Lonely at the Top? Executive coaches can help
July 14, 2010 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
They say it’s lonely at the top and they’re not kidding are they? Executive Coaching company HRM Coaching in London has suggestions for senior personnel who are feeling isolated
As organisations seek to stay in operation during the recession, senior personnel are experiencing more pressure than ever before. They are being told to be a good leader, be strategic and keep the lines of communication open and at the same time act as a buffer between staff and the board, the banks and all the other stakeholders who have a view on what needs to happen.
While executives are seeking to motivate their staff and keep them engaged, who’s looking out for them?
Hannah McNamara, Managing Director of HRM Coaching in London says, “It’s a difficult situation because executives very rarely have anyone to talk to at their level who won’t have a vested interest in what they are saying. Even friends and family will either want to offer their pearls of wisdom, steer them towards what they think they should do or just change the subject. At times like these, executives are tasked with keeping up appearances while knowing what’s going on behind the scenes. And that’s not just when things are tough; it’s equally important for executives to take time to consider decisions made for the good of the organisation – jump the gun and talk to the wrong person too early in the process and you risk blowing a deal, having a PR disaster on your hands or giving the gossips something to talk about. Good executive coaches are able to act not only as mentors, but as a confidential sounding-board where executives can talk through their plans in private.”
Executive coaching isn’t only about having a space to talk.
Working with an executive coach has many other benefits such as its potential for one-to-one mentoring and training in leadership and management skills. For the most senior levels, attending the same training courses as their managers just isn’t appropriate. Executive coaching sessions can be tailored to the needs of the individual and provide much needed objective feedback on performance. Topics covered in coaching sessions can include everything from leadership skills and presentation skills, to communication and personal impact training.
Executives report that they find their time with their coach enormously helpful with typical comments like “It’s my me-time. If it wasn’t for my sessions, I wouldn’t take the time to sit and really think” to “The feedback is very useful – it’s been over 15 years since I was last formally appraised. The board members rarely comment on my performance as CEO other than to nod when things are completed to plan.”
Coaching programmes can last from a few sesions to on-going working relationships with their coach spanning years. the duration of programmes depends on the objectives. For example an executive may need short-term immediate help with presentation skills before an annual conference or they may want to work on the ‘softer skills’ such as being a better communicator, negotiator or simply being in more control of their own time.
It doesn’t have to be so lonely at the top. Executive coaches are there to help.
© HRM Coaching Ltd
For more information about Executive Coaching, call Hannah McNamara at HRM Coaching Ltd on 020 7939 9910 (+44 20 7939 9910) or contact us.
How to Choose an Executive Coach
July 5, 2010 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles, Featured Article
Choosing an Executive Coach
These days everyone seems to be adding ‘Executive Coaching’ to their portfolio of skills and services. When you’re tasked with finding an executive coach or a team of executive coaches to work with your senior people, how do you make the best possible selection?
In this article, we explore the key points to consider when sourcing executive coaches:
Account Management
This is especially important when you are looking for coaches to work with a team. Look for a coaching company which has a structure for managing your business. On smaller projects it is possible to work with independent coaches, however when you are organising coaching for more than 3-4 people, it can become an administrative nightmare to have to manually track who has taken their coaching sessions and when they are due to meet with their coach again. Unless managing the coaching process is part of your on-going role, it’s best to find an organisation that can do all of this for you. In addition, think about what would happen if the coaching isn’t progressing in the way that you hoped. A well structured coaching company should be able to explain who to speak to and how any issues will be resolved.
Credibility
If you are going to ‘sell’ the idea of coaching within your organisation, you need to be sure that the coaches you put in front of your senior have the credibility factor. Are they used to coaching at an executive level? Do they understand the language that will be used? Are the people having the coaching likely to take them seriously? In the case of particularly feisty coachees, can the coach be assertive and manage the relationship in a respectful way without either party losing face? You can usually tell this just from speaking to one of the directors/partners in the coaching company and trusting your gut.
Cultural Fit
The executive coaches you choose should be able to quickly understand the culture of your organisation and adapt their style accordingly.
Relevant experience
This is an interesting one because of course you would expect executive coaches to have experience, but what makes experience relevant to the individuals being coached? Despite what you might think, it is not absolutely vital for the coach to have held the same position as the person being coached. What is important however is that the coach has experience of the kinds of challenges that the coachee is facing and knows how to handle them. Ideally, look for coaches who have themselves held senior positions within organisations and can demonstrate success with similar clients.
References
Any self-respecting executive coach should be more than happy to put you in touch with other clients who you can contact for a reference. When you follow up on the reference find out about the aims and objectives of the coaching programme they were engaged in – did they achieve the outcomes they were looking for? What was it like to be coached by them?
