Our previous blog was on what it means to be a Coach-Like Leader, and why so many get it wrong.  

This month we look at ways in which organizations can leverage and reap the benefits of their investment into developing Coach-Like Leaders.

There are a number of steps companies can take when thinking of introducing Coaching Skills (or any behavioural shift initiative) that directly impact the success of the initiative and the ‘stickiness’ of behavioural learning.  

In this blog we highlight 7 areas to pay attention to when developing and implementing any behavioural shift initiative.

1. Assessing Organizational Readiness

Behavioural change, at minimum, requires effort and often involves discomfort, even pain.  The greater the shift, the greater the discomfort. 


 Human beings naturally move away from effort (or discomfort/pain) towards ease.  


Adults, in particular, have spent a long time developing behaviours to maximise efficiency – maximising the benefit to effort ratio and, as people, this means that without a compelling reason to shift that behaviour, our default is to ‘protect’ ourselves from any need to change our behaviour.  

This natural tendency is one of the significant blocks to ‘sticky change’ that organizations run into when trying to bring in a new culture or establish new leadership behaviours.  


The result is that we take new learning and look for ways we’re ‘already doing that’, subconsciously proving to ourselves that very little, if any, change in behaviour is needed.


Ask

“How big is the gap between current behaviour/thinking and what we want to create?”

  “What can we do to ease the discomfort and/or increase the appetite for the change, so that it is easier for people to truly engage with the shift?” 

2. Key stakeholders

When planning an initiative for an organizational shift, it is imperative to identify and bring on board the key stakeholders.  

Having a senior level sponsor who not only understands the initiative but believes in its importance plays a huge role in ensuring the success of the initiative.  

This is true because of obvious reasons like budget support. It is also true because key stakeholders are people with influence.

If they don’t see the value in the initiative, they may speak out against it. However, even their silence undermines the ‘compelling reason’ needed to create readiness for change.


It is vital that you get your key stakeholders on board
and excited for this shift.


Ask

“Which key stakeholders does success depends on?”

“What is their understanding of and belief in this value of the shift?”

“What role can they play and how to best engage them?”

3. Budget

Organizational shift requires two types of budgets – Dollars and Time.

Some key stakeholders play an important role in planning for and/or freeing up dollars for the initiative.  

Others may play the equally important role of ensuring that the time participants need for the training is factored into their key priorities and not simply added to the edge of their desk.  

Whether action learning, reading, coaching or classroom time, when training is simply dumped on top of an already heavy workload a mixed message is sent about its value and it is a real barrier for participants to fully engage.

Ask

“What dollar and time budgets do we need to have commitment on before we launch the initiative?”

4. Communication Strategy

Often those planning an initiative have spent so long thinking about the Why, What, When and How of a training (or any other) initiative that it is easy to forget that others haven’t had the same time to process why this is even happening.  

It is not uncommon for participants to hear nothing more than some vague rumours of an initiative/training until they get an email informing them of the date and time they need to be at the training.  


The result can be a (virtual or actual) room full of participants who have little to no idea of why they’re being asked to neglect their (typically already overwhelming) workload to attend the training.  


When this happens, we’re setting the scene for disengagement and frustration – making it hard for participants to be excited about the learning and the behavioural shifts that have the potential to move them to a new level of maximising the benefit:effort ratio.

A communication strategy thinks through what needs to be communicated to whom so that key stakeholders are on board, budgets are appropriately allocated and participants are excited (or at least not sceptical) about how this initiative is going to improve their effectiveness and their lives.

It also includes thinking through which decisions will benefit from broader input and who needs to be heard and/or give input into the design at each stage from inception to implementation and beyond. A good communication strategy maximises the ROI of any initiative.

Ask

“How do we need to communicate this initiative and to whom?”

5. Sourcing Providers

The size of your organization as well as the extent of internal expertise will be determining factors as to whether you look within the walls or beyond them for your training providers.  Other factors include the political sensitivity of the initiative and the capacity of the people with the right expertise to take on the initiative (ie do they have the time?).  

Regardless of whether you look internally or externally, there are a number of things you should expect:

i. They should be paying attention to and asking questions about the Organizational Readiness for the type and scope of behavioural shift you’re looking to create.

ii. Their solutions should be tailored to your needs/vision. It can be problematic if they are a one-size-fits-all solution.

iii. They should be able to clearly articulate back to you your core drivers for the initiative in a way that resonates and makes you even more excited about it.

iv. They should be working with you to determine the Key Stakeholders and the Communication Strategy.

v. They should be willing to work with your budget where possible and give you realistic adjusted outcomes if your budget isn’t going to allow you to get the outcome you’re aiming for.  They should clearly articulate what they are committing to as well as what will be required of the organization and/or Key Stakeholders for success to occur.

vi. They should refuse to do the work if it is evident that the budget and organizational readiness isn’t what is needed to get the outcomes you need.

vii. Their expertise and understanding of how to create behavioural shift should be modelled through their interactions with you during the selection process.


