Giving New Leaders an Edge
For first-time leaders, finding the right support early in their transition to a new role can make the difference between failing and thriving.
However, training for first-time leaders isn’t always readily available from day one. This was the case at CareSource, a Dayton, Ohio-based nonprofit that fills a unique niche in the health care sector. As one of the largest public-sector managed care companies in the United States, CareSource serves more than 1.3 million consumers and employs more than 1,800 people.
CareSource has long boasted a robust training program via university structure emphasizing performance management, leadership development and succession planning. However, as the organization grew, so did the demand for training.
“We had formal training in place for our first-time leaders, but they could go three months before they actually attended their formal training,” says International Coach Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach J. Matthew Becker, M.Ed., coaching and mentoring manager for CareSource. The organization needed an individualized modality to supplement existing training offerings. Professional coaching offered a viable solution.
Organizations like CareSource must adapt rapidly to the United States’ dynamic health-care environment. “We see changes within the industry and within our business every day,” says Jackie Smith, vice president of CareSource University, the organization’s training arm.
These changes have prompted rapid growth at CareSource. In the last half-decade, the organization has grown by more than 57 percent of its total employee population and encountered new challenges posed by a growing cadre of mobile employees.
In January 2009, Smith and Becker took a proposal for Leadership Transition Coaching (LTC) to CareSource’s executive team members, who embraced it enthusiastically. Although support for LTC emanated from the top, down, the initiative itself has a bottom-up structure designed to reach new managers and leaders. The structure of LTC engagements (which typically span six months) enables new leaders to address their challenges in a tailored way. The first three sessions are designed to help clients clarify their goals and desires for the engagement, with Becker asking questions about the vision they have for their legacy, their objectives for their team and/or department, and their own expectations for the coaching relationship.
Coaching addresses the challenge of assimilating new leaders into CareSource’s culture head-on by empowering leaders with the goals they need for success and providing a safe space to explore issues and concerns. Becker cites one success story of a high-level director hired from outside the organization who, after completing LTC, confided that she “would not have stayed with the organization were it not for coaching.” In 2014, LTC was credited with an overall savings of $744,632 USD, an 18 percent increase in employee engagement and a return on investment of 211 percent.
CareSource also measures LTC clients’ return on expectations. After clients identify their expectations for the coaching engagement, Becker asks them to use a 10-point scale to assess their confidence in achieving each goal. They’re then asked to repeat the exercise at the end of the engagement. 2014 ROE numbers showed a 91 percent increase in leaders’ confidence in their ability to achieve their expectations after coaching.
Becker will tell the story of CareSource’s award-winning LTC initiative and share the latest data on the program’s efficacy during his 2015 Learning and Leadership Development Conference presentation, “Leadership Transition Coaching: The Missing Ingredient for Developing High Potential Leaders.”