Professional Coaching
The Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey, a yearly comprehensive report on the practice, breaks down coaching into three classes: executive coaching (working to permanently enhance business behavior); business coaching (working to develop client’s knowledge and skills) and life coaching (advisors on personal, wellness and life issues). My skills match that highest level: personal development and behavioral change.
Professional Coaching and personal Development
Professional coaching is a strategic tool for more consciously and artfully managing yourself and others. A direct byproduct of coaching is an increase in emotional intelligence and insight into human behavior -- both seen as indispensable “technologies” for career development, professional productivity and personal expression. The ability to interpret and read one’s own psychological dynamics, those of others or those of a group, and the ability to tease apart the behavioral push-pull of complex human interaction is what separates greater and lesser players on today’s light speed and constantly transforming professional stage.
My Approach
You might have general ambitions for coaching, a specific area of concern, or a targeted goal related to a particular skill or ability. Whatever the case, coaching should build on what you do well while focusing naturally on the growth areas.
Most people I work with are already highly-skilled and incredibly able. What I'll often find, however, is that other skills that are necessary for success either don't get properly developed, or only become significant, even critical along the way. Maybe you've been able to get by on your deep creativity at the expense of your communication or relationship skills, or on your ability to impress without really crafting out the details. Or perhaps it's finally time to stop treating work-life balance as a buzz word, and a threat to your productivity.
If other coaches and coaching methods provide systems, packaged strategies or simply a sounding board and moral support, my approach is more essential and effective. Coaching, as I practice it, involves a deeper kind of communication and dialogue, one that creates room and space for you to step back, to think out loud, to actually hear, think and see -- in contrast to how much you operate by reflex or habit.
In the course of these meetings and discussions, you will more directly encounter those automatic thoughts, attitudes, assumptions, doubts, shoulds and other reaction patterns that get in the way of your process. Through this apperception, the people that work with me are able to modify their actions and responses to situations in more optimal ways. It’s one thing to offer awareness, it’s another thing to actually experience it.
Although this overview was written to apply to my clinical work, you can get a sense of the concepts and the theory I bring to personal development and behavior change.
Most people I work with are already highly-skilled and incredibly able. What I'll often find, however, is that other skills that are necessary for success either don't get properly developed, or only become significant, even critical along the way. Maybe you've been able to get by on your deep creativity at the expense of your communication or relationship skills, or on your ability to impress without really crafting out the details. Or perhaps it's finally time to stop treating work-life balance as a buzz word, and a threat to your productivity.
If other coaches and coaching methods provide systems, packaged strategies or simply a sounding board and moral support, my approach is more essential and effective. Coaching, as I practice it, involves a deeper kind of communication and dialogue, one that creates room and space for you to step back, to think out loud, to actually hear, think and see -- in contrast to how much you operate by reflex or habit.
In the course of these meetings and discussions, you will more directly encounter those automatic thoughts, attitudes, assumptions, doubts, shoulds and other reaction patterns that get in the way of your process. Through this apperception, the people that work with me are able to modify their actions and responses to situations in more optimal ways. It’s one thing to offer awareness, it’s another thing to actually experience it.
Although this overview was written to apply to my clinical work, you can get a sense of the concepts and the theory I bring to personal development and behavior change.
Range of Services/Clients
I'm experienced with and enjoy working with entrepreneurs, creatives, senior executives and thought leaders. Organizational roles are extraordinarily demanding, even (or especially) if a leader doesn't show it. These positions are also quite isolating in different ways, putting a premium on personal feedback and the opportunity to understand one's process in a more meaningful way. Of course, there is no shortage of talented and creative people across industries and enterprises, from technology and manufacturing to the service industries and the design arts. I have experience, and have fostered insight and change with individuals across the board.
I also enjoy contracting directly with organizations. That might involve raising the level of key players. It might also involve a deeper understanding and communication of organizational culture. As the saying goes, culture eats strategy for lunch.
I also enjoy contracting directly with organizations. That might involve raising the level of key players. It might also involve a deeper understanding and communication of organizational culture. As the saying goes, culture eats strategy for lunch.
Over the past eight years, Michael Shaw has truly had a transformational impact on our executives and top line managers. His coaching program was instrumental in strengthening our management bench and developing a pipeline of individuals critical to our future success. Because nothing is more important than human capital, I wholly recommend him as a coach and a critical strategic asset to any professional or organization striving for growth and excellence.
— Rhona Driggs, Senior Vice-President, Volt Information Sciences
Results and ROI
There is a direct correlation between more effective relationships, clearer communication, deeper vision, bolder ideas and the greater achievement and success that follows. That impact, for example, is reflected in the results of an exit survey of over 50 managers, directors and V.P.s who went through the coaching program I designed and managed at Volt Information Sciences, a Fortune 500 staffing firm.
84% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their goal-setting.
83% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their contacting methods and client opportunities.
81% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their ability to present customer solutions.
97% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their ability to discover problems in their work process.
98% agreed or strongly agreed that the processes learned in coaching made them more professionally effective overall.
Whether your goals for coaching are professional, creative, interpersonal or, yes, more material, greater return in these areas are a natural and expectable outcome of effective coaching.
84% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their goal-setting.
83% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their contacting methods and client opportunities.
81% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their ability to present customer solutions.
97% agreed or strongly agreed it improved their ability to discover problems in their work process.
98% agreed or strongly agreed that the processes learned in coaching made them more professionally effective overall.
Whether your goals for coaching are professional, creative, interpersonal or, yes, more material, greater return in these areas are a natural and expectable outcome of effective coaching.
How Long
Having started my clinical career in a recession and during the rise of managed care, I have always worked with time-limited models. It not only makes it easier to budget but naturally frames the process as a “value proposition." I have worked extensively in 6, 12 and 24 week meeting models. To be frank, it takes about 3 months on a consistent, weekly schedule to gain a functional, working insight of your MO, and another three to begin to integrate the change. In other words, that block of time, meeting consistently in a regular rhythm, will allow you to see and experience the difference.