Ken Diller, Founder and CEOBy creating tailored development and coaching experiences designed to generate breakthroughs in self-awareness and personal responsibility, Canyon Bridge Consulting has been instrumental in resulting in lasting shifts and winning leadership behavior.
Canyon Bridge Consulting’s approach identifies blind spots and the context driving them, so the leader has new levels of awareness, a blueprint how to course correct and choose a more effective path, and maximize their unique leadership abilities.
Following is the conversation that Manage HR magazine had with Ken Diller, the Founder and CEO of Canyon Bridge Consulting.
What are the challenges that companies face today in the Executive Coaching space and how is Canyon Bridge Consulting effectively addressing these issues?
We’re all seeing how leadership is changing. To attract, retain, and develop talent, organizations must create a mentoring/coaching culture - where collaboration, partnership and engagement is engrained in the ethos.
The old hierarchical, top-down paradigm where leaders command/ control, exhibit reactive behaviors or have an overly directed style doesn’t work, and it puts the company at great risk (e.g. retaining employees). Organizations often don’t pivot to this new style effectively, and we are hired to support leaders to become more agile in the way they think and operate.
Whether it’s rounding out edges and elevating a talented, but abrasive or reactive leader, or supporting a leader-team to move away from a blame culture to a more authentic, collaborative way of partnering, we meet clients where they are and establish a gradient for them to succeed.
We believe we hold a unique position. In addition to focusing on what leaders are doing (how can they be more efficient, delegate more effectively, maximize their productivity and achieve results), we also zero in on how a leader is leading. A leader’s ability to create resonance impacts his/her ability to influence, problem solve, and create collaborative, engaged teams.
Please walk us through the Executive Coaching services that Canyon Bridge Consulting provides.
Quantifying and measuring success of coaching engagements remains an industry challenge, especially when the growth opportunities are in developing winning behaviors or upleveling emotional intelligence. As former corporate leaders ourselves, we are keenly aware of needing to demonstrate and track client results.
Our process to ensure successful outcomes includes: interviewing stakeholders and reviewing (or implementing) any assessments (if applicable), creating “connection calls” with coachee to ensure “best fit”, diving deeply to clarify and align coaching objectives, conducting stakeholder/coachee mid-point reviews, and integrating a follow-on action plan at completion. These steps allow us to both quantify the results of our engagements and share a concrete plan to continue forward momentum for the coachee well past our time together.
How does your process to ensure successful outcomes including: interviewing stakeholders and reviewing any assessments (if applicable), creating “connection calls” with coachee to ensure “best fit”?
Ensuring “best fit” defines how successful a coaching match will be. Interviewing stakeholders, supervisors, and reviewing any available assessments (or administering one) gives us a wide-angle view into the growth opportunities for a new coachee. We also initiate a discovery conversation with the coachee to lay a foundation of trust (critical to long-term success), ensure that we are well matched, and assess their coachability.
Coaching is successful 100 percent of the time when the client is engaged and takes an active role in their development. We have a deep chest of tools and practices designed to move a client forward, and their engagement in between sessions adds important momentum to their overall objectives. Every now and then, our discovery process identifies that a client is not ready (or willing) to be coached, and having these discovery calls saves each party from investing their resources on a less than certain outcome.
By creating tailored development and coaching experiences designed to generate breakthroughs in self-awareness and personal responsibility, how has Canyon Bridge Consulting been instrumental in resulting in lasting shifts and winning leadership behavior? Please elaborate.
Self-awareness and getting responsible for filling in our unique gaps elevates our Emotional Intelligence and is key to effective leadership. Like everyone, leaders have blind spots - things that they can’t see (or correct) on their own that are getting in the way of generating their best leadership results. Perhaps a leader becomes reactive when stressed or overwhelmed. Maybe there is a breakdown in the way they manage their time and efficiency. Perhaps they are a “High Potential” and leading others requires a wider skill set. Some may use an overly directed or authoritarian style, while others struggle to delegate and empower their staff. If not addressed, the outcomes of these leader-gaps can be devastating for an organization (e.g., inability to keep or attract talent, lower employee morale & motivation, a culture of fear and disengagement, to name a few).
CBC coaches hold a unique position in the coaching industry - we are former corporate leaders who have gone on to achieve an advanced ICF credential and support those in seats we used to occupy
Can you cite a case study where Canyon Bridge Consulting has enabled clients to overcome hurdles and attain desired outcomes?
We recently completed work with a senior leader who was operating on overwhelm and it was impacting his effectiveness. He was burning out, and was showing impatience and reactivity with his team, causing two valuable members to depart the organization. Obviously, employee departure is a huge cost to the company (in both actual and opportunity costs).
