Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders

1. Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders Welcome

2. Welcome and Day 4 introductions Anna Wright & Di Smith, The Staff College

3. Agenda

4. Objectives of this course are that participants will: understand what coaching is understand their own values and personal style and see how these might differ from others use the GROW model as a framework for coaching and become a skilled and competent executive coach use motivational interviewing and solution-focused tools for creating change run coaching in a group to foster reflection and learning (action learning) use coaching to improve performance and quality in their service use coaching to help others increase their influence and build positive relationships use coaching to help others build their resilience understand the importance of supervision and how to arrange it use strategies to embed coaching in their organisations and in the region

5. Objectives for session 7:Coaching for change To reflect and extract learning from feedback on coaching To understand the difference between different types of goals To have strategies for coaching people working in complex adaptive systems To use coaching to help others increase their influence and build positive relationships

6. Learning from coaching practice Each person shares their experience of coaching or team coaching and the group reflects on the learning

7. Coaching in complex adaptive systems

8. Complex adaptive systems due to Impact of communication technologies and the resulting growth in interactions between the various organisations and agencies A more diverse range of organisations are now involved in public service delivery, with different governance structures Massive shrinking of public expenditure in a short time frame The impact of globalisation Leads to volatility, uncertainly, complexity and ambiguity and Requires a new type of leadership

9. Stage 3: High Performance (Outstanding, sustainable results) Stage 2: Stability (Back to the Basics) Stage 1: Chaos (Fire-Fighting Mentality) Leadership style and organisational development

10. Stage 3: High Performance (Outstanding, sustainable results) • Clear statement of mission that creates sense of esprit de corp • Well defined values which result in distinctive culture • Deeply ingrained respect for people, empowering them • Design (work flow, structure, systems) that supports mission and values • A focus on learning Leadership style and organisational development • Stage 2: Stability (Back to the Basics) • Clarity of goals and direction and consistency in priorities • Well-defined policies and procedures (technical and personnel) • Agreement on roles and responsibilities • Basic management processes rewarded and practiced • Training and development in new approaches • Stage 1: Chaos (Fire-Fighting Mentality) • Crisis/short-term focus • Lack of clear direction and goals • Shifting priorities • Unclear policies and procedures • “Us” vs. “them” attitude • Blame and lack of ownership • Alienated work force

11. Staff in complex adaptive systems Getting large groups of people to work together to achieve common goals is likened to releasing a set of birds and expecting them to fly in the same direction. Managers act as though they are throwing rocks which will land in predicted ways.

12. Tying a rock to the bird’s wing will make its trajectory (nearly) as predictable as that of the stone, but in the process the capability of the bird is completely destroyed

13. Feedback loop

14. Adaptive LeadershipBeliefs behind Dr. Ron Heifetz’ work Problems are embedded within complex systems Much of human behavior reflects an adaptation to circumstances they are in People adapt more successfully to their environments by facing painful circumstances and their fears and developing new attitudes and behaviors rather than ignoring or avoiding them Leading change involves loss. Leaders need to make interventions based upon objective observation, then intervening and learning what works, Judging the outcomes by impact on the end user

15. Being aware of different types of goal

16. Adaptive versus technical challenges Technical Adaptive What’s the work? Learn new ways of being/ acting Who does the work? The people with the problem • What’s the work? • Applying current know how • Who does the work? • Experts who have learned how to apply it

17. reducing number of looked after children • increasing % core assessments on time • building a new school • introducing a new IT system. Technical or adaptive?

18. Working out your adaptive challenge Adaptive work diminishes the gap between the way things are and the way things need to be to create a better future The most common cause of leadership failure is treating an adaptive problem with a technical fix.

19. Zone of tolerance

20. Zone of tolerance I can’t cope with any more change I have too many priorities This work is unachievable This is hard but its important I look to you for coaching and support This way of working is comfortable, I am happy with it, I don’t want to change anything

21. that things will stay the same Exercising leadership to do adaptive work means disappointing people’sexpectations at a rate they can tolerate. and not ignore you or try to silence you or resist you in infinitely creative ways

22. The heart of the danger in leadership leadership asks people to take a loss, experience uncertainty, and even be disloyal to previous values/people adaptive change forces people to question and refine who they are adaptive change challenges people’s sense of competence this is a lot to ask – no wonder people resist.

