Leadership Coaching

... to you, what is leadership? ... who can be leaders?

What distinguishes leadership from those other words - management, command, directing, etc?

We believe it is about earning the following of people with whom you work. For this they need to be engaged and valued. They also need to recognise that they are allowed to be their own person within the team. This is not about surrendering your own responsibility but about engaging the responsibility that people naturally feel.

This requires consistent and clear values in the team and the wider organisation and in turn requires leaders to be clear in their own values. Values are at the heart of coaching, so too is developing self-awareness and understanding of those around us. "Respect is something you give, not something you get" (Allan Leighton).

Coaching aims to be developmental - not just learning new skills or solutions but progressing to new levels of learning. Coaching can also be transformational - how leaders think and feel about their situations and issues and consequently create similar mind-shifts in the wider organisation.

Sometimes in our work we look at leaders' styles of management, the organisational climate which they help to create and how the two relate to each other. At times leaders have to adopt a different approach to meet different circumstances.  It works for those times, but if they do not then adjust when times change again, they can ‘sour' the environment where the team could otherwise work best.  Coaching helps leaders work on these different styles and on recognising these different times.

At OceanWave we have worked with leaders from all sectors in a range of situations -

•·         new in role

•·         preparing to move up

•·         wanting to develop performance - their own and their teams'

Whilst leaders sometimes need to work on specific propblems or projects, our aim is always to use these as a vehicle for sustainable development.

OceanWave coaches have all been leaders in their own right and bring this experience to their practice as well as the experience of working with leaders from across Europe and from widely different sectors.

Some models of leadership
Goleman/Boyatzis •·         Great leaders ignite our passion and inspire the best in us •·         We speak of strategy, vision or powerful ideas but the reality is more powerful: great leadership works through the emotions •·         Dissonance is the default, how can we wake up to resonance and renewal? •·         Mindfulness, hope and compassion	Allan Leighton •·         Fun is a factor in performance •·         No dreams, no future •·         Mission is about what you want to be when you grow up •·         Emotion is essential •·         Unity is forged not forced •·         The most difficult thing to open is a closed mind •·         We are in the trust business •·         A leader is a dealer in hope
Alex Ferguson align culture to goals groom people today for tomorrow remember that strategy is nothing without execution spend money to make money build for the next encounter; don't dwell on success, or defeat have a long-term vision of what success will look like.	These three examples come to leadership from quite different angles. Yet there are strong common threads. We believe that leadership is essential to the future of organisations and undertakings and that its development lends itself readily to one-to-one and team coaching. Leadership distinguishes itself from command as coaching does from instruction.

We believe that there are essential aspects to leadership

•·         transparency

•·         trust

•·         integrity

•·         clarity

•·         vision

Coaching creates a trusting, yet challenging, environment where leaders can explore their thinking and leadership approach.

 "Recent evidence of successful leaders in politics and business organisations suggests that a leader becomes great, not by being in the right place at the right time, but by avoiding being in the wrong place at the wrong time"

(Peter Hawkins: "The Wise Fool's Guide to Leadership")

We're always pleased to discuss leadership and coaching info@oceanwave-coaching.co.uk

... transforming potential into sustainable performance

Last updated 5th July 2008