Tag Archives: About Coaching

In the Pink – Introducing Daniel Pink

Coaching, Developing as a leader, ,

I first heard of Daniel Pink after he spoke to coaches from across the world at a conference of the International Coach Federation about the research that underpins his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Reading his book, I experienced his writing as a welcome window on a changing world. I was curious about his thesis that the age of “left brain” dominance is over and I enjoyed his introduction to six “right brain” capabilities that underpin professional success and personal satisfaction in the twenty-first century. His descriptions resonated with me given my work in the field of leadership, including my involvement over the years in research into what makes for an outstanding leader. And even whilst making links between Daniel’s ideas and my own experience of working with leaders, I found Daniel’s ideas stimulating, insightful and fresh. I made contact with Daniel and we have become occasional e-correspondents.

Guess what! Daniel is due to speak in London in December at the International Leadership Summit, Leaders in London. I asked him, “could I include a brief interview with him on my blog?” and he said yes. I’m excited about this and looking forward to posting this brief interview in the coming days.

Oh! And by the way, if you want to hear Daniel speak, you’ll find more information at http://www.leadersinlondon.com/

Emotional Freedom Technique: trying out a new approach

Alternative approaches, Coaching, Your personal and professional well-being, , ,

A good coach, in my view, is also a committed learner. After all, whether your clients are senior executives, Olympic sportsmen and women, or any other man or woman who (like you and me) is trying to find their way in life, who wants to work with a coach who lacks the wisdom that comes from engaging in their own learning?

When my friend Alex invited me to a session of Emotional Freedom Technique, something he has recently invested in learning and is now beginning to practice with clients, I am aware of all the experiences that have prepared me to try out this new technique. I am also comfortable to try something that is as yet unknown to me.

This proves to be just as well, not least because we hold our session in the open air outside the Royal Festival Hall. I am comfortable that passers by may see – watch even – a process which involves tapping on my hands, face and body, like acupuncture without the needles. I am also comfortable that, should the process stimulate emotions in me (which it does), passers by may see – watch? – as I sit with them.

On the surface, the issue I choose to work with is not close to the emotional bone. In the summer of 2007 I started to experience some physical discomfort in my left knee which has not completely disappeared. Still, as the session progresses I start to make some connections. A penny drops as I realise this started less than twelve months after my father died. Is there a connection? I also realise that, whether or not there is some causal link, I have made a link in my mind, fearing that this is the beginning of a journey towards a debilitating old age. No wonder I am impatient and anxious when I think of my knee.

As the session progresses Alex asks me what’s coming up for me so that I am able to share the thoughts, the emotions and the physical sensations I experience as we go. Throughout the session he is ready to go with the flow, adapting to whatever comes up along the way. At the end of the session I am experiencing no changes in the physical sensations in my knee, though I am open to the possibility that change may occur and I have made some connections along the way.

Over the weekend, as I go about my usual activies (walking to Blackheath and back to collect my dry cleaning, digging in the garden, etc.) I notice the sensations in my knee. There are moments when the pain shifts to another part of the body altogether. There are moments when my knee is quite comfortable. Above all, my relationship with the discomfort I experience is changing. I know that the changes I am currently making to my diet are likely, over time, to create the optimum environment for good health in the second half of my life, I know that my father’s experience in old age need not be mine, I know that – whether the pain goes or stays – I can handle whatever comes my way.

Client testimonials – a gift to an unknown future

Clients and testimonials, Coaching, , ,

Organisations (more correctly, individuals who work for organisations) commission coaching for a reason. And the reasons for which they commission coaching are many and varied. One manager sees the potential in a young executive and wants to nurture it. Another leader wants to support their highly skilled technician (lawyer, IT specialist, accountant, actuary) in developing the non-technical attributes needed to progress to a leadership role. Another manager wants to keep the person whose job has disappeared and sees coaching as a way of supporting that individual in making a decision – to stay or not to stay?

Sometimes there are hidden reasons for commissioning coaching and these unfold over time. Perhaps the brittle warmth between the manager commissiong coaching and the person for whom coaching is sponsored (barely) conceals the near total breakdown of their relationship. Perhaps the commissioning manager cannot bring him or herself directly to address the glaring mismatch between the person to whom they are offering coaching and the job they are in. Perhaps the best salesman (or woman) on the patch is at risk of alienating their colleagues or of burnout, or…, or…, or…

Sometimes clients come directly, funding coaching from their corporate budgets or setting aside time and money of their own to address an agenda that requires skills or time that are not otherwise available. The early achiever wonders, now that I’ve fulfilled my aspirations, why am I not happy? The midlife career professional wants to find a way of balancing a successful career with home and family and maybe even having some kind of life. The CEO seeks out a place where he (or she) can ask for challenge as well as support.

