One of the most enjoyable aspects of my role is working one on one with clients to develop them as leaders, people and role models.   A lot of the work I do in this space is through the use of the Human Synergistic tools including the Leadership Impact (LI) and the Life Styles Inventory (LSI).

I recently came back from overseas from doing a week of one on one coaching with a leadership team.  I was very excited about going to do these sessions as we had eighteen months ago taken them through their LSI results at the start of the project. Each person went through the process of receiving feedback on how they think and how others see them. This was undertaken one on one in a trusting environment focussed on growth through the provision of appropriate care and candour.

The entire goal of the coaching was to focus on key actions and initiatives that would improve their effectiveness.  This improvement in effectiveness from our leaders would lead to a more constructive culture which then translates to improved employee engagement.  This improved employee engagement then drives better business and project outcomes.  This link between improved leadership and a more constructive culture underpins the significant investment in leaders given they have a significant impact of whether an organisation or project operates effectively and is focussed on high performance.

Every person of the leadership team had invested heavily through focussed time and energy in to improving themselves over the eighteen months.  They had challenged conditioning, assumptions, and preconceptions and had focussed on growing and improving.  The shift in their leadership effectiveness and proactiveness was noticeable to me but would it translate to more tangible constructiveness and effectiveness through the retest of the LSI coaching sessions that was about to occur?

We held the retest coaching sessions with the leadership team over the course of the week.  The improvement in their constructive styles both in their thinking and how others saw them was significant.  Reductions in aggressive and passive thinking and responses along with significant improvements in the constructive styles.  Every person had improved and grown not only as leaders but also personally with the stories of change being shared with the team.

As I came back on the plane and was writing this blog, what I was most proud of was the growth from every person rather than the specific outcome or percentile change score.  I realised that my purpose is to help people, projects and organisations grow and improve.  The key point that I raised which each person was be proud of who you are becoming rather than who you are now.  Every person can grow and improve and be better every day.  The challenge is to create the environment and opportunity for this to occur.  That is our challenge in the very privileged role we play as coaches and consultants to our clients.