Unlocking the Power of Leadership Coaching to Advance Justice

In organizations across the country, social-sector, mission-driven leaders are being challenged to maintain their core organizational values while facing diminishing financial resources, increasing attacks on inclusivity, equity, and justice, and supporting beleaguered staff who are navigating. Navigating restrictions that range from the language they use to the programs that they offer. Yet their leadership matters now more than ever, and it is critical that leaders have the capacity to support their organization and team to effectively meet the growing challenges facing the children and families they serve – especially in Black, Latinx, Indigenous, immigrant, and LGBTQIA+ communities.  

So what would support leaders to ensure they are equipped not only with technical expertise, but also self-awareness, relational skills, and the accountability necessary to navigate these challenges and meet this moment?  

Over the past several years, CSSP has worked in close partnership with child and family serving organizations and agencies who are effectively utilizing coaching as a critical strategy for meeting this moment. Coaching creates intentional space for leaders to reflect, strengthen relationships, and translate justice commitments into everyday practice; shifts that ultimately shape how they, and the organizations they lead, show up for children and families in powerful ways. Leadership coaching unlocks new ways of being and doing, equipping leaders to navigate difficult times with clarity and intention. This has been especially evident in CSSP’s work with our key partner, the Capacity Building Center for States (Center for States). 

Leadership Coaching Partnership with the Center for States 

In our partnership with the Center for States, they committed to strengthening the knowledge, skills, and leadership practice of its management team to lead with justice, using both individual and group coaching as a core strategy for leadership development. We co-developed a Racial Justice One-On-One Coaching Curriculum for People Managers and conducted monthly individual coaching sessions with members of the management team. These sessions supported managers in improving their skills, deepening self-awareness, and strengthening their ability to lead justice-centered work. 

As one individual coaching participant reflected: 

“I thought the 1:1 coaching was immensely helpful. It helped me think and consider different things without being judgmental and helped me connect management and work practices to consideration of equity and diversity even when it wasn’t obvious. [The] questions allowed me to explore where I come from and how it has impacted the way I think and act.” 

The individual coaching curriculum included presentations and a participant manual to support application across topics such as goal setting, learning new practices to be fair and just, promoting racial healing, embracing learning and improving as you go, and navigating resistance and challenges. CSSP also tracked each manager’s desired outcomes, evidence of the need for change, action steps and timelines, indicators of success, and progress over time. 

In addition to individual coaching, CSSP facilitated monthly group coaching sessions with the management team. These sessions created space for shared learning, skill-building, and collective accountability around equitable management practices that can best support staff. Topics included cultivating a culture of feedback, performance management, hiring and retention, and fostering an inclusive organizational culture. Each session included presentations and experiential learning, and was supported by a participant manual designed to bridge in-session learning and day-to-day practice. 

Participants consistently emphasized how the structure of the group coaching supported deeper learning and application: 

“All of the resources that were shared [in the curriculum] are part of my library now – having the pre-work was probably the most helpful for me as it gave me the chance to focus ahead of the sessions and get more out of them. I found the format of 1:1 and group settings to be very helpful.” 

Through this partnership, we observed how coaching supported the organization’s leaders. Individual coaching helped leaders shift perspectives, strengthen confidence, and change behaviors, all of which are critical ingredients for effective change management and leadership development. In addition, group coaching deepened relationships by building trust and aligning the team around shared goals for advancing justice. 

If you are considering one-on-one or group coaching as a part of your leadership efforts to advance your organization’s mission and values, and need a sign, here it is. Coaching can: 

• Provide space for reflection and belief-shifting. Coaching offers individuals the opportunity to interrogate beliefs and experiences in ways that support new perspectives and behavior change. When trust is present, resistance can soften, allowing leaders to expand awareness and build the skills needed to act in alignment with justice values. 

• Strengthen relationships and shared purpose. Advancing justice is complex and relational work. Coaching intentionally centers interpersonal dynamics, cultivating trust, navigating differences, practicing authenticity, and aligning teams around a shared path, so technical efforts are not undermined by unresolved relational challenges. 

• Build practical knowledge and skills. Coaching can be designed to support learning and application of equitable practices such as perspective-seeking, decision-making, hiring and retention, delegation, feedback, performance management, and fostering a culture of belonging. By engaging staff in skill-building experiences, reflective dialogue, and real-life scenarios with peers, coaching creates space to question, test, and refine existing ways of working. 

• Meet people where they are. Unlike standalone training, coaching creates ongoing space to explore real-time challenges, questions, and successes. When paired with group coaching, individual sessions allow for deeper processing in a more private, reflective setting. 

• Embed accountability across levels of change. Sustainable, equitable outcomes require accountability not only at the level of policies, practices, distribution of resources, but also within interpersonal dynamics and individual belief systems. Coaching helps align accountability mechanisms across these layers. 

Leadership coaching is a proven approach to provide leaders with the support, resources and tools to continue meeting their organizational missions, supporting their staff and the children and families they serve, and ensuring they have the capacity needed to address this critical moment in time. If you’re ever benefitted from coaching, we’d love to hear about your experience. And if you’re interested in learning more about CSSP’s approach to leadership coaching to advance justice, please reach out to us – we’d love to connect!