One of the most challenging tasks for any employee is making the move to the role of manager or moving from a lower-level management position to one of greater responsibility and oversight. This change is often a watershed moment for many individuals and can be one of the most important times to involve an outside consultant to help them understand the important issues about themselves and their place in the organization.

Some employees approach the idea of being a manager from either the perspective of managing the way they were managed, or having some ideal about what it should be. Samuel R. James and Associates works with individuals and their key reports to assess what it means for them to be managers in an organization, given their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of whom they are charged to lead.

Many times, new managers fail because they refuse to take on the appropriate mind-set and/or skill-set reflective of their new position. We believe that people need to do what excites them and motivates them most – not every one can be a manager, or manage at all levels of an organization. We help them to see how they fit into an organization and how best to succeed in their role. They need to develop a perspective that helps them understand the organization's vision, and the new skills that will help them promote the implementation of the organization's future direction.

We work closely with these high-potential individuals to help them answer the most critical questions at hand:

• What does it mean to be a manager?
• What does it mean for you to be a manager?
• What new skills will you need in your new role?
• What do you need to know about your new role in order to be effective?
• What does the organization expect of you?
• What kind of complexities will you encounter?
• How will you need to organize you new staff?

Understanding the psychological underpinnings of these individuals is a major key to understanding their ability to be managers. Our coaching process begins with an intensive personal evaluation, utilizing one of the appropriate Life Styles Inventory™ assessments. These instruments give us the necessary information to conduct a targeted 360° feedback study that helps to uncover the pertinent themes, allowing us to determine how their peers see them,what blind spots they may have, and what are their unrecognized strengths and unrealized development opportunities.