Are you in a new leadership role and trying to get your sea legs?
Is your job and life demanding that you be more skillful and resilient in managing yourself under pressure?
Have you gotten feedback that you need to improve your leadership presence, but you’re not quite sure what it means and how to do it?
Do you need to hone specific skills such as coaching and empowering staff, influencing peers and upper level leadership, or strategic thinking?
Are you crafting a new vision for yourself, your team or organization?
There are many reasons why managers seek out coaching or organizations urge their leaders to begin a coaching engagement. If you are new to coaching, you may be excited about the possibility of personalized development, or you may be hesitant and wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into.
Coaching is like having your own leadership development class where you are the only student, and the coach’s sole focus is helping you bring about the change(s) you want and need to make. It’s focused and tailored to your learning and your real-life challenges and opportunities. You set the goals and drive the agenda – I provide a structure of support: the “rails” for the work you will do.
As your coach, I’ll wear a number of hats: thinking partner, provocateur, feedback giver, confidante and search engine. My job is to help you step back and look at how you’re seeing yourself and the situation before you. I will work with how you think/process as well as your mental models. We may also discuss your mood and emotions, since these influence our actions, decisions and choices. We will explore your values and belief system and work with your physical structure/presence, since the mind/body connection is critical to the change and transformation process.
Coaching invites you to take a systemic look at yourself in the context of your work and life. Whether you are targeting specific skill development or seeking a long-range change in behavior or performance outcomes, coaching is a powerful and self-generating tool for any leadership level.
Where else can you think out loud – be “real” with yourself – speak your unvarnished truth – and examine how your mind/body connection is either supporting or interfering with your intentions, actions and results?
The length of a coaching engagement varies based on your focus area(s) and the outcomes you want to achieve. It might be targeted and short term (6-10 hours of coaching) to address a specific skill or situation such as giving feedback or on-boarding into a new role. The engagement may be long term – 6-12 months or more in order to tackle an issue that has more complexity such as leading organizational change or a team in transition.
No two engagements are the same but they do include these key components:
When I get a phone call from a leader who is interviewing prospective coaches, they are often unsure of where to begin or what to discuss. They may have a list of prepared questions from their coaching coordinator or the internet, which can be helpful. However, at 5Ten, we will start with a relaxed and open conversation that begins with who you are and what brings you to coaching.
As we explore your leadership challenges or opportunities, I’ll share my thoughts and approach of how I might work with you as well as my style of coaching and a bit about who I am. I’ll also discover your learning style and who and what brings out the best in you. Through this conversation, it’s easy to see if we’re a good match for a coaching partnership. And you’ll get answers to that list of questions in an engaging, enlightening and enjoyable way!