Essentially executive coaching can be thought of as a professional development activity or strategy, which is commissioned to help leaders to think systematically about the unconscious life of their organisation. By increasing their awareness of the things ‘below the surface’ that are present in all human interaction, coaching therefore aims to help the client develop a detailed understanding and perspective of their current organisational situation and role.
Unlike mentoring or counselling, coaching is a primarily a non-directive experience, where the coach and leader work together to create a psychologically safe space to allow the leader to stand back from their role and explore how they see themselves and their leadership tasks within their organisation.
As a Leadership and Executive coach, I combine my extensive knowledge working with social work teams, patterns of relating, and ‘attachment styles’ with Tavistock’s Consulting’s model of exploring the interplay of an individual’s ‘below the surface’ experiences within the context of their teams, organisational systems and wider working culture.
Our sessions give you time to pause and consider the impact of the emotional, interpersonal and organisational pressures you are dealing with in your current leadership role. This enables better navigation of the complex and sometimes confusing and uncertain processes that often occur in our workplaces today. I work authenticity and with sensitivity, helping you harness your expertise and increase your effectiveness in meeting your leadership tasks and goals and increasing your capacity to influence others.
Leadership and executive coaching is centred around the formation of a good relationship between the client and coach with both working together seeking to understand the meaning of the presenting issues for the client, their team and wider organisation. Whether the coaching is sponsored by the individual leader, or by their organisation, the aim therefore is for the coach and client to collaborate successfully by building a trusting relationship and forming a productive ‘working alliance’. This means they’ll see the partnership in equal terms, both taking responsibility for the outcomes of the coaching.
Work roles and group and organisational dynamics are intertwined with personal experience and making sense of any situation always means the need to understand the context from all three perspectives. In leadership and executive coaching the client and coach explore the interplay between the client's personal domain (their individual background, history and patterns of relating), professional domain (current leadership role and responsibilities) and organisational domain (the wider dynamics of the organisation and the market and global forces it operates within).
In the leadership and executive coaching relationship, the client is positioned as an expert in their field. They are usually well functioning leaders, who bring their understanding and knowledge of their organisational context to the coaching. In coaching they reflect on their current experience and together explore the current contextual environment in which their leadership role operates in.
The coach’s role in the working relationship is to create the conditions for reflective learning, allowing the client to gain further insight and perspectives. Leadership and executive coaches work to establish safe psychological spaces with their clients’, allowing them to identify and work towards their developmental goals. To achieve a successful ‘working alliance’ and further the effectiveness of the client in their organisational role the coach will:-