Executive Coaching

Coaching is an intimate personal relationship based on mutual respect and purpose. With enough trust, just about anything can be discussed, challenged, explored, and tried on for fit. This trust is essential to develop the person’s true potential.

These coaching conversations are held in an overall process designed to uncover the most fruitful areas for growth and accomplishment, engage the environment to support this growth and to gather feedback on the process itself, and making course corrections when necessary.

Special considerations are taken when working with Business Owners and Pro Bono clients.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather the wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Antoine de Saint Exupery

Coaching Agendas

Our clients come to us with many diverse agendas: They may be new in their role, or may be a seasoned executive seeking a sounding board. They may need to engineer a turnaround or scale up to capture big opportunities. The agenda may focus around self-sabotaging behavioral change, or, conversely, building influencing skills to catalyze change in others – to embody their values or align along business imperatives.

No matter how the original agenda is framed, over time, it almost always changes. It deepens to include issues as they arise, often including the bigger questions of life, balance, meaning, purpose, service, and legacy. What doesn’t change is our commitment to these individuals, their success, and the success of their organizations.

 

Approach

No leader operates in a vacuum. When possible, we connect and solicit feedback from the client’s leader or board, peers, HR, or other key stakeholders. The feedback and hopefully support of these individuals are essential for any leader to make lasting change. Using this and 360 feedback tool as a guide, (The Leadership Circle 360) we support the client in crafting a Personal Leadership Development Plan. This plan and the leader’s business agenda become the basis of our work together. We meet in coaching sessions to support the leader in the implementation of their plan and to realize their business goals.

Feedback from the environment is essential for growth so we recommend periodic pulse surveys so the leader can see their progress or make course corrections when necessary. We also recommend 3-way meetings with the coach, the client, and his or her leader or other stakeholders at the beginning of the process to align expectations, determine how success is to be measured, and identify any additional resources that may exist; in the middle of the engagement to receive feedback and make any course corrections that are necessary, and at the end of the coaching period to bring closure to the process and determine any next steps.

We often augment this work with onsite facilitation of training, strategy sessions or problem solving around a particular issue or opportunity. These sessions are highly customized to meet the unique needs of the client and their organization.

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.”
Warren Bennis

Business Owners

Coaching Business Owners is similar to coaching Corporate Executives but there are several critical differences:

  • Each business is a distinct reflection of the owner. Thus, changing the business can feel a lot like changing the person. That’s hard work to do without a trusted advisor.
  • Often family business must take into account the dynamics of the family, and all and all the interpersonal relationships this entails. Tricky work requiring a combination of skill, love, boundary setting, and co-creation.
  • Ultimately, business choices reflect choices in how the owner wants to spend his or her time, how they wish to live their values, and vision of what their life and business can be. We are architects of our future – let’s make the plan!
 

 

 

 

Pro Bono Clients

Life has endowed each of us with vast and abundant inner resources to create the lives and circumstances we truly want. However, not everyone has acquired the knowledge or live in an environment that is conducive to tap into its power.

Praxis Leadership Development, Inc. holds three “scholarship” positions to provide coaching services to up to 6 months for those who may not have the means to otherwise afford it. Contact us for more information on how you can nominate a leader for this program.

Non-Profit organizations can take advantage of group training and coaching opportunities as well. Contact us for details.

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.”
Benjamin Disraeli