Typical profile of a Business coaching client
Does this sound like your office?
Take equal parts office politics, unclear job descriptions, lack of reporting structure, and little-to-no performance feedback and combine this with the usual garden variety of relational challenges that arise whenever and wherever people come together, and voila, let the games begin.
This destructive and all too common combination of elements exists to some degree in most organizations exacting a costly toll on employee satisfaction and bottom line results. And organizational research is arriving at the same conclusion. In a recent study across medium and large size organizations in the US, it was found that when it came to employees who were willing to go above and beyond job expectations, on average, only 25% do so. Of the remainder, 50% performed at expected levels (phew!), but here’s the bad news (uh oh). The remaining 25% fell short of even the most basic expectations and standards, actively eroding productivity and costing the organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
When success in the workplace rests twice as much on Emotional Intelligence (or EQ) than on IQ and technical training combined, doesn’t it make sense to look at the ‘people’ part of the equation?
Is this the kind of help you’re looking for?
Even though business clients may show up with a list of specific goals such as increasing team productivity, addressing absenteeism and other disciplinary issues, or engaging their people etc., what it often boils down to is simple relationship management. What they really want is to get people working together more effectively.
Our clients need help unraveling the relational chaos to reveal a map of the playing field and what’s really going on (vs. the staggering variety of interpretations by different people: “If my boss wasn’t such a hardliner, we’d work better as a team,” or “my staff don’t respect me because I got promoted above them,” or “while I may be the best person for the job, without the official title to back me no one really values my suggestions,” and so on).
Most of our business clients find it tough to create the right conditions for employees to clear the air and drop old frustrations and resentments so they can begin working together in new ways. Sometimes our clients are simply too entrenched and close to the situation and objectivity eludes them. In those instances, employees may appear to go along with new initiatives – saying and doing the right thing – but not really believe in what they’re doing. Our clients know that without true buy-in, employees won’t stick to new initiatives for very long.
Our clients are usually amazed when all sorts of challenging behaviours and relational stickiness goes away when we help create the space simply for a difficult employee to be truly seen and heard accurately and without judgment or agendas. Sometimes that’s all it takes for people to drop their stories and engage in a new way.
Our clients don’t want us to tell anyone what to do. They recognize that when we invite people to co-create their own solutions, they are far more likely to follow through and take ownership. Co-creation breeds a greater sense of innovation and initiative, elevating employees to go above and beyond.
Our clients also rely on us to empower leaders and managers to become well versed at identifying potential hot spots. With our training and support, we equip them to make quick course corrections and avoid pitfalls.
When people are able to work together (minus the power struggling, resisting, fighting, blaming, and unhealthy competitiveness) some pretty powerful synergy is released.
Some common business coaching scenarios:
- Employees with star potential who work in negative environments where they are constantly butting up against people invested in doing things the way they’ve always done them. They’re tired and starting to lose momentum.
- Employees who don’t question their boss, contribute new ideas or rock the boat with challenging opinions because they’re afraid it might jeopardize their paycheque or get them into hot water.
- Once bright leaders who haven’t managed work/life balance very well and are now closing in on burn-out.
- Managers without true autonomy – the ‘ham’ in the sandwich.
- Leaders more invested in being liked than in growing their people by holding them accountable to higher standards.
- Work groups with ‘slow-burn’ conflict. Everyone feels it and its effecting morale, but no one knows how to address it or make it go away.
- Leaders with strong ‘driver’ qualities who unknowingly intimidate their staff.
- Valuable leaders who are nearing retirement and don’t have a succession or knowledge-transfer plan.
We work with small, medium and large size organizations in both the private and public sectors. We mesh well with forward-thinking organizations who are open to new approaches and continually evolving solutions.