Services for Individuals
Who Uses These Individual Services?
Individuals work with Flannes & Associates by contacting us directly, or upon referral from someone within their organization. In all cases, client confidentiality and respect are primary.
What Are the Individual Services?
We provide three types of services for individuals. The individual services are:
- Career Assessment and Transition Services
- Professional Coaching and Individual Development Services
- Resolution of Workplace Problems Services
1. Career Assessment and Career Transition Services
Career assessment and coaching services can be very valuable for the individual who wants to make a career change, or seek a new position. Our specific services are selected in partnership with the client to address his or her current needs; we do not use a predetermined set of instruments or processes. We have found that focused, personalized discussions can leverage the individual’s own strengths and resources to significantly “jump start” the transition process.
Our services involve a combination, as appropriate, of meetings that combine goal directed discussion with professional assessment processes to identify the client’s:
- Career interests, through discussions or online assessments (see “Online Assessment Services”)
- Personal style and its organizational “best fit”
- Definition of work and personal values
- Career blocking behaviors
- Strategies for professional networking and interviewing
We provide supportive and frank feedback during the consulting relationship, working with the client to create a tangible action plan the client can individually use to keep the process moving forward.
Here are two examples of our work with individuals who received these types of individual services:
Example # 1: President of $28 billion division of a global manufacturer
The Situation
This person went through a career assessment process in order to determine interests and goals for the next work chapter in his life. Tailored personal assessments were given to the client, coupled with an in-depth discussion of the results and the crafting of a “next steps” strategy that assisted this individual in deciding the next best fit assignment.
The Solution
He decided to take his skills and apply them in a smaller, more entrepreneurial environment.
Example # 2: Information technology executive searching for a new mission at work
The Situation
This man had succeeded in the financial services (brokerage) world, and had been laid off as the project to which he was dedicated began to wind down. He had worked throughout his career in the IT function, at high levels of leadership, but now faced the realization that “he’d been there, done that.” Our work with him, involving discussions and assessments, highlighted his current drive to work in “more creative ways.”
The Solution
He took his IT and leadership skills and applied them as an independent consultant working with organizations in the world of the arts. He has enjoyed this better fit, as well as the opportunity to achieve more balance and personal satisfaction in his life.
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2. Professional Coaching and Individual Development Services (top of page)
Frequently, a professional may find it very valuable to pursue professional coaching when he or she:
- Faces a challenge in the work place that requires additional people or leadership skills in order to successfully work with a manager or peer
- Sees that the organization is shifting into an operations model that requires more people skill sophistication, such as virtual team environments with cross cultural influences.
- Needs to gain new soft skills in order to handle a new, demanding assignment or positions
- Needs to develop additional leadership competencies in order to propel the career forward when career progress is “stuck”
Here are two examples of our work with individuals who received these types of individual services:
Example # 1: Software program manager facing cross-cultural challenges
The Situation
This woman was identified by her employer as a high achiever designated to receive professional coaching. She worked in an American location of a company based in the Pacific Rim, and found that her technical prowess did not directly help her navigate the cross cultural issues with her managers at the corporate headquarters. Our work focused on helping her understand her communication style, and the communication style of her key managers.
The Solution
She was able to more effectively promote herself and her achievements. She was promoted to a leadership position with a much larger scope and a higher visibility.
Example # 2: Corporate controller needing to develop more “followership”
The Situation
This man had a very strong work ethic and was very personally demanding. In order to work more effectively in his growing corporate culture and with his own team, he desired assistance in developing his interpersonal and influencing skills, so that he did not come across too much to his stakeholders as “just business.”
The Solution
We were able to help him access a very personable side of him and then find appropriate vehicles for him to use in presenting this side of himself to coworkers. Demonstrating this personable side to others altered their perceptions of him as “too technical, not people focused enough.” He was ultimately chosen for some very challenging assignments requiring him to successfully employ these new interpersonal skills. (top of page)
3. Resolution of Specific Workplace Problems (top of page) This service focuses very intently on helping the individual resolve a very tangible, here-and-now issue that is:
- Impeding their professional achievement and their manager’s goals, or
- Placing the individual’s job security at risk
The individual may contact us directly, or may be referred by a company official as part of a performance improvement plan.
This service involves a frank and direct assessment of strengths and weaknesses (both personal and professional). Immediately, we begin to leverage existing strengths to modify the problematic behavior. Specific goals are established with the client that reflect the improvement that is needed on the job. The client puts those goals in place, and we review the level of effectiveness. Ongoing coaching and feedback to those goals helps maintain our focus on the importance of the client making tangible improvements within a specified time frame.
Here are two examples of our work with individuals who have received this type of individual service:
Example # 1: Operations manager with “aggressive style” issues
The Situation
This person’s aggressive style was hindering his performance in a corporate culture that was requiring more sophistication in the soft side of leadership. The client had the reputation of getting the job done, but often at the expense of alienating other through his hard nosed style. He needed to make quick changes due to an organizational change that would require people in positions such as his to assume more visibility and scope.
The Solution
We worked together to identify new, tangible communication approaches that he could used to communicate his action-oriented expectations without alienating others. He discovered that small changes paid big dividends in terms of how others perceived him. Soon, he was chosen for a series of turn around assignments that reflected his progress in modifying his personal style.
Example # 2: Content expert who “needed leadership skills”
The Situation
This woman had been successful in her career by being a true technical specialist. In essence, she was the “go to person” that her peers would seek out when difficult problems presented. Due to her technical expertise, she was promoted to a difficult role that required her to use subtle influencing behaviors within a matrix management system where her technical expertise was less effective than before. To her credit, she realized she was not performing at acceptable levels and was at risk in terms of job security.
The Solution
We identified influencing skills compatible with a matrix environment, and then identified resources and techniques that she could use to increase her skill in influencing. Her new skills gave her increased confidence, and she was able to meet her manager’s expectations. (top of page)
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