While everyone has different price sensitivity,

remember to make VALUE, and not PRICE, your primary determinant.


Ask

Download our free form to determine if you should be looking internally or externally for the providers of any initiative you’re considering.

6. Implementation Strategy

Once you’ve determined what is needed and have selected your providers (internal or external) it is time to think about how you will implement the training/initiative.  Thinking about implementation overlaps with and includes the Communication Strategy, Key Stakeholder involvement, Budget implications/restrictions and Organizational Readiness.  

It also factors in busy and quiet times, other training loads and any extraneous factors that will affect the readiness and ability of either the whole organization or the particular participants to fully engage.  

It includes balancing expediency and effectiveness (eg. what can we do virtually without compromising effectiveness and where do we need to budget for bringing all the participants together in-person).  

An Implementation Strategy thinks through 3 separate and equally important stages; Before, During and After.  Each stage should be designed into the plan.

Ask

Download our free worksheet to think through the 7 Steps for Introducing Coaching Skills to Your Organization.

“What needs to happen before the official start date?” (What will create readiness?)

“How the initiative will be rolled out?” (format, time-frame, etc?)”What structures/processes need to be in place to anchor, sustain and grow the positive shift after the intervention?” (Things that support ‘sticky change’)

7. ROI – what and how to measure 

ROI, or Return on Investment, is something that is usually measured with facts and figures.  The question usually asked is; “How do we prove a direct correlation between the intervention and either increased profits, decreased costs, improved safety record, etc?”

The thing about measuring the benefit of shifts in human behaviour is that even clearly evident benefit is almost never linear and often very hard to measure directly.  This often results in no measure at all.  We have a few principles on how to measure ROI on behavioural shifts. Behaviour shift initiatives are always launched with an outcome in mind and that outcome can be measured – anecdotally (qualitative data), and with a mix of quantitative and qualitative data.  

The ROI of any behavioural training/initiative is most valid when it takes a long-term view.


Measuring outcomes needs to be over the short, medium and long term  

with expectations that, sustained behaviour shift will continue to have

positive qualitative and quantitative benefits in the long-term.


Examples of Real ROI with Clients

Behavioural Shifts – resulting from team initiatives

Behavioural Shifts – resulting from individual coaching initiatives

Much of the ROI from a coaching culture is non-linear, making it difficult to pinpoint or quantify while still revolutionizing the workplace. Having an emphasis on openness, learning and mutual trust allows people to step into freely into increased:

The honing of these skills is difficult to quantify but it leads to better quick decisions, more collaboration and innovation because there is less fear. More comfort navigating unchartered territories, which as we all know from these past few years is an invaluable skill and the confidence in yourself and your team to take the risks which are necessary to be at the cutting edge of your field.

Some things to keep in mind when trying to assess the ROI of establishing a coaching culture are:

1. The timeline of change

Lasting behavioural time takes practice, ongoing effort and time to establish. One cannot expect an individual to change overnight, let alone a whole company of individuals. It is important to exemplify the patience necessary for a coaching culture to truly take place.

2. Identify incremental changes in behaviour


There is no such thing as a perfect company culture – yes, even one’s with an established coaching culture have their faults.


It is important to identify and celebrate the incremental changes individually and company-wide, you are striving for growth, not perfection.

3. Place emphasis on evaluation from the beginning.

All this being said, ROI is a foundational motivator for establishing a coaching culture. It is important to have clarity on what you are hoping to get out of this process and clear measures by which you will evaluate the success of your training/initiative. This can be co-designed with whichever trained facilitator you have selected, but it must be informed by the company’s specific goals.

Ask

“What is the outcome we’re aiming for?”

“What indicators can we measure in the short term?”

“What are the longer-term periods over which we need to measure the indicators to get a true ROI of the initiative?”

Interested in learning more?


Here are two useful articles that lay out more detail of how to measure behavioural shift:

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2015/03/designing-evaluating-behaviour-change-interventions/documents/00472843-pdf/00472843-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/00472843.pdf

https://finalmile.medium.com/how-to-measure-behaviour-change-f0a23897ca63

And Why so Many Get it Wrong…

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that good leadership requires us to employ coaching skills. In fact, many have been told that coaching is now required of them as a key responsibility. This is a wonderful thing in theory, however in practice, there are many misconceptions and gaps in the understanding of what this means and how to do it.


