David Cozzens - Leadership Coaching

David Cozzens

4.9

VERIFIED

David is dedicated to helping delivery professionals at all levels meet their goals. His 35 years of technical delivery experience across program, project, change management, and agile ways of working can help you level up in your career.

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Bio

Dave is a Certified Executive Coach with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM7) and is dedicated to helping others become the best they can be. He has managed numerous large-scale transformational programs for companies like Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, and NTT Data and understands the challenges and demands of IT delivery.

Dave is focused on supporting professionals responsible for the delivery of technology to reach their goals. He understands the challenges and recognizes that sometimes you need someone in your corner to help you through difficult situations to be able to visualize the future. Dave knows that getting teams working together, establishing boundaries for stakeholders, and getting positive results through interactions with others are just some of the areas crucial for delivery success. Dave will help you identify and utilize your skills to create a path to success.

Dave is a mentor, speaker, and coach for Year Up, an organization centered on helping young adults start out in their careers. He is passionate about helping people of all ages and backgrounds find their potential and set a course to greatness.

Notable Client Achievements

Helped an IT leader through the journey of deciding among several options for a new role and gain the confidence to obtain the desired position.
Helped an IT leader see that he had the ability to take control of a difficult situation and difficult people which resulted in increased confidence and ultimately a much better position within the company.
Helped an entrepreneur manage through lost business and find the learnings from the experience to develop a new approach for acquiring even more business.
Showed a young adult that she had the skills and experience to apply for and obtain the desired position that is a stepping stone to her ultimate goal of becoming a project manager.
Worked with people of all levels and backgrounds including new graduates, PhD’s, medical doctors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, get out from under that overwhelmed feeling of having too much to do and prioritize what is most important to reach their goals.

In Their Own Words

How would you describe the benefits of working with a coach?

What do your clients like about working with you?

Work History

Citizens Bank

Vice President

NTT DATA Corporation

Sr. Principal Consultant

Putnam Investments

Vice President

Credentials

Certified Executive Coach with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM7)
Project Management Professional Certified
Certified Scrum Master
Certified in Agile Facilitation
Certified in Agile Coaching
Thompson Personal Profile Analysis certified (Thompson PPA)
Exposure to numerous technological platforms

Industry Specialties

Computer Software, Enterprise Software, Information Technology, Financial Services and more

Functional Specialties

Customer Service, Engineering, Software Development, Marketing and more

FAQ

Describe your coaching style.

My coaching style is to show the client that they can meet their goals and be where they want to be. I do not tell clients how to do something, but instead, I help them determine their path and build a plan for success. This ultimately results in their increased confidence and a general sense of well-being. I also feel I have a good ability to sense people’s needs and emotions. I read body language and tone of voice very well and can tell when there is more that they need to tell me. I then use that sense to ask additional questions to “peel back the onion” to expose more of what may be getting in the way of their goals.

Describe your experience working with experienced managers

Experienced managers have goals but may need a coach to help them work through a challenging short-term situation and may be so ingrained in the details that they need help seeing a different perspective. My approach is not to be direct and not offer advice, but rather to listen to understand the situation, paraphrase, reflect, and ask those thought-provoking questions that shed light on a different perspective.

Describe your experience working with individual contributors or others, not in people manager roles.

A large majority of my clients are individual contributors, e.g., scrum masters, project managers, and product owners who are responsible for working with cross-functional teams to build and enhance products and services. These people are servant leaders who do not have direct reports so they must build and maintain an environment that is not only productive but also rewarding for everyone involved.

Describe your experience working with new managers.

Regardless of the level of management, I go where the client wants to go, I listen to understand their goals. I attempt to understand where they are now and where they are looking to be. Typically new managers are looking to make a good first impression with their team and may need help letting go of work they used to do themselves. So, I may use the 4 D’s - Do, Defer, Delegate, and Delete to get them thinking in a managerial way. In our action plans I may also help them to create tasks for getting to know their team on an individual and personal level to focus on building trust and earning respect.

Leadership Coaching

Challenge yourself to grow as a leader. Gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Develop your unique leadership style. Hone your...

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25 Minute Session

An efficient session to keep you moving forward. During this session, we can cover a variety of important topics.