Intelligent Leaders succeed - Coaching the school leadership team for accelerated performance

Intelligent Leaders (IL) is an exciting coaching programme aimed at the senior school leadership team and consists of a series of coaching sessions, supported by development workshops to share best practice.

Lotus HR ran this programme for the Sacred Heart School with coaching sessions based on providing insightful feedback using the California Psychological (link to pdf - ) Inventory. This is an in-depth personality assessment measuring personal and professional characteristics, motivations and thinking styles, self-management and dealing with others.

The detailed personality profile gives insight into work style preferences, attitudes and behaviours in key dimensions of management and leadership and covers 26 capabilities categorised over five performance areas:

• Self-management
• Organisational capabilities
• Teambuilding and teamwork
• Problem solving
• Sustaining the vision

We worked with a team of 10 leaders over a nine month period, meeting monthly to explore areas where individual had mature skills and development gaps. The coaching programme achieved the following results:

• The top layer of the ‘onion’ was peeled away to discover the root cause of team problems
• Clarity was established about working practices. Identifying those that were disrupting team and individual performance and actions were planned to address these
• Strategies for improving verbal and non-verbal communication were learnt and applied leading to create greater team rapport
• Learning from past experience was applied to new challenges
• Individual potential was unlocked by a process of generating answers to existing problems
• Performance enhancement was achieved for both the team and individuals

Testimonial from Sacred Heart School

Yvonne’s input was exceptional. As a facilitator she was able to help the school recognise for itself the underlying issues that were blocking progress. Her clear, ‘no messing’ approach made her an ideal role-model for a leadership team that was constantly being side-tracked by fire-fighting issues and not getting down to the business of actual change. Her excellent people skills enabled her to work positively and productively at all levels within the school – everyone looked forward to Yvonne’s next visit! However, most importantly she enabled the school to move forward in a way that was right for our school within our school ethos.

Gaby Neiland, Headteacher - Sacred Heart School