Executive Coaching (Coaching for Managers and Leaders)

Coaching for managers and leaders in organisations has been proven many times to improve the bottom line, to increase productivity and profits or to reduce risk and minimise costs.

Coaching v Mentoring

Although some people use the terms interchangeably. To us coaching executives is not about providing advice. As coaches believe that the answers to most issues lie within the coachee. Where as mentoring is about someone with similar technical experience and skills guiding another along the same path and passing on that technial knowledge. Coaching is about the coach facilitating an interactive productive process that harnesses the full potential from managers or executives both personally and professionally. Coaches motivate and inspire lasting change by empowering the individual to take charge of his/her decision making process and actions in a purposeful and passionate way that results in lasting success and satisfaction. The process will assist executives to

• Set better and inspiring goals
• Take strategic action
• Make better decisions
• Use their strengths with confidence and in a balanced manner.
• And most importantly continue to grow and develop personally and professionally.

Raj has had over 10 years experience as an executive manager for a large organisation. During which he has lead many teams of various sizes including overseeing managers and teams in a challenging environment for over 3 years. So he has hands on experience with a range of challenging people issues. He has experience with

• Managing and leading managers of different levels of experience, skill and capability.
  
• Has lead managers and teams through 3 major change initiatives in a large organisation.
  
• Has a wide variety of experience on health and wellbeing issues.
  
• Provided resilience training to managers and teams.
• Provided education and coaching managers on how to be better leader and manager; including to use coaching tools when managing their staff.

Areas of focus in Executing Coaching

The Executive Coaching process can assist Executives with

• Leadership Styles
• Challening people issues
  
• Developing self-awareness or presence
• SWOT analysis
• Building Skills & Potential
• Harnessing Potential and Talents
• Emotional Intelligence
• Developing Trust and Understanding
• Career Planning and Career Transition
• Networking
• Communication
• Negotiation
  
• Motivation and Inspiration
• Resilience and patience
  
• Values
• Thinking, learning and behavior

If you would like to open a conversation about Executive Coaching see the Contact Us section for contact details.

Good Habits of Effective Leaders

At the beginning of the new millennium there were only a few dozen good books on leadership available online. Now if you go to places like Amazon there are 1000s of books on leadership. So there is no shortage of excellent knowledge on leadership. However, there are still many leaders in urgent need of leadership training and development.

So what is the problem with our Leaders?

The problem is that managers and leaders just don't learn. They may understand but do not make the transition of understanding into habit. Or more alarming is they do not understand. There are many habits of good or great leaders. Siraaj's list is compiled from a mix of East and Western sources; after all, great leaders have been around for 1000s of years, so the following list should be no surprise. What should be a surprise is why aren't you practicing these habits and if you are not, are they on your personal list of goals or better yet have you been discussing them with your Executive Coach?

Lastly, an important point about leadership which is rarely mentioned. Effective leaders adapt and change their style according to the context and nature of their group. There is no one size that fits all. People are different and leaders need to be aware and understand that different occasions require different attitudes, strategies, actions and emotions. Hence to be an effective leader you must become an eternal student, especially in this rapid changing global environment.

Good Habits of Effective Leaders

[1] Charismatic Energy

Great leaders exude positive energy which at unconscious levels creates automatic respect amongst peers.

[2] Lead by Example

Authentic Leaders practice what they preach and practice excellence which comes from experience and wisdom.

[3] Communicate in the people's language

Great Leaders communicate to people's hearts in a clear and concise manner.

[4] Inspire and Motivate

Inspirational Leaders tell moving Stories, inspire with analogy, motivate with metaphor and convince with clear communication.

[5] Active Listeners who provide Constructive Feedback

Effective Leaders put in systems which provide for timely constructive feedback on big and small issues.

[6] Rewards and Recognition

Compassionate Leaders are sensitive to their followers and provide rewards and recognition in a timely manner.

[7] Mentor and Coach

Coaching and mentoring is just not the domain of specialist coaches and mentors. Great leaders coach and mentor with ease and flow. In fact, they often make the best coaches and mentors.

[8] Emotional Intelligence

Experienced Leaders have high emotional intelligence and consistently high levels of self awareness. The big hurdle here is that many leaders do not understand what emotional intelligence is. If they tell you they do, then why do they continually do insensitive things?

[9] Empower the Team

Intelligent Leaders empower their teams by providing them with the means to grow, develop, learn and do, for the benefit of the individual, the team and the organisation.

[10] Values

Respected Leaders have high on their values list, values such as professionalism, integrity, equality, trust, honesty, tolerance, fairness, transparency, timeliness, effectiveness and efficiency.

[11] Innovation and Change

Good Leaders are not shy of dealing with change, they see opportunities where others see failure and encourage innovation by ensuring that innovation becomes culture and is rewarded & recognized.

[12] Bad Habits

Great Leaders, know what not do just as much as what they should do or be perceived as doing.

[13] Thinking

Wise Leaders understand the difference between absolute thinking and relative thinking; and are able to communicate issues in ways that brings unity rather than creates boundaries between groups.

[14] Culture

Smart Leaders are culturally aware. They know about the overt culture and the hidden culture. They understand that people are one of the most important assets of the business and make sure they have their hand on the pulse.

[15] Team

Smart Leaders understand that having the support of a high performance team is essential to making the company's vision and goals a reality. That is, they use their high level of emotional intelligence, experience and intuition to pick their high quality team. If you look closely, you will always see, behind every great leader, a great supporting team.

[16] Intuition

This quality is not emphasized enough in the West. In the East, it is taken for granted that great leaders are highly intuitive, many are 'gifted'. Intuitive leaders use both their heart and their head to make decisions. Siraaj's definition of intuition is that feeling of certainty of knowledge of something that comes with light to your being (often at the heart level). He states that from experience, research and knowing. The certainty principle has been around for thousands of years and in time will gain more acceptance in the West once people understand and experience it more. Many wealthy entrepreneurs now mention this principle using different terminology.

[17] Passion and Flow

Passionate Leaders follow their predestined flow. People with passion make good leaders because their being is exploding with success. Passionate Leaders produce results.