All posts by Dorothy Nesbit

Coaching: switching on a light

Clients and testimonials, Coaching, , ,

The ability to step back and observe ourselves is one that is highlighted by a variety of thinkers. Eckhart Tolle, for example, in his book A New Earth, highlights this ability as one which enables us to go beyond ego to connect with our authentic self. It is this ability that enables leaders to develop self mastery and the ability to act for the greater good.

Often the most significant outcome from coaching is the development of this inner observer. I am grateful to John Woodford, my client at MunichRe, for sharing this testimonial to coaching and to the inner observer:

What did I learn from our coaching? Working in partnership with Dorothy helped me to recognise my habitual behaviours and to become more self-aware: are they the behaviours I want to take forward? Our coaching helped me to develop a greater understanding of the impact I have on those around me and to develop greater empathy and understanding – for myself and others.

Perhaps the greatest learning for me has been to learn to stand outside of myself and look at me. Learning to observe myself in this way has given me new information which I can use to choose my responses and to get better outcomes. This is helping me to be more effective in managing my relationships with others and opening up new possibilities – perhaps to speak publicly, to build my profile, to be more confident and to have more gravitas.

What have been the benefits from coaching? My learning has had great application around the office. Recently, for example, I met someone for the first time. When I found their behaviour very strange, I become curious rather than reacting immediately. Coaching has helped me in managing people, hearing, listening and questioning and also in developing these skills in my staff so the whole team is getting better at understanding what people want. As a service organisation this has value.

What – and how – did Dorothy contribute? Dorothy asked lots of questions which were really tough and made me think very hard. She listened to my answers and followed up with a very sharp and targeted question. Sometimes the questions were much broader and these were the tough ones. If you like, she made me think and opened my mind – this switched on a light for me.

She was also very warm and made me feel very much at ease. She was a good listener and I valued her empathy. She was also very flexible. Our sessions were held at a time and a place that were convenient to me and the duration was just right – I never felt under pressure to cut our sessions short. After a while our fortnightly sessions turned into monthly sessions, evolving naturally into something that met the need.

Would I work with Dorothy again? I felt I got to a point where I had got the best value. Still I have lots to learn and will take it up in the future when I am ready for the next phase.

John Woodford
MunichRe

Executive Coaching: future trends

Coaching

As International Coaching Week draws to a close I take one last look at the recent research by DBM in partnership with the Human Capital Institute (copy available via inquiries@dbm.com). This time, I look at the survey’s prediction of future trends.

The survey’s 472 respondents highlight three areas in which they plan to increase their investment:

  • Grooming high potential employees;
  • Helping capable executives achieve higher performance; and
  • Enhancing team effectiveness.

Respondents expect to decrease their use of coaching for:

  • Addressing derailing behaviours; and
  • Guiding career decisions.

I wonder, as I look at these categories, if one of the implications of these findings is that organisations will fund Executive Coaching when it serves the needs of the organisation, whilst individual Executives will fund coaching in support of their own needs. It has certainly been my experience that my executive clients come to me privately as well as via their organisation.

There is one implication of these findings which may well be worth teasing out and examining – is it seen to be true that the ‘derailing behaviours’ referred to are not those of high potential employees or capable executives? Over the years, I have often encountered senior executives who demonstrate behaviours that are tolerated because of their otherwise high levels of performance. Where do these sit in this picture?

Executive Coaching: what are the top success factors?

Coaching

International Coaching Week continues and today I take a look at the ‘Top Success Factors’ reported by DBM in their recent research study, conducted in partnership with the Human Capital Institute (full copy available at inquiries@dbm.com).

The first area they identify is ‘making the match’. The survey offers a number of factors including ensuring the coach has a sound coaching methodology, identifying coaches with business experience and industry/company knowledge, ensuring the right chemistry between coach and client (including organisational culture), managing the expectations of coach and client and allowing the interview to take place in person.

