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CaFE Program Director Joins Social Innovation Forum Executive Coaching Class

CaFE Program Director Joins Social Innovation Forum Executive Coaching Class

We are so proud to announce that our own College and Financial Empowerment Program Director, Tiana Bonner, has been selected to join The Social Innovation Forum Executive coaching class of 2019! Through a 12-year partnership with William James College (formerly Mass School of Professional Psychology) The Social Innovation Forum works with a small group of leaders from local organizations to help them grow their organizations and themselves.

The Social Innovation Forum defines executive coaching as three levels of learning:

  1. Tactical problem solving and focusing on achieving results for your organization,
  2. Developing leadership capabilities and new ways of thinking and acting that apply to other situations and roles,
  3. “Learning how to learn”: developing skills and habits of self-reflection that ensure that learning will continue after coaching ends.

Each member of the coaching class is paired with an executive coach, similar to a mentor. These coaches help guide participants, helping them focus on what they want to learn. For Tiana, her coach is Dobbin O. Bookman, Director of the Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management (OPM) Program. The two will work together to bring a new focus and organization to the College and Financial Empowerment Program, as well as all of IBA.

There are a number of areas that executive coaches are trained to work with participants, including:

  • Communications Skills Coaching – helps individuals gain self-awareness about how they are perceived by others and why they are perceived in that way
  • High-Potential or Developmental Coaching – works with organizations to develop the potential of individuals who have been identified as key to the organizations’ future or are part of the organization’s succession plan.
  • Performance Coaching – helps leaders and potential leaders better understand the requirements of their jobs, the competencies needed to fulfill those requirements, and any gaps in their current performance and opportunities to improve their performance.
  • Succession Coaching – helps potential candidates for senior management positions and prepares them for promotion to more senior roles.
  • Newly Assigned Leader coaching – supports newly assigned or hired leaders to get “onboard” and get off to a strong start in their new roles.

During a recent sit-down with Tiana, she explained that she’s excited about the coaching class for a number of reasons. As IBA’s youngest Program Director, she plans to work with her coach on personal and developmental growth. For IBA, this means Tiana’s experience will strengthen her role as a leader, and her her team by extension. Additionally, she’s going to use what she learns to help center IBA and the College and Financial Program’s mission. One of her goals for the coaching class, and for IBA, is to focus on what the community actually wants and needs, rather than what the organization thinks they need.

In her words, “I would love to be able to help and support staff examine gaps between their intentions and their actions as it relates to the alignment of the organization, our mission, Intended Impact and Theory of Change.”

We’re looking forward to the new skills Tiana can bring back to IBA from her executive coaching class, and we wish her the best!

For more information about our College and Financial Empowerment program, please go to: https://ibaboston.org/programs...

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