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.

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“Internal or External Provider?”
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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

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“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

View Team Offerings

Behavioural Shifts – resulting from individual coaching initiatives

View Individual Offerings

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.    

View our Coaching Skills for Leaders Program

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?

View Our Coaching Offerings

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

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?

Meet Our Coaches

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” or “Addressing 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.

Meet Our 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.

I’d like to share a story with you.  A story of beginnings, of discovery, and one that I hope begins to show what we believe so deeply about the forces at the heart of Spacious Complexity.

As a person who values meaningful, lasting impact I always give myself fully to whatever I do.  A few years ago I found myself questioning the value of the leadership development work I was doing.  Not if it was of value to the client.  I only do work I believe is valuable for my client.

I was questioning how it was a meaningful use of my life to give it to providing the same leadership development work that consultants on every ‘leadership-corner’ were providing.  God gifted me with an ability to see things from unique perspectives and to reframe things in ways that open new understanding.

So why was I relying on the work of others?  Where was my original work?

I started asking the hard questions – could I see any universal leadership gaps that weren’t already addressed in leadership material out there.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the force of Creativity or the drive to build or to create to have unique impact that was behind my need to apply myself in this way.

Thus began a 4 year process of observation, discussion, discovery, testing, discarding and some more ruminating.  The more I looked, the more my convictions were affirmed.  The more I tested my thinking with other leaders, the more it was validated.  Early on in the process I recognised that I needed ‘more than me’ if I really cared about developing something meaningful.  (The Force of Belonging was unknowingly having its way with me).

One year into my process I asked Anita to join me in my observe, test, ruminate cycle.  Anita and I always find ‘creative genius’ when we get together.  This was no exception.  Very early on Anita brought the Force of Invisibility to my attention: every visible action has an invisible component that impacts the action.  In conversation with Anita, I stumbled upon the Law or Force of Continuum: all things (in the relational realm, and most things beyond it) exist on a continuum.

We continued to explore and test how these forces, as well as the Force of Reciprocity and the Force of Choice were at the heart of the leadership gap I had identified and so we knew we had an incredible, transformational and unique product.  That the rest of the world didn’t know about.

Enter Deb.  A while ago I was sharing our concepts with Deb when it became clear that she needed to be part of our team.  So the ‘creativity of two’ became the ‘alchemy of 3’ and each day the concept moved closer to becoming a product and now a business.

Every time you read, share and/or comment on our blog you become part of that creative journey with us and belong – in some way – to the outcome of what we bring to the world through Spacious Complexity.

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Over the past few weeks, Gil, Anita and I have been having many in depth conversations on what we want to accomplish with Spacious Complexity; how we want to serve others and how we will grow and be with each other as we build this work together. We bring a richness of experiences, a variety of perspectives and individual life challenges to our work that makes our commitment to Spacious Complexity, not work in the traditional sense, but a life affirming experience for all of us which can also be challenging at times.

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Bigger than us

How much thought do you give to the footprint you leave?  In your family?  Circle of friends?  Business or place of work?  The community?  What about the footprint we leave as an organisation or a country?

Ease of global travel and trade, whether actual travel by car or plane or virtual (via the internet), means that we leave our footprint in places we may not even think about.  If the world is becoming a virtual village then what we see as our community must include all the places we connect with.  Including connections that feel more removed like those through the internet and the places we trade with (directly or indirectly).

With nearly half the world’s population living on less that $2.50per day , something’s not right.

High poverty levels in one sector of society, spell disaster for the whole country.  With country boundaries blurring (eg the bit-coin) none of us can escape the impact of poverty in other parts of the globe.  It is no longer something that only affects the developing world.  The developing world is part of our world and what happens their will impact all of us, increasingly  over time.

% of population living on less than $2 per day.

Your Footprint IS bigger than you

15% of all our fees goes directly towards uplifting those in the poorest countries in our global village.  Just in this last year we spent over $16,000 towards economic empowerment.

This means that, through the simple act of choosing us as a service provider, all our clients have helped uplift those in the poorest sectors of our global market.

Here’s how:

Freedom through Business Development

Our aim is to end economic oppression, one family at a time, by giving families the means with which to participate in capitalist economies.  As business leaders, we understand the advantage we have is largely due to an accident of our birth and desire to create opportunity for potential business leaders born to less fortunate circumstances.  To this end over $7,000 of the $16,000 has gone directly as loans to individuals to aid them in starting or expanding their businesses.  ($5,100 to Hope International and $2,066 in loans through Kiva.org)

Since Oct 2014 (when we started our CSR program) we have lent $4,557 through Kiva and we keep re-lending it as it is paid back. It has now financed $13,825 of loans to 64 small businesses in 18 countries.  If you’d like to contribute directly to it, please join our lending team or choose someone to lend to on your own.

Freedom through Education

South Africa has some of the worlds best schools, yet the majority of its schools are under staffed and under resourced.
In 2013 we began supporting the leadership development of school principals in disadvantaged schools in South Africa.  We are partnering with an amazing organisation Partners for Possibility (PfP) who are equipping the school principals to turn the schools around. They partner with a business leader who mentors them and develop skills to engage their staff, the parents and the local business community.

They are taught leadership, community engagement, strategy and so much more.  Some of their schools are seeing their pass rate go up from 30% to over 80%.  I have seen their work first hand and am seriously impressed.  It costs $6,000 to sponsor a school and in 2013, we set aside $8,900 of our CSR towards it.

There is a direct correlation between quality education and ability to partake in a capitalist economy.  We see this as investing in the next generation’s ability to participate in the economy.

Learn more about how our mission and values drive us

About Us

Thank-you

A big thank-you to all our clients who have contributed, through our fees and, perhaps without realizing it, directly to improving the quality of life of hundreds of people around the globe.  Not through once-off hand-outs, but by helping us fund their access to the tools for self-improvement.  Thank-you for helping us leave a positive footprint.

Something Fun

Below is a very entertaining and interesting video on how the world has moved in 200 years. I would be very interested in what thoughts it provokes in you.  Please use the comment field to leave your thoughts.


Interesting Facts