Countless times I have had a client express frustration about how their “coaching” is not giving the promised results, only to have them describe methods that are not coaching at all.  

Gil Davidson

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is usually not their fault, most of these leaders are genuinely trying to employ coaching skills, but they really have no idea what it is they’re meant to be doing so, instead they default to being more intentional with the leadership skills they already have rather than truly shifting gears into a coach mindset. The result is that leaders often attempt to coach by telling, problem solving or giving advice, all of which have their place but none of which is coaching.

Coaching is more than a new set of skills, technique, or strategy, it’s a way of being.   To coach others, we must start with ourselves…

Coaching requires us to shift the way we bring value to those we lead and how we perceive the value that they bring.

In order to assess if you are ready to begin coaching you need to do these 3 things:

  1. Believe in your people
  2. Trust your people
  3. See their value and how it relates to the task you need done

Until you can honestly do these 3 things, you are not ready to add coaching skills to your toolbelt.

Leaders serious about developing strong coaching skill first need to shift perspective from traditional leadership views where it is our responsibility to solve problems and have the answers to where your role is to trust those you lead to figure out their own solutions, where your role is more Socratic* than explicit, where you add value by asking the right questions rather than giving advice.

The tools of a Coach-like leader include:

Coaching is a behavioural skill and therefore it cannot be learned solely in a classroom – it needs to be learned through doing.    

Is Coaching a Fad?  

This is a fair question.  Leadership Development is guilty of jumping onto every new fad that comes along.  However, coaching is definitively not one of those cases. It is definitely NOT just a fad. How can I be so sure?

The concept behind coaching has been around since at least 400 years BC. Our earliest sense of it starts with Socrates who figured out that our actions, conviction, and commitment are driven more by what we believe to be true rather than by what we are told is true. 

Practically this means that when, as a leader, you’re allocating tasks to your team, your role includes being a catalyst for them to uncover how they connect with and believe in the value of the task as well as their understanding of how it contributes to a bigger outcome/purpose.  Doing so ensures that they are committed and can be held accountable.  

Let’s apply the principle to your own dilemma with coaching skills…

Imagine the difference it would make to your commitment to developing and applying coaching skills if you had undergone a process that encouraged you to question the concepts that are hard to trust. To test out the concepts and to draw your own conclusions?  Would do so have increased your commitment to applying them?  If they made sense, would it be easier to be accountable and committed?   

The secret Socrates discovered is that questioning to facilitate a person’s sense-making leads to clarity, and it is also one of the secret pillars of coaching.  

Fast forward to the 17th century and we find another classic example in Blaise Pascal. You may have heard of him as a mathematician. He was also a philosopher and theologian.  He lived in the early to mid 17th century and, like Socrates, he understood that “We are more convinced by that which we discover for ourselves than by that which we are told”.  The impact of this on our ownership and accountability is another secret behind the power of coaching.  

So, is coaching a fad?  I am convinced that coaching is here to stay, both because it has been around for thousands of years, and because the principles underlying it are timeless tools that tap into our human nature, unlocking commitment like nothing else I’ve encountered in my 30+ years in business!

So, if it has been around for centuries, and is such an impactful tool, why is it only being recognised as a core leadership skill now?

My personal experience taken with anecdotal experience of my colleagues as well as industry literature and research makes a compelling case for why coaching has emerged as a core skill in ‘future-proofing’ your leadership team bench strength.

Here are a few reasons:

Corporate Shifts
Requiring a new leadership skill set

Coaching Skills
Answering the new need

  • Our societies are become increasingly egalitarian and our teams expect more than “because I’m the   boss” as a reason to do something.
  • Routine work is mostly automated and, as described in Daniel Pink’s work, ‘carrot and stick’ forms of motivation only work in routine work environments. Productivity in creative (Knowledge) work environments requires a new form of motivation – one that is intrinsic, not external.  Leaders still need to motivate employees, but they need a new tool kit
  • Clear, hierarchical structures are less common, with flatter or matrix type organizational structures becoming more common. Practically, this means that leaders often don’t have direct authority over those they lead or may have too many direct reports to oversee their work directly, meaning that leading well requires a different delegation and accountability structure
  • Leaders need to equip their teams to navigate VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous – work environments. I know we’re almost as sick of hearing about VUCA, as we are of Covid, but it best describes our new reality – and is one of the reasons Coaching Skills are now emerging as a critical core Leadership competency.
  • Coaching facilitates direct reports identifying and connecting personalised purpose and motivation with assigned goals/responsibilities, resulting in increased commitment and accountability
  • Coaching skills are that tool kit.  Coaching wasn’t as important when external forms of motivation still worked in most situations. Coaching provides a motivational alternative to the “carrot and stick”
  • Coaching skills establish personal  accountability to self and the project/end goal without the need to rely on positional authority
  • Coaching skills enable leaders to delegate with confidence that direct reports understand and are committed to the end goal, that they are equipped to resolve issues that come their way and have the safety and trust in the relationship to ask for help early on should they need it. This frees up the leader’s mental energy and time, as they do not need to follow-up as often to ensure things are moving forward.
  • Leaders skilled at coaching equip their teams to be agile and respond to shifts as they happen, both because they’re clear on the connection between what they’re doing and why/how it adds value and because their leaders’ trust in them increases their self-trust in their ability to deal with VUCA situations.

