Executive Coaching Guru

Executive coaching places you into the heart of some most diverse and ambiguous places, often as an executive coach I find myself talking to senior leadership teams in a moment of great situational fluidity (which is management speak for ‘their up against it!’).

As an individual when you are being paid a big salary it’s sometimes difficult to admit to yourself that you are stuck and then by definition even harder to bring that to the table with colleagues. As a team its considerably more complex to have the observational insight to see the team is stuck and even when you can, having the personal elegance to bring it into focus, in the moment with colleagues and a boss who may or may not be operating from the same place of personal insight as yourself.

1. Trust your instinct: If something feels wrong, then it probably is.
2. Test the water: You may need to broker your observation at a coffee break, but it’s worth understanding where the rest of the team are.
3. No room to test?: An elegant – “Can I get some clarity around….” or “How would I explain this to my guy’s”. Is a great way to get a sense of whether you are the one that doesn’t get it, or you were right in the fact no one else has a clue either. 
4. Bring it to the table: When all is said and done, you are a leader so be one! If you think the team is stuck say so. A great way to do this is to state it as an observation of fact – “It feels like we can’t make headway with this, can I get a sense of where you guy’s are” (That’s a statement not a question).

So it’s out in the open, you highlighted the ‘elephant in the corner’, the key thing about being stuck on something as a team is getting the darn thing recognised and if you are can make that happen then any success after that can primarily be linked back to you.

Of course then it has to be dealt with and that’s something else entirely, which will owe success as much to the behaviour of the people involved as to the tools you may utilise to solve it.