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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.