The Leadership Alignment Process
A structured process for organizations trying to change a long-standing pattern of behavior in a high-impact employee.
When feedback hasn’t been enough
You have a high-potential employee with a blind spot. They're capable and they deliver, but there's a pattern of behavior that keeps holding them back. The feedback has been given several times. Perhaps their behavior changes for a bit, but over time they revert, and it’s starting to affect the wider team. You don’t want to lose this person, but you can’t keep having the same conversation and expecting a different result.
The Leadership Alignment Process is designed for this situation.
What makes this different?
Most attempts to change long-standing behavior focus on the individual alone. But behavior lives inside a living system, and systems tend to resist change, even good change. So this process works on all three parts at once:
The employee. Clear, specific 360-degree feedback from the people who work with them regularly. That's usually hard to hear, and the coaching that follows is designed to help them explore the feedback in a confidential, supportive environment: to understand the difference between their intentions and their impact, to look at why they do what they do, and to learn to show up differently while still being themselves.
Their manager. Coaching to help the manager understand how to use feedback to support behavioral change, and how to hold the leader accountable over time, which is often where behavioral change efforts break down. We'll also look at the ways the system, including the manager, may be unintentionally allowing the employee to fall into old patterns of behavior.
The relationship between them. Coach-facilitated conversations where both parties get aligned on the same specific behavioral commitments so there’s no ambiguity about what needs to change or how progress will be measured..
Ask an individual to change, and the living system they’re a part of will pull them right back. Work on both, and the change might actually last.
How it works
The process runs about 12 weeks and includes:
Customized 360-degree feedback process, built around your organization’s values and the specific behaviors in question
DISC assessments for both the employee and the manager
Confidential feedback debriefs with each of them
A shared conversation to define specific behavioral commitments tied to observable actions
Individual coaching for both the employee and the manager
A closing conversation that outlines how to continue making progress after the Leadership Alignment Process ends
What you can expect
Greater self-awareness about the real impact of behavior for both the employee and the manager
Clear, shared expectations between the employee and manager
2-3 concrete behavioral commitments, with agreed-upon checkpoints
Stronger, more consistent feedback and accountability going forward
Conditions for success
This is a developmental process, not a disciplinary one. It works when both the employee and the manager are willing to engage openly and are committed to doing the work. If either one isn’t ready to fully participate, then this isn’t the right process. Behavioral change can’t be guaranteed, but this process gives the employee a much greater chance to successfully change whatever is getting in the way of their effectiveness.
Individual coaching conversations are confidential; what's shared in a private coaching session stays there.
Who this is for
Leaders and HR partners in small and mid-sized organizations who have a valuable person with a real blind spot, and who would rather invest in helping the person change rather than keep working around it.
Interested in learning more? Fill out the contact form below or reach out directly to Meredith at meredith@cygnusservices.com or (616) 304-9577.