The second area is one they describe as ‘time and touch’: allowing 4 – 6 months for the client to develop new behaviours and emphasizing primarily face-to-face coaching with a blend of over-the-phone.

The third area is measurement (‘measure, measure, measure’), including assessing progress against initial objectives, soliciting an evaluation from the coach (or do they mean the ‘coachee’?) and seeking out anecdotal evidence of changes and the impact of changes.

I might have some questions about the detail. (In my own practice, for example, I have some senior clients with whom I speak for half an hour on a weekly basis and others I meet, face to face, on a fortnightly or monthly basis for 90 minutes. I can’t say that I have found face-to-face coaching to have been more successful than coaching by phone). At the same time, it seems to me that it helps to start coaching with a clear idea of what you want coaching to achieve, to match coaches and clients with care, to allow time for clients to make changes and to monitor results along the way.

Executive Coaching: tracking the financial impact

Coaching

This week, in celebration of International Coaching Week, I continue to reflect on the brief summary of a longer study of trends in Executive Coaching published by DBM in partnership with the Human Capital Institute (available via inquiries@dbm.com).

43% of respondents suggested that their organisations measure the financial impact of coaching, with 77% of those who measure financial impact suggesting the return on investment is at least equivalent to the investment and in some cases as high as 500%. The factors most often tracked were given as:

  • Output: 33%;
  • Quality: 23%;
  • Cost: 23%;
  • Turnover: 21%.

Reflecting on my own practice, I wonder what precisely is being measured here and over what time period. For coaching almost always offers the “double whammy” benefits of helping the person seeking coaching to handle situations more effectively during the coaching and leaving them more equipped to handle situations that take place long after coaching has finished. What would it take to measure the life-long ROI from coaching for a particular Executive?

Executive Coaching: when does it have the greatest impact?

Coaching

Looking again at the survey summary from which I quoted yesterday (by DBM in partnership with the Human Capital Institute), I was curious to see what the numbers suggest about when Executive Coaching has the greatest impact. They came out as follows:

  • Top place with 29% of respondents comes grooming high potential employees;
  • 28% of respondents cite helping capable executives achieve higher performance;
  • 8% of respondents cite enhancing team effectiveness;
  • 5% of respondents cite addressing short-term, targeted situations;
  • 5% of respondents cite onboarding newly hired or promoted executives; and
  • 3% cite guiding career decisions.

It’s stiking to me that the first two circumstances are cited by 57% of respondents as those in which Executive Coaching has the highest impact and that both are concerned with – if I can put it this way – taking good people and helping them to become even better.

It’s also interesting to notice that this does not correlate with the reasons organisations commission coaching, with addressing derailing behaviours coming joint first with helping capable executives achieve higher performance. Together, these account for 36% of responses. Only 8% of respondents cite onboarding newly hired and promoted executives as the main reason for commissioning coaching.

It would be easy to conclude that investing in coaching to help address derailing behaviors is of limited effectiveness. However the figures don’t seem to support this – 18% of respondents cite this as the number one reason for commissioning coaching and 22% of respondents cite it as the circumstance in which Executive Coaching has the greatest impact.

By contrast, it does seem that the benefits of using Executive Coaching to groom high potential employees are generally underestimated in the commissioning process, with 16% of respondents citing this as the number one reason for commissioning coaching compared to 29% citing this as the circumstance in which coaching has the greatest impact.

To request a copy of the white paper you can contact inquiries@dbm.com.

Trends in Executive Coaching

Coaching

As International Coaching Week begins I have been curious to receive a two-page summary of recent research by DBM, in partnership with the Human Capital Institute, into trends and emerging best practice in Executive Coaching.

What do they see as the key results from their research – their ‘results at-a-glance’?

  • The credibility and acceptance of coaching are high: 78% of respondents rate it as good or excellent;
  • Return on coaching investment is generally perceived as high – some estimate it as high as 500%;
  • Organisations are planning to increase their coaching investment in several targeted areas.

The survey is comprised of 472 responses from a cross-section of industries including HR Business Partners (32%), top Human Resources Executives (26%) and others in Organisational Development and Training and Development roles (42%).

