How Jodi Akst Coaching Supports Leaders and Organizations

I found the above graphic on a site for a coaching/consulting firm called Kappa Source. I am sharing it with you as a way to start articulating how Jodi Akst Coaching (JAC) views our work supporting mission-driven leaders and organizations. We coach and we consult. When we consult we use a coach-like approach. When I say "coach-like" to describe our consulting philosophy what that means is that we collaborate with you throughout the project. We don't work with our heads down at our computers in anticipation of telling you what to do. We believe strongly that you know your organization best, and our role is to help you uncover the best answers and solutions to whatever questions, challenges, or aspirations you're driving towards. Yes, we bring our years of experience starting business lines for a large national nonprofit, managing effective teams remotely, and working in the K-12 education space.  We also bring technical assistance. For example, we can build financial models, analyze data, and model options for organizational structures. What we also bring is an open-mind, an approach for helping you find the answers, and an ability to shift the work as we're doing it based on what we're learning. 

This approach to our work is coupled with our core strengths so we're able to offer a menu of services to meet your needs. I recently asked one of my prior managers, a former Executive Vice President at TNTP, what I was known for at work. She said things like, you're really good at turnaround and growth work. When a team isn't working at an optimal place you use your collaborative approach to first stabilize the team and then to make it effective. I knew I could give you anything to start up and you'd be able to do it. You know how to prioritize, and what investments in time and people to make to get it done. These skills plus my skills as a certified and accredited professional coach is what allows JAC to be full-service. 

As we get crisper with our branding and messaging (that was not something I'm known for), I thought it would be helpful to share more below about some of the services we offer. As always, please reach out to discuss what you're grappling with. I collaborate with all prospective clients on a scope of work that meets your needs, and I'm the first one to tell you if we're not best suited to support you. 

Stay well,

Jodi

We coach executives and leaders

Are you lonely at the top? Are you in a new role and want to hit it out of the park? Do you want unconditional support and unbiased thought-partnership? Are you stuck in some way? 

These are some of the times when leaders turn to coaching.  

To learn more about my approach to one-on-one coaching, watch this video about leveraging a professional coach. 

We help organizations with growth planning

You're running a mission-driven organization and you've proven your impact. You are moving from idea and start-up into the growth or maturation phase. You want to grow but aren't sure at what pace, in what ways or how.

We provide a process and technical assistance (e.g. growth models, org. design options, revenue projection tools) to help you uncover the answers to questions like: which programs do we expand, how do we shift our revenue model, what  organizational structure will best support our work and how do we ensure we're operating through a lens of equity.

We optimize teams

Do you think you can operate better? We understand team dynamics, how individuals operate best within teams, and how leaders impact team performance. We use organizational health, strengths-based, and/or 360 assessments (when helpful) and observation techniques to understand what needs to change, and then we help teams improve their performance through team visioning, one-on-one coaching and team coaching.

We run Leaders' Cohorts

Sometimes you want a community of high-achieving, like-minded leaders who you do not work with directly as a support network. We curate Leaders' Cohorts. The groups are capped at 4-6 leaders, participants have similar levels of responsibility and/or experience, the length, cadence and timing of the group fits with the group's needs and schedules, and the topic and approach aligns with the group's goals.