Coaching City Leaders in a Transformational City

F Joseph, C Phillips, J Wright International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 2004

Five years ago, Charlotte, North Carolina's City government realized it had a significant challenge. While Charlotte was enjoying dramatic growth and a strong economic engine, the #Queen City" found itself lacking a sufficient bench team of future leaders. Red flags were raised when a number of key executives were positioning themselves for retirement and the most likely high potential mid-managers had been impacted by right sizing in the early 1990's or simply hadn't developed their leadership skills to a level that would qualify them as legitimate promotional candidates. City leaders responded by enabling a meaningful investment in leadership development. They called upon Candice Phillips, Frank Joseph and Joan Wright to serve as partners in the development and execution of a custom-tailored program called Dimensions in Leadership. Now in its fifth year, the program has stemmed the tide of leadership deficit.