Chemistry
The chemistry between the executive coach and their coachee needs to be right to have an effective coaching relationship. Ask the coaching company whether they are willing to meet or talk with the individuals being coached to make sure it’s right before the programme starts.
With the right partners, the Executive Coaching process can be an incredibly effective way of developing the skills of your senior people.
Copyright Hannah McNamara HRM Coaching Ltd
Hannah McNamara is the Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd an Executive Coaching company based in London, UK with clients all over the world. They have a team of Executive Coaches available to choose from and will manage the coaching programme for you from start to finish. for more information call +44 20 7939 9910 or contact us.
How to wreck your reputation through social networking
July 30, 2008 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Looking around for the your next role may involve approaching contacts via social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Indeed any prospective employer would be wise to check out your profile before making an offer – would what they find out about you impress them or send them running for cover? So what can you do to minimise your chances of wrecking your reputation and manage your personal brand? London Career Coach Hannah McNamara of HRM Coaching Ltd explains.
Did you know that only around 15-20% of job vacancies are ever advertised to the public?
That means over 80% of candidates find their job through methods other than responding to adverts in their trade or professional magazines. But how? Well in addition to recruitment agencies and headhunters, many people find their new position through networking. Through meeting people online and offline, getting to know them and finding out when they are hiring.
However – and this is a big warning to you! – there are also a number of people who lose out on landing a job BECAUSE of the networking they have done. How?
Because they haven’t taken the necessary steps to protect their personal brand – in particular their online identity. It’s all too easy to ‘Google’ someone these days and if you use the Google Images feature, you can even find pictures of them within a couple of seconds. When you’ve finished reading this, try Googling yourself and see what comes up.
I’m willing to bet that if you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Bebo, your profile came up (it may have been hidden a few pages into the search results). Even if the person viewing your profile isn’t a member or isn’t signed in, they’ll probably have seen your profile picture. Anyone starting to sweat at this point?
Just taking Facebook as an example, your public profile page appears on Google and in many cases displays a selection of your friends. Hmm…even if your profile pic is perfectly presentable, what about the photos of your friends? Would they impress the HR Director who is looking at your CV right now?
Ok, so if you’ve now started to think about what you can do on a practical level to undo any damage to your reputation, here are some things you can do right now. The tips are about profiles on Facebook, but the principles apply to all social networking sites.
- Change your profile name so that it doesn’t include your full name as it appears on CVs – abbreviate your name or use a nickname. Your real friends will know who you are.
- If you do want prospective employers to find you or you’re using the site for professional networking, seriously think about having TWO profiles, one for friends and one for professional contacts.
- Check your privacy settings and put them up to the highest level. If your friends have a habit of tagging photos of you, go onto the page where the photo appears and click ‘Remove Tag’. Then go to your Privacy settings and alter the settings relating to who can view your pictures and videos. I recommend you set them at maximum privacy if you can bear to.
- Look very carefully at what comments and pictures other people have posted on your profile. If they aren’t saying the right things about you, delete them and make sure that you check regularly to see that those amusing but crude pictures and YouTube videos don’t keep coming back to haunt you!
- Now go to your Applications. If you’ve added applications that won’t impress people, remove them straight away. Employers are rarely interested to know which person from Friends you are most like.
- Now to your Groups. Even if you’ve got your privacy settings up to the max, the instant you join a Group, you’re appearing on the online map. The Groups you join say a lot about you and in many cases mean that your full profile is visible to any other members of that Group. If you in a moment of madness joined the ‘Why I hate my boss’ group or ‘interesting places I’ve had sex at work’, it’s probably time to leave that group.
- Now to your Friends list. Do you really have 347 friends who you see on a regular basis? You’re probably giving every one of them full access to your profle. Just because you’ve decided that photos of you will only be visible to your friends, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to show them to anyone else. Especially if you’ve accepted a Friends request from a colleague or ex-colleague. If you really don’t want certain people to see what’s in your profile, you can either adjust your Privacy settings to restrict what people can see or consider removing them from your friends list.
- If you communicate with your friends via the Wall or SuperWall features, remember that you are having a very public conversation. If you post something like “I was so drunk last night I can’t remember what I did” on a friend’s wall, you have absolutely NO control over who is going to see it. Use the private message boards or old-fashioned e-mail for personal communications.
- Finally, if all else fails, close your account and start again.
Now, before you rush off to update your profiles to make them squeaky clean, if employers or colleagues are going to check you out online, you still need to come across as you. If you’re a fun-loving person who only wants to work in companies that have a sense of humour and have some energy about them, that’s what they are going to be looking for on your profile. If you only include air-brushed professional studio photos as profile pics and have no applications at all on your profile, there’s a danger that you’ll come across as a bit dull or not their kind of person. So there’s a balance. Be yourself, but within reason.
