What is the EM Breakthrough program?
Northway Insights’ EM Breakthrough is a 9-month private leadership coaching program for software engineering leaders at all levels. When you join, you’ll experience the following:
- A comprehensive, scientific leadership competency assessment to help you identify the strengths and opportunities that have the greatest impact on your ability to lead. (See What is the Harrison Assessment? below.)
- A custom leadership development plan, created jointly, in which you will identify the primary leadership competencies you wish to improve as well as the concrete steps you will take to make those improvements.
- Twice-monthly 60-minute confidential, one-on-one leadership coaching sessions with Steve Dwire to help you overcome the specific challenges you face as you develop your leadership skills.
- A second leadership competency assessment to help you measure and demonstrate progress with the leadership competencies you elected to improve.
What is the final price of the program for those who receive the scholarship?
The $3,500 scholarship brings the final price down to $1,500 for a comprehensive leadership assessment, personalized development plan, and private one-on-one leadership coaching enabling nine months of professional leadership growth for a new first-line manager.
Who qualifies for the scholarship?
To qualify, an applicant must meet all of the following conditions:
- They must have been recently moved into a formal people-management role between August 2023 and May 2024.
- Their immediately previous role must have been a Software Developer/Engineer/Architect/Lead position without formal people management responsibilities.
- They must complete the scholarship application by August 29, 2024.
- They must schedule and complete a complimentary 90-minute one-on-one leadership coaching session with Steve Dwire by August 30, 2024, using the scheduling link they will receive via email after submitting their application. They should bring a specific challenge they would like to have help addressing. There will be no charge for this coaching session. Scheduling is subject to Steve’s availability.
- Both Steve Dwire and the applicant must agree that an ongoing coaching relationship will be helpful for their leadership growth.
- They must pay for the program in US dollars from their own personal bank account, debit card, or credit card.
The first five applicants who meet all of the above conditions will be offered the scholarship. Applicants must submit payment for the program within 14 days of notification or their scholarship will be forfeited and offered to the next available qualifying applicant.
Why are you giving such a large scholarship to such specific people?
Why software engineering?
Because I find it personally fulfilling to help software engineering leaders.
I spent more than 20 years of my career leading software engineering teams. I understand the jargon, the metaphors, and the unique challenges that present to software engineering projects and how they fit in with the broader organization. Coaching tools and leadership competencies are universal, so any professional leadership coach can be helpful. However, my unique background with software engineering gives you more freedom to spend our coaching time exploring solutions instead of explaining problems.
Why new managers?
Most professional coaching seems to target C-Suite executives or other senior leaders. And yet employee engagement and satisfaction is most impacted by people’s immediate manager. For most organizations, an employee’s immediate manager is far more likely to be a first-line manager than someone in the C-Suite.
To compound matters, most new managers don’t get good coaching. There may be a training program, but professional coaching can more than triple a leader’s improvement compared to training alone. And in technical departments especially, a first-line manager’s direct supervisor is often underprepared to offer effective coaching.
New managers often flounder, with little useful ongoing guidance to help them succeed.
Why such a large scholarship?
One of the challenges for new managers is that companies often expect their internal one-time training programs to be sufficient for new managers to succeed and grow. Professional coaching budgets are often reserved for C-Suite executives or other senior leaders. New managers are often unaware that opportunities like this exist to invest in their own personal and professional success.
With such a significant scholarship, I expect to raise awareness for the availability of professional leadership coaching and to cultivate testimonials and referrals for the effectiveness of Northway Insights coaching programs in particular.
Why won’t you let my employer submit the payment?
When a company pays for coaching directly, the company becomes a stakeholder in the coaching relationship. Northway Insights has other programs designed for company-sponsored coaching.
The EM Breakthrough program is designed for an individual’s investment in their own success.
Can I ask my employer to reimburse me?
You can still qualify for the scholarship and the EM Breakthrough program if your employer reimburses you for your investment, as long as the payment to Northway Insights comes from your personal funds. You will receive an invoice and a receipt of payment that you can submit if your employer is willing to reimburse you for the cost of your coaching.
That “complimentary coaching call” is really just a sales pitch in disguise. Isn’t it?
It really is a coaching call. I will show up ready to serve you with as much focus and dedication as I give to my paying clients. In return, I expect you to come with a real leadership challenge that you’d like to work through together in a distraction-free environment.
The purpose of the complimentary coaching call is four-fold:
- You’ll get some immediate help with whatever is most pressing in your leadership journey.
- You’ll see how I coach, and you’ll be able to decide if you’d like to work together with me.
- I’ll learn more about you, what challenges you’re facing, and how you respond to the way I coach.
- I’ll have a basis to determine which five individuals will be awarded the $3,500 2024 Summer Scholarship.
At the end of the conversation, one or more of the following will happen:
- You will walk away with at least one actionable insight to help you move forward in your leadership journey.
- I may let you know that a different coach or professional would be better suited to help with your situation, and I may offer to make an introduction to someone who could help.
- I may recommend other resources that may give you the kind of guidance you are looking for.
- I may let you know that you qualify for a scholarship and ask if you want to sign up for the EM Breakthrough program.
- I may let you know that you do not qualify for a scholarship and ask if you are interested in the EM Breakthrough program anyway.
- I may suggest a different coaching program for your consideration.
- I may offer a second complimentary coaching conversation to help you with your immediate situation.
Regardless of the outcome, you will receive value from the complimentary coaching call. You may receive an invitation for further coaching, but if you decline I will not try to change your mind.
Who is Gloriana Teh, and what is her role in this program?
Gloriana is a coach with Claritas Consulting & Coaching LLC. She is my partner provider for the Harrison Assessment and leadership competency reports. If you participate in the program, then after you complete your assessment online, you and Gloriana and I (Steve) will have a three-way program kickoff call where she will present the results of your assessment and cover the resources and reports available to help you develop your leadership plan.
You and I will work with those resources to help you define your personal leadership development plan and achieve your desired improvement.
What is the Harrison Assessment?
Most strength assessments and personality/behavior profiles tend to imagine strengths as competing with one another. Or they may presume that the presence of a strength implies a risk of overusing that strength until it becomes a weakness.
Harrison is the only assessment I have found that recognizes that strengths can be paradoxical and complementary, rather than competing. For example, it is possible for someone to be strong in both frankness and diplomacy. The two qualities are not opposite ends of a single spectrum. With the Harrison assessment, paradoxical and complimentary qualities like those are understood as two different axes of a given competency.
Your assessment will highlight how your unique combinations of strengths support or complicate your ability to lead across a myriad of leadership competencies. And you’ll receive a personal debrief to help you understand and apply the insights from your assessment reports.
Sample Reports: