Coaching for Senior Executives and Top Teams

Individual Executive Coaching
Our approach to coaching is to work with individuals to improve or adjust a particular, or various, behaviour(s) to improve work performance.

We work to build a conscious awareness of the resources and abilities the executive brings to his or her role through careful observation, shadowing, interviews and feedback. The feedback relationship encourages behavioural adjustments that will help the executive contribute more effectively in the cultural context and situations in which he or she operates.

The specific approach with each executive is tailored to suit their own and corporate needs. However, there are usually four key stages in the process:

Stage 1.  Conscious awareness
From the observations and feedback, the executive becomes more aware of the impact of his/her style and behaviour on their work, the people around them and the organization.

Stage 2.  Ownership and behavioural adjustments
Helping the executive understand habitual responses and their consequences. This allows the executive to understand how they can operate at their best and also when under pressure. By this stage, the executive is beginning to take emotional ownership of the issues. 

Stage 3.  Reassessment
This allows for performance reviews that help define the most effective skills and techniques in the context in which the executive is operating. This requires the executive to reconsider what works well and which behaviours, or language patterns are less effective.

Stage 4.  Self-sufficiency
This allows the executive, initially with the coach and then on his/her own, to self monitor progress until the coach can withdraw from the work, confident that the executive can self-monitor, review and reposition behaviour when required. This confidence develops as the executive's awareness becomes more attuned to the organizational and job requirements and he/she can then optimize performance.

Top Team Coaching
The stages of top team coaching are similar to those for individuals, but the focus is on the interactive patterns that operate across the top team.

We work with all the members of the team individually and where possible shadow top team meetings. This process does not affect the day to day workings of the business but focuses solely on the processes used within top team meetings and reviews their effectiveness. The process also reviews the way in which top team relationships work across and between the individual members of the team when they are not operating as a whole team 

Confidentiality
For coaching to work effectively, the content, issues and various interviews between the coach and the executive and his/her her colleagues must remain confidential. The coach will maintain the confidentiality of the executive client, as regards names, information about personal and professional life, colleagues or related parties, and these will not be discussed without the express permission of the client: i.e. feedback into the company is agreed with the executive before being delivered. Should there be any conflict of interest, this will be notified to the executive and/or the corporate sponsor.

However, this does not preclude feedback on the progress of the coaching process to the corporate sponsor or designated senior executive. The timing for these progress reviews is normally determined with the sponsor at the start and during the process.