What makes coaching so elusive?

Too often we try and teach a new skill simply by adding the new knowledge onto what we already know.  That works, only when the new knowledge builds on the existing framework.  Some new skills first require a dismantling of old learnings and entrenched beliefs before we can build a new scaffolding on which to hang our new learning.  Coaching is one of those skills.

Part of what makes it elusive is that we must experience it before we can trust it.   

We must first discover it for ourselves.  

Read our previous blog post on The Evolution of Coaching

So where do we start?

We must start by looking at our beliefs. Our beliefs about ourselves about others and about leadership. As long as we don’t believe that others are as capable as ourselves, we cannot coach.

Coaching is so counter to our conditioning. Why? Because what we have been taught is that only a few will excel and only if you have the answers, and so we don’t see the capacity of those around us.  We see ourselves as the exception. As the leader who has the answers.  

Human nature is that we only see what we’re looking for and we only trust what we see. Ironically, we only look for what we believe.  So what we believe, limits what we see.  

When doesn’t coaching work?

It doesn’t work if we haven’t changed our base level beliefs of ourselves and those around us. As a leader, you will only develop your coaching skills once you’ve experienced proof of concept.

What does that mean?  

Because coaching is so completely different from what we typically look for. Your training needs to provide you with opportunity to experience the impact of the coaching way of being.  Our existing beliefs stop us from trusting coaching principles until we’ve experienced the impact they have. And until we trust it, we will not use it.  

After all, you’re a logical, Intelligent leader so why would you do something that you didn’t trust?  

Only once we understand that leadership is not about us holding all the answers, not about us being the problem solvers or the go-to person. But it’s rather about helping others uncover and discover their own problem-solving abilities, helping them discover for themselves the best way to accomplish the desired outcomes.  This is what it means to lead as a coach.

How to select a good coaching program?

So, if equipping leaders to truly trust and adopt coaching skills is so tricky, how do you ensure that you select an effective coaching skills program for your organization?

Here is a list of questions to ask:

How is it structured?

What experience and skill do the facilitators bring?

Is the content designed with managers in mind, or for coaches?

What impact can you expect?  

As per the insight of Socrates and Blaise Pascal, using a coaching approach increases ownership and accountability because we require people to think through their understanding and alignment of responsibilities.  It results in work being connected to overall outcomes and to personal purpose – increasing a sense of personal fulfillment, commitment, and ownership.

It also provides the opportunity for people to realise what they’re unsure of and to ask clarifying questions when needed. Because coaching requires us to believe in those we coach, they know we’re in their corner and it creates safety for better communication, healthy conflict, and invites more ideas – accessing the creativity and insight of the whole team so the burden isn’t all on the leader.

Working with leaders who believe in us and where we have a greater sense of purpose and personal fulfillment naturally translates to increased loyalty and retention, which is a huge gift to any organization. All the above reasons also result in improved delegation – leaving your leaders to focus on their job, instead of fighting as many fires!

*Socratic Method: refers to question driven learning, where rather than having one person impart their knowledge upon the rest, it is more discussion based, collaborative, and question centered learning

All the attention of the current US presidential electioneering has me reflecting on what is good leadership and is leadership aptitude enough or are there other factors?

I got to thinking about leaders I admire.  Obviously I do not know these leaders personally, however, they are all whom I’ve taken a keen interest in and followed their lives to varying degrees over the years.  In this short, mini-series, I reflect on what appear to be factors that moulded them as good, even great leaders.  Leaders who the world is better for them having led.  Leaders who finished (or are finishing) well.  I may follow it with reflections on a few leaders the world may have been better without.

I invite you to join by sharing your own stories of leaders you admire and also by adding your reflections to my thoughts.

Desmond Tutu (aka The Arch)

– Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town

Desmond Tutu was born in South Africa in a time when it wasn’t easy to be black.  He chose a life as an Anglican minister and became the first black Archbishop of Cape Town.  This was at a time when even the church was segregated.  It would’ve been easy to become either bitter with anger or arrogant at his success, but he did neither.  It would also have been easy protect the privilege of his position by avoiding controversial issues.
Desmond has a wife and four children and he chose to be true to his calling as a prophet – as one who speaks truth and holds those in leadership to account. 

