Coaching

We were sent out to shout at the trees. It was the annual management team away day. It was a ridiculous workshop with absurd exercises, totally unrelated to the business numbers. However I did enjoy the shout, not sure about the tree and the golfers definitely didn’t appreciate it. And I forgot about it the day after; in fact I have only just remembered it now 25 years later. So much for team away days.

‘There’s no clear path to addressing a complex problem, but there are actionable steps to be taken now, even if they only solve part of the problem’
‘We can do better, even without definitive answers’
(Inspired by “Net Positive” by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston)
Ineffective communication is a complex problem; here’s a coaching session with Simon and his team in which they plan for better.

What if everything that can be invented has been invented and there was only one way to overcome the predicament and that one way wasn’t working. It would be pretty hopeless, right! How often do we hear people say ‘there’s only one way to do this’ or they leap for the first solution and then give up cos it didn’t work. Or what if there was unlimited possibility and we all got together and worked it out? Today we are revisiting what’s possible and an essential update to ‘management’ that will enable it…

Six years ago, John had a breakdown. He’s OK now though never returned to work. If someone had listened to him, he’d have got through it. John needed support. I care about leadership team performance though more for the wellbeing of the players and their people and right now some are on the edge. In this post we look at the importance of balancing support with challenge and how to provide both.

Coaching is a partnership to discover new thinking. It’s future focused and optimistic. If you are leading a team in steady state and you have all done what you are doing hundreds of times before then crack on, this is not for you. This is for leadership teams that have something big to deliver in challenging and uncertain times. It’s for people who are up for the messy work of thinking and acting differently together and who are prepared to turn up and do the work. This is what the work looks like.

Preparing for a talk to fellow coaches on how we price for work I discovered something about my business. Four things seem to underpin my success and how I enable my customers’ success.
They are the four legs of my sturdy table …..

How best to change or bring about change?
Change happens naturally when we become more of who we are, rather than when we try to behave differently.
Try and change behaviour and they will resist, you already know that.
Start with thinking.
Here’s some thinking on thinking.

Live Action Coaching gets the team moving in the same direction, creating a multiplier impact on its progress. And as you are leaders this creates a multiplier impact throughout your organisation.

This is exactly what is needed, right now.