Coaching for change and growth
We live in times of profound and constant change, when anxiety and fear are commonplace. Solutions that have worked in the past, may not work any longer.
Today any organisation to survive and thrive must learn to change with the market demands. In order to continue to grow we must develop a new framework for working together that generates creativity, innovation and collaboration.
If we are to have learning organisations, we must have learning executives. Learning refers to any change in behaviour. Organisational behaviour (seen as actions) is professional skills affected by personal skills and behavioural aspects such as; beliefs, values, attitudes, motivation, thoughts and unconscious drives. Coaching is now recognised as a critical platform for assisting successful learning initiatives and organisational change.
Ideally coaching is a three-way partnership between the executive, the coach and the organisation, in which all involved agree on specific goals and parameters.
Truly effective coaching with individuals in organisations involves much more than goal setting. It involves unleashing the human spirit, expanding individual’s capacity to achieve stretch goals, and make changes in behaviour to bring about real change. It starts with considering and altering the underlying context in which the change can occur. The underlying context is all of the conclusions; beliefs and assumptions individuals in the organisation have reached in order to succeed. This context is mostly shaped by the shared interpretations people make about their business environment, and includes the management culture.
This basic cultural context must be considered in creating a framework for effective coaching for individuals undergoing change.
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, winning organisations need a new kind of management culture, one that is based on creating new knowledge. This requires constant and ongoing learning. A crucial catalyst in this new management culture is the Executive Coach. The Executive Coach’s role is to provide a safe space where business leaders and executives can spend time looking at the broader picture, of where they actually want to go, as opposed to where they are going. To take, time to step back to identify their goals, personal and professional, for the future. To look at approaching issues in different ways, have the time to bounce ideas off an ‘objective outsider’ and discover that they can really change and influence change. At the same time an Executive Coach acts as a ‘thinking partner’ who assists in coming up with new ideas, fresh approaches and innovative solutions.
In its simplest terms, coaching for change involves expanding individual’s capacity to make choices and informed decisions to take effective action. It involves challenging underlying beliefs and assumptions that are responsible for one’s actions and behaviours.
At its deepest level coaching for change examines not only what one does, and why one does what one does, but who you are, and who you want to be.
The Coaching process begins with assessments and questionnaires, during which time the coach gets to know the clients story and what is important to them. The initial work will involve examining personal interests, values, beliefs, motivation, attitudes, skills and creating a personal mission statement. This is similar to a business strategy and mission statement for the organisation. There may be coaching around aligning the personal purpose and objectives with those of the organisation. Coaching will help the individual examine gaps or openings between what they believe they do, what they actually do and the impact of their behaviour and actions, on their career, life and business. This is a fertile ground for personal growth and development, but it can also be the area where people may become defensive and resistant to change. This is where the coach uses listening and observation skills and where asking the right questions at the right time will help the individual out of areas where they may have been previously stuck.
Many change and/or learning interventions fail to stand the test of time because of the physical and psychological pressures of “the real world”. To change/learn, people need to embed new insights into deeper, often automatic, thinking processes. This requires them to pay attention to how they think as well as what they think. To change, people need to turn thought into action. Learning will only last if the underlying emotional commitment is there – ‘do I really want to change?’ ‘what are the benefits for me?’ As people engage with new learning we will ask them to listen to their emotions and look at their attitudes, beliefs and values.
We work in partnership with clients in discovering, organisational and personal ambitions, in designing step plans for change and encourage them in taking inventive and effective action to realize specific goals. We take into account each unique situation and style of learning, working with individuals at their pace, and being available to support them in times of challenge, which could be a change programme, particular project or event, new business idea, stress or overwhelm, confusion or crisis.
Coaching can help you crack open your most pivotal business issues and dilemmas, to achieve a breakthrough.
We aim to inspire, empower and enable you to achieve your specific personal and business breakthroughs. One of the things that can occur in synchronicity when you achieve a business breakthrough is a leadership breakthrough. People often note of the individuals we are coaching “there was a visible and positive change in how he (she) showed up as a leader.”
In these uncertain and changing times, leaders are tested. Those who continue to develop their own capabilities in new areas will be the ones that succeed, prosper and deliver business results in the future..
The objectivity that a professional coach brings is helpful to leaders and individuals seeking to make difficult changes in attitudes, behaviour, work habits, perspectives and interpersonal relationships.
Change takes courage, commitment and time. Executive and Business Change Coaching provides a stimulating environment for exploration and reflection, supporting you to achieve the outcomes you want, whilst acting as a catalyst for positive change.
Alan Cohen:
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Author: Karen Whelan Accredited Professional Coach
September 2006