23. Getting on the balcony and watching the dance floor reflect on the action you are part of get perspective, leave the dance step back in the midst of the action look at what you are doing as well as what the others are doing unpick your emotions look at authority figures for clues listen to the song beneath the words ask - what is really going on here?

24. An example of getting on the balcony William Ury is an American author, academic, anthropologist, and negotiation expert

25. Mapping the team in the system One person offers to use their system as an example Draw all the different teams and services that intersect in a key part of their core business Colour code the relationships and handovers between their service and the others Consider if any vicious circles are operating as a result Consider how to improve these relationships

26. Using adaptive leadership in coaching Getting the coachees on the balcony observing events and patterns around them interpreting what they are observing and developing multiple hypotheses for what is going on designing interventions based on their observations moving back and forth between the dance floor and the balcony making interventions and observing their impact see pages 9-11

27. Acting politically is a necessity People’s competencies, loyalties, and direct stakes lie behind the issues. So you need to act politically as well as analytically. In a period of turmoil, you must look beyond the merits of an issue to understand the interests, fears, aspirations, and loyalties of the factions that have formed around it. Orchestrating conflicts and losses and negotiating among various interests are the name of the game.

28. Expanding your coachee’s political influence Potential area of influence What My informal authority What I influence through others Beyond this line, you are in leadership territory, begin to disappoint expectations and take risks Scope of my authority What I can directly control

29. How might the coachee influence more powerful stakeholders Useful coaching questions Who is most important to help you achieve your goals? How can you strengthen your relationships with them? What are the stakes for them? Is there a way you could over deliver to them for three weeks? How could you engage their emotions? What hard evidence could you use that will attract their attention? How might you support their initiatives? How might you run a prototype of your idea to show it works? How do you stay connected to those in opposition?

30. Tools to support adaptive work in coaching

31. Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders Break

32. Coaching practice circle 7 Form into threes Agree roles: coach, coachee, observer Coach coaches coachee for 20 minutes using GROW model focusing on influencing others Observer asks for feedback from coachee first, then coach, then gives own feedback Use the reflection sheet on page 13 to record the reflections Repeat twice more changing roles

33. Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders Lunch

34. Objectives for session 8Supervision and reflection To understand the importance of supervision and how to arrange it To be aware of the ethical issues in coaching To be aware of tools to help you reflect on coaching To consider how to take coaching forward

35. Reflection on coaching

36. The power of reflection Reflection is a process that helps turn experience into knowledge and involves thought and exploration of a concept or event. It is a form of problem solving that is used to resolve coaching issues, and involves the careful consideration of a coach’s practice, based on their knowledge and beliefs. It is a cognitive process that helps a coach to link professional knowledge and practice.

37. 7. What would success look like? 8. How could you bring this into your activity on a daily basis? 2a. What part off the blame is yours? 6. What would Iou need to know or believe differently to be able to achieve this? 1. What happened? 2. What is important about this? Reflection on the meaning of an event 5. What areas am you seeking to change or prevent recurring? 4. Is there anywhere else that this happen in your work life? 3. How did this happen?

38. Refection self assessment Individually Consider the questions at the top pf page 16 How reflective are you generally?

39. Refection on coaching These questions can be answered in a reflective journal or in a coaching triad

40. Ethical issues in coaching In pairs or threes Consider the ethical dilemmas on page 19 How would you resolve these in coaching?

41. Nascent A few people coach but no organisational commitment Strategic There has been considerable effort to promote the value of coaching and develop managers skills Tactical There is organisational commitment but no understanding of how to embed coaching Embedding coaching in organisations Embedded People at all levels are coaching supported by training and frameworks

42. Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders Break

43. Coaching practice circle 8 Form into threes Agree roles: coach, coachee, observer Coach coaches coachee for 20 minutes using GROW model focusing on how the coachee wishes to take coaching forward Observer asks for feedback from coachee first, then coach, then gives own feedback Use the reflection sheet on page 20 to record the reflections Repeat twice more changing roles

44. Feedback and reflection

45. Homework Run third coaching session with coachee using the GROW model Get their feedback Run a second team coaching session and use evaluation in Annex 1 Complete coaching diary to reflect on the sessions.

46. Executive Coaching for Senior Leaders Safe Journey