According to our clients, Conversational PartnershipSM is hands down the most valued process in our Executive Coaching services. Why? Because it provides the greatest value for executives who want/need to have someone in their corner that isn't tied to the company and can understand what a friend/spouse is unable to. It can be lonely in your senior role, and there may be times sharing with a colleague is inapproapriate.
Conversational PartnershipSM is a process where the executive comes to the coaching meeting with real-time situations that may be high-risk, sensitive, career defining (or stalling), and/or critical. Personnel issues, conflicts, concerned clients, disagreements with supervisor, promotions of some and not others, right-sizing the organization, etc.
Executives value having someone who is their advocate, encourages and challenges them, comes without judgment, asks deep, thought provoking questions, and can keep confidential the details of the conversations. Did you notice we didn't say we give advice?
Yes, no advice! Our experience indicates that when people are given advice, there is a tendancy to believe it needs to be followed. From a neuroscience standpoint, this can create a brain threat around autonomy. Plus, the advice giver generally never suffers from the consequences of the advice (if followed).
Instead of advice, we utilize the sharing of past experiences, which allows the executive to pick and choose what they believe will work for their specific situation. They know better than anyone what will work for them. We also share neuroscience tools to help navigate the situations and pick a course of action that the executive believes is best. Builds confidence, creates stronger neuropathways for future use, and diminishes the possibility of a co-dependent hierarchy between executive coach and coachee.
Many times these executives believe they have a good solution, and once they have said it out loud they say, "It certainly sounds different when I speak it out loud!"
