Coaching in the Eye of the Storm - Developing a More Intuitive Approach to Executive Coaching

Every New Year encourages us to appear to the year ahead, to harness our expectations, to plan ahead to ensure that we may have improved our market position, revenue, career or even our life by this time next year. However as 2010 dawned with the weight of expectation for a deepening sense of gloom as we continue with the economic downturn which is known as the very first recession to be experienced on a worldwide scale, there is without doubt atlanta divorce attorneys leader's mind why these are challenging times and how individual leaders respond to that challenge will undoubtedly be many and varied.

So just how can organisations support their leadership in today of adversity and just how can we as executive coaches ensure we could support them to stay on course and maintain organisational performance at any given time when it never mattered more?

In today's environment leaders are put firmly in the spotlight, as the world scrutinizes their every go on to see who's struggling and who's flourishing. Across countless organisations people are looking for their leaders for reassurance, to understand that their jobs are safe, at the least for today. They are looking in their mind for security, support and clarity of how to navigate the labyrinth of never ending challenges, and inturn they expect leaders who're calm and in control, who will undoubtedly show resilience in the face of adversity. In a nutshell, they are looking for leaders they could trust, those that can get them through this global recession, intact and alive.

The issue arises then if you think about why these are unprecedented times, many leaders and managers are finding themselves facing challenges which they've never faced before - they are, possibly for the very first time within their career, in unchartered waters. Their leadership development training, MBA's, past experience and training that's equipped them so well for previous business scenarios, is available lacking when coping with the breadth of uncertain challenges currently facing most organisations. This by itself can offer a context that will be ripe for leadership derailment.

Rapidly changing economies means our greatest resource is under sustained pressure today, and that is our energy. Everyone feels taken in an rising spiral of directions and it can appear as though we're out of control and being forced into situations to do what we must do. Many executives are feeling the pressure build and are flexing their resilience muscles to stay on track. They're challenging times which we will look back on as the very first tentative steps towards evolution.

The face of leadership is changing, it is no more enough to be a good leader, exceptional times necessitate exceptional leaders and center for executive coaching isn't any different. In 2007 I competed a small research study to discover what leaders really wanted from Executive Coaching Space and inspite of the comparatively small amounts of my qualitative study, the outcomes were really interesting and highlighted some key trends.