COACHING

We engage with your strengths.
We engage with your needs.
We engage with your goals.

And then there’s always something else…just over the horizon…we don’t know exactly what it is…so we go look

Our coaching involves a special partnership through which a confidential conversation evolves

Our clients appreciate our ability to bring structure and ‘in the moment’ transformational change

We have a talented team of coaches and mentors with a variety of credentials and experience working with

  • C suite leaders
  • international teams
  • regional and country management teams
  • individual professionals, partners, entrepreneurs and freelancers

Our clients are from a variety of sectors – financial services, the hospitality industry, health, IT, consumer brands, engineering, retail, consulting, social not-for-profit, social enterprise.

We coach individuals who have asked for a coach and those who have been offered coaching within their company’s leadership and talent development strategy.

The conversation invariably involves identifying goals, objectives and evaluation. The coachee’s sponsor or line manager is often consulted.

HOW WE WORK

Corporate Coaching assignments are usually agreed for a cycle of 12 core hours over several weeks or months.

  • believe in matching coachees and coaches and offer an initial no-obligation ‘chemistry’ meeting to ensure rapport and compatibility
  • We invite clients to brief us about the business, its initiatives and issues
  • We often confer with the line or sponsoring manager to understand their objectives for the coaching of a direct report or colleague
  • Use a range of tools. Data can be provided or commissioned by our client eg 360 feedback surveys, EQ data, thinking style profiles
  • use toolkits to support techniques that can be grounded in the coachee’s role

We favour live meetings. For logistical reasons meetings are sometimes carried out by skype or phone.

The cycle includes:

  • a no-obligation meeting between coach and prospective coachee to check out compatibility
  • the coachee’s manager participating in briefing, objective setting and reviews
  • informal email and telephone access between meetings
  • coach reading briefing documents and preparing data
  • supporting coachee’s journaling and reading between meetings

Cara McCarthy, Head of Organisational Development and Talent, M&G Investments writes:

“Greg’s huge experience as a coach, mentor, communicator and negotiator in multi-cultural contexts has been invaluable in supporting a high potential executive to successfully navigate a challenging international transition at a key point in his career. Greg’s holistic approach has provided my client with a safe and skilled space in which to develop a resilient and strategic mind-set and practice the skills with which to constructively handle difficult issues and build important relationships.”

STORY

ONBOARDING CHRIS IN ASIA

Chris is a talented Sales Executive. He has been posted from London to Singapore from the UK to contribute to the growth of the Asia business as Sales Director. He reports to the global head of sales and has a dotted line to the Asia business MD. Chris does not have much experience in managing a team and this is his first posting outside the UK. The company is investing in his ‘onboarding’ for the role through secondments, cross-cultural workshops, product briefing and coaching.

Greg has been coaching ‘Chris’ for two years on current issues in managing the team, the cross-cultural dimension and his global matrix relationships, the rigours of dual line reporting, managing a team of experienced industry professionals and his work-life balance as he adapts to a new social environment and an extremely busy job.

“My ambition, and that shared by my employer, was to fast track my transition from Manager to Leader. Our journey over the lasts 2 years, straddling the UK and now Singapore, has given me the tools to empower, motivate and inspire, rather than just instruct. Covering areas ranging from stakeholder management, assessing internal power bases and interpreting cultural intricacies, my time with Greg has been invaluable.”

Ben Cherrington, Director of Intermediary Channels, Asia Pacific

STORY
MINDSET CHANGE IN ASIA

The client was a senior American financial services executive based in Singapore. With his technical background he had recently been working on the financing detail of a massive telecoms contract. He was then appointed to a more entrepreneurial business development role. The need for a changed mindset benefited from the safe haven of a coaching forum through which to explore some not so safe changes in values and syle. We also focussed on his influencing behaviour fine-tuned for negotiating in Thailand, around the region.

STORY
POST-ACQUISITION CULTURE BUILDING

Following acquisitions in the drinks industry the senior leadership team initiated culture-building to bring together a global workforce and management. The team itself initiated a custom made 360 aligned to the values and operating principles expected of all employees. And senior managers were especially under scrutiny for role modelling the behaviour they expected of others.

We contributed to the design of the 360 and coached the executive team collectively and individually drawing on feedback and aligning change with the emerging culture.

