Leadership and Executive coaching

Ask executives to consider a range of major practices and maybe  to process their response and learning via a journal :

Example Major Practices

A. Discovering the concerns of others:

Consider a range of key people

1. Your peers
2. Your boss
3. Your boss’s boss
4. Your top three internal stakeholders/customers
5. Your top three external stakeholders/customers
6. Your direct reports/the team you lead
7. The executive managing your part of the company
8. The CEO
9. The Chairman and two board members
10. The person holding the job you would like next

Questions

1. What are the top 3 business concerns of this person – their perspective
2. What is the career path of this person – past and future
3. What doest this person value in a business associate
4. What is this persons business agenda for the next 6 months, year, 2 years, 5 years,10 years
5. What is this persons style of – Working, Leadership, Communication

B. Building a Network of Support

Looking back at the learning from establishing the concerns of others ( plus some more people – your counterparts in other areas of the company, experts in the political environment of the company, the people you admire at work, the people making decisions about your career) - Ask yourself the following questions and then take appropriate action to expand and extend your network of support:

1. What breakdowns or concerns can I alleviate for this person
2. What support, information, or guidance can I offer this person
3. In what other ways can I support this person

Sustainability


Make a list of people at work that can be a part of your network. Keep aware of new people to add. Use these sorts of questions to prompt your thinking:

1. What concerns/issues/do I have now or are looming that someone can help me with
2. What input, information or guidance would make my current work easier/more effective and my future clearer
3. Whose actions do I not understand and who could shed light on them for me
4. What future decisions and policy do I need to know about and who can help me with this

C. The Big Picture

1. Consider the top 5 specific threats for your organisation during the next year,5 years,10 years and what should you do about them?
2. What sort of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental situations could impact your organisation in the next year, 5years, 10 years? Answer this by business area/geography where appropriate- What should you do about them?
3. What people inside and outside your company will have the most influence on the company and what will that influence be?