Our core expertise is helping leaders, teams and organizations unleash their power to thrive and create powerful business results. We accomplish our mission by delivering the following services to leaders, teams and organizations:
- Integral Executive Coaching
- Integral Intelligence® Leadership Development Programs
- Team Development
- Appreciative Inquiry Consulting
- Organization Effectiveness Design and Facilitation
Integral Executive Coaching
Integral Executive Coaching, grounded in our methodology, is an intensive one-on-one coaching process targeted to leaders and executives seeking to gain greater mastery in leadership and life.
Thank you so very much for all of your help, especially in teaching me to understand the “pain of winning”—it’s made a huge impact on my way of being, and I am a much better person and leader because of it.—SVP, Life Science Organization
Through this coaching process, leaders develop a powerful leadership presence, or Way-of-Being, in which they enhance self-insight and intention. They focus on how they show up in every moment, every interaction, and every response. Integral leaders create powerful business results by transforming themselves and unleashing potential in others.
I cannot thank you enough for the professional and personal impact of your coaching on my ability to be a more effective leader, manager and human being. This experience has helped me integrate the intellectual and emotional sides of leadership, closing the gap between my intentions and expressions, and the perspectives, styles and needs of others in order to be successful. I’ve been delighted in the integrated approach you’ve brought to the process, which has reinforced for me the need to maintain a balanced perspective that incorporates a deeper understanding of intent, motivation and outcomes in my ongoing development as a leader.—Doug Warner, SR., Director, Strategic Business Development, Hewlett-Packard
Integral Executive Coaching is geared to meet the development needs of leaders in high visibility, high growth and/or high impact roles from Directors through C-Suite Executives. We partner with our clients to create a roadmap and powerful development plans that optimize talents and resolve barriers to success. Regular coaching sessions are held over six to twelve months with periodic milestone assessments. Rapidly accelerating performance, our coaching process is personally and professionally fulfilling, fosters resilience, builds competencies, and provides leaders with confidence to meet the escalating demands of work and life.
Your guidance and advice were extremely helpful to me in my career and personal development. Specifically, you helped me achieve a better sense of self-awareness, an involved work-life balance, and instilled in me the importance of somatic health and overall balance in my life. I’ve continued to use the skills you taught me on a daily basis. I highly recommend your services for individuals that feel stressed, over-extended, or who aren’t getting what they want out of life.”—Todd Stewart, Sr. Director of Information Technology, Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Our three primary areas of coaching specialty are: developing high potential leaders, working with leaders in the midst of career transitions with increasing scope and working with leaders who are seeking to build and sustain high performing teams. We work with Directors through C-Suite Executives. The following areas are typical coaching issues we encounter and help resolve:
- Developing/optimizing leadership presence
- Managing up, across and down effectively
- Making timely, effective decisions
- Building confidence and trust in oneself and others
- Accepting accountability and being a causal agent in the world
- Developing, harnessing and leveraging the power of teams
- Delegating to operate more strategically
- Developing resilience (balancing work and life so neither suffers)
- Building emotional and relational intelligence to optimize networks
- Learning to engage in difficult conversations and courageously step into conflict
- Building coaching competence to develop and influence others
- Leveraging resources effectively
- Developing effective communication strategies/asking generative questions
The teachings you provided the Amylin leadership team were instrumental in making yesterday possible.—Dan Bradbury, CEO, Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Upon FDA approval of a first-in-class pharmaceutical following a one-year delay.)
Integral Intelligence® Leadership Development Programs
There is untapped talent waiting to be unleashed in every organization. In today’s landscape of flatter organizations and increasing complexity, it takes a different kind of leadership to realize this potential. Leaders must successfully align organizational culture with what they are strategically trying to achieve. In our programs, we help leaders focus not only on what they do as leaders, but also on who they are as leaders: how they show up. This is what differentiates good leaders from great ones, so we call it out and make it an explicit focus of learning. Our leadership development programs build targeted individual, team and organizational leadership competencies critical for success.