© Copyright Hannah McNamara 2008
Hannah McNamara has published an e-book called ‘10 Ways to Sabotage Your Own Career: Are you making these mistakes‘. You can claim your FREE copy of this e-book on www.hrmcoaching.com
How to deal with problem staff
July 17, 2008 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Are certain people making life difficult for others at work? London Career Coach Hannah McNamara explains what you can do about it.
Problem behaviour at work affects everyone. It affects the people on the receiving end and it also affects those who are bullying and argumentative in the first place.
But how do you deal with it?
The first step is to take a pro-active stance, take command and control it in a positive way. It used to be that punishment was the only way forward and indeed some form of disciplinary action may be required. But prevention and support should also be provided, along with a strong and positive management style that will go a long way towards preventing such occurrences happening in the future.
Both coaching and mentoring have led to positive changes in such individuals, as they are offered practical and supportive solutions to change the behaviour that has so affected them and their colleagues. While it will take time to get back to a workplace which is more positive in nature, if you can provide leadership that everyone looks to for advice and support you will be setting the stage for that to gradually evolve.
It can be a tricky balance to present a face of management that is both firm yet supportive in the right ways, but it is vital to do so. You should also keep a close eye on how things are progressing and be prepared to meet with members of staff who have concerns or issues about any kind of detrimental behaviour they are experiencing at work.
Many businesses are now turning to neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to produce better results over both the short and the long term. NLP is designed to help you understand the behaviours of others from both audio and visual signs, and can therefore help in two ways. Firstly the offending member of staff will learn how their behaviour affects others in a detrimental way, and secondly they will also learn how to make positive changes that will help to eradicate the problem behaviour altogether.
As far as your role as a manager is concerned it is vital to ensure that you learn to identify problem behaviour as soon as it arises, rather than finding out about it from staff members. By providing a hands on management style you can learn more about how your team works and thus get to know your team a lot better than perhaps you do now.
By looking at long term solutions to problem behaviour rather than quick fixes, you will find that your team works in a more harmonious way as a result.
© Copyright Hannah McNamara 2008
If you or someone you work with is having trouble with a difficult member of staff, or a co-worker, HRM Coaching can help. Call 020 7939 9910 in confidence and ask for Hannah McNamara or visit www.hrmcoaching.com.
Helping To Find Solutions For Staff Facing Redundancy
May 30, 2008 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Could Career Coaching help your staff to deal with the prospect of redundancy? London Career Coach Hannah McNamara thinks so.
Working in HR can be a very rewarding career, but it doesn’t get any tougher than having to deal with making other members of staff redundant.
It often falls to HR managers to deal with the fallout of such an event, as the people affected seek help to cope with their sometimes unexpected (and nearly always stressful and upsetting) situation.
The key to being able to help workers faced with redundancy is to be ready and available to offer solutions and advice when they need it the most. Career coaching isn’t something that all members of staff will be aware of or will have thought about, but if you can suggest it to anyone who comes to you for help it can do wonders for their motivation. It is a useful tool for helping them to see that there are other options on the table.
When people are told they face redundancy, they often assume that they are leaving the company altogether. This is not always true however. Before you meet with any employee in this situation, you should investigate the possibility of outplacement; it’s quite possible that their skills can be utilised elsewhere in the business without them having to leave altogether. This can be a good solution for both the employee and the employer when a role disappears.
HR managers can do a lot for employees facing redundancy, both in terms of providing information and providing support as well. An employee’s productivity will understandably be affected by the news, but if you can provide the right resources to help them negotiate the situation successfully there is every chance they will begin to see it as an opportunity to stretch their wings.
This does bring up an important point, since the first thought of many HR managers will naturally be to provide resources such as career coaching in order to help the employee through this period of transition. It is important however to remember that they are likely to be feeling emotional at this time, and may not be very accepting of help in the first instance. It may simply be enough to let them know where you are and how you can help, and to tell them that they can arrange a further meeting to discuss future options when they feel ready to do so.
Redundancy is not a pleasant situation from either side of the fence, but if it is handled carefully by those in an HR capacity then the workers affected will at least know the support they need is there for them.
© Copyright Hannah McNamara 2008
HRM Coaching in London helps professionals to excel at work and find the job they were born to do. They provide life coaching, career coaching and executive coaching at all levels. You can download their latest e-book ’10 Ways to Sabotage Your Own Career – are you making these mistakes?’ free from www.hrmcoaching.com/download
