I believe leadership is a complex mixture of skills and awareness, and that this plays out in the leader's inner world and in their external world. Too many models of leadership try to pigeon hole leaders into one category or another. In our every more complex and challenging world, it is time to embrace this complexity and develop leadership that can operate at higher levels of consciousness and challenge.
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Does your organisation want you to step up to leadership?
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Do you want to move from individual contributor to leader?
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Do you want to become a better leader?
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Are you clear what being a better leader means?
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Do you know how to grow as a leader?
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Do you want to get more from your teams?
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Are you as effective as you could be in your executive role?
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Would it be helpful to have outside support on your journey?
Leaders need to present a controlled image while the world they operate in becomes increasingly complex, unpredictable and unstable. Leadership and executive coaching can be short or long term. It is a learning approach that creates self-awareness, helps drive transformational change, and provides critical challenge and support. This coaching focuses on you as an individual and also on your role and the success of your organisation.
Working with complexity and difference
Leadership (and executive) roles require the ability to hold multiple truths, multiple stakeholders and many other aspects of life, work and organisations at the same time. Understanding how to work with systems, and what our place is within the systems is vitally important to effective leadership. Understanding the why, how and what is also a key part of modern leadership.
One of the ways that I work with my clients is to look at polarities (or tensions). These may be external polarities within their organisations, relationships etc. These may also be internal polarities, such as the ability to be focused on tasks and people at the same time, and being able to shift between these polarities depending on the needs of the situation.
Becoming aware of and being at choice with internal and external polarities is a powerful skill to develop for anyone. Senior leaders and executives are often in unique situations in their organisations. The stakes are high and the expectations are equally high, they are often always on stage and yet potentially isolated at the same time.
Being able to explore multiple perspectives, holding the paradox of multiple truths, exploring opposites and polarities through flexibility of mind provides a powerful way to work through life's challenges and potential opportunities. This includes the ability to get psychological distance from our emotions and thoughts, so that we can be open to new ways of making meaning of the world. The following are a few examples of how both "this" and "that" can be true, at the same time. Through coaching, you will learn to apply this flexibility to your own mind and to your own situation.
360° & 720° Feedback
360° feedback is an incredibly valuable tool for any leader at any level in an organisation. It is a great tool for giving leaders clear feedback from their peers, employees and managers. It creates strong motivation and specific focus to improve skills, culture and performance. The purpose is to assist leaders to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to contribute insights into aspects that could benefit from professional development. The 360° feedback, when managed well, provides an excellent platform on which to build a development plan for leaders.
Developing culture
Culture has become a key differentiation between businesses for employees and leaders. With the current pace of change, the hunger for entrepreneurship and independence, and the shift from office based to remote or hybrid working, the need to understand, track and positively develop culture within business is more important than ever. It's not enough to rely on HR or to simply hope, it's important for leaders to be fundamentally part of consciously affecting company culture to support the needs of the business and the employees. Identify ways to develop belonging, value and trust!
To achieve this, leaders need to be aware of what culture is, how they are / can affect it both consciously and unconsciously, how they want the culture to be and how they can engage others in the business and their teams to support the movement towards a culture that supports the needs of the business as well as those working in the business.
Strategic thinking
I have found that most leaders say they want to improve their strategic thinking so that they can move away from firefighting and stop drowning in their workload. But how can you achieve this? Through coaching and self-reflection, you will be able to bring a more strategic lens to your everyday thinking and working. It may be that you need to spend more time focusing on strategy, it may be that you need to keep strategy in the back of your mind with each interaction and decision you make, and it may simply be that you need to understand what strategic thinking really means. Whatever is true for you, we will find a way to help you become more strategic.
Adaptability as a leader
Your ability to adapt to different situations, stake holders, employees etc. will make a significant difference to how effectively you can lead. Using a model such as the Enneagram, or simply working with your day to day interactions to help you become more conscious and aware is a powerful way to increase your adaptability. Sometimes awareness (self and situational) will be enough for you to make powerful shifts in your leadership effectiveness. Sometimes you will need to dig a little deeper to understand where you are blocking yourself, how you are effectively self-sabotaging your ability to be a better leader. With my support and your own motivation and willing, you will be able to make substantial differences to how well you can lead across a wider set of scenarios and contexts.
