Lonely at the top?
It needn't be.
“If he is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind” – Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
You live and breathe your role as a leader. You have made an arduous inward, personal journey to reach the outward, professional acme you are at. It is the person you are that makes the leader you are. So becoming a more effective leader also means more inner work.
It is this inner work that will manifest outwardly in your role as a leader, have a positive impact on you, your stakeholders and your organization. A trusted coach can be the best partner you can ask for on this journey.
What I can promise
- Unfailing attention and authentic partnership on your journey
- Co-creating the map with you once you decide the destination
- Suggesting tools that may help
- Unguarded truth as I see it and a willingness to understand how you see it
- Lots of questions, occasionally some advice, sometimes tough love
- Rooting for you at every milestone of your journey
- Looking out if you start digressing or feel like giving up
- Complete confidentiality and respect for the trust you have reposed
Peter Drucker, the revered management guru once gave this advice to a CEO :
“Your first role is the relationship with people, the development of mutual confidence… This is something that cannot be measured or easily defined. But it is not only a key function, it is one only you can perform.”
He could have said just that to the CEO’s coach too.
So do you want to take the red pill and start a new journey? Or just take the blue pill and let things be the way they are? What will you choose, Neo?
What we can accomplish together
Clarity
Higher self-awareness, new insights, developing new perspectives, clarifying priorities, letting go of what doesn’t serve your purpose.
Congruence
Better alignment between the personal & professional, between intrapersonal & interpersonal, better relationships, lower stress
Change
Walking the new path, managing resistance and befriending change, making sustainable progress, attempting moonshots for transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Executive Coaching
I’m an HR/L&D leader, seeking a coach for an Executive in my organization. How can we work together?
I would love to have a conversation with you to understand the context around the business, the organization and the individual. I would also like to know if there is some exposure to or history of coaching in the organization. I would like you to ask me any questions you may have that have not been answered through this website, specifically the FAQs here and on the Home page. And then, when you feel comfortable with my credentials and my understanding of your context and need, I would ask you to set up a 1:1 conversation with the Executive, where we can check our comfort with each other and arrive at common ground on what coaching can or cannot do. All going well, we can then discuss the commercial and logistical elements of the engagement.
Finally, and not any less important, we should come to an agreement on the role of the coach, the client (individual), and the sponsor (HR or Manager of client as the representative of the organization). I also believe that establishing role clarity right at the start and maintaining role boundaries throughout the engagement is important for the success of the relationship.
I’m a senior executive and I see some areas of development in my team member. Could you work with her to fix those? I’m very involved in the development journey of my team members and would like to get regular updates on her progress.
I appreciate you for actively and sincerely supporting your team member’s development. Please see answer to the question above to know how a typical engagement starts. I would like to emphasize that the client’s (individual) buy- in and ownership of the goals is essential to the success of coaching. Equally important is that they feel ‘safe’ in all interactions with the coach. As such, we will run a feedback process with key stakeholders chosen by the client. Based on the results, it will be her prerogative to choose the areas she would like to work upon with the coach. The areas you want her to work upon will get captured in the feedback and there is high likelihood that she may choose to work upon those. Top-down prescriptive approach on what to fix may be counter-productive.
Likewise, to ensure coaching takes place in a safe environment, the client needs to be reassured that no part of the conversation will be reported back, esp. to the manager. However, I would recommend that the client set up regular connects with you to share her experience and progress with coaching. If coaching more than one person in the team/organization, I may share broad level patterns if any, while respecting the client’s trust in every way. I believe though that client-coach privilege ceases, in case there is danger of the client causing harm to self or other, or in case of violation of law. In such scenario, I will contact the sponsor/ HR.
What coaching model or technique do you use? Any assessments or tools?
There are scores of models, techniques, tools and assessments that are used in coaching. New ones are being developed every day. You may have heard of some popular ones like the GROW, or the OSCAR, and others. An experienced coach may use an established model, or one of their own making. Coaching models and techniques are therefore not supposed to be prescriptive or rigid. I often use a model only as a broad guideline and improvise or change based on what suits the conversation best. The purpose of the coaching session is to work towards the client’s agenda alone and not the coach’s. Therefore, I as your coach will not typically start with a model in mind and use it ‘on’ you (fulfilling my i.e. the coach’s agenda), but may introduce a model or technique as may be required and work ‘with’ you on it ( towards fulfilling your i.e. client’s agenda). Similarly, I will not start coaching with an assessment or tool in mind but may bring out one from the toolbox if required to advance the conversation. I may, however, ask you to share reports of any 360-degree feedback or any other assessment you may have from the last 6 months. If not, with your consent, and if required, I may want to collect feedback from your key stakeholders or administer an assessment.
I’m a senior executive seeking a coach for myself. What are the next steps?
Congratulations on taking the decision to invest in yourself! I absolutely love to work with clients like you! Please read through the FAQs on this page and the Home page. I would specifically point you towards the question about ‘How should I choose a coach?’. If you believe that I may be the coach for you, please book an appointment for us to chat.
"I can't thank you enough!"
Neha’s knowledge combination of international cultural understanding and commercial and business experience has ensured so many benefits to our time. Her understanding from a non-Indian viewpoint was so helpful as was her Executive Coaching experience. I so enjoyed our sessions. Being able to share business scenarios and work them through with her absolutely supported me in my transition to a Senior role to India and also grew my knowledge of Indian culture. Having the independence to work though my questions and fears as I have established myself here has been so beneficial and really helped me to adapt quickly, to understand and think about things differently. Thank you so much, you really have made such a positive impact and a real difference to me getting set up here and being happy both inside work and at home. I can’t thank you enough Neha!
– W.J, Chief Risk Officer and Vice President at a global Insurance major (18+ years of experience)
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