A Coaching Model Created by Olga Valadon
(Leadership Coach, UNITED KINGDOM)
Overview
The pace of technological advances in the last decade has been unprecedented. Working patterns for many white-collar workers have changed their ability to “switch off” has been greatly reduced as a result of constant and easy access to technology. The Covid-19 pandemic is further contributing to the change of working patterns as companies are forced to embrace home working. It is highly likely that this way of working will become eventually the new norm.
As the boundaries, between work and personal/family time, are further blurred will working more hours in the day result in increased productivity? It is unlikely and multiple academic studies support that. The inability to “switch off” and the continuous flow of (frequently pointless) information are instead contributing to a lack of focus and clarity for the leaders of organizations.
Daniel Coleman (2013) defines focus as “thinking about one thing while filtering out distractions”.Coleman goes on to distinguish 3 types/modes of attention necessary for every leader to be successful: focusing on yourself, focusing on others, and focusing on the wider world. Having an inner focus is an important quality for a leader. Lack of it means that the leader is not able to provide direction to the team and as a result, the team is not able to reach its full potential. Ultimately the organization will not be as successful or it may even fail.
My coaching model is the product of working with senior leaders in organizations over the last 10 years. Very few leaders I met over the years were truly inspirational, most of them were “time-starved” and overwhelmed by the road and obstacles ahead of them. One of the key attributes that distinguished the focused and inspirational leaders from the rest of the pack was having a clear vision. Those leaders were successful in articulating their vision because they had spent time focusing on themselves to identify their “why”, their purpose.
I currently use this model with new and aspiring leaders who are still figuring out their style, their ambitions, and their priorities in an era of constant change. It is designed as a punchy, action-driven process the benefits of which can be easily described to clients, and takes into consideration time constraints in an organizational context (average duration of sessions is 30-45min) and language that is meaningful and relevant to the client.
Figure 1: 4Ds for Focused and Impactful Leadership
Define the goal
The noise and distractions are gradually eliminated as the client achieves the first step towards clarity by establishing the desired goal for the session which may not always be evident due to multiple, and often conflicting, priorities.
Questions to consider:
Develop or Deepen awareness
At this stage, the coach facilitates the client’s journey to great leadership with powerful questions that increase self-awareness by considering who they are now, who they want to become as leaders and what it may take to reach their destination. During this stage, the client validates the goal’s alignment with their values and beliefs (Congruent leadership: David Stanley, 2017).
Questions to consider:
Derive actionable insights
With the newfound self-knowledge, the client is in a position to start exploring the changes (or decisions) to be made to move forward.
Questions to consider:
Design solutions
During the final stage of the conversation, the client moves into action by determining and committing to SMART (Specific-Measurable-Actionable-Realistic and Time-bound) objectives.
Questions to consider:
References:
Coleman, Daniel (2013). The Focused Leader, Harvard Business Review, December issue
Stanley, David (2017): Congruent Leadership Defined, JOJ Nurse Health Care, Volume 3, Issue 3, August 2017
[1] Choice of words depending on the context provided by the client