Coaching Approach

Coaching can take many forms. I've spent over half my life (I'm in my late 40s) learning how to:

  • Unlock leadership potential
  • Change people's interpersonal behaviour and communications style
  • Improve business performance through focusing on the people in the business.

 

Having qualified as a Chartered Engineer and also risen to be a Director in the strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting, I'm 100% certain that this people-centric approach has a much more powerful impact on overall performance than strategic thinking, functional expertise or technical skill.

My approach stems from a fundamental understanding of the drivers of human behaviour: what determines how we as unique individuals to think, feel and behave. (For those who are interested, in Meyer-Briggs typing I'm an INFP, an Idealist Champion - which is said to indicate that I will "have outstanding intuitive powers and be able to tell what is going on inside others, reading hidden emotions and giving special signficance to words or actions". I strongly believe that this is one of the factors that has helped so many of my clients to get outstanding results from my coaching.)

My approach enables the triggers of high performance to be addressed at root cause, creating quality, lasting change and enhancing my clients understanding of themselves and others. This in turn enables them to inspire and influence others (i.e. to lead) more effectively.

I recommend and adhere to an approach that recognises my client as the expert and believe that every client is creative, resourceful, and whole. From this perspective I seek to help my clients to:

  • Discover, clarify, and align with what they want to achieve, to develop the motivation for positive and courageous actions
  • Understand more about themselves and where they are right now, enhancing their ability to change
  • Generate their own solutions and strategies, thereby ensuring that their own ability is enhanced in the future and that we do not create a dependency on us whenever they are faced with a new problem
  • Follow through on their new actions and behaviours, by holding them responsible and accountable for doing what they say they will do.

 

It's All about Awareness and Responsibility

Central to my methodology are the fundamentals of high performance adopted in the majority of coaching methodologies: awareness and responsibility. These have been found to have a huge impact on the benefits gained from coaching, irrespective of the field in which it is applied, and may be defined as follows:

  • Awareness refers to the spontaneous "knowingness" that allows the interpretation of what is happening around us. It is the foundation of all of our results and can be increased through focused attention and concentration. This leads to greater clarity of understanding and refined perception.
  • Responsibility is when we fully accept, choose or take ownership of our thoughts and our actions. In the process, our commitment to follow through with new actions increases, and so does performance.

In order to make rapid progress, a person must know two things: first, they must have a high level of awareness of their current capabilities, and second they must know what they want to achieve. In addition, it is vital that they are prepared to work hard to change (if anyone tells you that personal change is easy I strongly recommend that you don't believe them - it rarely is!).

 

You're at the Helm

To ensure that these two areas are properly addressed, my approach to every client engagement is highly personalised. I will focus specifically on your individual needs and aspirations, establishing clear and measurable objectives. This ensures that there is enough structure to provide the focus and direction necessary to firmly establish a process of constant improvement. At the same time, you will always have total freedom both to set the agenda and to flex it as necessary to meet the rapidly changing needs of your role. I've consistently found this approach to be highly effective.

Throughout the process, my primary role is to listen and to contribute observations and questions. This type of interaction creates clarity and will help to embed learning more deeply in your mind. In turn, this creates much more ownership of new choices that are identified. I frequently find that when people are experiencing stress or are underperforming, it is due to a lack of awareness of the options available to them. Consequently, their behaviours can shift radically once they have been able to identify and take responsibility for new choices.

Ultimately, your results and my ability to help you to improve them will be determined by your intentions, choices and actions. I will support you in any way that I can through my own commitment to your success and the application of the coaching process. I will also help you to understand and overcome any blocks that you have to doing what is necessary to get to where you want to be in the future.

 

 

 

 

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