Effective communication and influence
Your ability to communicate effectively will have a huge impact on your ability to build relationships, to understand your environment, and to influence those around you. Good communication depends on a number of factors such as knowing your own beliefs, your vision, your intention - understanding the people you're trying to communicate with, what's important to them and how they like to communicate. It is also powerful to know at what level you are communicating - it may be in reaction to what's going on, or you might be focusing on the deeper structural layers of the environment around you. Understanding all of this, as well as your own preferences and the impact of your communication style will determine how well you can communicate and influence others.
DISC (also known as Insights and Social Styles) is one model of communication that can help you to identify your own and others preferences, as well as the impact of communicating in different ways. The model will help you to understand where you might be at stress because you're being asked to communicate in a style other than your natural style - this is common in some businesses. The DISC model also help you to understand how to read other people's communication preferences and how to learn to flex your style when you are communicating with those around you who have different natural styles to you, or when you have a particular intention for your communication - eg. understanding details vs building rapport.
Supporting and developing your employees
One of the most important roles for any leader is to support those they lead. This may be through coaching, goal setting, feedback, listening, inspiring, training etc. How you and your organisation enact support will define the success of your teams, yourself and your organisation. Being clear on the impact of your leadership, and how to support those who follow you can elevate you to being the best leader you can be, and to enable the potential of all those around you towards your common goals. There isn't a one size fits all approach. Finding your way to lead, how you respond to the situations and people you work with and then being skilfully at choice is one of the most important goals of leadership and executive coaching.
Self-care for leaders and executives
As a leader, at whatever level within your organisation, your own self-care is just as important as any of the formal and informal aspects of your role. Without being able to look after your own physical and mental wellbeing, you won't be able to lead effectively for long. Setting a great example for others in your business is important, and this doesn't mean working harder or longer than others. Find the balance that works for you and your business.
Competing needs and values
In the complex world of business and leadership, there are often competing needs and values depending on the situation and context. Your ability as a leader to be comfortable with complexity is one thing, yet being able to make the most effective decisions in a timely way is what will make the difference between success and stagnation or failure. One way to understand these competing values is to consider polarities such as flexible vs focused / stable and internal vs external. Being able to map and assess your options and the impacts in this way can give you clearer insight in demanding and complex situations that allows you to support your organisation to flourish thanks to the complexity you are operating in.
Team development
We maximise our impact when we are able to interact effectively with those around us. Great teams are surprisingly rare and the ones that exist are difficult to replicate. Part of the reason is that there are so many factors affecting team performance. These include the individuals and relationships within the team, the place of the team in the organisation, team leadership, environmental dynamics etc. High performance teams should not be left to chance.
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Do your teams consistently deliver at or above target?
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Are you sufficiently agile and resilient to adapt to shifting priorities and circumstances?
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Is trust high within your teams?
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Can your team handle internal and external conflict without avoidance or over-reaction?
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Are you able to effectively operate within increasingly complex systems?
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Do others in your business look to your teams as a great examples of how to do things?
Team coaching is a great way to develop your teams to perform to the best of your potential. There are many different models for team coaching, and all of them are more effectively implemented by having an effective and skilled team coach. Since teams rarely operate in a vacuum, it is important to help you develop as part of the wider organisation and in relation to multiple external stakeholders.
Benefits of leadership and exec coaching
Leadership coaching is a great way to become more effective, trusted and successful. Coaching can focus on your overall role as a leader, or specific areas such as team engagement, motivation, feedback, strategy, communication, inspiring your team, creating change, developing culture or other areas that are specific to yourself, your business or your team. Key aspects of leadership development to focus on include:
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Evolve your own leadership style that is effective for you, your team and your organisation
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Grow your self-awareness and self-confidence as a leader
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Develop your personal vision, values and priorities for leadership and your time
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Expand your ability to operate and think strategically in complex environments
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Determine appropriate goals and action plans for yourself and your team
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Enhance you day to day management and leadership skills
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Explore and improve your ability to communicate effectively in challenging situations
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Uncover and shift self-sabotaging habits, behaviours and beliefs that are holding you back
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Improve your ability to remain effective under high pressure and with difficult people
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Accountability in your objectives and development as a leader, not just in your job role
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A deeper, practical, hands-on understanding of leadership and communication styles
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Support your personal mental and emotional wellbeing