Our model
| As a student of change we know the potential it has
as an agent to facilitate and enable growth, excellence, prosperity and
happiness: i.e. meaning. |
When faced with danger, we are told, some fight, other faint, some take flight. These are our default reactions to danger, and are seen in the animal world.
What if we do nothing and watch what happens in us? This may not be the best reaction to a situation that entails physical danger, but in business and at home our fears are more concerned with our interactions and relationships with other people.
How do you react to conflict?
What will happen when you count to ten and then say nothing?
Or smile and ignore the accusation or challenge?
These are things that are unexpected by the challenger. It will throw him or her.
The person in charge of the situation will be the one who can control herself and do the unexpected.
This is only possible if one master fear to the extend that one can overide one's emotion even while being scared.
This is the challenge I look forward to share with you. To support you to become in charge of yourself and the situations you experience every day at home and at work. For you to anticipate change and look forward to the possibilities it creates.
Coaching for Behavioral Change
My mission is to help leaders achieve positive, long-term, measurable change in behavior: for themselves, their co-workers and their teams . We define workplace leadership as “how the immediate supervisor, team leader, manager or coordinator present himself or herself”. The same process is being used by coaches around the world for this same purpose. When the steps in the process are followed, leaders almost always achieve positive behavioral change – not as judged by themselves, but as judged by pre-selected, key co-workers. This process has been used with great success by both external and internal coaches.
The Value of Behavioral Coaching for Executives
While behavioral coaching is only one branch in the coaching field, it is the most widely used type of coaching. Most requests for coaching involve behavioral change. While this process can be very meaningful and valuable for top executives (and their teams), it can be even more useful for high-potential future leaders. These are the people who have great careers in front of them. Increasing effectiveness in leading people can have an even greater impact if it is a 20-year process, instead of a one-year program.
People often ask, “Can executives really change their behavior?” The answer is definitely yes. We all often change our behaviour on short notice. We stop smoking or start exercising. A new habit only takes 21 days to develop (or disappear). At the top of major organizations even a small positive change in behavior can have a big impact. From an organizational perspective, the fact that the executive is trying to change anything (and is being a role model for personal development) may be even more important than what the executive is trying to change. One key message given to coached CEOs is “To help others develop – start with yourself”.
Quantifying the business impact of executive coaching recently revealed the following relationship improvements:
* Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)
* Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71% of executives)
* Teamwork (67% of executives)
* Working relationships with peers (63% of executives)
Our Coaching Approach
We first get an agreement with our coaching clients and their managers on two key variables: 1) what are the key behaviors that will make the biggest positive change in increased leadership effectiveness, and 2) who are the key stakeholders that can determine (three to eighteen months later) if this change has occurred?
We usually expect full payment only after our coaching clients have achieved a positive change in key leadership behaviors as determined by key stakeholders. Coaching has proved to be so valuable, though (even Tiger Woods has coaches), that I am prepared to facilitate behaviour change pro bono for non-profits.
I believe that many coaches are paid for the wrong reasons. Their income is a largely a function of “How much do my clients like me?” and “How much time did I spend in coaching?” Neither of these is a good metric for achieving a positive, long-term change in behavior.
In terms of liking the coach - I have never seen a study that showed that clients’ love of a coach was highly correlated with their change in behavior. In fact, if coaches become too concerned with being loved by their clients, they may not provide honest feedback when it is needed.
In terms of spending clients’ time – their time is more valuable than mine. We spend as little of their time as necessary to achieve the desired results. The last thing they need is for me to waste their time!
That's why I don't hold myself up as any "expert." I'm much more a facilitator. Most of what my clients learn about themselves comes not from me but from their friends, their colleagues, and their family members. I provide help when needed and assist them in not wandering too far off the course that they have chosen.
In our workshops, we set up engagement rules and then explore and practise the senario: Your organisation was a spectacular failure. What went wrong? Participants are now free to explore the imagined past, which is really the reality of the past. When they reach concensus about the mistakes that can be made (and actually has been made!), they envision a better future than the one they are facing in reality, and have the chance to commit to the principles and values they identified to be able to create it. Every individual is then suppported (through their line managers) to change and measure their behaviour and thereby their environment to the one they agreed on.