The result was a Nobel prize, but the cost of that prize were years of being misquoted and maligned in the press.  Death threats – even people phoning his home and letting his young daughter know that they are going to kill her father.  He remained strong and true, eventually leading South Africa through the Truth and Reconciliation process.  A process globally recognised as revolutionary in its power to heal.

Many sat back and watched as the Apartheid government was replaced by a fully democratically elected black government and wondered if he would have the same courage to speak truth and hold this government accountable.  He didn’t even miss a beat, but continues to play a pivotal truth speaking role in South Africa and globally.

As I reflect on “The Arch” (as he is affectionately known) I see a man having to choosing again and again to do the hard thing because it is what he is called to do.  A man with a deep faith and a deep dependence on God that is his strength.  A man who refused to be chained by bigots or by anger but who channelled his anger (with forgiveness) to stand for truth, justice and reconciliation.

The last 15 years have seen a steady increase in companies embracing executive coaching as a core piece in their leadership development suite of tools. Those who’ve been coached swear by it. Others are still skeptical. A large component of the distrust stems from the lack of compulsory regulation in the industry, leaving consumers vulnerable as they try to discern the value they can expect from their coach.

Choosing a coach may be easier and lower risk than you think.  There are essentially 2 core components to evaluate in your choice of coach:


Are they qualified?

Experience in business or as a leader doesn’t always make for a good mentor and that is even truer when it comes to coaching. Unfortunately, many consultants see themselves as an expert in their field and then add the title of “Coach” to their name. Would you hire someone as an accountant or an architect if they were not certified by their profession? Coaching is also a profession with clear professional requirements in training and in conduct. When hiring a coach 2 questions will quickly tell you if they are a qualified professional; “Where did you get your coaching certification?” and “What International Coach Federation (ICF) credential do you hold?” If they are not credentialed and are not certified by a professional coaching body such as the ICF you are not hiring a professional.


The ICF is the largest international professional coaching body. They issue 3 levels of coaching credentials (ACC, PCC & MCC), they hold coach training schools up to a high standard, and hold their coaches up to a code of ethics and a professional standard for the protection of the public, similar to other professions.


Whether it is individual or team coaching, be sure they have the training and credentialing and are not simply a consultant calling themselves a coach?

Are they a good fit?

Fit is a key pillar of the success of coaching – both for the individual receiving the coaching and the company who is hiring them. If a coach doesn’t mention the importance of fit but sells him or herself as able to ‘coach anyone’ beware. Everyone has different styles of learning so the same coach may be loved by some and not by others. Even a good wine isn’t everyone’s taste! Fit is as important for the individual receiving the coaching as it is for the company that is hiring them. Once you’ve determined that a coach is qualified (credentialed and certified), you move on to check for fit. This means that coachees (people receiving the coaching) benefit from having a selection of coaches to choose from.

As we began working with executive teams it became necessary to build a diverse team of qualified Professional Coaches in order to give our clients choice – so they would easily find a good fit for their style of learning.

Fit for your organization is as important as fit for the individual coachee.  
Do they understand business?  They do not need to be an expert in your field (in fact that can be a disadvantage) but do need to have enough experience to understand the context in which the coachee exists.

Do they fit with your organizational culture and values? When you meet with them assess if their language, values, and approach will fit with your organization.

To see how easy this is, think about something you’d really love to get coaching on, then go to our “Skills at a Glance” page and choose a few coaches to compare. Once you have your top 2 preferences, look at their full bios and you’ll start to get a good sense of which coach you’d like to interview before you commit to working with them for 6 or 12 months. Even if you’re not thinking of hiring a coach right now, it’s a fun and easy exercise to try.

Other questions to factor into your decision-making process:
How long and at what level have they been coaching?  Do they seem too cheap?


Surveys show that, at CEO and direct report level, Executive Coaches’ monthly fees are:

37% over $1,000 per month

24% at $800 to $1,000 per month

with only 9% charging under $400


With more than 62% of coaches’ charging $800 or more, you should think twice about hiring a coach who thinks they’re only worth half that.  If you’re paying at the low end, are you really getting value for money?

What do their clients say about them?
Do they survey their clients for feedback and ROI and do they have ‘proof of concept’ in the form of reliable testimonials.  A great testimonial is repeat business.  How many of their clients become repeat clients?  Not all clients will need coaching services on an ongoing basis, but a great test is whether clients come back the next time they need a coach, or if they move on to look for a new provider.  Interested in what our clients say about us?

Do they offer other services that may complement the coaching?
For example, we, measure the coaching effectiveness through a survey co-designed with our clients.

