Services – Anne Graham

OUR SERVICES

Advisor to Leaders

CEO’s Guide by Your Side

We offer individual advisory services to the Chief Executive Officer, President or Executive Director, on an as-needed basis or on a monthly retainer, to address hot topics, decisions made and to be made, growing the organization, and concerns regarding purpose, people and processes. We want to help you make the right moves, and address what’s keeping you up at night.

Advisor to Senior Leaders, People Leaders, HR

Regular or as-needed advisory meetings can be scheduled with your senior leadership team, all people leaders or all leaders at same level. We also guide and advise HR teams in regard to their service model and how they can best contribute directly to the organization’s vision.

Our advice and guidance are driven in part by the organization development (OD) cycle. For instance, we are available to:

Facilitate strategic planning – defining your purpose, values, goals, and talent plan
Advise you as you design the organization in line with your strategy, for example, assess your current design in light of new challenges, review benchmark organizations, and develop a customized plan
Partner with you to assess and build people capacity and sustain engagement so the expectations of the current and future marketplace can be met, for example, by revamping your performance management system or establishing a succession planning model
Guide you, as experts in the people side of change, when you lead your teams through significant change and toward your desired transformation and culture
Establish effective communication systems, and author critical communications to advise stakeholders, especially employees, of change.

Call Anne Graham at 613-882-4170 to discuss your advisory needs, or email syncworksconsulting@gmail.com

Leadership Coaching and Assessments

Individual Leadership Coaching

The majority of our leadership coaching clients come to us through an employer supported coaching program, but some leaders do seek out coaching on their own. In both cases two things are true – that coaching is about the individual and that enhancement of leadership skills is the goal; when the coaching is employer sponsored, the focus may be on a specific leadership skill identified in the leader’s personal development plan.

Our experienced coaches use different coaching models, but they all share a common approach which is to provide a structured safe space where the learner is in charge. The coach’s role is to listen, prompt, and guide, so learners gain self awareness, define personal objectives, enhance skill and change behaviour.

For some coaching plans we recommend that the leader’s direct supervisor also play an active role, meeting with the coach and providing related on-the-job feedback and coaching to the learner. There are many benefits to this approach, not the least of which is the direct supervisor has the opportunity to observe the learner in action.

Confidentiality is crucial in the coaching relationship. The specific content of conversations with the coach will remain confidential but for employer supported coaching we do recommend summary-level progress reports from both the coach and the person being coached, focusing on the specific development objectives.

Team Leadership Coaching

A team coach works in partnership with the whole team, both when they are together and when they are apart (as described above under Individual Leadership Coaching), with a view to creating a high-performance team with strong leadership skills.

A team coach considers what’s happening outside the team, not just within it, understands team dynamics and how teams develop, and has the expertise to determine which interventions will be the most effective at a given time.

Team coaching has multiple benefits for the organization:

Through various exercises and interventions the coach can contribute to relationship and trust building within the team, which is critical for team effectiveness.
By working with the team over an extended period of time, both in group and individually, the coach can focus on deeper learning and sustainable changes in skill and behaviour.
Opportunities can be provided for learning from each other – through sharing of experiences and insights, and by modelling and practising leadership behaviours in a safe environment.
The coach can propel the team to bring untapped skills to light, for example, identify their collective creative thinking skills and use them to arrive at innovative solutions to challenges facing the team or the organization.
When the team meets away from their daily routines, it’s typically enjoyable – even fun! This contributes to engagement and the team’s overall commitment to the organization’s goals.
Away from the daily routine, with time to think and not just do, the team can be encouraged by the coach to look with fresh eyes at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, and adjust for improved productivity.

Assessments

In conjunction with or separate from coaching, we offer and interpret a variety of psychometric self-assessments. They provide insight into personality preferences, emotional intelligence, and leadership capability and the resulting profiles are valuable when establishing personal development plans, building teams and, depending on the tool, assessing candidates. Based on client needs we’ll suggest specific assessment tools.

