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.

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.