I hired Positive Impact to facilitate a leadership development program for my $2B company, to groom high potential leaders hand-picked from departments across the U.S., Europe, India, and Asia Pacific. They participated in a six-month program. These individuals went through deep, life-affirming changes. We watched as they engaged with each other with authenticity, courage, and a level of openness not present at the start of the program. Our goal was resiliency—for those leaders to remain adaptive, creative, positive, and productive during periods of significant company uncertainty. Since the program ended, we’ve observed how these leaders have continued to engage with the rest of the organization using new tools and a fearlessness and willingness to lead that has been inspiring.—Lori Kendall, Vice President, Business Operations & Programs, UCC, Polycom
Studies indicate that Executive Coaching yields a 6:1 ROI. 1 The challenge with this type of coaching is that it is cost prohibitive for broad use and can be applied to only a few key leaders. We use a peer-coaching, group learning model that makes coaching accessible to larger numbers of leaders so they get the benefits of coaching, but at a price that is affordable to most organizations. Using a workshop, action learning and executive and peer coaching format conducted over a five to nine month period, our programs:
- Reap much of the richness of executive coaching at a lower price; providing high value to the organization
- Provide a highly applicable and sustainable learning experience that continues long after the program ends
- Focus on “whole-person” learning which creates a transformational effect for participants, their teams, organizations and families
For the past several years, this 6 month program has created a safe experience in which close to 100 Comcast leaders explored not only themselves in multiple dimensions but also the value of learning from others. Confucius said, “Learning without thought is labor lost,” and this program drew the participants into a place of deep reflection and thinking which allowed them to grow exponentially. This experience has been an integral part of developing our high potential leaders, and executives are continually commenting on the impact this program had on the business.—Regina Hutchinson, VP Learning and Development, Comcast
- Develop the leader’s capacity to coach and develop others, a competency that is “emerging as second only to team leadership among superior managers,” (Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence)
- Support participants to “learn by doing” so they transfer what they learn in coaching their peers to coaching direct reports, creating a culture that results in positive change
- Leverage and strengthen team dynamics ways that help cascade the learning deep into the organization
¹ Jan 4, 2001 … JACKSONVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Manchester Group Study
A primary goal of our leadership development efforts is to develop self-correcting, self-generating leaders who are prepared to successfully navigate the rapid rate of change occurring within our organization and our industry. Taking our top 100 leaders through the Integral Intelligence program over the past three years has helped us shift our focus from what a leader does to the development of a leadership way of being. This has helped us build a bench of leaders able to tap their “integral intelligence” to drive change & innovation as evidenced by the number of program attendees promoted to senior leadership ranks.—Debbie Rocco, Chief Learning Officer, Amylin Pharmaceuticals
The outcome for leaders experiencing our programs is to support them in stepping up to lead with Integral Intelligence®, moving from the left side of the table – traps – to the right side — behaviors that will transform your leaders and your culture.
Traps Leaders Fall Into | How to Step Out |
---|---|
Relying on cognitive intelligence | Use all dimensions of intelligence |
Habitual patterns drive actions | Self insight informs behavior |
Fragmented work and life | Integrate experience |
Orienting around problems | Create possibilities |
Motivated by personal gain | Unleash potential in others |
Focusing on short term success | Foster sustainable outcomes |
Driven by deliverables | Inspire meaning in work |
Burn out | Maintain resilience |
Limited by circumstances | Catalyze change |
Playing a role defined by others | Be authentic |
Scattered attention | Present in the moment |
Delivering the answers | Ask powerful questions |
Performing as expert | Facilitate learning |
Spinning the message | Tell the truth |
Operating in silos | Focus on the greater good |
© Integral Intelligence, 2012, all rights reserved
This program is a way to unlock those things people had no idea how to get to. I feel the most confident I’ve ever felt in my life.—Vice President, Operations
For more detailed information about the transformational results of these programs, please visit Integraliq.com
What’s made this experience so valuable is the immediacy of feedback from my peers who are also in the program. There is no fear factor or hesitancy to provide that feedback. …It’s a group that gives feedback instantaneously in a business setting.—Director, Finance
I’ve gained a new set of knowledge about myself, about leadership, about my colleagues that really transcends [the company]. It’s made me a better person, not only at work but at home.—Vice President, Research & Development
I have changed and I see a difference in our leaders as a result of this program. We are more present, more aware of what’s going on, we have more cognitive agility and are more resilient in difficult situations. By having more authentic conversations where assumptions are revealed and you can actually get to the meat of the matter, meetings are more efficient, decisions are better and they happen more quickly.—Executive Director, Organization Effectiveness
Three years after the program, my peer coach and I continue to meet regularly and try to keep each others’ feet on the ground!—Senior Director, Commercial Operations
Read more comments at IntegralIQ.com
Examples of Our Leadership Development Work
- Delivered flagship program for development of nominated high potential leaders for six years as part of succession process that focused on building cross-functional capabilities for Fortune 100 Entertainment Company. 98% of all participants said they would recommend the program to others
- Delivered an intensive program for the top 100 leaders for three years to develop coaching capability and create a cultural shift to drive greater ownership and accountability into the organization. As a result, 36% of Vice Presidents in the corporation were promoted from other roles within the company within twelve months of program completion
- Delivered a six month intensive development program for global cross-functional leaders of a technology organization undergoing rapid change.
