opinion

High-quality leadership is the exception

Leadership: the subject of thousands and thousands of books, articles, training programmes and development initiatives. And yet high-quality leadership seems to be the exception rather than the rule: the kind of leadership which enables others to flourish, which creates engagement, which inspires and stimulates discretionary effort, which influences and motivates those within the leader’s organisation and beyond it, and which sustainably takes results to a higher level attracts attention because it is still relatively unusual.

Executive coaching for the leadership essentials: self-awareness and self-understanding

Part of the reason, I suggest, is that only the developmental and transformational approach of the best executive coaching can equip the leader (potential or actual) to search within themselves and to courageously examine their own practice in order to deliver their leadership in a style which creates a better organisation – and, some would say, a better world. High-quality leadership isn’t a check-list: it’s a question of how the leader brings the essence of themselves to their role. It demands self-awareness and self-understanding, awareness of how others tick and a capacity for the leader to put themselves in those others’ shoes, an awareness of how the systems of relationships and influences around them work (no matter how distant those relationships), a curiosity to keep learning (especially when things go wrong) and a discipline to keep applying the learning – and learning again and again from that application.

Executive coaching can equip the leader to lead – and self-lead – sustainably

Leaders can effectively lead others only with the self-awareness and self-understanding to lead themselves, and it’s executive coaching that can uniquely, amongst all learning interventions, equip leaders to lead and self-lead sustainably, with integrity, authenticity and humility. Executive coaching is an approach to learning, via a confidential relationship, in which the learner – a senior person within an organisation – is responsible for the learning agenda and for creating the outcomes of that learning.

The executive coach is responsible for creating conditions in which the leader can achieve a level of self-awareness and self-understanding that will better equip them to clarify and assess their situation, draw lessons from it, work out their options, create opportunities, make positive and sustainable changes, and make decisions that are congruent with the person they are, and what they want to achieve. The coaching journey enables the leader to create and discover insights which they can experiment with in the conduct of their own working lives (‘self-leading’) and then apply to leading others.

Benefits and outcomes: authentic leadership and self-coaching

Executive coaching can fundamentally challenge an individual’s style of leadership and typically improves their impact on both people and results. Leaders I coach achieve development and transformation: they make profound and sustained changes in themselves, in their teams, in the philosophy and practices in their organisations, and in the quality of outcomes they create. They learn to self-coach, applying the principles they have created for themselves during their coaching programmes, becoming better able to question assumptions and old beliefs they might subconsciously have been carrying with them for years, understanding how to integrate new knowledge into their own practice, and knowing at a profound level who they really are.

Their self-coaching engenders a capacity for self-leadership – for being consistently open to examining and questioning their own principles and practice, to adapting and adjusting their behaviour, to leading themselves effectively as a pre-condition for leading others.

Their coaching enables their authenticity to express itself in their concept and delivery of leadership. They tap in more fully to their capabilities – so they become more effective at achieving the outcomes they want. They think freshly, from new perspectives, and feel safe enough to think creatively – so they create new solutions. They discover what helps them and what hinders them in achieving the outcomes they want – so they’re better able to make decisions and judgments which are well-grounded, and which make their results sustainable. They create and sustain productive working relationships and get the best out of their people. They propel their careers and their organisations forward.

The coaching relationship creates the basis for results: purpose, confidence and engagement

My executive coaching is based on a relationship of trust, openness and impartiality that creates a safe space in which the leader can do the risky thinking that will take them to the next level. The coaching gets behind what presents on the surface so that the leader gains an understanding of what drives and motivates them, what guides and influences their behaviour, and what enables them to do their best work. They become equipped to keep creating positive results that stick, and to challenge and change the repeating patterns that can get in the way of the results they’re aiming for. Leaders I’ve worked with say they walk a more purposeful path, experience growing confidence, run efficient, motivated, engaged teams whose members step up to take responsibility, inspire confidence, and improve their organisations’ impact and results.

They create results that make a significant difference.

Photo by Hartwig HKD via Compfight

Executive coaching for leadership and self-leadership

Amongst all learning interventions, the developmental and transformational style of the best executive coaching can equip the leader to deliver leadership that creates a better organisation – and, some would say, a better world - sustainably, with integrity and with authenticity.

Lessons from neuroscience for learning and performance

Leaders who know how to optimise the conditions for their own and their people’s learning are going to maximise their chances of success for themselves and their organisations. Senior people – indeed anyone thinking about their career development – who build in the search for working environments and a career path that will maximise their learning opportunities is likely to also maximise their chances of fulfilment and therefore success. And those working across cultures or in multicultural environments who know how to maximise harmony, minimise conflict, bring a curiosity for learning and an attitude of acceptance are also going to be those most likely to develop aligned, creative, productive teams and minimise wasted effort.

Career strategy: purpose and meaning, values and strengths

New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has pinpointed meaning at work as a fundamental goal because that’s ‘what makes the best work happen’. In my career development coaching with executives and senior managers, questions of meaning and purpose, values and beliefs, drivers and obstacles, emotional awareness and a capacity to situate yourself in your systems, are core to career focus or refocus.

The multi-generational workforce - and diversity of pace

In most organisations baby-boomers (and older) work alongside Generations X and Y. Their attitudes to pace can divide them: Xers and Yers often resist the idea of slowing down long enough to reflect while the baby boomers are more inclined to reflect. The generations are most effective when they’re aware of and respect others’ assumptions and world views - and coaches are most effective when they can enter the client’s world.

Teams, listening and connection

Leaders are sometimes solitary and lonely figures, disconnected from their team . Leaders who who listen to their teams see in return greater engagement, better retention rates and bigger, more long-lasting results.

Optimism: a route to high performance

Humans tend to overestimate the likelihood of positive events, and underestimate the likelihood of negative events. Optimists work harder and longer hours than pessimists, which may account for their higher pay - and optimism has been linked to achievement in education, business, sport and electoral politics. This doesn't seem to fit with our society's tendency to drive for perfectionism, condemn mistakes, and focus on what's gone wrong.

Resilience, the bottom line and Ordinary Magic

Research has shown that engaged organisations experienced 11.74% quarterly revenue growth compared to a 6.30% decline in revenue at organisations with less engagement - and resilience helps build engagement. resilience is often the backdrop to my executive coaching, Success isn’t about travelling a smoother road but rather about climbing out of the pothole and bouncing back – and the key to being able to do that isn’t just to keep going, but to keep learning. Also relevant is the work of Ann Masten, on Ordinary Magic: children’s resilience is linked to: connection with competent and caring adults, cognitive and self-regulation skills, positive views of the self, and motivation to be effective - just like leaders in many ways.

Self-awareness: the heart of executive coaching

My belief is that leadership is about creating momentum for a better world by inspiring and engaging other people: in other words, enabling human flourishing. If leaders are to get things done through other people they need to create and nurture trusting, vibrant relationships, to inspire with a vision, to persuade and energise, and to engage with other people’s perspectives. This ability to connect with others is crucially dependent on the ability to connect with self: to become aware of one’s own behaviours and thinking, drivers and blockers. Equipping a client to become deeply self-aware is at the heart of executive coaching.

Chaos and organisational life

In the chaos and confusion that sometimes is the hallmark of life at work, while their organisations are demanding big results, what leaders really need is the simplicity and peace to know who they are and that they have the resources to sustain and nourish themselves.

Creativity, innovation and leadership

David Bowie, pop artist and visual artist, was a creative and innovative pioneer. The leaders we need in our turbulent and fast-changing climate likewise value experimentation, creativity and innovation, they read the market and the system, and they have the courage to pioneer.

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