The Daly Dose
My favorite part of my director job was conducting “skip level” connects - meaning, one on one connections with the direct reports of my direct reports. This was a practice fairly embedded in the culture of our workplace, and I remember how awesome it felt to have a relationship with my executive leader.
There were three primary purposes around the connects:
Understanding the work on the ground - how the strategy and business relationships look in real life, not just in theory.
Helping my team zoom out - to help them understand how their experience was connected to something bigger.
To stay close to, invested in, and accountable for the employee experience and individual development of each person.
Meanwhile, it was important to me in my leadership that I be seen and known as a real person - someone who was trying to figure stuff out as much as anyone else, had made mistakes & struggle, and had a real life beyond work. My team still talks about the all-team call during COVID, when my kids made smoothies in the kitchen behind me - and forgot the lid of the blender. Chaos ensued, and we still laugh about it together. True story.
So beside that basic 3-point agenda and my own leadership intention, each individual could bring whatever topics they wanted. Often they shared success and wins they were proud of. Equally as often they were stuck on a problem (and the accompanying self doubt) and wanted advice or thought partnership. On the development side, topics ranged from seeking mentorship to developmental shifts to help them achieve larger impact or a next level position, and sometimes a position outside our team. The conversations were as unique as each member of the team, they had continuity over time, and we grew our skills and our connectedness in meaningful ways. (All remote, by the way.)
It was through these skip level connects that I began to hone my craft of coaching. Partners started telling me I had a knack for boiling down what they were thinking through or struggling with to something clear and succinct. And that I helped them see they were not alone in working through that thing, by sharing stories from my own experience or connecting them to others who had walked that path. They told me I had a strength for metaphor and started keeping track of things I would say again and again.
This is how the Daly Dose was born - “gotta get your Daly Dose! Can’t wait for my daily dose of Daly!”. And they made me stickers! Being recognized in this way means the world to me - it signifies being seen and known in my intent, and reaping mutual rewards in both results and in connection. Over the years I started to say things out loud like - “this is my favorite part of my job” and “what if I could do this all the time?”
Then I left my job. In starting to examine what next might look like, coaching stayed consistent as a path to explore. So here I am: bringing the experiences I gained through trusting, honest relationships with friends and colleagues at work alongside a formalized structured approach through the ICF, while mashing it up into the Daly approach.
Glad you’re here on the ride with me.
—K
