Case Studies

High Performance Coaching

Inspiring leaders, that is at the heart of what the Academy for Chief Executives is about. Most business that I know say that they are committed to change but significantly fewer of them have at their head a leader who is actively engaged in developing themselves along with their business. Those who are members of the Academy are the leaders who have committed in this way and it shows. It shows in the quality of their lives and this in turn impacts on the success of their business.

The Academy consists of country wide groups to which leaders of local businesses can belong. They meet once a month to share their issues and to gain inspiration from an expert on a business or personal development related topic. But it is not what they do but how they do it that makes the difference. And key to this is the role of the chairperson for each group who not only facilitates the group but conducts a one to one coaching session with each member every month. This is where we have played a role. The Academy asked me if I would deliver a High Performance Coaching Programme for these chairpeople who although mostly have experience as CEO’s themselves did not necessarily have experience or the skills of a business performance coach.

Having coached and worked with the founding team of the Academy, it seemed a natural extension for me to work with the chairpeople and I have done this in a number of ways as well as being a speaker to the many groups across the country.

The Elements of the High Performance Coaching Programme

• It is significant that prior to doing any coaching training for the chairpeople that each of the key founders of the Academy had received significant coaching themselves and had qualified to NLP Master Practitioner level which although not necessary to the training says a lot about their commitment to their personal learning and the example that they set the business as a whole.
• I ran a coaching programme for one of the Academy groups as a first step both for them and their learning as mutual and business coaches but this also acted as a dry run for a programme that was designed for the rest of the business
• The High Performance Coaching Programme takes the form of 8 1 day events over the period of 8 months. It culminates in each delegate presenting their experience of having developed their skills as a coach. Successful completion of the programme results in certification as an NLP based high performance coach and counts towards their accreditation as an NLP Business Practitioner if they so choose.
• I have run this programme over 3 years now and many of the graduates choose to return to subsequent programmes both to refresh their skills and to faciliate some of the learning for others.

The outcomes of the programme

By the end of the programme delegates will be able to:-

• Have a compelling outcome for all coaching situations and be able to elicit an outcome for the person or people they are coaching.
• Recognise a congruent and incongruent states in themselves and in the people that they coach and be able to facilitate the appropriate emotional state for any given situation.

  Higher Level

  Outcomes for the participant (advanced) assistants as a result of their attendance on this programme, they will be able to:

  • Use the thinking and techniques for coaching groups and teams of people
  • Develop their ability to live ‘high performance coaching’ as a lifestyle
  • Hold a range of coaching structures in their thinking and be able to choose the most appropriate one for the moment
  • Enhance their responsibility as a coach in all contexts
  • Strengthen their identity as a coach
  • Recognise the different levels of intervention they can make as a coach and choose appropriately
  • Deepen their understanding and identification with the spiritual nature of coaching
  • Give and receive feedback with elegance
  • Develop their ‘tasking’ skills
• Use clean questions in such a way that they enable the people that they coach to draw on their own resources and thereby build their self esteem and accountability for their own actions.
• Recognise limiting patterns in language and be able to challenge these patterns in such a way that are able to cut enable the people that they coach to discard limiting beliefs.
• Identify with those that they coach in such a way that they create a climate of trust and respect and confidence.
• Build rapport as a lifestyle with whomever they come into contact in whatever context.
• Operate in a way that demonstrates that they recognize that perception is all that there is and everyone’s perception is unique to them.
• Give feedback in a way that is accepted and that leads to improved performance.
• Receive feedback no matter how it is given and no matter who the giver. Demonstrate this acceptance by showing that they have learned from the feedback and that they have acted on it with improved results.
• Be aware at any time of their non-verbal behaviour and verbal behaviour and its impact on others.
• be able to take different perspectives on a situation in such a way that they can achieve a WIN/WIN and coach others to do the same
• Be willing to be vulnerable appropriately and do so.
• Have a compelling outcome/vision for themselves at all times.
• Explain at any time how they are influencing those bigger systems of which they are a part for the better.

Sue Knight