Our curiosity led us to analyze data from the past 4 years and use a heatmap approach to validate the trends we sensed emerging in coaching.
It became clear that coaching focus begins with self, then extends to team and organizational performance, navigating peers, and managing up. Periodically returning to delve deeper into mindset, triggers, and internal narratives.
In technically led sectors where leaders are promoted for their technical IQ, conversations were consumed with the leader’s desire and (lack of) ability to empathise and build more collaborative teams and cross working relationships.
Stepping up was on the agenda for every leader
Entrepreneurs had a wide range of priorities and concerns, transitioning from self-focus to scaling up and establishing efficient systems for ongoing expansion. They demonstrated remarkable agility and originality in their approach.
Executives and CEOs want leaders to take charge and bridge the divide between the effectiveness of the senior leadership team and the frontline leaders, with an inconsistent CEO consuming the majority of challenges senior leaders faced.
Enhancing Self-Awareness was a consistent priority for all leaders. This challenges and coaching in this areas was extensive and profound, encompassing reflective practices, recognising strengths, blind spots and triggers, exploring procrastination, motivation, self-doubt, internal narratives and releasing control (to step up and empower leaders), promoting wellbeing, changing mindsets, establishing boundaries, exercising meta-cognition, setting personal goals and developing confidence and self-awareness.
Coaches were referred to as either accountability partners or thinking partners
Transformation only occurred when leaders were willing to do the work on self first and felt safe enough to open up and unpack their thinking.
At PeopleQ, we adopt an integrated approach to coaching because no single coaching style proved to be more effective than others.
The best coaching outcomes supported leaders to observe the system within which they operate and 360s are an integral part of executive coaching, but we don't start with them!
Leaders all shared a desire to be impactful, influence, inspire and deliver successful outcomes. Senior Leaders recognise the benefit in managing peers and up bring a more holistic focus, whereas middle level leaders tended to focus on their team’s performance. CEOs and Senior leaders were keen to delve more deeply into enhancing leadership capability and capacity and elevate a leader’s ability to step up in the organisation.
Everyone took accountability for workplace culture, whether it be in their teams or across the organisation and the workplace culture landscape included strategy, change, great culture and interventions of issues.
Leadership legacy, values and purpose intertwined and was the next most discussed topic after self-awareness. Values and purpose play a crucial role in helping leaders become more intentional and deliberate in their decision-making, as well as in aligning their teams and organizations. With senior leaders and business owners this flowed on to Vision, Business Planning and Decision-Making frameworks.
Business Owners were the sole individuals who delved into KPIs and end game strategy. I understand the reasoning behind this, but shouldn't we all have a plan for the next stage? They were also the only ones who prioritized Customers and Customer engagement was seldom discussed, which, in my opinion, poses a significant issue!
Navigating change was the least talked about topic, yet it was the most prevalent issue across all topics.
Courageous conversations, leading authentically and giving and receiving feedback stemmed off of the productivity focus, where intertwined and received a lot of attention. It tells you what we are spending most of our time doing as leaders.
So, what’s off the table?
Coaching should never be confused with therapy in any way. Even when working with a talented therapist/coach, it is important to keep coaching separate from therapy. Coaching is oriented towards the future and helping leaders effectively address current challenges. Topics such as trauma, psychology, coping mechanisms, addiction, personality disorders, and diagnoses are not within the scope of coaching. Instead, the focus is on providing genuine care for the individual's well-being and, if necessary, referring them to a qualified therapist.
And what about a leader’s personal life and personal challenges?
We coach the whole person, leaders have the autonomy to decide when and if they bring personal challenges into coaching.
PeopleQ are experts with extensive experience in executive coaching, leadership coaching and business coaching.
Let's get you coach matched! Reach out if you’d like us to hold space for you for any of the above concerns.
melina@peopleq.com.au 0498 800 008 I suria@peopleq.com.au 0407776888
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