As MD Diageo Australasia, I asked Greg to coach the executive team in Sydney. I sat on the Hong Kong based Asia Regional Executive Committee of which Greg was a non-executive member, tasked with coaching a very driving Regional Managing Director and others. Greg had a wide-ranging influential role including in JVs. Greg also coached the Worldwide Executive Committee I attended.

Greg is an excellent coach on all counts with results that can be measured on the bottom line. His strengths:

He understands that the business context is paramount.
Empathy. He identifies behaviorial issues quickly, convincing individuals to want to be coached and to change.

Team coaching. He navigates disparate motives and aspirations, drawing on data, fostering team ownership.
He understands how organisations work and how they have changed
Multiculturally perceptive notably in Asia, moulding teams of Asians and Westerners and engaging corporate culture.

STORY
MANAGING MULTIPLE MARKETS

A regional manager in the hospitality industry is responsible for leading sales forces in several south-east asian markets within a European multinational.
The role involves recruiting, selecting, developing workforces in different cultures and being accountable for sales and profit targets in each market. There is a lot of travel and plenty of eyes on performance including the regional director’s.

Coaching has provided an opportunity to explore multiple stakeholder relationships and to develop as a manager becoming a leader.

STORY
MANAGING UP IN RETAIL

As part of a senior executive team coaching one manager expressed difficulties. One executive expressed difficulties ‘managing up’ -he was uneasy about conflict and how to handle it. Greg worked with him on his development as a leader/manager and helped him develop confidence and technique in conflict management. He no longer felt overwhelmed by conflict and was able to broaden his portfolio of influence styles and tactics.

STORY
ALIGNING VALUES IN TELECOMMS

An organisation development manager in a telecomms group needed to find ways of influencing managers to align the company’s values with the execution of their missions. Coaching provided her with a dialogue space in which she was able to broaden her influencing portfolio while gaining more traction on the slippery nature of values implementation.

STORY
CHIEF EXECUTIVE TRANSITION

With brands from Johnnie Walker and Gordon’s to Dewars, Pimms and Tanqueray, the business had been evolving into the most profitable alcoholic beverage group worldwide. Greg coached Sir Anthony Greener in his transition from MD of United Distillers to Chairman and CEO of Guinness Group, now Diageo.

“Greg is an amazing coach of organisational change. I am fortunate to discover his deep expertise, experience and humility.”

Global Communications Director based in Asia

STORY
THAILAND JOINT VENTURE

The CEO of a JV sales and marketing operation in Thailand was responsible for a management team achieving unprecedented sales growth for its brands while experiencing contrasting management styles from the two European principals. The company was also involved in an anti-counterfeit operation. Coaching offered the CEO an offline forum in which to discuss complex issues, demanding business relationships, leadership of the team and self-management at a time of great business success combined with high risk external threats and pressures.

STORY
SINGAPORE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE – A FOUNDER’S TALE

I co-founded and led Conjunct Consulting for 4 years – a nonprofit with 200 active members which has provided over $2M worth of pro bono consulting services across 82 engagements with Singapore’s top charities and social enterprises.

Greg has coached and mentored me on a biweekly basis for nearly two years when I started my MBA at Harvard Business School. He assisted me in 3 key areas – organisational change as Conjunct professionalised, succession planning for the Executive Committee and especially for the role of President, and the leadership development of myself and my successor.
He opened me up to self-reflection and assisted me in unlocking new perspectives. He knows when to answer a question with a question and when to tell it how it is!  He coached me on managing, a high-performing but ‘difficult manager’ in a tactful and culturally-appropriate manner. This eventually led to a positive outcome which was more than I had initially hoped for. Furthermore, he has chosen to do all this coaching on a pro bono basis, for which I believe testifies to his heart and warmth for his mentees.

 

In my experience at Berkeley, Bain and Conjunct, I have never met a coach and mentor as exceptional as Greg. I wholeheartedly recommend him.”

Jeremy Au former President and co-founder of Conjunct Consulting:

For a chat contact me: greg@spironicholson.com

MORE ON COACHING (PDF)

STORY
GENDER DISCRIMINATION

A female cinematographer was experiencing obstacles to her career as a result of prejudicial behaviour from her male colleagues.
Coaching helped her to air her frustration while also developing influencing strategies for dealing with a challenging culture in a male dominated industry.