On the path to becoming a leader, a person learns a lot about how facing challenges, adjusting mindsets and changing behaviours. These can be tough, hard lessons – but ones that enable you to lead, influence and inspire people.

I offer a style of leadership coaching which involves learning with the person about their behavioural temperament. I teach leaders that it doesn’t matter whether you’re an introvert, or an extrovert. What is important is that their team understand them, and they understand their team.

Throughout the course of business leadership coaching, we learn about building trust and valuing difference. A leader will have at least one strength and we recognise what that is and help the person understand it.

The old-fashioned leadership style of command and control is no longer relevant to modern business any more. Compliance and instruction has a toxic effect on an organisation and its people.

Instead, through my coaching, a good leader has the ability to be visionary, affiliative and  democratic. I allow people to realise that they can provide these skills and influence a team of people.

My style of leadership coaching enables leaders to be self aware in any situation and be in control of their own behaviour. I help leaders learn how to be agile and develop themselves so they can adjust and offer a combination of styles to suit the environment they are in.

Leaders need to learn to take time out to reflect and identify their current and future challenges. While I assist on their development journey to spot and overcome current and future challenges, I also empower them to be honest and robust when it comes to giving feedback and providing the support needed to drive people towards a shared vision.

I apply the RISE acronym when coaching leadership:

REAL – it is applied to real situations and includes real time shadow coaching
INTEGRATED – treats you as a whole being and expects you to bring all of yourself to the coaching journey
SYSTEMIC – situates your leadership in the context of the wider system and your impact on key stakeholders
EXPECTATIONS – includes a measurement process that tracks your desired changes and outcomes to ensure a return on expectations for you, your key stakeholders and your organisation

Leadership development coaching is an inner journey. Leaders may come against some uncomfortable truths, but they will also learn what makes them good and unique people.

Growing in to the role of a leader never ends. if you stay still, you will quickly be outdated and irrelevant as a leader. Your job is to inspire people to grow and develop, so they can continue to contribute to the organisation as it grows.