Coaching is product development, with you as the product.

- Fast Company

“Working with Dick has significantly impacted my growth as a leader, and a human.”

- Jennifer Raymond, MD, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

Coaching Development Approach

  • First, we unearth any experiences you haven’t had yet or skills you haven’t built yet that may be producing a gap in your performance. And we build them. Together.

  • We then explore any belief systems or mental models that either help or hinder your process. And we either capitalize on them, or change them.

  • Lastly, we examine any behaviors you’re exhibiting that are either producing roadblocks, or paths to success. And we harness them or improve them.

Dick Eaton brings over 25 years worth of stories, experience, expertise, and success to his coaching practice. Having worked inside large corporations, he has a breadth of knowledge about how to navigate complex systems, the pros and cons of politicking up and down an organization, and a stark reality of what gets results. Watching his father start and lead a PR firm, Dick had an unobstructed view into the struggles and successes of a CEO, and a front row seat in the arena of entrepreneurship. His “childhood MBA” allows him to be comfortable and confident with C-Level leaders, and gives him a depth of empathy for the nuanced and complicated role CEOs hold. As an entrepreneur himself, Dick has started multiple companies, and continues as an angel investor.

The Process

To start the engagement, Dick deploys a variety of assessments, depending on the needs of the client. This can include the Enneagram, FIRO-B, DiSC, FMG Leadership Insights 360, Hogan Leadership Forecast Series, CCL Benchmark 360, and more. The assessment is designed to give Dick and the client a keen sense of strengths and weaknesses. As part of the process, Dick typically interviews the client’s closest colleagues, including peers, managers, Board members, and direct reports.

Often, this opens the door to profound self-awareness.

To accelerate the trust-building process, and to open the client to new surroundings, Dick typically organizes a one-on-one retreat for a day or day-and-a-half, somewhere offsite. This allows Dick and the client to explore the depth and nuance of the assessment results, to gain clarity on the goals and intention of the coaching engagement, and to co-create their plan for how to work together. This also allows the client some space away from work to really focus on themselves.

Often, this puts the client in the space where true transformation can happen.

To gain more understanding and a better sense of the leader’s impact, Dick will often shadow the leader at work. He will observe meetings, witness interactions, and watch the leader at work. This allows him to see first hand how the leader’s behaviors are helping or hindering them at work, and to harness the experience of the leader’s colleagues. This way, Dick can help the leader see and understand their impact on others, and begin to change any behaviors that are reducing their effectiveness.

Often, this leads the client to experience breakthrough moments.

Watch for yourself!

“Dick's insights, tools, well packed questions and relevant perspectives drawn from his years of experience within organizations were truly invaluable to my learning journey. I’m a better leader, husband, father, and friend thanks to Dick.”

- Eric Artz, President and CEO at REI