Interview: Collaborative Course Development – Jennifer Deane

In Leader Development, there is no one-size-fits-all. Jennifer Deane takes time to explain the multi-faceted leader she herself is by promoting collaborative course development, self-awareness, gender balance and promotability in the business leaders she works with. Jennifer has created tailored and unique leadership coaching programs that's proven it's value through real results. Through coaching and education, Jennifer Deane is paving the way for all levels of leadership to see their true potential as individuals and in their teams. Quoting Jennifer from this wholesome interview "...don't do it alone".

More Information on Jennifer Deane Coaching:

https://www.jenniferdeane.ca/

Transcript

Petra Hello and welcome. My name is Petra Mayer of Petra Mayer and Associates consulting and I'm super thrilled to have with me here today Jennifer Deane. Jennifer Deane is the founder and principal of Jennifer Deane coaching. She is a professional certified coach, consultant and facilitator and have had the pleasure to working with Jennifer in the past. Jennifer Deane consulting provides one to one and group development solutions for public and private sector organizations that help leaders and teams to increase their self awareness and leadership skills. Now in recent years, they have specialized in helping the clients to accelerate gender balanced leadership in their organizations, specifically, Jennifer Deane consulting, live interactive group coaching programs are designed to help women and other underrepresented populations manage their careers with a particular focus on developing their promote ability skills. Now, I'm curious to learn more about what that really means, while at the same time upskilling their leaders to facilitate development conversations and mentor champion and support them in their career advancement efforts. So that's a whole lot we have just discovered here about Jennifer and her organization, Jennifer Deane consulting. Jennifer, you've had many twists and turns in your career. Tell us a little bit more about what you're doing today. And how you got here. Jennifer Awesome. Yes, well, all of the work that I've done over the past 20 ish years has really been about developing leaders. And essentially, it's through a number of different ways, through coaching and education is primarily it. So, you know, I arrived here through a lot of different roles, a lot of internal roles, external roles. And I'm at a point now, where I'm really focused, as you said, in my introduction, around, you know, really is targeted support for, for leaders around career development, career advancement, and both from the perspective of the employee and helping their leader help them also progress and really, with this big pipe dream, of making an impact and accelerating gender balanced leadership in our organizations and around the world. Petra And what a big topic that is right now gender balance, but also you were talking about under represented population. So it's a very big topic these days. And I'm sure that that also drive some traffic to you and some inquiries to you know, what about working with leaders and especially women in leadership roles has been fascinating you in these years that you've stuck to it, and are now is so much more focused on this? Yeah, Jennifer Well, actually, funnily enough, the thing that fascinates me is why there aren't more in leadership positions. And so I'm, I'm so fascinated by working with women, particularly because of, of their care and commitment, and often so much of what they do is really about making the world better and supporting others. But essentially, you know, I've really been driven by this this curiosity as to why why there aren't more of us in sitting at more leadership tables, making making a difference. So, you know, that's essentially why I've targeted the work there. Because I firmly believe that when you know, when women are elevated, and the leadership is balanced, all populations will thrive and you know, in our organizations, communities, families, homes, everything will be will be better. Petra Awesome. And where do you think you can then make the biggest impact on your clients in the work that you're presently doing? Jennifer Yeah, great, great question. I you know, a while a little while ago, took a step back and thought, you know, what makes me different and there's so many people doing work here and courses and programs and coaching, what I arrived at and, you know, thank you to you, if for some of the support there Petra helping me ask the right questions, was was really about understanding that what I bring is a structure for, for facilitating, and expediting the process of development. So where I come in with my programs, and my coaching is to really help people break you know, create a structure a plan, and then expedite the process of their own development. So that's, that's really where I think I make the biggest difference with my programs and my coaching. Petra You've mentioned programs and coaching, so you do one on one, but you also over the years now have developed your own coaching mentoring program. So tell us a little bit more about that. And about The process that it took for you to get there? Jennifer Yeah, okay. Well, you know, making an impact one on one is very rewarding, and, you know, incredibly useful and important. However, you know, to really scale and grow and to make a bigger impact, I asked myself, you know, how, how can I do that, and it was through thinking about the taking the, the, you know, the process that I would go through one to one with someone and finding a way to bring that to a group of people to bring it to more people and to bring the tools and the structure to support that to happen on a larger scale. So I have, you know, my own program, which I developed, and it's focused around leadership identity, it's called leader stamp. And I've been delivering that now for about three and a half years, I did took some time to get traction in the market, but we're there we've got some organizations on board. And and then I've partnered a lot to to develop other programs, as well as deliver other programs that other practitioners