USC’s Center for Work and Family Life (CWFL) provides professional coaching (also known as executive coaching in for-profit organizations) to USC leaders including:
- Executives and administrators at a director level and above
- Department chairs and deans
- Faculty members
- Physicians
- Lab directors and principal investigators
Professional coaching is also recommended for individual contributors in high-performance positions, including USC faculty physicians.
Managers and high-achieving professional staff in positions below director level are also eligible for CWFL’s Associate Coaching Program (see below).
Coaching is strengths-based, and focuses on building skills through:
- Case examples
- Assigned reading
- Exercises
- Rehearsal
Coaching is forward-looking, assumes a positive view of the future, and is intended to help you succeed. It is solution-focused, bringing successes from the past into the service of present goals. And it creates movement and change, which are supported through goal-setting and accountability check-ins.
Coaching is a mixture of face-to-face consultations and phone check-ins. Video conferencing may also be an option.
All coaching contacts are presumed to be made available on paid work time and during your normal work shift, unless specified otherwise. You will schedule your meetings in such a way as to prioritize the requirements of your regular work and needs of your staff.
CWFL coaching is offered to you as a complimentary benefit of your employment at USC, and as an investment towards your success.
Note that coaching does not generate a diagnosis, nor presume a disorder is present; coaching is not therapy, and does not use counseling techniques. While CWFL does offer personal counseling to employees (up to 10 sessions per year), coaching consultations do not deplete that bank of available counseling sessions. You may participate separately in personal counseling with CWFL at any time, and on any matter of importance to you, but usually with a different CWFL professional staff member than your coach.
The majority of CWFL coaches are credentialed by the International Coach Federation. Credentialing requires completion of coach-specific training, coach supervision and mentoring, case reviews and a board exam.
Coaching to meet your unique needs
CWFL coaches can tailor a custom coaching partnership to meet your needs. The following are examples of how faculty and executives at USC have used CWFL coaching for their success.
- New arrival
- High performer
- Emerging leader
- Sustained leadership
- Thought leader
- Collaborator
- Evolving educator
- Life achievement
- Wellness resolution
- “Rewirement” (success in retirement)
New arrival
Designed for newly-hired faculty and executives who want to establish early success within an elite educational organization. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Orientation to USC culture and resources
- Networking leads
- Planning for an impactful first 180 days
- Professional goal-setting
- Identifying priorities
- Developing your professional persona
High performer
Designed for those who want to create laser focus and momentum. This includes key individual contributors as well as faculty on a promotion path to tenure. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Time and energy management
- Creating your vision
- Effective planning
- Practicing mindfulness
- Work-life balance
- Stress management
- Productive writing skills
Emerging leader
Designed for new leaders, such as faculty chairs, division chiefs, and executives at director level or above. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Creating an inspiring and compelling vision
- Leading others through change
- Crucial conversations, conflict management
- Building collaboration
- Navigating the politics of the organization
- Employee engagement
- Time & energy management
- Empowering women in leadership
- Giving and seeking feedback
Sustained leadership
Designed for seasoned leaders who wish to sustain their leadership presence with vitality and innovation. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Renewal and rejuvenation
- Values-based leadership
- Work-life balance
- SWOT analyses
- Using a leader dashboard
- Driving innovation
- Paying it forward through mentoring
- Succession planning
Thought leader
Designed for key individual performers whose success is tied to the influence of others in a matrixed organization. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Influence without authority
- Creating and narrating your vision
- Overcoming resistance by others
- Building collaboration
- Best practices in assertion skills
Collaborator
Designed for professionals whose future success will be tied to establishing collaboration and trust with those working around them. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Emotional intelligence
- Building trust daily
- Stress management through depersonalizing
- Advanced collaboration strategies
- Practicing mindfulness
- Reputation enhancement
Evolving educator
Designed for faculty whose future success as a classroom educator is tied to updating their teaching methods to meet the evolving styles of student learning preferences. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Understanding Millennial learning preferences
- Postmodern teaching methods
- Re-tooling for technology and social media
- Stress management through depersonalizing
Life achievement
Designed for those seeking greater achievement and satisfaction in their personal lives outside of work. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Values clarification
- SMART goals
- Time and energy management
- Planning skills
- Practicing mindfulness
Wellness resolution
Designed for individuals who wish to adopt and integrate new behaviors for a “healthier you.” Typical coaching conversations include:
- Success in keeping a health resolution
- Readiness for change
- Building a support system
- Smoking cessation, weight loss or sleep improvement
- Coping with a new medical diagnosis
- Maintaining compliance with a physician’s treatment plan
- Adapting successfully with medically-related lifestyle changes
- Practicing mindfulness
“Rewirement” (success in retirement)
Designed for those wanting a stimulating and high-quality lifestyle in retirement. Typical coaching conversations include:
- Developing a new identity for the next stage
- Establishing retirement goals and priorities
- Values clarification
- Practicing wellness
- Paying it forward through volunteerism
- USC Emeriti Center events and services
- Stress management for caregivers