One of the big influences on my leadership coaching and development is “Systems Thinking.” The origins of this powerful approach are from the 1970’s and from the world of therapy, but there has been  some wonderful development of this work more recently to apply it to the complex systems that are the organisations we work in.

Here are some of the ways that I have woven systems thinking into the designing of my leadership development and coaching  work :

• Information is power?     The parts which make up  a system are interconnected and affect  eachother in a dynamic way, eg members of a team affect eachothers’ performance in the way that they for example,share information. Do they hoard information, thinking it giving them personal power? Or share it across the contacts in their system because that leads to everyone being more in touch and creative?
• Stronger than the sum of the parts     The whole system somehow has a presence and power beyond the individual parts, eg when a team is functioning really well, somehow it takes on its own “identity.” People might say: What is it about Leo’s team? They all seem to be very switched on, and they are getting great sales results.”
• Who is in your system?    Be aware of who is in your system and commit energy to building strong  relationships with those in your wider system across the organisation. For example in  R&D, build links with your internal and external customers, and make sure that key stakeholders inside and outside your organisation  are involved in the early stages of innovation, not just your smaller technical circle of contacts.
• Problems at work are complex!     Leading cultural change in organisations, execs  will want to take a “whole system” overview approach before making a key decision, rather than shining a narrow spotlight of awareness on a problem.

So as a leader, for example, you find that your valuable line manager Steve has had feedback from a junior member of staff, Laura, to say that she finds his leadership style rather bullying. A quick answer  - and this still happens far too often - might be to move Laura elsewhere.

Problem solved? Well not really. A more systemic approach might be to realise that Steve needs to face up to some learning he must take on board re his own leadership style. Otherwise the problem will reoccur.  

Laura will need some kind of support to recover and get back on track. Ane thinking more widely, this incident also impacts on the leadership team’s commitment to developing a culture where we communicate respectfully with eachother, and move towards a coaching style of leadership….

I have applied this “Systems” thinking in lots of ways in both 1:1 and in leadership team sessions. On a recent leadership development day I asked a group to try out stepping into different parts of their system which led to some fabulous insights.
One delegate said, “I stepped into my client’s shoes and really started to feel the pressure that she is under. That has helped me develop a different and more assertive way of responding to her sometimes challenging demands, without being “infected” by her stress myself.”

If you would like to find out more about systems thinking, I have some great resources and contacts I can send you, and if would like to explore how this approach could help you and your organisation, do get in touch.

Recently I ran a 3 day workshop for leaders who wanted to power up their coaching skills.

One of them said that he wished he had developed ”coaching” as a leadership style he could draw on, years before, when he was leading his organisation through rapid change. Although in many ways a successful leader, he recognised that if he had been able to “let go” and see that his micromanaging was not improving the quality of what was being delivered, but actually slowing it down, he would have had a much more relaxed time of it.

Daniel Goleman (the emotional intelligence guru) has researched which leadership styles are the most effective. Along with Visionary skills, coaching skills are seen to be the most important skill set for a leader, and yet the least used. Why is that?

Well, they are important skills because coaching skills give you a hot line into really understanding what other people (clients, partners, managers, employees) really want and value. These skills prevent you from becoming isolated from the real news that’s circulating.

But why the “least used” I wonder? Is it because some leaders believe that leadership requires that they should always lead from the front, either with a charismatic command and control mix, or by setting a pace which others then may struggle to keep up with?

Being able to draw on a coaching leadership style is essential if you want to encourage others to grow. And if you can’t do that, the growth of your own organisation will be limited.

The great news is that just like any skills, coaching skills can  be learned and honed up with practice.

For more information on  how to broarden your leadership styles portfolio, so that you can surf the waves of change with a bit more ease do email me  Rachael@rachaelrosscoaching.co.uk

Sometimes people ask me what kind of coach are you? One of the words I use to describe my kind of coaching is transformational.

“And what does that really mean Rachael?”, a colleague of mine asked recently.

Firstly, I love working with people who want to commit to a journey of self discovery, beyond performance improvement, to make a quantum leap in the way that they lead.

Maybe it sounds a bit arrogant - who am I to think that I can transform anyone?

Well first of all, I don’t transform them. The transformation comes from the client’s learning through the coaching - the insights and connections that they make during our work together.

In many ways the coach’s job is to stay out of the way of the client’s own natural development, and occasionally challenge by causing the coachee to notice something new.