And always, quite quickly, two people find themselves alone in a room at the beginning of a relationship that will develop in ways that neither can predict and to do work together whose outcomes are as yet unknown. No matter that the agenda is, on the surface, cut, dried and impersonal. The reality is infinitely personal because, when it comes to making changes in our lives, we cannot change the others, we can only change ourselves.

The hidden depths of coaching are such that clients often want to shout their successes from the rooftops and yet, to do so anonymously. For the coaches, too, who watch miracles unfold and know they have played a role in the unfolding, there can be a wish to shout their celebrations from the rooftops even whilst knowing that such shouting needs to take place within the strict confines of a confidentiality agreement.

I ponder this today as I begin to explore with clients who might be willing to share what with readers of this blog so that, over time, I can say to potential clients: “if you want to know what coaching does for my clients, take a look at my blog”. In this way, client testimonials become a gift to an unknown future – to people as yet unknown, whose reasons for seeking the support of a professional coach have not yet been identified.

And if you are interested to read them, watch this space.

Emotional freedom – stepping gingerly towards a new approach

Alternative approaches, Coaching, Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, Your personal and professional well-being, , , ,

My professional training as a coach, as well as giving me an excellent underpin for my work with my Executive Coaching clients, opened up a whole new world for me in terms of alternative approaches. It’s as if all paths are leading to some emotional and cognitive Rome – from Emotional Intelligence in the field of leadership development, through Neuro-Linguistic Programming in the field of personal and professional effectiveness to… the list is endless.

My friend Alex has been studying something called Emotional Freedom Technique (or EFT) and recently offered me a session. His text reached me whilst I was in Dubai and I have taken a few days to engage with this possibility. This evening I google EFT and find Gary Craig’s website (http://www.emofree.com/) with its introductory video (http://www.emofree.com/splash/video_popup.asp). I have said yes to a session with Alex and I am thinking about what to bring to the session to work on.

I am struck by the range of issues mentioned in the video including a number of health issues – both common and uncommon. In common with many other “alternative” approaches, the video makes a link between our emotional and our physical health. The idea that our emotional landscape plays a role in our physical health can sit uncomfortably with some, even whilst offering great hope to others.

I am also curious about a particular moment in the video when the speaker talks about the effect of using EFT on the blood. Having recently had my blood tested to check the results that are accruing from making changes in my diet, I recognise the differences between healthy and unhealthy blood.

I drop Alex a line with some possible dates to meet. I am curious. And I am definitely up for experiencing this new approach.

Ramadan kareem

Coaching, Developing as a leader, , ,

I am quiet this evening, thoughtful. There have been pennies dropping for me throughout the day.

The time of meeting a potential coaching client, whether an individual or an organisation, is a blessed time for me, knowing as I do how much difference coaching can make both to individuals and to the organisations they work in.

As the day proceeds I get to meet some of the people I may – or may not – work with in coaching partnership. It is a time of exploration. A time of getting to know each other. A time of decision. For my part, it’s important to have some sense, ahead of time, that the investment my client proposes to make in my contribution will indeed add value. I am ready to walk away if my sense is that it will not. It is also an important time for my clients – for the people I meet and for the organisation for which they work. I want to support the organisation and its most senior leaders in moving forward. Still, I do not want for any member of the team that he (or she) feel any sense of obligation to “sign up”.

Sitting waiting for my first appointment, something I knew ahead of time lands with a more visceral force: that if I agree to work with this organisation, I may be signing up to regular visits to the UAE and for some time. The pennies continue to drop throughout the day as I make meaning of my experiences: that I am already supportive of the organisation’s aspirations for change, that I am already committed to the individual members of the senior leadership team, that to engage with this diverse group of leaders is to reach out beyond questions of culture and ethnicity and to engage with each and every member of the team, that to contribute in this way has meaning for me which includes but also goes way beyond the success of the organisation.

Walking at dusk I hear the call to prayer. Every fibre in my body sings in response. Everything is right with the world. As I sit at dinner the excitement of my day gives way to a deep, deep sense of peace. Ramadan kareem.

Senior Leadership Teams: what it takes to make them great

Coaching, Developing as a leader, , ,

Tomorrow, I meet my clients here in Dubai. Our focus will be on Executive Coaching as a support to the development of the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team.

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing. Over morning coffee with my valued colleague Patricia Marshall, I mention this forthcoming trip and she offers me a copy of the recently published Senior Leadership Teams: What it takes to make them great. I have been taking the opportunity to read this book, with its veritable roll-call of authers (Ruth Wageman, Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss and J. Richard Hackman) by way of preparation.

