Listening skills are not enough

It is said that good coaches help people towards their own solutions, and that they are, first and foremost, good listeners. Our belief is that senior executives need more.

Psynergy's coaching strives for a spirit of open-minded exploration, in the context of a trusting relationship. So we listen. However, we are in the business of changing mindsets, so we also jolt the thinking of our clients. We think of it as edge, with empathy. Further, we continually focus on the outcomes of coaching and vary our approach to get the best results. To this extent, we place greater emphasis on outcome than process.

It's about the business, as well as the person

We believe that the human brain has evolved to allow us to adapt to challenging environments - such as modern day business. By understanding the business demands faced by our clients, we help them muster their natural learning mechanisms to maximise success. When success is defined in the context of a role, the benefits of coaching accrue both to the person and the business.

Sometimes we prompt clients to create their own challenge by questions such as "if you knew you could not fail, what could you achieve?" The benefits of achieving a stretched vision for performance in this way are again very clear, both in terms of business and personal learning.

Potential is maximized when we find in ourselves the freedom to fail

It is true that people need confidence to absorb new perspectives and experiment with different behaviours. This confidence unlocks their 'freedom to fail', which is necessary to maximise their potential.

How best to support such confidence? Our belief is that building lasting confidence derives more from a satisfaction of what has been actually achieved than from a pep talk. This is one reason we spend time in coaching continually reviewing progress against contracted ideas for change. Exploring how progress has been made allows the client to establish principles that can be applied to other situations, and learn how to learn.

All human change also involves loss

Human change requires that people abandon many of their most closely held beliefs and assumptions: that valued skills, behaviours and attitudes be given up and replaced by fresh approaches. For example, the belief that "I make things happen quickly" will need to be sacrificed as a leader manages the transition for the first time into a role that requires leadership from a distance.

Identifying sources of loss is often the first step in creating change, and helping executives recognise this and deal with temporarily increased uncertainty can be a powerful adjunct to coaching.

Developing leadership and follower-ship go hand in hand

In today's often ambiguous circumstances, leaders are most credible when they are true to their values and strengths - their authentic self. However, they need also to respond pragmatically to the needs of their constituents - colleagues, direct reports, boss, shareholders and even public opinion. Thinking how best to gain the "followership" of these groups - and with what priority - offers a powerful and practical way of strengthening their leadership presence. It also makes clear there is no one way to lead.

Smarter than SMART

We believe that goal-setting needs to embrace a visionary aspiration, and that this dream needs to be lived ('stepped into') on a daily basis. Ideas for change need to be flexibly applied to accommodate the changing and often unpredictable world of business. Day-to-day moments need to be seized as opportunities for change. During the whole process, measured progress towards the vision, along with suitable waypoints, is more productive than overly-prescribed SMART objectives.