I was approached by the CEO of a technology business who wanted to support two of his Senior Leaders in their personal development. The Head of Sales and Head of Software Operations had very different needs; one just wanted feedback on how he was performing, and what he may be able to do better (a 3rd person perspective), the second just loved coaching, learning things new, talking things through and being challenged.

My approach was similar with both, setting up 2/3 sessions per week (initially) where we (individually) talked through what activity they had engaged with in the prior couple of days, how did it go both in terms of interactions with other people and in terms of achieving objectives. Being senior leaders, time was an issue for both, so I often question why they were taking on certain tasks – should/could someone else in the organisation be doing that for them.

Listening and taking notes, I was able to play back their owns words, questioning and allowing them to reflect on what they said. Often that lead to them coming up with new plans. Sometimes, when they challenged what they did or how they did it, they reached out to me for ideas. I was able to play back examples I have had that enabled them to see situations differently.

At the end of the session, I would recap on key points we discussed, what actions they said they would take, and basically review the session, with them giving me feedback on how it went.

As the weeks went by, both started recorded the time they spent on proactive and reactive activity, with a significant (c400%) increase in proactive activity by one, they started recording their own actions in the session and playing them back to me, and the frequency of the sessions reduced to once per week. At their request, we even had sessions with both of them in, where we were able to discuss the interface between the two departments and how it could be improved.

The sessions have been reduced now to an adhoc basis, with some great, sustainable actions in place that make life running a leading-edge tech business, much less challenging and much more rewarding.