COACHING FORLEADERSHIPDEVELOPMENT 149
Jim Moore
M
y coaching/consulting practice is centered on helping clients create
leadership development strategies, systems, and programs that sup-
port the achievement of business goals. My client is usually the head of
Human Resources or the head of Executive/Leadership Development at a
large corporation.
There are two key ingredients that ensure a successful engagement: the
approach I use and the client. Of course, each engagement is different, and
there is some art associated with success; however, over the years, I have de-
veloped the following guidelines to deal with each of these ingredients:- Star t with the business.The only reason a company should invest in lead-
ership development is to positively impact the business. Therefore, lead-
ership development processes, systems, and tools must be grounded in
the business. Leadership development strategy creation should start with
an analysis of the business—the business strategy, the marketplace chal-
lenges, the current performance issues, and so on. Linking leadership
development to the business is the right thing to do for the shareholders,
and it will help ensure organizational and financial success. - Be clear about the purpose of leadership development before designing a
solution.This sounds obvious; however, clients have hired me to help
design a program without a clear understanding of why they were doing
it. If the purpose is to build bench strength and a pipeline of talent,
then the focus should be on creating a first-class succession planning
process that identifies the highest potential talent, providing excellent
Jim Moore is currently an independent consultant work-
ing with the Alliance For Strategic Leadership Coaching
& Consulting, where he helps clients build leadership
development strategies and programs. His expertise
includes the design of succession planning systems, lead-
ership models, and customized executive education
programs that help companies achieve their strategic ob-
jectives. He has led executive and leadership develop-
ment organizations at three major corporations. He spent the first 20 years
ofhis career on the doing side of the business as a line executive in the
former Bell System. He holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the
University ofLouisville, Speed Scientific School. He is reachable by e-mail
at [email protected], by phone at (650) 328-7897, or via the Internet at
http://www.A4SL.com.