Leadership Coaching for Business Results – Start from what the Business is telling you!
An article on leadership coaching by my colleague at LAI Consulting, Irene McPhail. Irene is the President and Founder of Leadership Alliance International, Inc. (LAI).
Not so long ago, in the medieval days of executive coaching, the “business case” was not especially attractive, but pretty straightforward; typified in a closed-door conversation between Chief Human Capital Officer and Chief Executive Officer, which began with something like: “This person is going severely off track. No one wants to work with or for him (or her), and he (or she) is either not capable or does not care.” As a result, back then executive coaching was much more the domain of academics and psychological clinicians, because “behavioural modification” was the outcome – not business results.
Since then, as leadership development has evolved, there are now far higher expectations for what coaching executives should deliver to the institution they serve; as well as for themselves as leaders.
Let’s start with where coaching interventions can have the “greatest Return on Investment,” which is where we at Leadership Alliance International would have our clients focus. Instead of executive coaches being expected “to fix a problem leader”; the expectation by progressive and knowledgeable organisations is that coaching is a key means to strengthen and leverage a leader’s capabilities to enhance his/her impact and results in a current role; accelerate the readiness of emerging leaders to take on more challenging responsibilities; and support a seamless transition of leaders as they take on new or higher-risk opportunities.
It almost goes without saying that these types of engagements require skills and experiences that go beyond “changing behaviours,” to helping leaders understand, adapt, and succeed within the internal and external business climates in which they operate.
At LAI, every one of our coaches focuses as much on understanding the business of the leaders to whom we consult, as we do the modification of their behaviours. Our coaches have hands-on experience of what is required to achieve business results based on many years of experience either as business executives, many with P&L experience, or inside major corporations in an enabling function required to understand the business of their internal clients.
We bring to our clients a unique and refreshing business savvy and sensibility – much more like a businessperson talking to another businessperson. Our personal ROI is to help leaders generate better results in any role. Robyn Pratt is proud to be an LAI affiliate and has worked with executives using the LAI model to achieve tangible improvements to their business outputs.
Contact Robyn at Robyn.Pratt@lai-consulting.com to learn more about how we can take a business based approach to coaching your leaders towards understanding and taking actions to improve their outputs based on what the business is telling them.