With some assessment tools there is an option for the self-assessor to request feedback from multiple raters. In that case, only average ratings and/or most the common rating from those providing feedback are reported, as a comparison to the self-assessment.

While the information in the assessment reports is self explanatory, we offer optional, private, one-hour consultations (if the consultation isn’t already built into a coaching package) to ensure individuals who self-assessed understand how to best use the information going forward. When all team members complete the same self-assessment, a team coach can create a team profile to increase awareness of each other’s preferences and strengths; this information is valuable not only for enhancing team dynamics and performance but also for leaders when establishing project teams, as groups with diverse strengths, styles and viewpoints are more productive.

Call Anne Graham at 613-882-4170 to discuss your coaching and assessment needs, or email syncworksconsulting@gmail.com

Human Resources Management

Our team of associates has broad HR experience at the executive, generalist and specialist levels and we can provide the following services:

Fill HR leader positions on an interim basis or provide as-needed guidance to the HR team until a vacancy is filled
Manage employee engagement surveys – from selection or development of the survey instrument and up-front communication to preparing results for distribution – and facilitate post survey action planning
Draft or edit policies (including employee guides) with a view to clarity, legal compliance and employee engagement
Conduct reviews of HR operations; and our risk analysis goes beyond checking for legal compliance, as we also consider how HR processes, methods and structure are affecting the organization’s strategic vision and objectives.

Call Anne Graham at 613-882-4170 to discuss your human resources management needs, or email syncworksconsulting@gmail.com

Online Courses

Through our Syncworks Academy arm we offer online programs and courses which focus primarily on leadership. Our instructional design, facilitation and coaching experience, combined with the newest learning platform technology, provides an interactive learning experience – not just a book on a screen.

After research and discussions with executives, team leaders and human resources professionals, it was clear that there are gaps in leadership skills and related online training:

Senior leaders tell us that they want to keep up, to stay in-the-know given their desire to do a great job or advance to the next level; through coaching or self-assessment, they also acknowledge the need for refresher training.
Middle managers often feel invisible when it comes to learning opportunities. In many cases they’ve made it to the centre of the organization chart with minimal formal learning and are now facing far more challenging responsibilities as they execute major change initiated by higher levels.
Front line supervisors are often promoted based on technical expertise, a strong work ethic and a general interest in being a leader, but without the appropriate training and learning opportunities.
Emerging leaders who want to develop core leadership skills are looking for leadership training that doesn’t require them to currently have direct reports.

Our online programs, such as the ‘Up Your Game’ suite of courses, will serve the needs of these four groups and allow them to complete the training at their own pace and as it fits their schedule. AND there is no social distancing required.

Check out the Syncworks Academy Facebook page for news on current course offerings and how to register. We also advise our clients directly about available online courses.

Live Events

Syncworks has the available expertise to facilitate a virtual or in-person live event, and we work with our clients to establish the objectives and agenda for their customized events – such as an executive retreat, strategic planning session, or focus groups to discuss corporate values. As required, we provide a report and/or recommendations.

The majority of the courses we offer online can also be delivered in person at your site.

While team building workshops are typically in person – and Syncworks’ associates have significant experience facilitating team building – we also know how to get creative with virtual team events. Many of our team builder sessions include the use of a personal assessment tool; participants voluntarily share information from their profile about their strengths and preferences, and the facilitator provides a team profile. This information is valuable not only for enhancing team dynamics and performance but also for leaders when establishing project teams, as groups with diverse strengths, styles and viewpoints are more productive.

Occasionally we hold public workshops, training events, or seminars, in person or virtually, to provide our clients with an opportunity to hear different perspectives on timely topics.

Call Anne Graham at 613-882-4170 to discuss your facilitation, training or workshop needs, or email syncworksconsulting@gmail.com

DisruptHR

Anne Graham, President of Syncworks Consulting, is the founder of and a champion of DisruptHROttawa and DisruptHRKingston. A multi-national organization, DisruptHR was established to bring world-class HR and people leadership ideas to the forefront through events for business leaders and HR professionals.