- Delivered a six month intensive development program for two years for a large semi-conductor company in conjunction with a mentoring program.
The biggest value of the program was to target the areas that were my blind spots. From my past experience, I’d always been rewarded for multi-tasking, but some of the things I was doing interfered. It’s hard to get feedback about those things except in this kind of program. What’s made it so valuable is the immediacy of feedback from my peers who are also in the program. There is no fear factor or hesitancy to provide that feedback. The program has created a tool box and a network for me and the peer group experience has been extremely valuable because it’s a group that gives feedback instantaneously in a business setting.—Vice President, Life Sciences
Accelerating Team Development
Our approach to team development builds high performance teams and accelerates development by providing practical opportunities to learn and apply critical capacities for team success. In addition to cognitive agility, developing emotional and relational intelligence is vital for effective team functioning, so that is a core focus of our work. Our approach with teams is highly experiential, and our action learning approach helps them achieve their objectives more quickly and effectively, while direct application to work makes the learning sustainable. Our work with teams is tailored to the needs of our clients. It combines group work, and may also include a combination of peer-to-peer and/or team, and individual coaching. The work can last from several sessions to several months. Working with teams over time helps them apply their learning and build on what they learn. The flow of each session is flexible based on business need/development objectives. Work outside the group sessions often consists of applied exercises, reading and coaching for individual development.
I work well one-on-one, but this program gave me the tools to be more aware of how I show up in a group, to center myself before I go in, to notice the effect I’m having on others, to come in more relaxed and receptive and to become a better listener in team and group situations. I came into this with a lot of technical knowledge, but now I’m mentoring my direct reports to solve the problems themselves, which is helping them become more competent. The mentoring/coaching we learned in the program was very powerful. Now my time is freed up because I’m spending less time problem-solving and fire-fighting and more time strategizing.—Senior Director
Our approach achieves the following outcomes:
Accelerates Performance in New Teams or in Cross-Team Integrations
- Quicker, more effective decision making
- Clearer, more direct communication
- Stronger collaboration
- Greater agility
Builds Trust
- Deepens capacity to engage in courageous conversations
- Enhances willingness for self-disclosure
- Provides honest, helpful feedback in the moment
- Develops active listening skills
Sharpens the Ability of Individual Leaders to be More Effective
- Self-insight is enhanced
- Participants make more effective choices in relationship with others
- Self-correcting behavior is reinforced
Creates Greater Team Impact
- More authentic presence
- Positive perception by others within and outside the team
- Greater influence and personal/team accountability
I wanted to let you know how pleased I’ve been with the consulting and facilitation you have provided Customer Support Services during the past year. Your coaching, leadership development and team development efforts have enabled our managers and team leaders a critical awareness of how their management and leadership styles influence their ability to work effectively with their people. As a result, they are developing productive and effective teams more quickly. Not only have your services saved time and money, they have helped us develop a more open, supportive work environment.—Selma Vandagrift, former Vice President Customer Support Services, IKON Office Solutions
Examples of Team Development Work We’ve Facilitated
- Designed and facilitated a four month team development process to enhance collaboration and trust between two critical teams of a “best places to work” leading technology company in Silicon Valley.
- Developed an organizational platform (vision, values, purpose and mission) with the leadership team of a technology start-up in Silicon Valley.
- Developed a team assessment, interviewed team members, created an assessment report and facilitated a two day off-site for a team in a Fortune 500 technology company in which a set clear set of operating agreements, collaborative expectations and communication plans were created, enabling greater efficiency, cooperation and engagement between the teams.
- Developed a Leadership Readiness Survey, designed an off-site and served as lead facilitator of a two-day Leadership Summit of twenty-five international chapter presidents of Fortune 50 IT user group with a 92% facilitator effectiveness rating.
- Facilitated work with multiple teams of 12-20 high potential leaders (Directors through C-suite) over five to twelve months in our Integral Intelligence® leadership development programs. Please see these results.
