Cheryl Breukelman, PrincipalThe virtual conference room had leaders from “Women at Microsoft-LATAM,” a Microsoft initiative focused on fostering development, networking, success, and impact of their female talent, participating in the collaborative session to explore new solutions to a virtual world of leading. During these challenging times of the pandemic, the female talent’s multiple roles, impacted by new and intense personal routines, exacerbated the need for support, tactics, and a safety net to help them navigate through the unknown.
“True commitment to D&I and an ERG like Women at Microsoft, means that during challenging times of the pandemic, we wanted to proactively approach the community,” says Giuliana Figueiredo, Marketing and Operations Director of Caribbean and Women at Microsoft– Latam [Latin America] Lead. “With Epiphany, we found a partner that was agile to think through and put together a structured approach to help discuss, depict, and navigate the top of the mind issues the Women at Microsoft LATAM community were experiencing.”
Epiphany Coaches’ coaching program started with a series of three group coaching sessions on leading virtually. The sessions were a mix of reflection, discussion, storytelling and sharing best practices. All leaders, male and female, across the region attended virtual group coaching on MS TEAMS. These sessions created a needed space for leaders to share issues, challenges and solutions on leading virtually. In addition, 50 leaders were invited to participate in 1:1 virtual coaching to support a specific personal leadership topic of their choice.
The program results were far-reaching. The Epiphany team bagged a 4.95 out of 5 coach rating, scoring a 100 per cent satisfaction with the coaches. The top five topics for coaching were: personal effectiveness, leading teams, leading virtually, communication, career development, and influence and impact. In a nutshell, according to Giuliana, the team from Epiphany Coaches had a remarkable ability to orchestrate and initiate deeply insightful conversations within the community that resulted in practices, programs, and pilots that were tested and exchanged across the region.
Epiphany Coaches, a professional coaching company with a community of 45 coaches on five continents, has been delivering coaching sessions for leadership development globally through strategic and innovative coaching programs since 2001. The company has designed and delivered more than a hundred scalable group coaching programs for leaders.
An Impressive Run-up
The company’s seeds were sown during the early stages of Cheryl’s career at Microsoft, where she had adorned various hats in customer service, sales and marketing, and change initiatives. Working in change initiatives opened doors to a great understanding of the functioning of an organization’s multiple levels and the opportunity to interact with every individual, team, or leader on comprehending current reality and transforming it. Amidst the tech boom, Cheryl recalls, the smart and committed team could table their great business ideas and move the needle in an organization that allowed people to thrive.
We have worked in 70 countries around the world, coaching thousands of leaders in 10 languages
In 2001, time proved ripe to spread her wings with the formation of Epiphany Coaches. “We have worked in 70 countries around the world, coaching thousands of leaders in 10 languages,” states Cheryl Breukelman, Principal, Epiphany Coaches. Arguably, the company’s client roster boasts of Microsoft, HP, LinkedIn, Twitter, Visa, GardaWorld, and other leading companies that want to develop their people to script their success.
The expert coaches from Epiphany Coaches deliver one-on-one coaching to CEOs, directors, or managersto develop and grow specific leadership capabilitiesand be ready for the next level. They also conduct coaching sessions to accelerate the success of new hires in leadership positions. In addition, they support members of the leadership teamto successfully lead their teams and help `high potential’ leaders to achieve their goals.
The Epiphany Coaches offers coaching for career development through workshops, one-on-one coaching, or a full-blown leadership development program. It could also be one-on-one coaching and workshops working in tandem.
Lead Through the Lens of Relationship
According to Cheryl, business leaders from various organizations typically work with Epiphany Coaches to improve their influence, impact, collaboration, communicate better and build deeper relationships with peer groups, teams, and superiors. “We realized that these topics are all relationship skills, which are foundational and dictate the level of success leaders have when they try to work together because they have to build safety and trust first. The level of your relationship dictates the complexity of work you can do together,” points out Cheryl. “Today, as more complex issues have to be tackled, the results that can be achieved by investing in those relationships are just incredible.”