I’ll be highlighting key findings throughout the week. In the meantime, you can request a copy of the full ‘white paper’ by contacting inquiries@dbm.com.

Don’t miss Dorothy!

Clients and testimonials, , ,

Over the years it has become increasingly apparent to me that the people in the field of human development (trainers, consultants, facilitators, coaches…) who have most to offer their clients are those who are most committed to their own learning.

Attending The Skilled Facilitator Approach programme with Roger Schwarz and his colleagues in December last year was a reminder of this on many levels. I noticed, for example, how much I felt drawn to Roger, to Matt Beane and to Annie Bentz who facilitated the programme with such commitment and skill. I am delighted to have been able to offer recommendations to Matt and to Roger on LinkedIn.

As a learner I experienced both joy and pain in my own learning. How wonderful to find adjustments I can make that bring me closer to communicating in ways which are true to my values! How painful to have invested so much and still to have so much to learn! I have chosen this path and tread it with full commitment – and still, sometimes it’s a hard path to walk.

Something of this is reflected in the recommendation Matt Beane was kind enough to write for me which you’ll also find on LinkedIn. This is what he wrote:

Don’t miss Dorothy! In the little time I worked with her, it became clear that she is a truly dedicated professional, constantly seeking to improve her clients’ condition. She demonstrated courage, skill and talent as she examined how she had been unintentionally contributing to her clients’ challenges, and she helped us all laugh whilst we learned. Dorothy attended an intensive workshop on Group Process Facilitation that I co-led with Roger Schwarz, author of “The Skilled Facilitator”.

Matt Beane
Principal Associate and Head of Sales and Marketing
Roger Schwarz and Associates
January 25th, 2010

A special offer for International Coaching Week

Coaching

It is International Coaching week next week, when coaches around the world do something to raise the profile of coaching. This annual event recognises that coaching is still a young and growing profession and reflects the commitment of coaches working in a wide variety of fields to share their passion for coaching and what it can do for clients.

This year I have decided to invest time and energy into an initiative to raise money for the relief efforts in Haiti and in recent days I have been wondering what I can do to make International Coaching Week work for the people of Haiti. I decided to make a special offer to anyone who, during the week beginning 8th February 2010, confirms and pays for coaching with Learning for Life (Consulting). The coaching itself doesn’t need to take place during that week – just the booking and payment.

This offer is available both to corporate and to private clients: whilst most of my clients are corporate clients I do reserve Mondays to work with private clients by telephone. It also applies to anything you choose to book, from a two-hour session to take stock to a coaching programme for your organisation’s senior leadership team. And just in case this offer proves overwhelmingly popular, I shall of course be taking care not to confirm more coaching than I can possibly deliver: it is, as they say, “subject to availability”.

You get to choose from one of the following possibilities:

  • Perhaps you’d enjoy a discount to make it easy to book that coaching you’ve been thinking about for a while. If so, I’m offering a 10% discount on our normal coaching fees provided you book and pay during the week beginning 8th February, 2010;
  • Perhaps you’d like to pay the full fees and know that some of the money will go to Coaching for Haiti. If so, I will pay your 10% and add 10% of my own to Coaching for Haiti at www.JustGiving.com/CoachingforHaiti. That’s a full 20% of the full coaching fees to Coaching for Haiti. This is, again, provided you book and pay during the week beginning 8th February, 2010.

If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, please drop me a line at dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk with ‘Special offer for International Coaching Week’ in the title. And please feel free to pass this offer on to anyone you know for whom this might be the right opportunity at the right time.

And if you’re also a coach and would like to make the same offer to your clients, please do.

Coaching for Haiti: what’s it about?

Coaching

In recent days I have been watching news of the terrible aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and I found myself wanting to do something that goes beyond putting my hand in my pocket – something that goes beyond anything I can do alone. From this thought the bare bones of an idea – which I am calling Coaching for Haiti – was born.

