Enhancing personal effectiveness
WHAT IS LEADERSHIP COACHING?
Effective coaching is designed to help you learn rather than by teaching you. The underlying philosophy of the Leadership Foundation’s Leadership Coaching Service is that you already have the answers – and that by engaging with an experienced coach you will develop insights that will lead you to greater effectiveness.
Leadership coaching is a formal arrangement in which a qualified coach works with a leader in a series of interactive and confidential sessions designed to establish and achieve goals that will lead to increased personal effectiveness. Leadership coaching is explicitly directed at improving an individual’s leadership capability while achieving the organisation’s objectives.
OUR LEADERSHIP COACHING COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
We have brought together many of the country’s most experienced coaches into a community of practice so that they can share their expertise for the benefit of the higher education sector. Our coaches are a very diverse group with many different styles, approaches and areas of coaching expertise. All have coached at the most senior levels and many have coached at senior levels in the higher education sector. Many have experience of coaching in other areas of the public services, but also with private sector and voluntary organisations.
THE BENEFITS TO THE INDIVIDUAL
There are a number of benefits to the individual of using our Leadership Coaching Service, including:
• You can have the confidence that we have carefully selected all of our coaches based on their expertise and experience of coaching in a wide variety of settings;
• You will always be given a choice of who might coach you so that you can really feel that there is a good match between your needs and the capabilities and experience of the coach;
• Our coaches are all very experienced at supporting leaders to deal with the personal, team and organisational challenges that you face;
• Our coaches are very careful about the way that they balance your need for support and the need to provide constructive challenge so that you can respond to change in a positive way.
THE BENEFITS TO THE UNIVERSITY
There are a number of benefits to the university of using the Leadership Coaching Service, including:
• We have gone through the process of identifying and selecting the best coaches – which saves you having to do this for yourself;
• We listen carefully to the way in which you articulate your coaching requirement and try to create the best match into those needs;
• The range of styles and expertise of our coaches means that you will always have a choice of coaches to meet that need;
• We quality assure the work of our coaches making sure that they are delivering the personal and organisational benefits that you are seeking;
• We bring our coaches together into a community of practice which helps ensure that expertise is developed and shared across the sector.
IS LEADERSHIP COACHING RIGHT FOR YOU?
Leadership coaching can be a powerful tool for learning and personal change when set up correctly. Some situations in which coaching could be right for you – you may be:
• A successful leader who wants to stretch your ability and effectiveness;
• Facing increased complexity in your role – perhaps through a promotion – and you would benefit from support from a coach to help you deal with this;
• Having to deal with increased organisational expectations and think you need some objective help at this stage to work this through;
• Expected to change your behaviour in some way – which can be challenging to many people;
• Just about to embark on a major organisation change and feel that you need help in thinking and working this through.
SELECTING A COACH – MAKING IT EASY FOR YOU
A good coaching relationship balances challenge and support, and when people are nervous about being coached they tend to want more support and less challenge. The Leadership Coaching Service helps you to find precisely the coach that is right for you:
• Is the coach aware of their limitations – are they clear on how they might be able to help you?
• Is the coach able to set aside their own ego in the service of your development and growth?
• Do you think the coach can help you strike the right balance between support and challenge?
• Is the coach focused on helping you achieve your outcomes for growth and development?
• What are their coaching credentials – and have you been able to get an idea of the range of coaching clients they have worked with?
ENGAGING A LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP COACH
We have over 20 coaches on our coaching register. Here we have profiled two of them so that you can see two of the people we have on our team.
If you would like more information about the Leadership Coaching Service please contact Sally Horton for an informal discussion.
This information is also available as a brochure - Leadership Coaching Service