Top producers, accomplished leaders and senior level people in organizations face a unique set of challenges as they strive to simultaneously serve their enterprise – while also “serving” themselves. We have found even the most successful people we coach live without the experiences of accomplishment, completion and satisfaction – particularly as they look at the next 5 to 10 years of their career.
While serving one’s enterprise and serving one’s people is absolutely critical, executives and leaders must also be engaged in projects that require and bring forth their full self expression, authentic self-examination and re-invention. This examination not only requires new tools, but the commitment to carve out the time to do it. Most people who reach the executive level neglect their own growth and development in their zeal for empowering their enterprise. This is why executive consulting and coaching is essential.
Accomplished business people are absolutely clear that 5 year and 10 year organizational strategic plans are essential to fulfilling a meaningful organizational future. (These plans often end up in a desk drawer or on a conference room wall – but that is another issue). In contrast, it is surprising how many accomplished business people do not have a 5 or 10 year plan for their personal accomplishment and fulfillment.
Heidegger said “to accomplish is to unfold some thing into the fullness of its essence”. It is interesting that accomplished people have little structure for the unfolding and fulfilling of their own essence. We call this individual planning “creating a future from the future”. This is values-driven, personal planning designed to reveal what really matters to a senior-level business person; and to then create a personal strategy to guarantee the fulfillment of their commitments.
Executive consulting is confidential. It provides professional growth, a non-judgmental open listening (the executive feels free to say what is on his/her mind without concern of retribution), an objective point of view, and a partnership which is about having the executive win.
The Executive One-On-One Consulting Process:
* Executive Assessment:
We begin this process with a no-nonsense evaluation of what the executive has accomplished and contrast these accomplishments with what the executive intended to accomplish at the beginning of their career. This process reveals new opportunities for accomplishment that lead to 3 to 5 “senior commitments” that serve as the fundamentals for an authentic personal 5 or 10 year plan.
* Creating the Plan:
We have a unique planning process that is driven by a consultant-guided inquiry. The first step of this inquiry is to create the executives’ values and purpose driven “personal charter”. Then a 5 or 10 year plan is created allowing the executive to see how they can fulfill what they and their enterprise require. Often this process includes succession planning and how the executive will assure that their particular business contributions will continue over time.
