Executive coaching for directors and boards

Executive coaching for directors and boards aims to bring out the best in an individual director to enable the board to work better as a team. Executive coaching for directors is facilitative one-to-one coaching to help individual directors address specific professional development issues or to assist them in taking on a new role.

It is particularly relevant for new or prospective directors, for non-executive directors and as part of a board development programme.

Executive coaching works most effectively when the individual has clarity about the issues to be addressed and Brefi Group recommends that director coaching should be benchmarked against the established good practice described in the Institute of Directors' publication Standards for the Board.

The IoD summarises the benefits to the individual as follows:-

• Preparation for role/career changes and joining the board
• Managing stress, change, conflict, or crisis
• Enhancing personal impact and performance

In addition to addressing personal issues the organisation benefits from:-

• Greater commitment from directors and senior managers
• Retention of key people who feel valued
• More creative outlook in business planning
• Improved management style

Appointment of an individual coach/consultant who can both design and manage a board development and training programme, and provide individual confidential director coaching will enable progress to be integrated for the greater benefit of the team. An experienced external coach also provides a sounding board and is a channel through which sensitive issues can be addressed in a safe and controlled manner.

Brefi Group offers a range of director and board coaching packages. These include the following: -

• Individual initial intake interview to review the current situation, challenges and aspirations
• Self assessment and psychometric profiling to identify strengths, style and suitable roles
• 360° feedback
• Face to face coaching sessions
• Introduction to proven skills and processes for directors and boards
• Benchmarking against good practice
• Informal telephone support

The depth and range of support varies according to the package chosen.

What does executive coaching cover?

Executive coaching covers the complex combination of skills and human capacities that are required of today's directors such as:

• business acumen and financial management
• leadership and organisational skills
• social and communication skills
• analytical and innovative thinking capacities
• ability to inspire trust and commitment to action
• rewards and acknowledgement
• "presence" that allows them to work in a very large arena or overlapping arenas.

What distinguishes an executive coach?

In order to be an effective resource for the director's development, executive coaches must possess a unique combination of maturity, professional skills and human qualities, such as:

• a firm grounding in business knowledge and competencies
• thorough understanding of the world of the executive leader
• a broad understanding of leadership and leadership development
• knowledge of systems dynamics of organisations and communities.

Brefi Group coaches possess a wide range of business knowledge, experience and expertise, enabling us to be throughly familiar and comfortable with the director's world. We are comfortable coaching around complex issues and international agendas and able to discuss global issues, philosophical items, sociological issues or business issues of the day and future.

We are able to discern patterns of behaviour and large scale systems that prohibit peak performance.

What to do next

You might have specific issue that you wish to address: -

• Newly appointed director
• Director who still thinks like a manager
• Executive who you would like to groom for the board
• Non-executive director
• General review and development of board performance
• Preparation for a merger or acquisition

Or you might just wish to explore how external support could help improve board processes and behaviour. You could explore more of the Brefi Group specialist services for directors and boards (see the menus above left) – or you could contact us now for a confidential chat.

Or, of course, you could do nothing. But what would be the benefit of that?