13: COACHING TO SUPPORT DOCTORAL ROLE TRANSITIONS ■ 311for an occasional shared meeting between two department chairs to discuss
their different leadership styles when this exploration was relevant to their
coaching goals. Department chairs were also encouraged to contact the coach
between sessions should they want feedback, or time to discuss a current issue.
Throughout the duration of the coaching process, the department chairs were
encouraged to use the associate dean as a mentor—to feel free to ask for feed-
back on decisions, to stop by his or her office to ask a question, and/or to brain-
storm alternative ways of handling situations. In this way, the associate dean
was a positive part of the ongoing coaching process and methodology.
■ CASE STUDY II (continued)
(continued)■ CASE STUDY III
COACHING CHALLENGES
There were common leadership development themes that emerged with the
new leaders in this academic setting, and also some that were unique to the in-
dividual coaching client. The following challenges emerged during the coaching
process, many of which were targeted as specific goals for individual coaching
clients:
- Learning to say “no” and set boundaries
- Letting go of perfection in the service of getting things done
- Attending to relationships over task accomplishment
- Learning when it is safe to ask questions and to not need to appear as
an expert - Developing listening skills
- Creating visibility outside the nursing school and within the larger uni-
versity - Managing time
- Identifying patterns of self-sabotage and reversing them
- Managing self-care in the midst of feeling overwhelmed
- Creating strategies for stress reduction
- Modulating emotional reactivity
- Finding and developing a personal style of leadership presence
■ CASE STUDIES: Two Individual Case Examples
The following two case examples describe the specific challenges for two of the
newly appointed leaders who generously allowed their stories to be told.