Leadership Team Coaching Program

We are seeking an experienced executive coach or organizational development consultant to design and facilitate a 12-week progressive leadership coaching program for our Leadership Team at The People’s Music School. Our Leadership Team—covering programs, finance, fundraising, and operations—manages a growing organization serving hundreds of students with tuition-free, intensive music education. We want to build stronger alignment, collaboration, and strategic decision-making capacity as a team.

The volunteer will:

Conduct a brief team needs assessment through interviews and/or surveys to identify strengths, challenges, and growth priorities.

Design a 12-week coaching plan that builds skills progressively (e.g., trust and communication → conflict navigation → strategic alignment → execution discipline).

Facilitate one 90-minute team coaching session each month (virtual or in person) focused on both skill-building and addressing real organizational challenges.

Provide up to three short (30–45 minute) individual coaching touchpoints for each team member during the engagement to reinforce learning and address role-specific growth goals.

Recommend simple tools and practices to help the team sustain progress after the engagement.

We envision the volunteer spending 2–4 hours per week on preparation, facilitation, follow-up, and light coaching. The ideal volunteer has experience in executive coaching, leadership development, and team facilitation, preferably with nonprofit or mission-driven leadership teams.

The People’s Music School transforms the lives of Chicago youth through tuition-free, intensive music education. Our students—98% youth of color, the majority from low-income households—gain not only musical skills but also the discipline, confidence, and resilience that set them up for lifelong success.

As we grow to serve more students and communities, our Leadership Team must work in deep alignment to sustain excellence and expand impact. This project will strengthen our leaders’ ability to make strategic decisions together, communicate openly, and lead their teams with clarity and confidence.

The ripple effect will be powerful: stronger leadership will translate into smoother program delivery, more effective fundraising, better resource management, and a healthier organizational culture. That means our students will experience more stability, more consistent support, and more opportunities to thrive—both musically and personally.

By lending your expertise to this project, you will help us equip the people at the helm of our mission to work as a cohesive, high-functioning team, ensuring that our students receive the highest quality education and support possible. Your contribution will directly help us deliver on our vision: that every child, regardless of background, has access to the transformative power of music.

Our Leadership Team members understand the goals of this project and are eager to participate—they have expressed interest in developing stronger cross-functional collaboration and a shared leadership approach. We have secured their commitment to attend all scheduled team coaching sessions, complete any pre-work, and actively apply new tools between sessions.

I will serve as the primary point of contact for the volunteer, coordinating scheduling, providing background materials, and ensuring the team comes prepared for each session. We have relevant internal documents (e.g., org chart, strategic plan, FY25 goals, recent staff engagement survey results) ready to share so the volunteer can quickly understand our context and priorities.

We have a clear plan for implementing the program’s outcomes. Coaching insights and action items will be integrated into our existing leadership meeting agendas and annual goal-setting process, ensuring they become part of how we operate—not just a one-time experience. By committing to concrete follow-up actions and accountability within our team, we will sustain the benefits well beyond the end of the Taproot engagement.