Guidelines for using the Accelerator with Clients

Before purchasing the Accelerator to use with clients, review the guidelines below about how to orient your client and assist with the action-planning phase.

Access a printable version of these guidelines here.

Client orientation

Whether you’re working with an individual client or a group, we recommend that you:

  • Discuss with them whether this tool or the Leadership Agility 360 would best fit their current needs and budget.
  • If they decide on the Accelerator, we find that the accuracy of the self-assessment can be enhanced by a basic understanding of the framework, provided you have helped them adopt a mindset for an honest, accurate self-assessment. (See below). This is not a requirement. But if you feel this makes sense, have them first read “Leadership Agility: From Expert to Catalyst” (aka the Leadership Agility white paper). You can access a PDF of this paper here.

Tell them the tool has 4 parts:

  1. They will identify 1-2 things they’re trying to accomplish as a leader (if any) in each of the three arenas: Leading organizational change (for any improvement project, regardless of size), Leading teams (including informal teams), and pivotal conversations.
  2. They will be guided to assess their own level of leadership agility in the 3 arenas and overall.
  3. They will choose 1-3 “leadership agility practices” to work on, each designed to stretch them to an agility level beyond their self-assessed level while helping them accomplish what they’re trying to do as a leader.
  4. They can fill out an action plan template for each practice they’ve chosen. (See below for different options for this step).

Tell them the output will be a PDF report that will capture key information from all 4 parts of the tool.

Help them adopt a mindset that will maximize an honest, accurate self-assessment. (These are all stated within the tool, but guidance from you may carry even more weight):

  • Tell them they should not assume that a particular response is always more desirable than another. The most effective leadership approach depends partly on situational factors.
  • Tell them they will be asked to identify their most typical approach, not if they have ever done things in a particular way.
  • Stress that, to get the greatest value, they need to fill out the self-assessment portion as honestly as possible.

Preparing for the action-planning step

Your client’s instructions for the action-planning module are to choose 1-3 leadership agility practices to work on, then create an action plan for each practice using the template provided. You will receive an email notification when your client completes, and you’ll be able to access the report on your “Coach Dashboard”.

Prior to having your client use the tool, tell them about the options for action planning.

  • One option is to have your client can completely fill out the action planning template on their own, prior to submitting to get their PDF report. You and your client can then have a coaching session where you to discuss their action plan.
  • A second option is to have them leave the action planning template blank – or do a first draft – then review the report with you as part of a coaching session where you help them flesh out their 1-3 action plans.

For several reasons, we recommend that you and your client use the second option:

  • First, not all clients are great at doing a final-draft action plan on their own that is as specific as it needs to be to remain useful over time.
  • Second, clients benefit from being able to discuss their action plan with a coach before they finalize it.
  • Third, unlike the Leadership Agility 360 Development Planner, the action plan template used in the Accelerator report does not have a section for identifying mindset shifts. But the Accelerator Action Planner we can send you does have this section.

Action-plan template options

If you and your client decide they will leave the online template blank or used it to do a draft, you will want a separate blank template to use to  finalize action plans with your client. You can access these blank templates here.

Also, unlike the Leadership Agility 360 action plan template, the online  template in the Accelerator report does not include a mindset shift? This is because the tool is designed not only for use with coaches, but also for managers who come to the assessment site and want to use it on their own. Because we feel that mindset shifts are hard to identify solo, this is not part of the online template for the Accelerator. However, a mind-set section is included in the blank template you can access above.