have developed. So there's really three different ways that I'm kind of making use of the, of the programs of the group programs, and they go to the group coaching. Petra Mm hmm. So I want to go a little bit further into leader stamp, because I know when you were in the early stages of your development, and we were working on some of those questions together, you could have gone in a mass market development of a leadership program that is maybe even self study, but you've chosen not to, you've chosen to go into a program that requires actually still a lot of your time. So what made you choose that over the other option? Jennifer Well, it was really through a process of, you know, looking at what particularly the content was designed to do, I think there's some programs and some topics that can be achieved through self study, when the program is around connecting to your leadership identity, and asking yourself big questions. I felt and and and through interviewing my clients, and in their experiences that, that they're a little more support was called for in this case, and I, you know, I kept coming back to this and it sounded so almost selfish or self a grand grand dicing to say, they can't do it without me. But that essentially, it was that they why why do they have to, you know, I found a way to help people do it and have access to it, even organizations have access to it at a at a more reasonable cost than one on one. But that they still have all the high touch elements of what a coaching program, I believe should be a particularly when it's around big questions. Petra I totally agree with you. And I think that the likelihood that you that you get that transformation in your client that you're seeking to offer is much more likely in that sort of a setting than if somebody is left on their own devices and may get frustrated and they get lose interest me. You know, we've fallen all in her own traps of Okay, the continuation and being self motivated, can sometimes be hard. So this is a great way to keep people motivated and to keep them discussing discovering together. I think that's a great way of doing it. Jennifer Yeah, can I add to you brought up a great point there that I didn't say but there, even though everybody's working on something that's very unique to themselves, there's so much power in having the group and the input and the learning and the collaboration and the connections and networking that came as every course I deliver. You know, the last question I get is, Can Can you send us each other's contact information so we can connect outside? So there's, there's a lot of value there as well. Petra Yeah, I totally agree the community that you're creating through that is something that is really valuable, and it's something that we can only create the space for it and it has to automatically and organically develop. And yes, so you creating that space, kudos to you for that Jennifer. Now, you also mentioned that you are collaborating with others in either the delivery of their programs but also in CO developing programs. So tell us a little bit more about that and how you got to that? Mm Hmm Jennifer Well it started with realizing that it's really fun to collaborate and and very fulfilling for me particularly is so you know, wanting to have you know, my work life be fulfilling that became a goal for me so I you know, I looked to create partnerships and find like minded practitioners and have managed to develop an excellent network and you know, you're part of it Petra and, and others and so, I started by developing another course with another coach and individual where we co deliver and we have a company program it's called promote now, and that's a program very specifically for organizations to support both employees and their leaders through helping them through a process of career development and advancement. So that that's been a really great way to collaborate, have fun, share resources, share expertise, and and build a program with someone. So that's, you know, that's been great. And then the other, the other thing that emerged through the process of being open was that there are so many practitioners that actually have excellent programs that straddle the work that I do that, that I don't need to recreate the wheel, where by I can partner and went through a process of learning alongside another coach their program, and then began now to also deliver that in partnership, and we can also on my own, so we've developed a relationship to to be able to do that together. So it's been a really great expansion, you know, creative way to do more delivery to, to scale, and to find ways to partner and grow both of our businesses. Petra On You said something that really struck me it's that through that process of being open, and, you know, it's not that we go into these kind of collaborations knowing exactly what we want, who we need with it is an exploration that can take years, I don't know how it went for you, was this a longer term process? Was this something that happened in one conversation, and you were writing it up on the back of a napkin, or how definitely Jennifer all of that and a complete leap of faith to have built a relationship with someone of trust, and then say, let's just go for this. And, you know, we're so we have some loose boundaries in place that protect us, and that we make us feel, you know, secure in our work together. And then let's go for this and see what happens as as well as, you know, some more structured arrangements where that was called for unnecessary so I think that there's, it is about openness, and being willing to jump on and leap at times. And other times recognize there needs to be something a little more formal. Petra Yeah. Now many professional advisors like in your in your situation would have felt a little threatened by those other professional advisors, providing programs that are struggling, as you said, the content that you're delivering, that you chose to look at this differently. Tell us more. Jennifer Yeah, I, well, I'm a firm believer in, there's enough for us all, and even more when we get creative, and think about how we can grow our impact together, and scale together, through you know, our openness and support. And