Elevate Your Community Development Financial Institution's Technical Assistance Programs
Leverage SOAR's expertise to design, manage and deliver business coaching and leadership development programsFor our CDFI clients, we offer Technical Assistance (TA) and business coaching that extends beyond basic business skills to include our comprehensive C3 framework, meticulously designed to empower your business owner clients and their leaders. This holistic approach ensures that they receive the support needed to thrive in their business growth, personal leadership and organizational development. By providing expert guidance, essential resources and access to our innovative C3 tools, we enable them to develop their entrepreneurial skills, cultivate exceptional leadership, forge cohesive and high-performing teams, and foster a vibrant and innovative culture. As their companies expand, our tailored support ensures they are well-equipped to navigate growth while maintaining a strong, healthy organizational culture.
Need help scaling technical assistance programs, recruiting mentors, coaches and workshop facilitators, scheduling and documenting cohort participation and reporting program progress for grants?
Empowering Growth eBook for Community Development Financial Institutions
Scaling TA Programs
Use Nebula Coaching and Training Platform
The SOAR Nebula platform revolutionizes how Technical Assistance (TA) programs scale by providing a streamlined communication hub where coaches, facilitators, cohort participants, and CDFI staff can interact seamlessly. It enables CDFI coaches to directly engage with cohort participants, fostering a collaborative learning environment and ensuring continuous support and guidance. This centralized platform enhances efficiency, improves information flow, and supports the scaling of TA programs by ensuring all stakeholders are connected and engaged in real-time.
Quality Coaches and Coaching Standards
Use SOAR’s Coach Network and Coaching Platform Resources
SOAR’s experienced coaches, comprised of ICF certified coaches, outsourced C-Level executives, and business owners with successful exits, bring a wealth of experience and best practices that significantly improve and scale TA programs. These seasoned professionals offer specialized coaching and mentoring, enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of TA initiatives. Additionally, the SOAR platform, Nebula, is versatile, allowing the integration of internal CDFI coaches or other external facilitators currently engaged by the CDFIs, ensuring a tailored and comprehensive coaching ecosystem that aligns with existing strategies and resources.
Learn more about how to build quality coaches in your program
Program Management and Reporting
Use SOAR Nebula to manage all aspects of programs and reporting
The SOAR Nebula platform expertly manages programs by streamlining critical functions such as scheduling, assignments, and the matching of coaches to appropriate leaders, ensuring a seamless operational flow. It also tracks participation, administers pulse surveys, and records coaching topics, providing a rich dataset that enhances the quality and efficacy of reporting, crucial for compliance and monitoring purposes. This comprehensive tracking and management capability allows organizations to maintain high standards in their leadership development efforts and ensures alignment with compliance requirements and program goals.
Learn more about effective scheduling to improve program management
Our Approach
SOAR services supported our Ascend.Her Beauty cohort and provided them with business coaching during a pivotal time in the life of their businesses.
Working with the SOAR team has been fantastic! Their work with our clients was excellent and your communication with our team about the work has been very enlightening and helpful. We look forward to final reporting about the cohort.
As a Small Business Coach at the Latino Economic Development Center, I’ve witnessed the transformative impact of SOAR’s services on our clients. Their expertise, insight, and dedication have significantly improved our clients’ businesses. Here are two key benefits I’ve observed:
- Unique Approach: SOAR Network doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. They invest time in understanding each client’s unique needs and goals, crafting a tailored marketing strategy that perfectly aligns with their brand.
- Creative Ideas: SOAR’s creative team delivered comprehensive, multifaceted campaign recommendations, from social media engagements to in-person events and local collaborations. They included excellent marketing advice, a detailed list of creative ways for our clients to acquire more customers, and different options to improve their capital and funding positions.
In summary, SOAR isn’t just a firm; they’re growth catalysts. If you’re looking for a team that combines creativity, mentoring, and results, look no further. We’re grateful for their exceptional work and look forward to a long-term partnership.
Featured Coaches
Our ICF certified coaches and seasoned advisors, equipped with C-level experience and successful business insights, provide invaluable guidance, enabling leaders to both envision and reach their full potential. This mentorship ensures that leaders are not only effective in their current roles but are also prepared to handle future challenges and opportunities, thus driving the organization’s long-term success. By leveraging their extensive expertise, our coaches and advisors help cultivate a leadership pipeline that is visionary, strategic, and well-equipped to propel the organization forward.