After four months of partnering together, he’s in a very different place, and is more effectively utilizing his resources; practicing clear communication, identifying healthier boundaries and strategic choices, and managing his own emotions so that he’s a leader employees are more interested in working for. It’s a work in progress, but he now has the awareness, tools, and framework to be more effective.
Please shed some light on Canyon Bridge Consulting’s approach and how it identifies blind spots and the context driving them?
Context is the lens with which we all judge the world through. We all have hidden contexts and blind spots, and they shape what we feel is right/wrong or good/bad, for example. What does this have to do with coaching? I’ll provide an example… If we learned from our family, our culture, or a former mentor that winning is everything (for instance), it’s predictable that we will become an unrelenting, directed style of boss who can intimidate others. That style (or context) alienates employees, produces a culture of fear, stifles creative problem solving, and often leads to motivation and retention issues.
With our style of coaching, we don’t just look at the behavior, we look at the story driving the behavior (context). Without understanding that, practices to course-correct don’t stick. Unlike therapy, we don’t seek to unravel it, heal it, or dive deep into a family story; rather, we simply create awareness around what is driving that style and create practices to try a different leadership action that will produce more effective results. Obviously, a leader has shown strengths that got them to that role. Our work is to add to those strengths - or give our clients new awareness, tools, and practices so they are more adept at meeting the demands and responsibilities of their role.
What separates Canyon Bridge Consulting from other players?
We possess three important differentiators. First, it was important to me to assemble a team of former organizational leaders. Simply put, we have a unique perspective, experience, and empathy for the challenges and opportunities that leader-teams face, because we’ve sat in those seats. We believe that gives us greater understanding, and a valuable vantage point to problem solve.
Second, we are all advanced credentialed ICF (International Coach Federation) coaches. Through rigorous training and testing, we have demonstrated coaching excellence to both the coaching industry’s credentialing board and our clients over the long term. While anyone can call themselves a coach, our advanced credentialing validates our expertise in the coaching space.
Lastly, each of our coaches has over 3500 hours of coaching experience. There isn’t a topic, concern, or need we haven’t successfully coached. We feel that our experience is an important trust-building distinction because the choice to commit an organization’s resources to support their employee or team’s development is a meaningful investment.
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Our process to ensure successful outcomes includes: interviewing stakeholders and reviewing any assessments (if applicable), creating “connection calls” with coachee
In order for us to show up as our best possible leadership selves for our clients, our team is also committed to their on-going development. The best coaches continue to pursue their own growth and learning, have their own coaches, and remain curious of ways they can show up as their unique Genius for their clients. When you hire us, you hire coaches that are committed to excellence in ourselves and for our clients.
Why would an organization hire an outside coach, when most have H.R. or L & D departments that can support their leaders in house?
There are a few reasons why we are called in to support a leader or a team. First is confidentiality. As wonderfully objective and safe in house support might be, a coachee is often resistant to be vulnerable because they’re worried about real or perceived conflicts of interest. As an independent resource, coaches aren’t “employees”, which can lead to a more trusting engagement.
Next, we often work with the most senior leaders in an organization, and there is no power dynamic or hierarchical structure that would keep us from having difficult or deep conversations. Fearless coaching and willingness for a coach to take risks is an essential value in coaching engagements, and the coachee is free to bring any topic to the table that they might hesitate to do with a fellow employee.
Lastly, coaching (and training) is all we do. Each CBC coach has graduated from the same rigorous, top-tier coach training program, has been awarded an advanced ICF credential, and has thousands of hours of coaching experience. We are dedicated full time to supporting leaders in their development and have a long track record of successful outcomes, while partnering closely in the process with HR or L & D leaders.
How do you manage to serve both the stakeholders and the coachee? What does Canyon Bridge Consulting do to ensure that all parties are satisfied while maintaining confidentiality?
This is perhaps one of the most important foundational components for successful engagements – creating an air-tight container of trust with the coachee, while still providing input and visibility for the stakeholders. We accomplish this by setting clear expectations up front. Prior to engagement, we welcome input and share our process with the stakeholders. They are invited to co-create the objectives with the coachee to ensure that the most important developmental opportunities are being addressed.
Once the engagement begins, we honor the ICF guidelines of confidentiality and don’t share what’s said in sessions. That safety is critical to generating successful outcomes with the coachee. Supervisors are encouraged to check in with the coachee and direct their questions there. We also conduct a Mid-Point Review, which includes supervisor/sponsor, the coach, and the coachee. That meeting provides closer access to the progress of the engagement, without the coachee worrying about off-line conversations between coach and supervisor. Lastly, we offer a Completion Recap meeting, to review what has been accomplished, and establish follow on practices to ensure long-term success.
Oftentimes, we coach up and down the line in an organization simultaneously (e.g. C-level→ VP→ Director). Success in these scenarios occurs because we honor the confidentiality of each participant.