Read Part 1 of How to Measure Executive Coaching – Feedback

I hope that you found this 2 part article useful and that it takes some of the risks out of hiring a coach.  We’d love to hear your comments and how you’ve put any of this into practice.

Services are always hard to determine the value of, how do you know if you’re getting good value from your accountant, architect, or lawyer?  Executive coaching is no different.  You can’t ‘kick the tires’ of a service before you buy it, but you probably do have a few indicators that help you determine the value you want from a service.  This ‘buyers’ conundrum’ has surfaced enough lately that we interrupt our Series on Leadership Secrets to bring you a 2 part Blog on “How to Measure Executive Coaching”.

We believe you can only see the value if you’re asking the right questions, so we co-design feedback surveys with our larger clients on their coaching metrics. 


We measure:

We coach leaders, high potential individuals who are used to challenging themselves to more.  47% of the leaders we coach are senior management to CEO level and 39% are emerging leaders or middle management.  Coach fit is critical to success as the power of the coaching is only as good as the combination of safety and challenge.  These leaders have already challenged themselves as far as they can.  The coach must create a safe enough environment for the client to be challenged beyond what they would do otherwise. 

Part of that safety is knowing the coach has an unwavering belief in them as leaders. 94% of our clients surveyed always sensed my coach’s belief in me personally”, with 6% mostly sensing the coach’s belief.  56% said they always felt safe”, with 44% most of the time, and 94% experience the “right amount of challenge to go beyond my comfort zone” most or all the time.

Goal Achievement can be a tricky one as maintaining confidentiality on what the client is working on is key to the success of coaching.  Most of the coaching goals are set by the coachee themselves, however, their boss or sponsor is allowed 1 core goal they put forward for the coachee to work on.  That, in turn, is confidential between the coach, coaches, and boss/sponsor.  We measure this by simply asking “Did you accomplish the majority of your goals?” 100% of clients surveyed say yes to both the sponsor and self-identified goals!  They can elaborate in the comment box -and many do.

The observable impact is measured by simply asking “In what ways have others observed the impact of coaching on you?”.  We know that behaviour change has taken place when third-party feedback confirms it. Examples of third-party feedback are ‘greater trust by others’, ‘More aware of my audience / other team members’ needs and differences ‘, ‘My boss originally said I wasn’t strategic enough and he said there was a marked improvement at the end. I’m a broader thinker. I am now able to stay in a strategic frame of mind and not get dragged into the day-to-day often. Today I think more corporately than departmental.’ and ‘better listening and different analysis and approach on the issues’. 

All difficult to put metrics to, but observable and measurable nonetheless.

Coach professionalism is used for us to monitor ourselves and to see where we can improve. We care deeply about the coaching profession and aim to represent it well.  100% of clients surveyed ranked all our coaches as “Professional” or “Highly Professional” on all 5 indicators, from “Initial Contact” orAddressing any process issues you had” to “Finalising the Contact”.  All would recommend their coach to others!  This high satisfaction level also speaks to the effort we put in around matching clients with one of our 7 coaches as well as the diversity and skill available on our team.

While we do not get clients to give us feedback on their specific goals, we do ask for feedback on core ‘intangible’ leadership competencies developed through their coaching.  We customise the competencies measured to those most important to the company we’re working with.  Typically we end up with around 9.  Some common competencies measured are; “Self-Awareness”, “Relational Ability”,  “Dealing with Conflict”, “Internal Confidence” and “Influence”.  The feedback usually comes back with the coaching having had a significant impact or having exceeded expectations.

If you want to ‘kick the tires’ of a coaching service before you hire them, use these measurements as questions for their references.  If they claim to be a right fit for all your executives, beware.  Rather look for a team of coaches, like ours, or hire a coach who advises you to first interview 2 or 3 coaches before deciding on the best fit.  Lastly, if you’re planning to make coaching a core component of your leadership development, ask the coaching organization if they’re willing to co-design a feedback survey that provides you with valuable metrics while still honouring the confidentiality inherent in the coaching relationship.

If you found this helpful, you may be interested in Part 2 on Coach Credentials.  Alternatively, you may be reading this as you’re considering hiring a coach.  If you are, we commend your commitment to growing your leadership capacity and encourage you to review our line-up of highly qualified, impactful coaches.

We’ve shared our thoughts with you.  We’d love to hear how you go about selecting coaches and measuring the impact of your coaching investment.

Golf clubs as a coaching metaphor
Photo by sydney Rae [Unsplash]

I’m putting away my golf clubs for the season. As I do that, I can’t help but reflect on what a great metaphor golf is for leaders and leadership.

