At Breakthrough, we follow Columbia University’s executive and organizational coaching model. This process is a results-driven, strategic learning framework grounded in academic research and industry best practices. This process fosters breakthrough moments that ignite breakthrough habits that help our clients break through to the next level of performance. It can be broken down into three phases:

Context (“What’s up?”)
Content (“What ‘matters?’”)
Conduct (“What’s next?”)

Below is a description of the work we do with our clients in each of the three phases:

Phase I: Context

A core conviction at Breakthrough is that everyone has the capacity to achieve whatever they define as greatness. First, you need to know where you are in order to get to where you want to be. In the first phase of their work together, the coach and client identify the cognitive, emotional and cultural worldviews that drive the client and the client’s team, and examine them in light of the organizational system in which the client operates. This process provides the client and the coach the foundation and focus they need for a successful coaching engagement.

Phase II: Content

The focus of the second phase of the coaching engagement is to expose the gap between where the client currently is and the outcomes the client desires. In this phase of their work together, the client and coach interpret the client’s own observations along with external feedback (e.g. 360 reviews), explore the benefits and costs of action options, set priorities and SMART goals, and define critical success factors for the client and coach’s work together.

Phase III: Conduct

With the client’s goals set and their plan in place, the client and coach get to work aligning the client’s actions with their goals. Together, client and coach experiment with different scenarios; create opportunities for the client’s honest, on-going self-appraisal; and the coach keeps the client accountable to what’s important to the client in this engagement by following up on commitments.

The result of this three-phase process is a positive feedback loop, allowing the client to sustain the enhanced performance achieved with their coach.