so it you know, I essentially looked at it as an opportunity to also learn and grow my skills, because even though I say it straddles what I do, every time particularly that I learned someone else's content, and I can deliver it, I'm actually adding to my, my own expertise. And I think you can find ways to honor each other to to help each other scale and grow that that has us all build versus, you know, have that scarcity mindset. Petra Totally agree with you. Now. So you've created your own programs, you've co created, you're also taking programs that were created by somebody else who delivering. So what do you want to share a little bit about that process of program creation, how you've experienced it, the challenges, the good things that surprised us? Well, Jennifer the most important thing is to not do any of it alone, even if you're co create, even if you're creating your own program. So even in that instance, I had people like you and others, to support me through that thinking and process because it's not easy. And it requires structure. And it requires coaching. And it requires, you know, time and encourage. So so I think support is a common thread for all of those, all of the instances. I also would say that the creation is one thing and the selling is another and I've learned the hard way and we'll learn more hard ways, I'm sure you know about maybe how I want to structure things and learn through you and other other mentors around this. some best practices and I think that if you just try to go it alone, you miss that richness and that people are so willing to share and help and so those couple of things, don't do it alone. You know, draw on all your your resources and really, you know, there's different different skill sets for the building, then there is necessary, you know, for the selling, and you might need different supports for that. Petra Very true brings a lot of bells for me, because as you know, when I had my own programs right now, I'm not actually offering programs as such, but when I had my own programs, that, you know, the the building was always something very natural to me. And that seems to be where we're, you know, where I want to hang out. And, but then when it's the sales and marketing side, you really you need to think about it strategically in the in the building process. But you do need to get that support to really be able to successfully market your programs. So that's something that is great, and has has all the foundations to make huge impact, that you actually have the opportunity to do it. Yeah, that's I think that's where a lot of people fall short. And where I did fall short, because that's not my strong suit, and my strong suit being more thinking about the strategy of marketing and selling, and how do you sell different styles of products and programs? But doing it and building that expertise? recognition afterwards? Is something where you do need different type of experts couldn't agree more with you? Jennifer Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And one thing that comes to mind that might help for anyone thinking about this as a as a next step for them is, you know, consider consider the thing that you're known for now, the best possible, you know, the most the thing that people know you for already and start there, because you're gonna start selling this, you know, anything you create to the people that know you already into your network. And so that's one thing that I have a small piece of advice I would give Yeah, Petra yeah. Particularly for the type of program that you develop the higher end programs. I agree. It's more a selling process than a marketing process. So yes, you're knocking on people's doors. And if it's something that is totally unrelated to what you've been doing, it's a difficult message to bring across. Absolutely. And the program type and the strategy behind the sales and marketing needs to be aligned. Absolutely. So now, in your collaboration with others, did you notice differences in how you approach creation or how you approach marketing, when it's your own program versus when it is a collaborative approach? Jennifer Yeah, I think I learned more in collaborating on the program, and then I applied it to my existing program, and then I got some success. So I think it's a bit of a two steps forward, one, step back one step back three steps forward, and tweaking along the way, making changes, even changing you know, the beauty, though, is once you've developed a content and and a great a great program, it can have so many possibilities for tweaking and changing the just the small details of it. So it's it is valuable, every bit of it that you do. Petra And as you're saying, that's what I'm thinking of, as well as, so when you think about the program that you have, and how it fits into your overall business strategy. Did you notice any changes once you have the program in place as to how you how you interact with your clients? Mm hmm. Jennifer Yeah, yeah, I think what I noticed is that I needed to be consistent in my, in my everything around, you know, around talking about the program about you know, was less now about just that I'm a coach and more about always also talking about the, the, the virtual training and live programs that I have. So I, I think I changed the you know, the way that I see myself as way more than just one person and you know, and even was able to attract, you know, team members and grow the business that way. Because I now had something bigger than me. So what actually changed my own mindset and I think that people could feel it and and I attribute some of the some of the success to the, the way I spoke about my myself my business and my work. Petra Wow. Wow, impressive. Jennifer, I thank you so much for your time, I know you have a hard stop. So I appreciate you sharing your your content with us or your information with us. And for others to start thinking about a you're more than what you are now. You can do this, you can scale up you can bring programs out to your audience that will value them. And collaboration is a great way to to grow personally and and professionally. Absolutely. Petra, thanks for the opportunity. Thank you was wonderful to have you. Okay.