In my role as Executive Coach I have engaged this metaphor with clients who are also golfers with some surprising results.Like the complex and changing corporate environment, there are constant unknowns in the game.

There are hazards everywhere and when we find ourselves in one of them, it requires some thought, a reframe, refocus, a decision and action. And after all of that, and you take the next stroke, there is the knowledge that there is no guarantee that the outcome will be what is intended.

Moving out of a trouble spot requires another look at what club the golfer (and for the Executive, what tools or skills) might be used to move forward…toward the goal that isn’t always visible and is often surrounded by several more hazards!

I also realized halfway through this golf season, that asking for help to enhance my skills (which at times are highly developed already! Well, sometimes!!!). Even the greats have Coaches and must practice to enhance their game.

One of the things that has had a great impact on me this year was to recognize the benefit of quieting, calming and centering. In the Spacious Complexity process we engage quieting and reflective learning as one of the most fundamental, effective development techniques that leaders can use. And in using the golf metaphor, the quieting and reflection is similar to when the ball lands in a water hazard where it stirs up the silt making it impossible to see the lost ball.

When we too quickly attempt to retrieve that ball, we stir up even more murkiness, similar to when we may too quickly react in the organizational environment. Yet if we simply wait, often for only a short moment, the silt settles, the water becomes clearer and we can see so much more clearly…to retrieve or recover. It is the next shot that makes the difference!

What is your next shot?

What tools are in your leadership toolbox?

Who is your silent partner?

What are your resources to bring you to the top of your game?

Like the skiers in the photograph, leaders are often faced with decisions that are complex and where making the wrong decision could have serious consequences.  In such situations, decision makers can find themselves at either end of the decision making spectrum – analysis paralysis on the one end or falsely simplifying the ‘landscape’  or context to make the decision easier on the other.  In the case of our back-country skier – either method could have life threatening results.  In business it may not be your life that is at stake, but it could cost the ‘life’ of your project, your credibility or even your business as a whole.


Struggling with decisions in complex or ambiguous situations doesn’t mean you’re a poor decision maker, it likely has its root in other factors.  A big contributor is the myth that; “While there may be more than one way to do it, there is only one  BEST way to do it”. If you find yourself in agreement with the ‘only one BEST way’ thinking, you are probably missing many great decision opportunities.


There are very few situations where that thinking is true – even fewer when it involves people.  Any time a decision has impact on people it is more likely to have an optimal range of BEST decisions to choose from.  The ‘only one BEST way’ thinking is borrowed from a mechanical mindset.  A context in which it is often true, but not so in most leadership decisions, as very few leadership decisions are purely mechanical.


Try it out for yourself.  Think of a complex or ambiguous situation where you believed there was only one BEST decision.  Maybe you’re in one right now?  How did that impact your decision making?  Many great leaders find their decision making compromised because they are holding tightly to the belief that there is only one right answer, only one best way to proceed.  It is true that there are right and wrong decisions, good and bad decisions.  Think of your scenario.  Imagine it on a continuum with the analysis-paralysis at the one end and ‘quick-n-dirty’ decision at the other end.  Where on that continuum do you see the optimal decision making range.  Think of 5 to 8 decision options you could make from there.  Assess them at a gut level.  Which are your top 3?  What more information do you need before you act on them (using the same continuum scale)?  Choose and act.

Take the time to try it out and we’d like to hear how it changes things for you and for the outcome as a result.

There is no such thing as someone not impacting. By our presence alone we change the environment and impact the system we have entered. An example of this happened when I was a young teenager…one with an attitude and what I now realize were friends of questionable character. I certainly didn’t see them that way then!

My mother had questioned my choices multiple times but I saw none of her concerns. One Friday night there was a community dance that I was enthusiastically a part of and my mother was to be arriving a little later in the evening after work as a chaperone. Before she arrived I was completely engaged and saw my group of friends as fun and really quite acceptable even in the high standards of my parents.

But…the instant my mother walked through the doors, I looked around the room and saw everything alarmingly differently.

I saw through her eyes the activities and characters that were part of my world and I was immediately slammed into another reality.

And yes, without a word spoken I saw the questionable character of the friends that were of a strong and negative influence. It was a pivotal and defining moment that changed the trajectory of my life. My mother’s presence alone changed my interpretation of the environment I was in and the living system that I was a part of.

We have spoken of that moment since, and she had a different experience. She felt that it was not as bad as she had previously thought, and had felt that she had been much too judgmental and harsh on those she did not really yet know.

Since that time there have been many times, though more subtle, that I have had experiences of shifts in perspective and I have been very much more aware of them since that day so long ago.

I’m curious…what impact might you unknowingly have?

How have others influenced you and your environment simply with their presence?

