Executive/leadership coaching is an interactive process that is designed to help individuals to develop rapidly. It is usually work related and focused on improving performance or behaviour. It is a goal-orientated form of personally tailored learning for a busy professional. The essential features of executive and leadership coaching are that it is time limited, action orientated, personally tailored approach to learning. It utilises feedback and offers clarity and objectivity.

Coaching is personal, confidential, and performed by someone with no other agenda than helpig you to be your best. You coach has no stake in your company, no relationship with your boss, and no committments to your staff. It's lonely at the top, but with a coach you have a wise, (older) friend.

Some ways of helping are:

Listening

Paying attention to the person, showing you understand and accept how she or he feels, giving them the space to think about the problem and come to their own conclusions

Counselling

As above, but also help the person to fully express how they feel and consider the problem from other perspectives. Counselling helps the person to gain new insight into her/himself and the problem and to formulate a plan.

Teaching

Passing on skills and knowledge from the helper to the client. This works best when the person wants to learn this way.

Giving information

Giving the person information so he or she can make a choice. Information that the person wants and can use is the most helpful.

Helping practically

Doing things for the client. This is most helpful when the client asks for the help and cannot do it him or herself.

Changing the system

Many problems arise from the way a system operates. Solving an individual problem, though desirable will not prevent it affecting other people. If we want the problem to stop occurring, we have to deal with the system that causes or sustains it. A head teacher could demonstrate and support values about students taking care of each other and valuing differences. This would oppose the conventional values of toughness stoicism and conformity that feed bullying.

Your coach

Your coach is a seasoned professional who has built coaching/mentor relationships with many people and has worked across a variety of the styles listed above to make these people more effective in their roles. Having worked at the coalface for over 25 years with professionals, in disciplines such as recruitment, human resources management, project and operational management, and selling and consultancy, your coach can bring his wide experience to bear in helping you to maximise your effectiveness.