career, executive coaching can help you finish strong, consider succession implications, and develop and execute a transition plan.

Myth #1

Executive coaching is about fixing problems: Executive coaching is about advancing visions, initiatives and agendas, as well as enhancing leader and leadership capacity. Tensions and problems exist. Always have and always will. The question is “how does fixing this problem or not fixing this problem advance or disrupt the vision or initiative?”

Myth #2

Executive coaching is just feedback: Executive Coaching is about reflecting and acting on feedback. Also, executive coaching helps to glean insight, awareness and perspective around feedback in neutral and detached ways and in a particular context. Ultimately, executive coaching is about achieving results for leaders and their institutions.

Myth #3

Successful people don’t need coaches: Executive coaching, at its best, is helping strong, effective leaders be stronger and more effective. Wise, secure and successful leaders invest in their ongoing learning, growth, capacity-building, and well-being. The very best leaders have executive coaches.

Myth #4

I don’t have time for executive coaching: Executive coaching is rigorous and takes time and commitment, and it is customizable around a leader’s schedule and demands. If a leader does not have time or is not committed to making time, then executive coaching is not for him/her. Leaders must ask themselves, “how is not investing in my leadership affecting or harming my institution?” This myth is really about a lack of commitment and confidence than it is about a lack of time. We make time for what matters most.

Executive coaching should always be designed in a way that benefits both the leader and the institution. Therefore, LaStorta believes executive coaching should be approached from a systems perspective and in the context in which the leader is leading.

We believe that leadership is learned through ongoing practice, reflection, action and assessment. Thus, leadership always occurs in a particular context, leads to action, and has an impact to be evaluated. Leading colleges and universities today is both noble and daunting work. LaStorta was founded so that presidents and senior leaders have professional and qualified leadership companions and guides on the leadership journey. We are committed to the effectiveness, sustainability and wellbeing of new and incumbent presidents and senior leaders. We believe that both the interiority of leaders and the exterior demands of institutional leadership are complementary. LaStorta Leadership Partners is guided by the following principles:

Seven Core Principles of LaStorta’s Executive Coaching:

1. Effective leaders are conscious and self-aware.

2. A leader’s habits of thoughts are linked to their patterns of action – leadership is not a style, but a way of being, thinking and acting.

3. Leadership growth is best through a Strengths-based/Appreciative approach.

4. Leadership growth is ongoing.

5. Leadership can be learned, cultivated, and optimized.

6. Leadership is relational, contextual, adaptive and systemic .

7. Leadership growth takes time, intention and investment.

I. Engagement:

Engagement and fit between leader and executive coach are essential in the coaching partnership. We work with leaders and institutions to identify, refine, and execute the scope of the executive coaching engagement to ensure the best fit between the leader and executive coach.

II. Baseline:

Through a comprehensive design phase including an Executive Coaching Portfolio and validated assessments the leader and executive coach will gain insights into the leader’s performance, attitudes, values, strengths, beliefs and behaviors, hopes and goals, and impact. Any and all assessments utilized in the executive coaching partnership are developmental and will not be used to evaluate a leader’s performance.

III. Integration:

The Integration Phase focuses on integrating insights from the Baseline Phase to determine and commit to the action steps for the coaching partnership. What results is a focused and practical Executive Growth Plan that integrates the leader’s baseline results and insights and institutional priorities.

IV. Execution:

The Execution Phase is committed to executing the Executive Growth Plan (EGP) through ongoing executive coaching.

V. Results:

The Results Phase is ongoing throughout the executive coaching engagement. Together we assess progress in the spirit of continuous improvement and adapt the EGP if and as needed to obtain the desired results. Additionally, we partner with the leader to develop a post-engagement plan to ensure the ongoing effectiveness, sustainability and well-being of the leader.

VI. Sustainability:

An initial executive coaching engagement is six to twelve months. Near the conclusion of the initial engagement, we will assess with you the ongoing value of retainer executive coaching in the ongoing growth, optimization and sustainability of senior leaders and institutional priorities and initiatives.