Learn more about the impact we’ve had on our clients

Even when we choose not to contribute, we are NOT not contributing.  Whole Systems Thinking teaches us that simply by observing a ‘system’ we change it.  As humans we are inherently creative beings.  From the moment that the sperm meets egg we being to alter things – before  consciousness we have an impact and create new ways of thinking and being. Any parent or grandparent knows how true this is!

A mentor of mine reminded me of this when he said,

“You can have more impact with 1 hour of presence than a year of explaining.”

The business people in the above picture may be incredibly creative, have great wisdom and have much to offer, but their presence is creating….fill in the blanks……

As a leader, I have realised that my greatest contribution, is neither when I withdraw, nor when I shine brighter than the rest, but rather when my presence makes it possible for the genius of all to surface.  I am always joyfully surprised by the superiority of what the communal consciousness creates, when I have the discipline to notice how my presence is affecting others’ permission to co-create rather than seeking input from the ‘gifted few’.

I am not talking about a lowest common denominator.  Rather, a richer form of creating and building that invites.  That improves because it is refined through the creativity brought by those with completely different gifting to me.
This has required that I bring my contribution in a way that gives permission for all others to bring theirs.

Here is a short video clip of someone else who has discovered the extraordinary impact of seeing and welcoming the giftedness of all.

DJ De Pree noticed with new eyes and that shifted forever how he showed up as a leader. The same is true for me.

I invite you, over the next couple of weeks, to notice how the way you see others invites or shuts down their creative contribution.  We would love to hear your stories and/or thoughts about this.  Use the comment box below to join the conversation.

In our collective years of corporate life we, the creators of this material, have had the privilege of meeting and befriending amazing, talented people in a broad variety of leadership circumstances. In our consulting careers we continue to have the joy of meeting and working with high functioning individuals and teams.  Skilled leaders with vision, commitment and business acumen.  We have also stumbled onto an awareness of 2 critical areas that most of even these leaders struggle with. Two areas that hold them back from bringing their full value to their work.

Dealing with Ambiguity

The difficulty in making decisions in ambiguity. Where a need for control or a need to know and get things exactly right hinders making an “optimal range” decision. We believe it is possible to equip leaders to make sound decisions even in ambiguity.

Strategic Organizational Agility

“Organizations can be complex mazes with many turns, dead ends, quick routes and choices.  In most organizations, the best path to get somewhere is almost never a straight line.  There is a formal organization – the one on the organization chart – where the path may look straight, and then there is the informal organization where all paths are zigzagged.  Since organizations are staffed with people, they become all the more complex.  There are gatekeepers, expediters, stoppers, resisters, guides, Good Samaritans and influencers.  All these types [and more] live in the organizational maze.  The key to being successful in maneuvering through complex organizations is to find your way through the maze to your goal in the least amount of time while making the least noise [or leaving the least wake].  The best way to do that is to accept the complexity of organizations rather than fighting it and learn to be a maze-bright person (emphasis added).” FYI For Your Improvement, Lombardo & Eichinger, 236

Hidden forces, such as gravity, govern all of nature. People, organizations and societies are also governed by inescapable forces.  These forces are at the root of much of the complexity in organizations. Environments where people and ideas thrive, are structured in congruence with these forces.  Environments with a stifling effect, have structures and mindsets incongruent with these natural forces.

Our Vision:

Through this process participants will:

This is a process full of doors to other world views.  It is a process that provokes thought rather than provides answers.  It demands that you work out the answers for yourself rather than receive them predigested.

We believe that finding the spaciousness within complexity necessitates a stepping back into a quiet ‘space’ that observes the ‘societal laws of human nature’ that underpin and are party to creating that complexity.

The blog invites you to join us in this process of discovery.  A process of rethinking, observing, questioning and integrating an expanded way of dealing with complexity.  An expansion that, paradoxically, creates a spaciousness within complexity.  To do this we will be introducing you to a theory – the Theory of Spacious Complexity.  A theory and process that invites you to suppose things were different to what you’ve understood them to be.  To look beyond the complexity… to pause and notice the forces at play.  Forces.  Societal forces akin to the force of gravity and other the forces of nature.  To discover and experiment with the impact of working with the forces we suppose be truly hardwired into the world.  We will be introducing these forces in the next session and the remainder of our time will be expanding our understanding of the forces and why and how it is of real, practical importance for us to see and work with the forces.

We are suggesting a theory here and will be stating it as truth… know that it is the best truth based on what we see – be part of helping us make it more robust… or bust it open.  Be part of the test – expand our visibility.

All theories are flawed.  No plan… or theory… survives its collision with reality – it is our best guess based on what is visible to us at that point.

We welcome you as part of the testing community!