SAM Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching is by far the most reliable and efficient means to help Strategic Account Managers face challenges such as partnership development, influence without authority, and multi-party negotiation. Leadership coaching not only builds vital knowledge and skills more rapidly than conventional forms of group training. It also addresses and shifts underlying attitudes that can quietly inhibit growth in talent and impact in accounts. As a result, leadership coaching can accelerate behavioral change, account progress, and delivery of business results.
Leadership coaching involves three integrated activities: intensive one-on-one sessions, guided self-directed learning, and strategic collaboration on critical account opportunities and challenges.
I. Leadership Coaching for Strategic Account Managers
One-on-one leadership coaching gives customized attention to the cognitive style, personal brand, and pressing opportunities of the individual Strategic Account Manager. This is an optimal form of development when accelerated development and the highest level of skill are required. The coaching delivery model can also be advantageous for teams that are geographically dispersed or composed of Strategic Account Managers of widely divergent skill and experience.
For Strategic Account Managers to become true account leaders in their organizations they must develop substantively in three Strategic Account Management Competency Clusters.
- Business Strategy Competencies include Value Proposition Development, Organizational Insight, Financial Proficiency, Account Planning, and Account Reviews.
- Relationship Growth Competencies include Interpersonal Influence, Impactful Communication, Negotiation Prowess, Positive Conflict, and C-Suite Dynamics.
- Intrapreneurial Leadership Competencies include Intrapreneurial Mindset, Systems Thinking, Value Innovation, Team Optimization, and Leadership Brand Development.
Frank Granek’s leadership coaching is grounded in, but not fixated on, competencies. The Granek 3-D Leadership Development system is adapted to the SAM context. SAMs focus on competencies, performance, and personal brand in the right measure. In this way SAMs become much more effective in delivering on the core Account Leadership Functions that they fulfill day-by-day and that are central to how they are judged. These include Account Planning, Internal Consulting, Shaping Value Propositions, and Building Integrated Partnerships.
Collectively, optimized competencies and functions enable SAMs to deliver differentiated value to customers and leverage it for competitive advantage. For a full description of the whole Granek SAM Performance Model or to discuss customization to your organization, please contact Frank Granek.
Leadership Coaching may be delivered to Strategic Account Managers in two formats. High-Impact SAM Leadership Coaching strengthens skill, performance, and account outcomes over a period of six months to a year. Brief SAM Leadership Coaching may be limited to as few as four to six sessions. Here the focus is on a single competency or small band of competencies (such as conflict and negotiation skill) and applications in pressing account challenges and opportunities.
II. Executive Coaching for the SAM Department Head
The head of a SAM department requires an exceptional mix of competencies in the domains of organizational strategy, change leadership, process refinement, and performance management. Executive coaching is a uniquely effective way to close the leaders’ gaps, accelerate progress, and reach a higher plane of managerial performance.
Executive Coaching capitalizes on the welter of challenges facing the team and department. Each small project becomes a practicum in which the leader can apply deepening leadership competencies, strengthen the personal brand, and prepare for the top echelon of leadership in the organization.
Frank’s support of SAM leaders also incorporates his 3-D Leadership Development System, tailored to the specific demands of leading SAM teams and organizational initiatives. The SAM Department Head advances at an accelerated pace in terms of Leadership Competency Growth, Leadership Brand Development, and Leadership Performance.
