Executive & Leadership Coaching
Leadership for ambitious purpose requires us to move to the edges of our capacity. It requires us to be vulnerable. This is not easy. I hold space for you to show up as you are, creating the conditions for you to grow greater self-awareness and evolve. I’ll support you to uncover and examine assumptions you hold about yourself, your work, and your system. You’ll begin to see what you couldn’t see before, allowing you to innovate and meet your full potential.
“Our weekly coaching sessions not only feel like an oasis within the rhythm of my life, they consistently accelerate my growth and deepen my effectiveness as a leader, teammate, and human being.”
— Joseph Chang, COO, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
The Developmental Sprint®
Imagine if everyone on your team were to make real progress on a challenging improvement goal that would transform their work and leadership. I support your team to make catalytic progress on your highest leverage goals through the Developmental Sprint® created by my partners at The Developmental Edge®.
Through the process participants will:
- uncover their own resistance to change
- reckon with limiting beliefs
- grow rapidly as individuals
- get better at growing as a team
- build lasting connections with their colleagues
Examples of improvement goals for the process include getting better at the following: delegating, taking risks, speaking up, making time to innovate, or giving constructive feedback.
Leadership Development Workshops
These interactive workshops elevate leadership teams’ capacity to address the most pressing challenges in your system. The learning is “sticky” and immediately puts into practice principles of adaptive leadership, change management, and adult development. Workshops are interactive and experiential. You and your teams will apply what you learn at two levels:
- Diagnose the system you’re in and identify innovative paths forward.
- Uncover limiting beliefs and develop the self-awareness that’s necessary to lead in your context.
“Participating in the adaptive leadership course led by Dr. Rowland was a transformative experience for me. It blended practical leadership skills with deep insights into complex organizational leadership. The tools and strategies provided a new lens to manage current challenges as a leader within my organization, making me a more effective and empathetic leader. This experience has enhanced my professional growth and left a lasting impact on my personal development.”
— Des Gallagher, Associate Dean for Clinical Service, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
Restorative Facilitation: Reconnect through Productive Conflict
Sometimes culture goes off the rails. Sometimes the conflict gets too heated for us to handle it on our own. Sometimes we would rather avoid conflict altogether. This gets in the way of doing good work and leaves us feeling terrible. But leaning into productive conflict can resolve deep issues in our work and make us stronger.
I facilitate pairs, teams or whole organizations to work through and get to the other side of conflict. I engage you in a process that you can use again, even when I’m not there, to support you moving forward.
“We had developed bad communication habits that were damaging our business on many levels. Allison created and maintained a safe space when working with us, both individually and collectively, so that we could say the hard things and actually hear each other. Her tools, methods, protocols, and unwavering presence were absolute medicine. I can never thank her enough for the healing she facilitated for us, which is now rippling out into our business culture making us stronger than we have ever been before.”
— Hina Knuebuhl, Founder & Company Owner, Kealopiko
Team Development and Retreats
I partner with teams, and leaders to build a growth culture, one in which everyone contributes to each other’s growth in service to your mission. I design experiences aimed at helping your team:
- build muscles for giving and receiving feedback, exercising vulnerability, and moving beyond limitations
- learning job embedded practices to promote transparency, facilitate powerful meetings, and encourage risk-taking
I work with teams of all kinds, but I am especially excited about helping launch new, high-performing teams. My approach is grounded in Harvard University research by Dr. Lisa Lahey and Dr. Robert Kegan captured in: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization.
“By leading through example, Allison supported us to be emotionally vulnerable and open from day one. Her work created heart-centered human bonds between our newly formed group that enabled us to work effectively on strategic issues of global significance. For me personally, it meant I felt heard and understood for who I really am without facades. It is in this place that we need to be to create positive environmental and social changes for our world.”
— Jane Dunlop, Co-Founder & CEO, āluān
Strategic Planning through Design Thinking
I partner with your team to build from current strengths while uncovering barriers to your organizational goals. Through dynamic design thinking sessions, you will gain new insights and deeper engagement from staff, supporters, and the people you serve. I pay special attention to the sequence and pace of change, and make adjustments as the work unfolds. This work can take place as part of the strategic planning process, during retreats, or in the event of crisis.
“Dr. Rowland, through an incredible, collective process, and utilizing her scholarly expertise, through compassion and listening, brought together an extremely diverse community in order to understand each other and to develop new ways of partnering.”
— Dr. Fabiola Bagula, Deputy Superintendent, San Diego Unified School District
Internal Courage for External Impact
The Developmental Sprint® is a registered trademark of The Developmental Edge®.
Courageous Projects 