Based on their research into leadership teams in a wide variety of organisations, the authors lay out six conditions which differentiate outstanding teams at Senior Leadership level. They describe the first three as essential and the second three as enablers. On the surface, the conditions have a whiff of cliche: don’t we all know that the best Senior Leadership Teams have a compelling purpose and direction? And isn’t it axiomatic that you have to have the right people with the right capabilities for the team to succeed? Notwithstanding the authors explore their research with a degree of precision which adds great depth and illustrate it with many examples. It helps, too, that their research is based on work with a list of client organisations that many coaches, consultants and advisers could only admire – maybe even envy.

In my role as Executive Coach, I find good news and bad. Team coaching for the Senior Leadership Team is highlighted as one of the six conditions, an enabler. The authors tell their CEO readers, “Do not skimp on coaching”. Still, coaching alone cannot make up for the absence of other conditions (though it may help the team’s leader to identify and address their absence). What’s more, the authors highlight a surprising finding: that teams do not improve markedly even if all their members receive individual coaching to develop their personal capabilities. I find these pointers thought-provoking and helpful ahead of a meeting to explore my client’s expectations of coaching.

And what would I say to the CEO, pondering whether or not to read this book? If you are sleeping soundly at night in the full knowledge that your Senior Leadership Team is delivering way beyond your expectations you may find better ways to use your time. If, however, you have any sense at all that the team of which you are leader has more to give, if indeed you are tearing your hair out as you wonder why such a talented group of people behave like children in the board room, this book is an invaluable read. Its systematic exploration of its territory offers a way to diagnose the issues you face as well as guidance on how to address them.

Please let me know how you get on in turning your team from good, bad or indifferent to great. Truly great.

Beginnings, middles and endings

Coaching, ,

Today I field an enquiry about coaching from a reader of my postings on a forum for fellow professionals. I remember her vividly even though we have never met – I was touched to receive a card from her a few months back telling me how much she enjoyed my writing. It didn’t escape me that she’d gone to the trouble of going to my website to get hold of my address in order to send me a card. Her card also prompted me to reflect on my love of writing and to begin to explore it more consciously. This blog is one fruit of that conscious exploration.

I take time to respond to her e-mail and it occurs to me to include a testimonial from a client with whom I have recently finished working. I have a sense of a handing over of some metaphorical baton – from a client with whom my work is complete (at least for now) to someone who may or may not become a client in the future.

Working as a coach, my life is populated with such beginnings, middles and endings. It always gives me joy when I hear from someone who is considering investing in coaching – whether or not I end up working with them as a result, their reaching out marks a moment of decision, a first step towards some outcome that they yearn for and in which they want to invest. Such reaching out also marks a step into the unknown – an unknown which, in my experience, often goes way beyond anything people imagine in advance.

What can I say about my coaching “middles”? Many of my clients are senior leaders working in corporations. Some are fellow coaches. A few are fellow entrepreneurs. All are human beings. The dryest of business goals quickly give way to something more personal – the highs, the lows, the times of feeling stuck, the times of moving forward, the times of breakthrough and momentum. Oftentimes, such close teamwork brings me an enormous sense of privilege.

And what about the endings? These are a time to review progress and to formulate a forward path. To do this is often to sit up and take notice of – to celebrate – the progress that has been made. They are a time to mark the completion of a phase of coaching. This is not always welcome: some clients somehow never quite make time to book a final meeting, as if to do so is to recognise that yes, our coaching is over. Sometimes an ending gives way, in time, to some new beginning as former clients return to resume our work together.

Beginnings, middles, endings… I celebrate them all.

Blogging, coaching and client confidentiality

Coaching, ,

Whilst some coaching clients infinitely prefer to meet face to face, today I speak with clients who prefer to speak by phone. This has many benefits all round – our calls are condensed and productive and nobody spends any time travelling. What’s more, our calls today are timed so that I have time to walk to Blackheath at lunchtime, adding 4,000 steps to my daily target of 10,000 minimum.

As I walk I savour the privilege that comes from working with clients one to one. I think how much it would inspire others to be, like me, a witness to the work my clients do through coaching. I think also of the tight confidentiality agreement I have with my clients and make a mental note to alert my clients to this blog and to remind them of my commitment to our confidentiality agreement.

Still, recognising the way we are inspired by the experiences of others, I also start to play with asking for permission: what will it be like when I say, “if you’re willing to allow me to share it, I’d like to say something about your experience on my blog”?

Coaching for the top team

Coaching, Developing as a leader, ,

I have had early conversations in recent weeks with clients in two very different organisations. Both have indicated that they want to explore the use of executive coaching for their most senior leaders.

So, it made sense to me to focus the main article in my quarterly newsletter on top team interventions. What differentiates the most successful from those that are seen as a poor return on investment? And where does coaching fit in? In recent days, I have been sketching the outlines of the article and today I get my first chance to begin the process of writing it.

At 15:37 I decide it’s time for a distraction and choose to put aside writing in favour of… Mmm… maybe there’s a better way of taking a break.