Business Leadership Coaching

What makes for a successful leadership coaching program? That really does depend what you/your organisation is looking for.

Our work is tailored for a specific audience that demands the most integrous leader possible, the one who will be a stand for staying at the cutting edge, the Positive Deviant leader.

In the leadership work we do, which is build around an integral model, (do check out the link to this page, as you will find many resources on leadership and the perspective we take in our business leadership coaching) the consistent piece we always focus on is integrity of the leader. Of the whole leader. It is not going to wash if you have a leader who is operating from high integrity in their work, yet they never spend time with their family, or their health is shocking.

Why is this important?

A leader doesn’t need to have all the answers, in fact the best leaders not only know they do not have all the answers, they ensure they surround themselves with a team of people who, when combined, have the answers. The leader ensures to edify her team, making it clear that they are not able to do their job on their own. However, people do look to their leader. Our society today is in desperate need of people and leaders who are true role models. What they say is what they do. They model care of others, care of self, care of the business. They are true positive deviants.

Business leadership coaching in the ideal is a rigorous form of coaching. At the core, the coach and the business leader need to have a high trust, high respect relationship. Anything less will not result in effective coaching, particularly under the non negotiable frame we hold, which is integrity.

This doesn’t mean that there will always be agreement. Quite the contrary. The business leader may choose to make decisions that the coach does not agree with. However, this is not about the coaches agreement. Many times clients have chosen paths that I foresee may lead to road blocks, speed bumps and derailing. As long as I challenge the business leader to reconsider, present all the options, get them to explore consequences, if they still choose to proceed, then as long as their choice is legal and ethical, my job is to walk with them. It is also really OK for me to be wrong. Any attachment I have demonstrates that the coaching is about me being right, and not my ability to support the client. If they do hit a speed bump, we work together to learn the lessons, correct, and get back on course.

The rigor we apply in our business leadership coaching includes;

*holding the leader to their highest integrity - this means listening for any place where integrity is compromised, no matter how minor. For example, if the leader engages in the petty office politics, or if they ask their people to do something and not do it themselves

*insisting on a high standard of development, both professional and personal - the business leader must have a very comprehensive leadership development plan, which includes both professional development specific to their industry, and a personal development plan which includes emotional intelligence, capacity building, enhanced systemic perspective

*frequency of interaction with the business leadership coach - it is important that meetings in the first six to twelve months occur every 4 to 6 weeks. Any less and consistency and accountability is lost. Sometimes frequency may be every 2-3 weeks, especially in the beginning, or during times of transition and stress.

Our business leadership coaching does not fit the traditional model of short term coaching. We build relationships with our business leaders that may last years. Many organisations find this odd, and/or are concerned with return on investment.

Why do we do this?

As mentioned, the quality of the relationship is of extreme importance. If the trust and respect is not mutual, and maintained, then the business leadership coaching will not be effective. Once a quality relationship is established, a master coach will get to know the business leader very well. They will know their strengths and weaknesses, their Achilles heels, their ambitions, where they feel insecure, where they thrive, what they want as their legacy. The value of this kind of relationship, which remains a clean objective coaching relationship, cannot be underestimated. In the sports arena, a great athlete will work with their coach for years, for the simple reason that the coach knows exactly how to bring the very best out of them.

It is essential that the coach is also developing at an equal or faster pace than the business leader. If they cannot keep up with, and/or continue to challenge the leader, then a long term relationship will not work.

I have no doubt that part of my continued value to my clients is the resources and learning I bring to the relationship. I take my own education and self development as a priority in my life, second only to my health, and therefore spend many hours a week reading and listening to articles about global politics, finance and economics, new models of business, trends, environmental issues, plus an assorted list of pop culture, history, spirituality. In many of my conversations with the business leader, I offer them resources that they would not normally be able to access because of their competing time commitments.

I have often suggested to the business leader that they get coaching support from other more niche based coaches. This supports different perspectives and more niche focused learning. I do this in my own life. I have worked with one coach for 14 years, and have had about a dozen other coaches off and on working with me on specific issues.

In many business leadership coaching engagements, the business leader finds that the commitment to their coaching session every few weeks is their one opportunity to really step back from the busy- ness of the business. To take the objective perspective. Their life at work is often so busy they simply do not have time to pause and be reflective. This reflection time, with an objective observer, can be invaluable in its own right.

As to the return on investment for business leadership coaching over the long term, all the clients we have worked with have continued to move strongly up the corporate ladder, many of them becoming leading lights, noted for their quality of leadership that covers the people, the values, the systems and structures of business and the business results. In addition, they are seen as role models, and their care goes above and beyond the business, into the world around them, the local and national community and the greater environment.

Specifically, the ROI of business leadership coaching using the Syzergy model may include;

*accelerated development

*the ability to deal with complex issues

*the capacity to handle stressful engagements with multiple stakeholders

*the ability to hold a very systemic perspective

*the ability to be highly resilient and resourceful in stressful environments

*the ability to sidestep the political game and play at a level that transcends ‘old school’ or ‘boys club’ politics

*the ability to build a very strong team, and to manage relationship building at a high level of integrity internally and externally

*high emotional intelligence

*high self awareness

*the ability to stay fit and healthy, and have a vital personal life

*the ability to access high creativity and resourcefulness

*the ability to move with agility and flexibility

*the ability to hold your nerve when needed

*great business results based on care for the whole system and universal care for consequences

*a leader who demonstrates comprehensive integrity

*all of this adds up to a leader who lives and breathes Positive Deviance. They are able to work with the edges, the innovative, live in the questions, and feel comfortable challenging the traditional, not for the sake of challenge but to stay at the cutting edge

Worth the investment? We think so.

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