MORE RECIPES

Here are some more examples of the type of work that I do.

Executive Coaching

I have a fundamental belief that people have the capacity within themselves to solve their own problems and that my role as a coach is to help them to draw out their own solutions. I strive to create a strong coaching relationship that is based on accurate empathy, unconditional positive regard and non-possessive warmth and caring that allows my coachees to explore their personal situations with candour, reach deeper understanding and determine their own options for change.

The example below is a typical illustration of how I work with coaching clients to realise their goals and effect change.

Ingredients:

High potential senior manager

Business and sector knowledge

Coaching experience & expertise

I am engaged by a senior manager in operations to work with her as she made first a transition from a site manager in Europe to a company president in the Americas (to gain international experience) and then as she moved into a commercial role to broaden her experience to fit her for a potential position in the global executive team.

Method:

Data gathering: I do an intake to gather information on her upbringing, family, education, critical work experiences & transitions and people whom had had a significant on her life to get a holistic view of her as a person and determine some hypotheses about her drivers and behaviour patterns.
This data was supplemented with an assessment of her social motives, leadership style and impact in terms of the climate she created for her direct team and how she led her organisation to get some insights to what drove her and how her behaviours impacted others.
Clear contracting: At the outset we agree a modus operandi - ground rules such as openness, honesty, confidentiality - and established some objectives and success measures.
The client's agenda: We have a series of coaching sessions - a mixture of face-to-face and via telephone where we discussed specific situations such as, building trust with new team members, effectively navigating a new organisation & culture, maintaining, strengthening and building strategic relationships, preparing for specific meetings, etc.
Provide appropriate structure: Each session begins with a review of what has happened since the last session including actions taken as a direct result of our conversations and then moves on to new topics. The client always drives the agenda with a clear goal for what she wants to accomplish during the session.
Select tools, models and techniques pertinent to the discussion: I use a range of techniques to help the client to gain new perspectives and insights on the issues that she is dealing with including, paraphrasing, reflecting back, presenting hypotheses, asking questions, visioning and role plays.
Review: We conduct regular reviews of how the coaching relationship is progressing - What is working well/less well? What has the client learnt over the course of the relationship? What changes do we need to make? This is a chance for us both to reflect on what we have achieved both in terms of rapport in the relationship and making progress on achieving the client's goals and refine our approach accordingly.

Success factors: Having a close & trusted relationship that creates a safe environment for the client to explore & discuss issues is critical. I ask powerful questions, share my insights and give my clients room to explore issues. It is always rewarding if the client is eager to learn & grow since he/she is much more committed to his/her own development and taking action.

Organisational Development

Ingredients:

Leadership Success Criteria

Job/role profiles

Piloted development centre

Survey tools

Actors

A London Borough Council wanted to improve its assessment rating by taking a number of initiatives including identifying the leadership strengths and vulnerabilities of its tier 3 managers by running a series of development centres over a 2 year period and providing targeted development support based on the outcomes. I was the key client contact and leader of the consultant team.

Method:

Our first step was to review the Leadership Success Criteria (a document describing the desired leadership behaviours) and provide an accurate interpretation of each on so that we could develop a competency framework that clearly articulated discrete behaviours that could be assessed.
Once the revised model was approved, we turned our attention to the design of the 360o survey tool that we would use to get feedback from participants' colleagues against the Leeadership Success Criteria.
Then we reviewed the pilot development centre to determine which elements had been successful and should be retained and those that needed to be changed.
We used our knowledge of the local government context to design a 2-day development centre that was based on a fictitious council and therefore represented the work context and situations that the participants could face in their roles.
The development centre included individual written exercises, role plays with actors and a group task. Time was also built in for self-reflection.
The consultant team comprised experienced assessors who were briefed for this project on the strategy, background, model, centre logistics, assessment process and report style.
The centres were run with 8 participants, 4 assessors, 1 administrator, 1 centre director with assessors meeting at the end of day 2 for a wash-up session to share their observations and ratings for each participant.
Post-centre, each participant received their feedback report with the outcomes of the surveys and ratings from the Centre. In addition, each person had 3 telephone coaching sessions to help them craft and implement their personal development plan.

The intervention was originally designed to run over 3 years, however due to the successes achieved in the first 6 months, the programme was ramped up so that it was concluded in 18 months. In addition to providing the individual reports, we provided a composite report for the entire group of >80 managers describing the key strengths and vulnerabiities of the group and the implications for the Council in terms of their ability to achieve their strategic goals. This led to further targeted action to define more clearly the expectations of the managers.

Success factors: Becoming a trusted advisor, developing a deep understanding of the client situation, conceptualising how the strategic developments impacted the managers, strong track record in designing & running development centres, trusted to deliver quality work.