Coaching
The Tulane University Leadership Institute offers one-on-one and small team coaching to help Tulane faculty and staff develop their leadership, strengthen team effectiveness, navigate professional transitions, or reach specific goals.
What Coaching Is
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.
In practice, coaching is a structured, confidential dialogue between you and a certified
coach. Your coach asks powerful questions, helps you examine what is getting in your way, and supports you in developing your own clarity and direction. The agenda belongs to you. Coaching is forward-focused and action-oriented, and the skills you build carry forward into how you lead and develop others.
Coaching conversations are confidential and guided by the ethical standards of the International Coaching Federation (IFC). Information shared during coaching remains private unless you authorize specific information to be shared.
Coaching engagements are customized based on your goals and may include leadership development, career growth, transition support, strengths-based development, or team effectiveness.
Why Coaching Matters at Tulane
Tulane is navigating significant institutional change. Sustaining strong performance in that environment takes more than technical skill. It takes clarity, resilience, and the capacity to lead through uncertainty. Coaching creates the dedicated space for that work, helping faculty and staff address specific development needs on their own timeline without stepping away from their roles.
When individuals grow, their teams grow. Investing in coaching builds the leadership capacity that sustains excellence across the institution.
What You Can Expect to Gain
There is no fixed curriculum. Every session addresses what matters most to you at that moment, within the larger arc of your goals for the engagement. Clients who engage seriously with coaching commonly report:
Greater self-awareness. Clarity on how you lead, how others experience you, and what patterns are helping or holding you back.
Stronger decision-making. More confidence navigating ambiguous situations, difficult conversations, and competing priorities.
Focused professional goals. Clarity on what you want from your career and a realistic path to get there.
Sustained behavior change. Coaching builds change that holds because you develop it yourself.
What Our Clients Are Saying
The impact of coaching is best reflected in the experiences of those who have participated. Here are a few reflections from Tulane faculty and staff who have engaged in TULI coaching.
"I am more focused on taking steps to advance my career. Coaching has helped me build my confidence in my abilities to do my job well and to grow. It has also helped me think about how to get the next step in my career."
— TULI Coaching Participant
"It's a great resource, and one that is uniquely Tulane! I would recommend it to anyone, and I found it particularly invaluable as a new leader at the University."
— TULI Coaching Participant
"If you're feeling stuck—whether in your role at Tulane or in your broader career—I strongly recommend TULI coaching. Their expertise helped me shift from a narrow focus that was holding me back to seeing a much wider range of possibilities for growth. They also reminded me that progress takes patience, and that giving yourself a little grace along the way is part of moving forward. TULI coaching truly opened new doors for me."
— TULI Coaching Participant
"I am happy to report that TULI coaching increased my self-awareness and capacity to plan and implement, both personally and professionally. Concrete progress was made in terms of enhancing my ability to set and achieve goals, improving how I communicate with others, and otherwise serving as a more effective leader within the Tulane community."
— TULI Coaching Participant
"You will uncover parts of yourself you may never have experienced. Being coached allows you to see yourself and therefore see others with curiosity, compassion, and presence. Get ready to grow!"
— TULI Coaching Participant
"Coaching gave me a different frame of reference for addressing challenges and issues. It helped me find a new pattern of pausing instead of immediately acting, or jumping straight to solutions. That meant I could see when a challenge actually needed to be solved rather than treating all challenges equally — it helped me save energy and work more efficiently."
— TULI Coaching Participant
Program Structure
Each engagement is a six-month commitment: six 60-minute sessions scheduled every two to three weeks, in person (preferred) or virtually. At the close of the engagement, you, your coach, and your sponsor meet to review progress and decide whether to continue.
Our Coaches
Every TULI Coach has completed TULI’s Resilience and Leadership Coaching Certification Program, which includes over 75 hours of training by an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Master Coach, and all coaches uphold the ICF Code of Ethics. They are Tulane insiders who understand the institutional culture and the specific demands of leadership work at this university. Browse coach biographies to find a match before you submit a request.
Alignment with International Coaching Federation (ICF)
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” When used appropriately, coaching closes the gap between an individual’s current performance or behaviors and their desired level, enabling participants to establish realistic pathways to successful outcomes in their own developmental journey.
Certified coaches are experts in establishing a relationship through a series of conversations with the purpose of supporting leaders to improve their performance or enhance their personal development or both, choosing their own goals and ways of doing it. According to recent research, coaching holds the promise of transformation, as it is the only method that inclines one to grow beyond surface issues (Collins, 2002; Hunt & Weintraub, 2007; Palmer & Whybrow, 2008).
Within the coaching context, the client experiences powerful questions, introspection, increased readiness, and needed space to re-frame their perspective (Stainer, 2016). Coaching then encourages clients to deepen their insights and translate those insights into action (Anderson & Anderson, 2005). Thus, by being in a coaching relationship, leaders address their specific development needs and learn how to inspire similar levels of commitment and growth in their followers.
Coaching Fees
Session fees range from $150 to $300 based on the client’s level of managerial and leadership responsibility. Many departments cover coaching through professional development funds. TULI can provide guidance on working with your department or a sponsor to fund your engagement.
Ready to get started?
Complete the TULI Coaching Request Form to share your goals, preferences, and desired outcomes. Coaching Program Coordinator Stephanie Barksdale will follow up with next steps. She can also answer any questions via email at sbark@tulane.edu.
