Executive Coaching focuses on facilitating the professional and personal development, learning and performance of an executive. This is achieved by the coach working collaboratively with the executive to identify and address the things that may be interfering with the executive’s performance. Balanced Curve works collaboratively with the executive to identify the things that may be interfering with potential performance and to develop practical action plans to deal with the issues.

Coaching is about creating positive change, for both the individual and the organisation.

What are the benefits of Executive Coaching?

Executive Coaching is a management tool that can have a powerful, sustainable impact on personal and professional development. Typical outcomes include:

• Improved leadership skills
• The ability to think strategically in terms of outcomes, and an increased capability to deliver those outcomes
• The ability to maximise goal-setting skills by prioritising and managing time more effectively
• Improved delegation skills
• Enhanced Conflict Competence
• Increased knowledge and insights into themselves and their organisation - which allows them to become more flexible and versatile
• More advanced communication skills – such as verbal and non-verbal interactions, listening, providing valuable feedback (especially praise), effectively managing ‘fierce communications’, and understanding, predicting and altering patterns of communications.

Executives who have experienced coaching often comment that the sessions are particularly valuable in providing them with a safe place to talk about problems and issues, to test ideas and have assumptions challenged.

How does Executive Coaching work in practice?

Balanced Curve will meet with management to explore the organisational context, leadership challenges and desired outcomes. Where there are specific management goals for the coaching program, these will be discussed before the one-on-one sessions start to ensure each party fully understands their specific roles and responsibilities.   Prior to the sessions commencing, the coach would meet with the executive to have a general chat about how they might work together, discuss the sorts of outcomes that would make the exercise worthwhile and ensure the executive is comfortable with the coach. 

Executive Coaching programs typically run over a period of between 4-12 months, with face-to-face meetings taking place every 3-4 weeks. This tends to allow sufficient time to facilitate meaningful personal change and improved behavioural effectiveness.

Each coaching session will generally last around 60-90 minutes and result in the executive setting specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time-framed goals, and clear action plans, to facilitate sustainable behaviour change.

After the initial meeting, an important part of each subsequent session involves reviewing progress and holding the executive accountable for the completion of agreed actions. While ultimately the executive is solely accountable, the coach plays a critical role in motivating and supporting the executive.

Another key aspect is for the coach to help the executive reflect on the sessions and the changes taking place. The development of greater self-awareness and insight, together with new positive habits, leads to ongoing success.

Balanced Curve coaching tools

Balanced Curve uses a number of tools to facilitate executive coaching including:

• The Leadership Circle 360 Profile, recognised as one of the leading 360 surveys on the market. See www.theleadershipcircle.com/assessment-tools/profile. The Leadership Circle provides leaders with a deep insight into both their performance against the key creative attributes of leaders as well as the reactive behaviours that may be compromising their effectiveness.
  
  
• The Kirton Adaption-Innovation Problem Solving Inventory, developed by Dr Michael Kirton to identify individual problem-solving styles and to examine the different styles within the team. The KAI is recognised as one of the world’s leading instruments for measuring ‘thinking’ or ‘problem-solving’ style, and is used extensively and successfully in businesses throughout Europe and the United States. See www.kaicentre.com
  
  
• The Conflict Dynamics Profile, used to assist leaders develop “conflict competence” and  acknowledged as the leading instrument of its type in the world. The Profile was developed by the Leadership Development Institute at Ekerd College in the United States and is used by the Centre for Creative Leadership in its Leadership Development Programs. See  www.conflictdynamics.org