Jennifer Brown
Executive Coach
Steve Orr
Media Advisor
Edgar Ndjatou
HR Advisor
Princess Cullum
Executive Coach
Craig Oldham
CMO Advisor
Marisol Gonzalez Nora
Branding Advisor
Tom Shoemaker
CEO Advisor
Maura Lightfoot
Executive Coach
Nancy Burger
Executive Coach
Sara Evans
Executive Coach
LaTonya Jackson
COO Advisor
Dr. Javier Bisbal
Executive Coach
Clay Parcells
Executive Coach
Lori Bruhns
Executive Coach
Lucy Cora Nazario
Educational Programs Advisor
Featured SOAR Academy Workshops
Workshops are delivered to a cohort by a SOAR expert facilitator. Typical workshop sizes are up to 15 participants per cohort for 2.5 hours per session. Following each facilitated workshop, we suggest 3 facilitated cohort discussion sessions to reinforce learning and create accountability in order to transform your culture. We work with you to design a schedule and cohort size to meet your business growth and leadership development requirements. A full list of workshop topics related to business growth are available upon request.
Discover Your Team Type
Objectives
This workshop will help you discover:
- Your strengths – Use a common language to explore individual awareness and complementary strengths. Understand each of your individual strengths that you bring to the team. Spend time on 1:1 relationships that serve as the building blocks of the team.
- Your Team Type – Celebrate team strengths and examine potential blind spots that are challenging team collaboration. Receive deep insights rooted in science to help you navigate teamwork.
- Takeaways – Improve Dynamics – Identify simple actions to immediately address opportunities. Focus on one challenge area the team is facing and identify some immediate actions that the team can implement to drive change. Leave with clear action planning to address opportunities to work in harmony.
Design for Strategic Action
Objectives
This workshop will help you discover:
- Team Objectives – Your targets – Use a common language to translate objectives into talent terms. Just like we used the work styles framework to discover your Team Type in Session 1, we can use this same framework to understand your team objectives.
- Team Type + Objective – Your stretch | Explore your Team Type through the lens of your objectives. As we consider your Team Type, there are certain team styles that you will be able to leverage as strengths to support successful execution of this Strategy Type.
- Takeaways – De-risk Execution – Your next steps | Identify actions to address opportunities and
- Move your work forward. We’ll choose a particularly interesting blind spot to drill down on how to avoid execution pitfalls. Designing for Strategic Action
Culture, Values and Leadership Integration
Objectives
- Define corporate culture
- Explain the importance of culture
- Identify the elements of culture
- Explain the link between culture, values, organizational behavior, and results
- Explain the link between leadership and the organizational culture
- Define “shared responsibility” in the context of corporate culture
- Define the consequences of not living the core values
Increasing Self-Awareness Using the Johari Window
Objectives
- Explain the overall purpose of the Johari Window.
- Identify the four quadrants: Open, Blind, Hidden, Unknown.
- Explain the purpose of Quadrant 1: “Open Self” or “Free Area” and how to develop this area in oneself and others.
- Explain the purpose of Quadrant 2: “Blind Self” or “Blind Area” and how to reduce this area so that one’s blind spots diminish.
- Explain the purpose of Quadrant 3: “Hidden Self” or “Hidden Area” and how to safely move oneself or another from Quadrant 3 to Quadrant 1 by creating a safe environment.
- Explain the purpose of Quadrant 4: “Unknown Self” or “Unknown Area” and how to discover information or hidden talents about oneself or another to minimize this quadrant and move towards Quadrant 1.
- Activate the Johari Window in a leadership capacity and team environment to facilitate a culture of trust, transparency, growth, and communication.
Cultivating Emotional Intelligence
Objectives
- Explain WHY developing our emotional intelligence is important to our personal and professional lives.
- Define emotional intelligence and be able to relate it to the organization’s Core Values
- Describe the connection between emotional intelligence and being an effective leader and team member.
- Identify your strengths and development areas as it relates to emotional intelligence.
- Explain approaches for developing your emotional intelligence.
Time and Energy Management
Objectives
- Define what time and energy management is and assess their skill levels for both.
- Identify their strengths and development areas as it relates to time and energy management.
- Discover internal and external influences on our energy and how to manage them.
- Recognize their own energy rhythm and that of others.
- Learn how to maximize flow and minimize negative effects of energy vampires.
- Implement effective strategies, using mindset, self-care, and other tips and tools.
Unconscious Bias
Objectives
- Recognize the universality of biases
- Describe unconscious bias and why it exists
- Explain the criticality of reducing unconscious bias and the positive impacts
- Identify and implement approaches for mitigating unconscious bias
Effective Communication Strategies
Objectives
- Discuss why effective communication is important.
- Identify the qualities of effective communication.
- Discuss the role active listening plays in communication.
- Explain the value of empathetic listening and responses.
- Identify strategies for handling difficult situations and people.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Objectives
- Recognize the role of the manager in the feedback process.
- Identify best practices for giving and receiving feedback.
- Learn the “Do’s and Don’ts” of constructive feedback.
- Understand the impact of rating bias and halo effect and other common pitfalls.
- Learn the value of the continuous feedback model and how to weave into your everyday leadership practices.
Managing a Virtual Workforce
Objectives
- Explore some of the trends contributing to the rise of the virtual workforce
- Examine the major challenges related to remote team management
- Discuss the key principles that’ll help managers achieve success with virtual teams
Use these workshops to design the perfect program
What We Can Help You With
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