Stepping up into a promoted role

Over an extended period, our coach worked alongside someone appointed with the potential, but without the experience, to head the HR department in the civil service of a British Overseas Territory. Following the creation of SMART development and training goals, our coach worked with her coachee to ensure a planned approach to growing and regularly reviewing the competencies critical to the Head of Department position. After only 6 months the coachee was confident to assume key responsibilities and by the year’s end, the coachee’s performance assessment confirmed her in the permanent position.

Aiming to thrive - not just survive!

Most, if not all of us, feel overwhelmed by our work - maybe most often when we make a move into a promoted senior post. All our coaches have worked with leaders in a range of international settings who are in just such a position; helping them to better understand their strengths and areas for continued development and, over a period of time, to find ways to meet new challenges. Whilst there are no ‘magic wands’, ways are identified to work smarter; learning and practising effective delegation and developing coaching skills to empower and upskill team members also help. Use of psychometric tools such as Saville’s Wave Profile and Hogan’s Development Survey (HDS) offer insight into leadership style and preferred behaviours. After some time in role we also recommend 180/360-degree feedback as a great way to get a sense of ‘how I am doing’ which our coaches will conduct and debrief confidentially with you.

Coaching for executive development – international public sector

Our consultant provided personal effectiveness and development coaching for a head of section in a high-profile Government organisation and demanding public service reform project.

The coaching kicked off with a 2-day diagnostic meeting in London and was backed by 12 weekly Skype sessions to enhance work organisation and team performance. Each coaching session was followed by a note of the discussion and the action points agreed. Various tools to enable better prioritisation and team effectiveness were provided and adopted along the way. The outcome was more visible confidence in leadership, providing direction and planning.

Growing organizational capability

In two African countries our coach has supported both individuals and teams in a school of public administration and regional association of police services to assess, scope, plan and deliver improvements to organisational capability through the design of internal leadership and management development programmes. Regular coaching sessions with key personnel underpinned delivery of skills-based workshops; better enabling application of learning to practice and evaluation of training impact.

Developing a top team

A new Leadership Development Programme has been developed for an EU institution to support the growth and extended remit of the organisation. Working with the senior team, including the senior managers across the organisation, individual and group coaching is provided in addition to a series of workshops. The coaching delivered in-country and also via Skype/phone is an important part of developing each leader to their full potential and enabling them to lead themselves and others through change. The Transformational Leadership 360, tailored to their organisational needs, is an essential element along with other self-assessment tools such as i–resilience and EQ self-assessment. The group coaching (6/7 leaders) will be in-country every few months to enable priority organisational issues to be developed and acted upon and to support the objective of improved cross-team working

Longer-term coaching for Chief Executives and Board Members

Our coach provided executive coaching and facilitated Board development in a national museum group in the UK over a period of 3 years. The individual coaching enabled Chief Executives and Board Members to develop themselves and work corporately in leading change in their organisations. The sector was subject to severe budget constraints and a high turnover of Chief Executives that threatened the sustainability of the businesses. Several Board Members went on to run their own organisations in the UK and USA. The core group rationalised its estate and operations and expanded sponsorship and commercial activities.