Given that the talent pool is shrinking, HR leaders know the importance of treating people well, investing in them, growing the talent, creating opportunities, and genuinely engaging with them. And all these essentially boil down to fostering good workplace relationships. To this end, the company has built its own relationship model and a diagnostic coaching tool in conjunction with Dr. Nancy Salayfrom Queens University. Epiphany Coaches uses the diagnostic tool in their coaching programs to help leaders discern their strengths and areas of improvement across five areas of relationship and support them with resources to help them take immediate action in their action plan.
Epiphany offers the RQ relationship Intelligence Report as part of their coaching programs. There is also a team-wide view or a collective report provided while working with a group of leaders. “We share the overall philosophy and help them understand the five elements of relationship—transparency, candor, generosity, safe haven, and conversation—that govern a leader’s ability to work effectively with others and then we focus more in those opportunity areas identified for them,” explains Cheryl.
As coaching specialists, the Epiphany team believes in measurement and accountability, meticulously measuring the success of their coaching programs.
The participants share their feedback through an online survey that measures the satisfaction quotient and the value they have gained. Furthermore, theydetermine whether they are gaining new insights, experimenting in new ways, and making progress. Additionally, they evaluate the high impact areas, the return on investment, and the value gained by clients. “The scores are usually stellar, like a hundred percent,” says Cheryl with a touch of pride.The company also provides trend analysis and insights regarding the participants to the respective HR leaders to initiate any course correction if required.
From Passion to Action
At Epiphany, it is all about enhancing the intimacy and the human side of the business to drive business results. At the core, the Epiphany team builds a good rapport with the participants and the sponsors or HR leaders. One of the team’s biggest values is being generous and in a continuous learning mode, always looking at ways to enhance their offering in lockstep with their clients’ requirements and supporting them at every step. When COVID-19 hit, the Epiphany team conducted many group leadership sessions and built guides for their clients to create structure, safety, and the possibility for virtual success. They also hosted numerous complimentary programs to support their clients through challenging times. Cheryl led many one-hour group coaching sessions for leaders to effectively lead their teams, support people to be resilient, and create safety and trust in a disrupted environment. “We also have an open offer on our website for organizations looking for a team session or a one-on-one coaching for their people trying to lead virtually,” informs Cheryl.
"We believe relationship skills are the foundation that will dictate the overall level of success of leaders"
The Epiphany team is built on the bedrock of four core values—being real, generous, learning, and joy. The team prides itself on being real as they are able to be who they are both internally and with their clients. This expresses itself with clients in terms of being honest and transparent, meeting people in a real human way and creatingan open relationship with the HR sponsor. Generosity lends itself to providing thought leadership, additional resources, customization and going the extra mile for the clients. The company fosters a culture of continual learning, where coaches constantly seek out training and learning to add to their toolkits and stay current and relevant to address their clients’ needs. Embracing a culture of joy, the energetic team is deeply passionate about their work, buoyed by an environment that makes them feel valued and supported.
Paths of Progressive Innovation
With a passion for delivering excellence, Epiphany Coaches continues to push the envelope of innovation in delivering new and exceptional leadership experiences to clients and coaching participants. To that end, the company’s Electronic Coach Selection Tool, which provides a choice of proven coaches from their global team, proves to be a perfect example. The company is also investing in their portal to deliver reports to clients that will throw light on coaching’s value and impact. “We are days away from rolling out a more robust version of our relationship intelligence diagnostic tool with a better report,” extols Cheryl. It comes with a companion guide, full of solutions and ideas around relationship intelligence enabling people, who want to self-serve, with the ability to move forward with an action plan.
17. The Epiphany team is in the throes of a research project to harness hundreds of leaders’ data and discern the overall trends, which will help drive some of their new product offerings. The focus is also on training the team to embed video into their day-to-day communications as it is a more powerful way of communicating with people. The team is also committed to integrating the best tools into their programs to drive self-awareness for leaders.
“We are constantly looking at ways to innovate our service offerings in line with the evolving technologies and emerging leadership priorities to help organizations better deal with the complexities and opportunities, and go deeper and stay connected for remarkable client experiences,” signs off Cheryl.