For a few days I have been watching the to’ing and fro’ing of my thoughts. What if I put the idea out there and nobody responds? What if the response is so overwhelming that it takes over my life? What if…? What if…? Today I have decided to share it and to let you know how you can, if you feel moved to, get involved. This way, I get to see if the idea does indeed have wings.

What’s the aim of Coaching for Haiti? The aim is to leverage the power coaching has to do good in the world in order to raise money for the men, women and children of Haiti. As the ICF’s International Coaching Week (7th to 14th February) approaches I am also aware of the potential for Coaching for Haiti to raise the profile of the coaching profession.

How might it work? I see Coaching for Haiti as a time-bound (one-year?) project that could capture the imagination of coaches, their clients, their friends, family and many other contacts: the essence of Coaching for Haiti is to leverage the support of many people who, like me, are moved by the plight of the people of Haiti and recognise the long road ahead. I imagine there may be a key sponsor that provides practical support (setting up a website, managing receiving funds for Haiti and passing them on, helping to raise interest in the media etc.). I also imagine many ways in which coaches might help to raise money using their coaching and other skills.

How can you contribute? If Coaching for Haiti is to take flight it will need a wide variety of contributions. These range from offering ideas, through helping to find a sponsor or sponsors right through to offering coaching in exchange for sponsorship for Coaching for Haiti. Right now, more than anything, Coaching for Haiti needs your ideas.

Over time, I imagine different ways that coaches might set about raising money. Some of them may be in exchange for coaching (writing to offer coaching to five people you’d really like to coach in exchange for a donation to Coaching for Haiti, for example). Some of them may involve coaches rather than coaching (going on a sponsored walk with members of your coaching supervision group, for example). Some of them may involve people other than coaches.

What can you do if you are interested to learn more? Coaching for Haiti is an opportunity to follow your heart and to make the contribution that suits you. At this stage, it is an idea that may or may not have wings. If you would like to belong to the community of people who are interested to support this idea, please sign up as a member of the Coaching for Haiti group on LinkedIn. This is a place where you can get involved and contribute ideas. You can also follow the progress of Coaching for Haiti at http://coachingforhaiti.blogspot.com/. I look forward to seeing you there.

An authoritative and professional consultant and coach

Clients and testimonials, Developing as a leader, , ,

I had an e-mail recently from a potential client who had been referred to me by one of my coaching clients. His questions made me wonder if I am offering information about my work as an executive coach at the expense of sharing information about my broader offering in the field of leadership development. In truth, I have played a role over the years in helping many organisations to build their leadership bench strength as well in helping individuals to develop their own capability as leaders. I made a note to balance the referrals that I am sharing to give a broader view.

It made sense to ask my friend, colleague and client Alan Roach, Executive Principal of the Basildon Academies, for permission to reproduce a referral which has already been published elsewhere, not least because Alan has seen the breadth and depth of my work since we first met in 1999. Before I share Alan’s words, I offer some background information about our contact over the years.

Our first meeting took place when Alan participated in the national Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers, when I was responsible for accrediting the trainers delivering the programme. Over the years, I have known Alan in a variety of contexts. I have been Entrepreneur In Residence at the schools which have recently become the Basildon Academies, a role which often involves acting as a sounding board for Alan. We have been fellow national judges for the Teaching Awards. Occasionally, the Academies have been my client – last year, for example, I conducted some work to help clarify roles and responsibilities in the newly formed Academies. Occasionally, I have conducted work on behalf of other organisations as a result of Alan’s referrals.

This is what Alan had to say:

Dorothy is an authoritative and professional management consultant and executive coach. Dorothy’s intellect, clarity and experience have enabled her to make a strong contribution to developments in the world of education. Her influence and support over the years, through consultancy and through her voluntary work have helped our schools to build social capital and to succeed in transformation. Her ongoing commitment to supporting us as our schools become Academies will ensure that our new systems are robust and that our aspirations are met.

Alan Roach
Executive Principal
Basildon Academies