Develop your career with 1:1 or Team coaching from Leading Figures

Management relates to the processes that keep an organisation functioning, such as planning, budgeting, defining roles, resourcing and measuring performance.

Leadership is very different. It is about aligning people to a future vision which requires achieving buy-in, effective communication, motivation and inspiration. Effective leaders are able to engage the hearts and minds of others. Research indicates that good leadership increases the performance of team members which translates through to increased organisational performance.

Leading Figures' premise is that leadership is a set of behaviours that influences others to act in a similar fashion: the role of a leader is to create other leaders, not more followers. We further believe that anyone can enhance their leadership capability provided they have an open mindset, a willingness to learn and a commitment to apply their learning.

Their leadership coaching programmes follow the same structure as executive coaching but with a particular focus on leadership development.

They often work with aspiring leaders who have plateaued because they still place too much emphasis on their subject-matter or technical expertise. Or perhaps they have been promoted because of their expertise but lack the leadership skills to mobilise a team and take others with them.

Individuals can also elect to participate in a 360 Leadership Assessment Feedback process employing the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory. This allows Leading Figures to support individuals in creating and then implementing a personalised leadership development plan.

Executive coaching can help individuals with various goals including:

• Growing their leadership;
• Developing interpersonal and stakeholder management skills;
• Designing and executing business strategy;
• Enhancing business and client management skills;
• Building resilience;
• Stepping up to a new role.

Coaching participants are encouraged to identify and explore those personal or professional areas in which they wish to make changes or improvements, setting goals and agreeing strategies for action as appropriate.

The individual will often use the coach as a sounding board or confidant to work through these challenges and develop strategies. Indeed, the client will probably discuss matters that they might otherwise not feel comfortable discussing with colleagues, friends and even family members and in this respect the coaching relationship is unique. All such conversations are undertaken in confidence.

Leading Figures ask coaching participants to complete their pre-program Executive Coaching Questionnaire as a snapshot self-assessment of their personal and professional lives. This often helps them very quickly identify their strengths and areas for development. It also provides us with invaluable insights of, for example, self-defeating patterns that maybe inhibiting the individual's success in life and work.

High Performing Teams seldom (if ever) evolve randomly or arbitrarily. Once formed, they are aligned on purpose, harnessing energetic, effective communicators and problem solvers who are focused on delivering collective results.

It follows that a high performing team starts with individuals committing to their own growth and development as well as the common purpose of the team.

Working with individuals and the team, Leading Figures' role is to:

• encourage focus on a common strategic purpose;
• promote collaboration and communication across the team;
• challenge and encourage individual team members to embrace a growth mindset, broaden their awareness and confront barriers or dated thinking/ behaviours;
• calibrate the team’s approach against research and case studies relative to high performance and high performing teams;
• facilitate team discussion and design of a team development plan.

Individual coaching undertaken in parallel with team coaching can be highly effective as the team environment provides a context for discussion and feedback with individual team members.