Revitalizing Sounding Board's brand to bridge the leadership gap.
— Brand identity / 2024
A confident, premium identity system that repositioned a leadership-development platform for top-tier global enterprises, including Intel, EY, and Cloudera. Brand voice, visual language, and design system, recalibrated end-to-end.
— 01 / The artifact
All ten pages
Inside the guide.
The complete ten-page flagship, art-directed in Sounding Board's teal-to-indigo gradient system, with a recurring sweeping arc, leader-forward photography, and typography tuned for a confident, skimmable read. Click any page to view it full size.
01 · Cover
02 · Contents
03 · Intro
04 · Strategy
05 · Strategy II
06 · ROI
07 · ROI II
08 · Liftoff
09 · Rollout
10 · CloseTen pages — one cohesive editorial system, cover to closeFull guide
— 02 / The brief
Why it exists
One asset doing the work of three.
Mid-funnel buyers needed proof, not promise. The guide had to function simultaneously as a brand artifact, a sales-enablement leave-behind, and an SEO-resilient pillar page, definitive enough that a leader could read it cover to cover and walk away knowing exactly how to stand up a coaching program.
So I shaped it as a ten-page flagship that walks a reader from why coaching through how to build, measure, and roll out a program, anchored by the embedded Liftoff case study as the proof point.
Employees are stepping up to leadership roles at much earlier stages in their careers. These new leaders are screaming out for development.
The opening register sets the whole guide's tone.
- A premium, leader-forward cover that reads as a brand artifact, not a brochure.
- The signature teal-to-indigo gradient and sweeping arc, established page one.
- Typography tuned for a confident, skimmable read from the first glance.
Opening register — premium, leader-forward, gradient-and-arc systemGuide p. 1
— 03 / Structure
How it's built
A definitive read, planned end to end.
I sequenced the guide as a build: make the case, hand the reader a concrete strategy, prove the ROI, then show it working and close on the rollout. Each section earns the next, so a leader can skim for the part they need or read it straight through.
— 01Introduction to Leadership CoachingDefinition, impact & benefitsp. 03
— 02Developing a Coaching StrategyFive steps your company can get behindp. 04
— 03Maximize Coaching ROIFive best practices for selecting a platformp. 06
— 04Case Study: LiftoffFirst-time managers, leading with confidencep. 08
— 05Ensuring a Successful RolloutCommunication that keeps everyone alignedp. 09
The strategy, in five steps
The heart of the guide is a repeatable framework any leader can run, turning "we should invest in our people" into a program with a vision, the right cohort, and metrics behind it.
— 01Define your visionA clear, repeatable vision ("Best Place to Work," zero attrition, scale fast) aspirational and consistent with your culture.
— 02Get your team on boardExecutive sponsorship and stakeholder buy-in so leaders understand the benefits and commit to the process.
— 03Select who to target firstHigh-potentials, new managers, recently-promoted ICs, project leaders, role-changers, and the exec team.
— 04Identify your metricsCoachee satisfaction, manager feedback, promotion and retention rates, surveyed early and often.
— 05Prioritize & define the roadmapPrioritize cohorts with your Sounding Board team, then schedule comms and trainings for the right people.
What leadership coaching actually creates.
- A trusted, certified leadership and management resource for your teams.
- Upleveled capacity in critical skills: communication, feedback, strategic thinking, leading teams.
- Real mindset and behavior shifts, not one-off training takeaways.
- Higher retention and engagement of high-potential leaders.
Strategy spread — the framework, art-directed for skim and depthGuide p. 4
— 04 / The proof of rigor
Maximize coaching ROI
Five best practices for choosing a coaching platform.
To make the ROI argument concrete, the guide lays out five best practices established by the Corporate Leadership Council, anchored by the thing buyers underestimate most: the quality and fit of the match between leader and coach.
Five best practices for maximizing coaching ROI.
- Hire the best coaches: a vetted, 3-step-qualified exclusive network.
- Focus coaching on business needs: anchored in your culture, values, and goals.
- Optimize coach matching: a proprietary 6-point system; fit drives trust.
- Secure manager participation: a continuous feedback loop, not a solo effort.
- Manage coaches to standards: supervision that keeps quality consistent.
ROI best-practices spread — the case for rigorGuide p. 6
97%
Coach-match success rate via the proprietary system.
6-pt
Proprietary leader-to-coach matching system.
10+
Avg. years of coaching experience in the network.
3-step
Vetting & qualification process for every coach.
— 05 / The proof
Case study: Liftoff
A real program turns the thesis into a buying case.
The embedded customer story does the convincing. Many of Liftoff's talented people were first-time managers with little executive experience, and a fast-growing company needed them to lead, quickly. A six-month coaching engagement gave them the skills to lead with confidence.
Liftoff case study — the proof point, embedded mid-guideGuide p. 8
60%
Requested more coaching, 2+ years after the engagement ended.
100%
Of program completers still work at the company.
6mo
Initial engagement that set the whole program in motion.
18
Senior & exec leaders in the expanded global initiative.
— 06 / Impact
What it did
The flagship that anchored the funnel for a year.
Sales reached for it as a close artifact; marketing ran it as a top-organic-traffic pillar page. Because it led with usefulness instead of a pitch, it earned the read, turning mid-funnel buyers into informed decision-makers and doing the work of three assets at once.
Closing page — the brand promise and a clear next stepGuide p. 10
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— The takeaway
Make it definitive and lead with usefulness, and one asset can carry brand, sales, and search at once.
Peter Loebbecke · Sr. Creative Director