Appreciative Inquiry Consulting
Donna, there’s been a lot of feedback from the Board of Trustees on the interactions we had using the AI process. All have been very positive and we want more!—Dr. John Nelson, President, American Medical Association
In business, often we focus on the “gaps,” on the things that are broken and need fixing, rather than on what’s working well and building from strengths. Focusing energy on deficits negatively impacts morale and leads to disengagement. But in many organizations, a singular emphasis on solving problems is still the norm. And that’s limiting, especially when there’s a powerful alternative that can move us farther and faster toward the futures we seek to create. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an effective antidote to the negativity that impedes success in teams and organizations. AI is a powerful change management process based on the premise that people and organizations move in the direction of what they pay attention to. Asking generative questions creates potent outcomes. What accelerates positive change is studying, adapting and replicating what already works. And that’s what we help our clients do; increase their repertoire of effective choices by learning to see the world through a different lens.
I feel I now have the ability to go into more challenging situations and come out with a positive outcome. I’ve learned to empower my managers to go back to our clients in an appreciative way and then bring up the issues and provide solutions without being confrontational. Now the work gets done better, faster, and cheaper and we can ensure that we’re hitting the bull’s eye the first time.—Todd Miller, former Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sharp HealthCare
Using an Appreciative Lens to Accelerate Positive Change
Problem Solving Approach | Appreciative Approach |
---|---|
We organize around what’s broken | We organize around what’s working |
Strategy is to identify, analyze and solve problems | Strategy is to marry the best of the past, with what’s working now with hopes for the future, and then design ways to create that reality together |
Focuses on limitations | Focuses on possibilities |
Deficit based-often creates an energy drain | Generative-accelerates energy |
© Positive Impact, LLC, 2009, all rights reserved AI can be applied to virtually any industry, topic or situation a team or organization seeks to address including: vision, strategy, leadership, organization design, change management, decision-making, building trust, allocating resources, building teams, managing talent or improving processes. Using an AI approach to create cultures of positive change benefits the teams and organizations. It helps:
- Support the emergence of leaders at every level
- People address and resolve issues quickly.
- Promote participation from a variety of stakeholders so everyone’s voice is heard.
- Creates sustainable change by including those most affected by change in the process so there’s less resistance.
- Saves time and money by aligning people to achieve objectives without the need for extensive external support.
- Builds engagement, improves morale and builds positive relationships between co-workers
- Dismantle organizational deficits (distrust, blame, helplessness, lack of accountability, and isolation).
- Generate engagement (hope, mutual understanding, and a willingness to work across silos with a can-do attitude).
Today we described the story of how we were able to move away from the crisis reaction model to one that was more proactive, positive and partnership oriented one. We unanimously agreed that the turning point that made this possible was our experience in the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) work with Donna Stoneham. Until we did that, we were all locking horns even on stuff that had nothing to do with the mega issues. AI allowed us to develop a way to work on the day-to-day operational problem solving work without those issues getting in the way. It showed us the way to mutual self-interest and to an understanding that a lot of the quality of life issues couldn’t be solved by one entity or another…it could only be done together. Sometimes you don’t realize the return on your investment until many years later, as in this case.—Participant from the City of Berkeley/UC Berkeley AI Project
Examples of Some of Our Appreciative Inquiry Projects
- “Leading Change: Creating Dynamic Organizations Through Collaborative Leadership” for 300 Presidents, Presidents-Elect and Executive Directors from medical associations from around the U.S. at the annual American Medical Association’s (AMA) President’s Forum.
- “Deepening Coaching Capacity: A Workshop for Global HR Leaders,” for an industry-leading Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company
- “Creating a Compelling Vision to Optimize Team Success” with the sales and marketing leadership team of a Fortune 100 “Best Places to Work” award winning life sciences organization
- “Crossing the Threshold to Greatness: Optimizing Cross-Team Relationships to Build a Championship Organization” for a ”Top Work Places in the Bay Area” award winning technology organization
- “Talent Development: The Holy Grail of Human Resource Management” for HR West, the HR Leadership Team that includes seven west coast Johnson & Johnson companies
- “The Road to World Cup: How Exceptional Teams Achieve Radical Success” for the World Cup Soccer Marketing Team at MasterCard International
- “Using Appreciative Inquiry to Lead Positive Change” for the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.
- “Seeds of Change: Generating Service Excellence” for 80 members of Sharp HealthCare’s marketing team
- Designed and facilitated a year-long Appreciative Inquiry process involving 180 community and university leaders from the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley focusing on creating synergistic partnerships and community engagement between the two institutions.
- Promoting Excellence Through Community Pride and Involvement” at Willow Glen Middle School with 90 students, parents, teachers and community stakeholders from the San Jose U.S.D.
