Allan Lind, James L. Vincent Professor of Leadership Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

Jim Jubelirer serves as a coach for a class I teach in the Fuqua School’s Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program. This program is a comprehensive immersion for mid-senior executives held in various locations around the world. This year, Jim’s coachees were in Korea, India, and the US. A core element of the program requires each student to complete a 360 survey process, where they rate themselves and also get rated by direct reports, peers, and supervisors. The GEMBA students then work with their coach to create a Personal Development Plan (PDP) in order to grow as leaders. This year’s PDPs were wonderful! I ascribe this in large part to the efforts of our coaches such as Jim. I am seeing a remarkable level of critical self-analysis and intelligent use of the concepts in our leadership model. In many cases the students themselves give credit to their coaches for insights, but even where they don’t, I can see lots of evidence of hard, intelligent coaching. This improvement in the PDPs is evident across the board, but it is most remarkable when I look at the PDPs of the foreign students. I know that coaching someone from Korea or India is difficult, but wow what a difference our coaches have made for these students!