Why Robertson Fox?
"Why Should Anyone be Coached by Me?"
If you don't believe the journey you are on is sustainable then you'll have doubts about embarking on that journey. Think about training courses when you may have come back to the office buzzing and by Tuesday lunchtime you've forgotten it and haven't applied a single thing differently. You find new behaviours hard to sustain because no-one else wants to play and you are met with disinterest, opposition, aggression and cynicism.
Change is sustainable when it happens naturally as the result of thinking differently and when that happens you don't have to force it, others can see you are behaving differently and they will model the things they can see are working for you. Others will want to be like you rather than you having to be like them. How cool is that!
My position is that you inspire people to become like you and you no longer have a need to adapt to the world as everyone else adapts to you. It's the sustainability through the quality I bring to the working relationship that is the huge differentiator.
Our experience of common objections to Coaching and how the Robertson Fox process alleviates them:
1. Chemistry Meeting
We recognise that when coaching relationships go wrong, it is often because the Coach and the Client don't have a solid enough connection. If you are thinking about choosing us, we always have what the NHS lovingly call a chemistry meeting so that you have an opportunity to assess how you feel about us; it's not just about us assessing you. If you don't have a connection at that meeting, then don't pursue it because it won't be successful.
And remember, we are always work in progress. Sometimes a client is ready to do practical change work which enables them to achieve their business goals and that is all they are looking for at that time. They will come back for more when they are ready and some never do. And that's perfect. For me it doesn't pay to push someone further than they are willing to go because it will always come back to bite you.
For a time I didn't tell people that I am an NLPtCA Accredited and UKCP Registered Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapist because I thought they might worry about what I was going to ask them to do (perhaps lie on a couch whilst I sit behind them scribbling notes about their sanity!). Now it's the first thing I talk about because I've realised it gives people choice: whether to tap into those skills or to leave well alone and work only with the surface level change. Either is fine by me because the client is getting the results they want and they will know better than I when they are ready for more.
2. Managing Relationships Better and the Fear of Success
We have seen clients who have a fear of creating their own success statement and I believe that is based on our desire to fit in; not to rock the boat.
Before she became my client, one Director said "But if I change, how will my boss cope with that?" I asked one of my existing Director clients to share her experience as I knew she had had similar concerns at the start. She explained that working with me had actually made her conversations with her boss easier. She said she can engage more readily on his wavelength and he has been open to the ideas she's had as a result of coaching.
The upshot is she is managing her relationships better and she is getting what she wants as part of that process.
3. Permission: How do I justify the Investment in ME?
We have found that often the hardest thing for business leaders to do is to get started with coaching. Believe it or not they often express guilt or worry at the outset, such as:
- "How can I afford to take time out of the business to reflect and focus on me?" Or
- "I shouldn't need coaching if I am the perfect executive!" Or
- "I should be able to work it out without somebody else's help" Or
- "I'm asking everyone else in the business to cut costs so how can I then spend money on myself?
Well, you are responsible for that business and keeping those people in work. And good leaders go first! They set the example for those around them to do better, to give more. Most importantly they can, single handed, change the moral and focus of their people away from despair and towards success by putting their own development first. Furthermore, in going first you are also giving others permission to make changes because you're saying it's okay.
4. Breadth and Depth of Skills and Experience
I identified the additional training and qualifications I believed would best complement my business background and experience and now I know I am a match for future clients when they come along. I've heard that the definition of an expert is someone who knows 2 more things than you do. So, if your coach isn't on a path of continued improvement then you will outgrow them in no time at all.
The reason my longest serving client came to me in the first place was because he had outgrown the coach he had been working with. His comment to me was that she had shared with him everything she knew and he was ready for more. I remember thinking if that happened to me I would feel like I'd be letting my clients down. I resolved not to let that happen and to date we are still enjoying a proactive and value-add coaching relationship.
I wouldn't be genuinely able to inspire others to action, if I had not been inspired myself and if I were not continually finding new ways to be inspired. Neither would I have been confident about adding value to clients through coaching and training, if I hadn't experienced my own products and services!
5. Evidence of Team development through the individual
You cannot, in my opinion build a successful and functioning team until senior individuals are inspired to action first. Only when they are viewing their businesses (and themselves within that business) from an informed vantage point, can we consider how they sustain the success they have now achieved.
At this point in the coaching process individual Directors I have worked with are commenting that the whole management team has benefited from them having 1:1 coaching. They are noticing the differences in themselves and where they haven't noticed those changes, team members are pointing them out. The team is seeing a difference in their leader which, in turn has helped them to be different as well. One Client recently said that 1:1 Coaching has been pivotal to helping him lead by example and show his team through his actions and behaviours that they too have permission to change.
6. Reflection time becomes conscious
Every service is delivered with the objective of generating immediate and sustainable results for clients. Our approach provides much needed thinking and reflection time for clients that they wouldn't otherwise get. We all have tremendously difficult decisions to make these days and we don't have time to reflect on them anymore. Communication techniques are such that we have no thinking time. Change work is sustainable because it has already happened by the time they leave the session and they start to notice new behaviours in action.