Organization Effectiveness Consulting
In addition to our leadership development, team development, and appreciative inquiry consulting services, we offer the following services to our client groups:
- Facilitation
- Assessment Development & Feedback
A Few Examples of Our Organization Effectiveness Engagements
- Designed and conducted an extensive Organization Assessment with seventy-six current and former members of a Fortune 50 IT Research Lab via individual interviews and focus groups in the US and abroad. Developed recommendations, facilitated management team meetings to develop and execute recommendations, provided coaching to individual managers, and delivered assessment findings to over one hundred-fifty corporate research staff members. Developed research action calendar to assist with executing recommendations for improvement and assisted lab management in launching a cultural enhancement team.
- Analyzed Organization Assessment data for recently merged marketing division of Fortune 50 IT Company, designed and served as lead facilitator of two day off-site, and facilitated the development of division operating agreements and values with an overall participant satisfaction rating of 95%.
- Conducted interviews, designed and delivered off-site focusing on creating a vision and improving communications and teamwork between city officials, elected officials and other critical stakeholders to improve effectiveness of city government.
- Conducted interviews, designed and delivered off-site focusing on improving team effectiveness and communications with leadership team of national government training division and conducted follow up sessions with an overall participant rating of 92%.
Facilitation
I wanted to say many thanks for your insights and guidance yesterday at our offsite. Everyone was very complimentary of your delivery and guidance; actually wanted more time with you so we will have to consider a follow up in the future. —Senior Director, Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Company
Donna Stoneham is a master facilitator with over twenty years of experience facilitating small teams to large gatherings of several hundred people. In her facilitation work, she creates transformational experiences for the teams and groups she serves, leaving participants with powerful, practical tools they can readily apply to work and life. She has facilitated meetings, off-sites and retreats for the following groups across a wide variety of industries:
- Executive teams
- Boards
- Leadership teams
- Schools
- Communities
The Appreciative Leadership Summit was an excellent, high-level depth workshop in every way. It offered intense, transforming learning.—Connie Harmsen, former CEO, Banner Estrella Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
- Municipalities
- Sales and marketing teams
- Product teams
- Health care organizations
- Not-for-profit organizations
- Associations
- Affinity groups
- Newly formed teams and teams in the process of integration
Donna, I want to compliment you on your delivery, handling, and the results gained at our San Diego meeting. Members of the Global Advisory Board have agreed that you were just fantastic and we want to work with you again.— Colleen Higgins, former President, Digital Equipment Computer User’s Society Australia
Donna thanks so much for facilitating the Planning Committee meeting. I was very pleased with the impact. Even with such a short exposure, people seemed to feel the energy and potential. I heard words such as “powerful,” jazzed,” and “this is the tool we have been missing.”—Nelle Moffett, Dean, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness, Sacramento City College
Survey Development, Assessments and Feedback Delivery
The organization assessment you did was the best piece of work of its kind that I have ever seen. You did a great job!—Mark Tuttle, Ph.D., Researcher, Cambridge Research Labs
It’s often the gap between intentions and perceptions that derails effective leadership and execution. Feedback is a critical tool to expose potential blind spots and provide a clear understanding of strengths and opportunities for development in leaders, teams and organizations.
This is the most thorough and helpful feedback I’ve ever received as a leader. It’s made such a difference to help me understand how people really see me and what I need to do to close the gaps. I refer to it often and it’s really proving to be an important compass in my development efforts.–Director, Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Company
Good feedback starts with crafting powerful questions. We tailor survey questions to capture the essence of what’s needed to illuminate blind spots, identify obstacles in the way of success and that will help people leverage underutilized strengths. Then we create a comfortable and safe interview environment that encourages people to be candid in their responses. The next step is to analyze emerging themes and patterns from the data, and present what we learn in a way that’s balanced, readily understandable and easy to use. Finally, we deliver feedback reports with sensitivity so that people can use them as a road map to make positive changes in their leadership, their teams, or their organizations. We provide survey and assessment development and feedback delivery in the following areas:
In the kind of work that you have led, it is often very hard to identify, pick out, and articulate the essence behind a large volume of often very subjective feedback, and I have been repeatedly impressed by your ability to do so. You have used that talent to keep us all focused on the central issues. It has been a great learning experience for me to participate in this process.—R.S. Nikhil, Ph.D., former Lab Director, Cambridge Research Labs
- 360 feedback for leadership development and executive coaching programs
- Integral Intelligence® Assessments
- Team Assessments
- Organization Assessments
- Self care Assessments