COVID-19 drastically changed the idea of success for business leaders worldwide. What typically involved physically traveling to the office and engaging in face-to-face interactions with managers and the workforce became an isolated experience powered by video conferencing tools and remote operations. If employers solely rely upon what worked when employees were predominantly colocated in the current era of hybrid work models, they will struggle to engage with their teams effectively, maintain the desired accountability, and ensure the delivery of productive outcomes.

How can leaders adapt to these changes and ensure a high-performing workforce?

Breakthrough Consulting Group LLC answers with its coaching and consulting services. Its suite includes executive, leadership, team and media coaching services, along with consulting offerings designed to boost change and reputation management initiatives, executive and crisis communications, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) programs. According to its founder and principal, Mark Roy, Breakthrough’s portfolio is centered on five keys—assessment, awareness, acceptance, action, and accountability—that unlock a client’s potential for success.

A Future-oriented and Values-based Leadership Development Journey

When working with a leader, Breakthrough starts with an initial chemistry meeting where Roy gauges whether they are a match and proposes a values assessment exercise. Through this, Roy pushes executives to get in touch with their values and check their own assessment with their “values validators”—the people they trust implicitly—which sets the stage in the coaching relationship for deep and meaningful conversations, making clients open to suggestions and their coach a trusted accountability partner. After the values assessment, Breakthrough discusses the findings and determines instances where two core values could come into conflict. For instance, if the values of adventure and security are in conflict for an entrepreneur facing a specific business decision, the client can refer to the exercise to gain insights into which one has more sway over their decision-making at that moment, and the coach could probe for why that is. “We can see which values are in conflict in the present and predict the ones that are going to be at odds in the future. This differentiates us from some of our competitors, who use therapy-based models and look at past behavioral roots, instead of more coaching-based models that are more future-oriented where the leader’s present values are evaluated to help predict future outcomes,” states Roy.

Leveraging the Five Keys to Development- Driven Success

From a psychological standpoint, Breakthrough leverages Hogan assessments, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and similar solutions to evaluate a client’s strengths, thinking style preferences, and potential development opportunities. Once this is complete, Roy and his colleagues at Breakthrough debrief and discuss the results to help clients gain awareness of their strong suits and opportunities for development.

Typically, this is when clients show some resistance to change, as most of them are seasoned professionals who have achieved consistent success doing things a certain way. Breakthrough widens their clients’ perception of success as a leader through data-driven insights highlighting their blind spots, helping them recognize the instances where they could benefit from tweaking their deeply-rooted approaches to enhance the probability of achieving their desired outcomes, which leads them to the acceptance phase.
Following this, Breakthrough builds an action plan to support leaders and teams to lean into their strengths and build know-how in areas that need improvement. Finally, the accountability piece involves checking in with a coach bi-weekly, where clients gain a deeper understanding of their progress and structure their training to ensure the desired personal and organizational improvements.

“As a consultant, I create intentional leadership development plans based on assessment data to help teams build a dynamic environment where everybody improves together and individually through personalized development journeys,” says Roy.

The Go-To Partner for Holistic Leadership Coaching

Breakthrough Consulting Group’s ability to spark successful and effective leadership and team development is backed by Roy’s extensive experience as a leader across the legal and hi-tech industries. These competencies are strengthened through his writing and communications background, which combines to deliver personalized, data-driven, and effective leadership coaching and training.

Recently, Breakthrough assisted a C-suite executive at an American life sciences firm in overcoming communication hurdles. The client was a non-native English speaker, so he needed help communicating effectively with their overseas production partners. When Roy came on as the coach, the leader clearly illustrated his problems and emphasized the need to improve quickly as the production was ready to ramp up. Over the subsequent months, Roy coached him on strategies to better deliver presentations and write clearer emails by developing a framework where he could continually test whether his language and tone were clear and the key message was landing. This enhancement of communication skillsets also enabled the client to elevate his standing with the board of directors as he could present information in a clearer and more engaging way. Breakthrough’s remit was recently expanded to coach the rest of the executive leadership team on their communication skills before their next round of funding.

Adapting to Emerging Needs to De-Risk the Future

Since the pandemic, Roy noticed an increasing need for leadership skills that can impact facets beyond business and augment personal aspects as well. Breakthrough pivoted its portfolio to better align with this shift, helping leaders do well as business executives and become better spouses and parents by making time for habits that drive physical fitness and mental well-being. Roy initially lacked faith in virtual coaching sessions, which changed as he and his team got better at noticing subtleties in their coachee’s facial expressions.

“Even in virtual sessions, there are certain gives that rise to the surface and make the work easier than I would’ve thought going into it. The move to virtual sessions widened my practice, so instead of being constrained to the northeast, my clients are now spread throughout North America and Europe,” adds Roy.

Moving forward, Breakthrough Consulting plans on developing coaching services for deeper teams, allowing middle managers to implement plans from senior leadership to the larger workforce effectively.