A great question I have learned from my work on Clean Language is “And what is happening now?” This elegant question lasers straight to the pattern of behaviour, in the moment, as it happens. A pattern that I have spotted may need some light shining on it.

Carl Rogers, the American humanistic psychologist held that as human beings we naturally want to grow and develop (self actualise), so this process of transforming over time is natural to us.

What are some of the things that are important in encouraging this kind of transformative change in the leaders I work with?

1. Say that’s what I do - so that people who are looking for that kind of coaching, can find it more easily
2. Explore the client’s connection to others in the business (their boss, their team, business partners, suppliers, so they start to see the change they are making has an effect on the wider “system” they are working in
3. explore with the commissioning client and the coachee, the connections between our coaching partnership and the organisation’s overall business aims
4. Hold the firm intention in the coaching that this person has the most amazing resources to achieve whatever they want.
5. Hold in mind that the initial goal is often a catalyst for broarder change
6. Encourage reflective learning by suggesting keeping a journal of changes that they notice in themselves over the course of the coaching - reflective learning is a cornerstone of the self aware leader.

Here are a couple of comments from a recent coachee and (the second comment) from their boss, which they have kindly given permission for me to share.

“I have found the sessions to be extremely enlightening, thought provoking and the learnings from them will stand me in good stead for years to come.”

“I genuinely think that (the coachee) has been on a voyage of self discovery and the coaching has given him some sustainable tools to enable him to continue the journey of self awareness”

Organisations need leaders who are adept at working with people who seem different from themselves - often due to increased work with partners and businesses outside the UK, sometimes in a bid to truly live out their brand as an employer who values diversity.

What is it like to be an inclusive leader - ie someone who really enjoys  - and has great skill at  - leading a diverse team? What are the skills involved? Is it something you could aspire to being?

…Continue reading - Inclusive Leadership - what is it?

One of the themes that comes up again and again with coaching leaders and their teams is feedback. When a client wants to really transform as a leader through coaching, feedback can shift from being something to be faced only when really absolutely necessary to becoming something to be welcomed - a great source of learning.

One senior exec from an oil industry background turned to his colleagues in a leadership session I was running for them and said:   “Feedback really is the feedstock - it’s the high quality input that’s needed to make the “oil refinery” of our business function. Without it we could be in danger of stopping learning and churning out substandard product.” Nice metaphor!

…Continue reading - “Feedback is the feedstock”

At the end of a project, a client recently asked me whether it would be OK to book a top up coaching session at some point in the future. This got me thinking.

Towards the end of the coaching assignment, the skilful coach will be pacing their way with the client to make sure that the client is in the best possible place to take her learning onwards and upwards - and taking responsibility for that learning. Any tendency towards dependancy on the coach is not healthy - and this is explored further in the ICF Code of Ethics, of which I am a signatory. http://www.coachfederation.org/Ethics/

…Continue reading - Coaching - Topping up our resources

Coaching is more and more being acknowledged as a core ability for outstanding leadership. Here is Alan Lafley, outgoing CEO of P&G, on his coaching leadership style, which he believes has helped him achieve transformative change at P&G :

“….Coaching at P&G doesn’t mean coddling. On the contrary, Lafley demands that his managers take on the responsibility of making tough strategic choices. “Most human beings and most companies don’t like to make choices. And they particularly don’t like to make a few choices that they really have to live with. They argue, ‘It’s much better to have lots of options, right?’”

Those extraneous options have a way of reappearing on the table after they have been dismissed. Lafley therefore insists on a “not-do list” as an end product of the strategy process……”

In a way, this is a bit like how a coach works with an executive…. firstly by supporting the client as they paint a picture of their purpose and direction, and open up all the possible options of getting there, discovering some new options they perhaps wouldn’t otherwise have considered.

Sometimes though, the desire to keep several options open may seem attractive (and sometimes it is necessary for a while), but often keeping options open can be a way of avoiding real commitment.

So part of being a great coach is to be able to challenge the client to focus and commit. And the timing is crucial…if the client is not ready to commit, there will be some more “stuff” getting in the way which will need working through first. Helping the client focus is rather like sharpening the camera lens on the image, bit by bit, and then supporting them in being quite determined about cutting out any “extraneous options”, as Alan Lafley says.

The full article was published in the McKinzie Quarterly by Rajat Gupta and Jim Wendler