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Over the course of her 25+ years with EY, Marna has held various leadership and client service roles including assisting multinational companies in global tax transformation efforts, optimising financial structuring as well as tax compliance and reporting.

Marna is passionate about ensuring all EY Tax people reach their full career potential and feel a sense of belonging.

She serves on EY’s Americas Operating Executive, which sets strategy and policy for the EY Americas member firms, and the Global Tax Executive Committee, which sets the strategy for the Global Tax practice. She is also a Junior Achievement USA Board member.

Marna has won numerous awards for her leadership, including a “Woman of the Year” Stevie Award, “Executive of the Year” Best in Biz award, “Female Executive of the Year” Women in Business at the Professions World awards and a Finance Monthly Taxation Award.

Besides winning multiple awards and being recognised nationally for her leadership, Marna says her most significant accomplishments are her two sons, Colton and Cooper, who continue to inspire her every day to lead with empathy. Marna, her husband Erick, their two sons and golden retriever, Bear live in Minnesota. We caught up with her to talk about all things tax in the post-COVID-19 world.

What role will tax play as we slowly prepare to step into a post-COVID-19 world?

Tax has always been the mesh point between the government and the private sector. We saw this expand at the beginning of the pandemic last year with the CARES Act as policymakers used tax policy to drive economic stimulus.

As the global pandemic moves into its second year, taxes will continue to play a vital role in aiding economic recovery at all governmental levels. Further coordinated action will be required to preserve economic capacity and help protect vulnerable businesses and communities in the US.

Tax policy has emerged as an essential vehicle to supercharge the path towards recovery here in the US and globally. For example, the infrastructure bill proposes extending the child tax credits, providing two free years of community college and offering green-energy tax incentives. The House and Senate have both approved the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which will facilitate passage of a human infrastructure bill on issues like health, climate, caregiving, and education, with an as-yet-to-be-determined amount of corporate, international and individual tax increases and more IRS tax enforcement.

Overall, the Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis predicts that the American Families Plan could help the IRS raise $700 billion worth of additional tax revenue over the course of the next decade (which in turn can help fund our infrastructure plans).

How is the EY Americas Tax department responding to these trends?

With all the disruption happening in tax – from fast-changing tax policy globally, to new business operating models, to advancing technology –it is now more important than ever to deliver impactful tax advice and first-class client service through digitally enabled solutions that address our clients’ most complex business challenges.

Despite all the changes, there are many things that need to stay the same: the technical expertise and quality of our Americas Tax professionals will always be at the heart of serving our clients. And our people will always be our best assets.

But there are many things that need to change including the way we deliver information. This must evolve if we want to generate the capital to invest in the future and the way we show up to clients’ needs to reflect our digital-forward mindset and capabilities.

As a result, innovation is in everything we do and we’re constantly disrupting ourselves and our services to be better and to be in a continuous improvement mindset. New systems won’t just clean up data for us, they’ll equip our tax professionals to reach their full potential as trusted business advisers and technicians, making it possible to offer real-time collaborations, scenario planning, cost modelling, and risk simulation tools.

At the onset of the pandemic, my team and I quickly realised that clients needed reliable and swift communication. We were agile and developed many new business offerings that enabled clients to survive and rebuild. Some achievements include:

In all, we learned that the right combination of communication and analytical tools can arm companies with the peace of mind needed to regrow or pivot their business models amid uncertainty.

In the most recent round of EY US partner/principal promotions, 40% were women, an increase of 7% from the prior year, which represents the largest female class ever.

Tell us a little bit about EY’s belief that tax will play a key role in building a more sustainable working world.

Reflecting on the growing number of climate events over the past 12 months, I am encouraged to identify all the ways in which tax intersects with sustainability and how it can help incentivise corporations to reduce their footprint in meaningful ways.

I believe Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) reporting and tax strategy will play a growing and pivotal role in sustainability efforts, as more governments and investors ask companies to disclose their strategies for responding to climate change. Increasingly corporate tax departments are being asked to develop tax governance strategies that take into account risk management and ESG considerations—a fast-growing trend.

In the US, sustainability has become an increasing part of the national conversation under US President Joe Biden, with the administration seeking to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden has worked to restore critical environmental protections and pledged to promote job creation in a clean energy economy, with a goal to eliminate carbon pollution from power plants by 2035. As part of his Build Back Better platform, Biden has proposed significant spending for infrastructure and clean energy, which includes money for energy retrofitting, financing to upgrade appliances, windows and to buy electric vehicles and to expand and extend clean energy tax incentives. President Biden has proposed tax changes to pay for these investments in cleantech infrastructure.

The more we champion and inspire, provide advice and professional guidance, dare to provide honest feedback, and rise to the occasion when life happens, the faster we reach gender parity.

At EY, we’re doing our part to help combat climate change and protect the planet for future generations, by assisting our clients to meet their sustainability goals, as well as committing to our own emissions goals. Of course, one of my favourite ways to contribute is through our dedicated sustainability tax team, which helps clients navigate the increasingly complex world of climate-related tax policies. The team also assists in identifying opportunities like tax exemption programs, incentives, and funding for sustainability-related projects.

In an ongoing effort to build a more sustainable working world, my team launched the “Green Tax Tracker” and the “EY Carbon Modelling Tool” to provide clients with an overview of sustainability incentives, carbon pricing regimes and other environmental taxes.

On a personal level, I’m aiming to be more sustainable to reduce my carbon footprint, by planting a garden, walking, and biking locally vs driving, or using a refillable water bottle each day to stay hydrated. Everyone’s contributions to reducing their carbon footprint, no matter how small, matter!

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues humanity faces today. It’s our collective responsibility to act now and work together to build a low-carbon future and protect our planet, for generations to come.

As a woman in finance, what are you doing to promote diversity and inclusion at EY?

I proudly support and am committed to diversity, inclusiveness, and anti-discriminatory initiatives beyond tax. A diverse executive team should be a priority for any business or organisation. At EY, we understand that diversity and inclusiveness at all levels of the company are required to build a better working world.

Diversity and inclusion are a deep part of our culture and are simply table stakes and non-negotiable. We are also very focused on creating an even stronger culture of belonging. One that harnesses our unique differences and allows every individual to bring those differences to work every day and to be valued for exactly who they are. Those differences ultimately allow teams to bring unique perspectives and create better outcomes in our work.

I am committed to fostering belonging for all women. The more we champion and inspire, provide advice and professional guidance, dare to provide honest feedback, and rise to the occasion when life happens, the faster we reach gender parity.

Successful women leaders must juggle everything, literally everything. They are expected to balance family responsibilities, run a business, demonstrate their credentials as well as walk a fine line of “being tough enough . . . but not too tough.” But what I love about EY is that we are myth-busting those gender stereotypes. For example, we had just as many men apply for our summer leave program in 2020 as women. Another example, we are seeing an increase in men taking advantage of our paternity leave program. This speaks volumes about the EY culture. Shattering old stereotypes that men do not have an equal desire to be deeply involved with their children and family responsibilities, and that doing so is not a sign of weakness (an “outdated stereotype”).

I am so proud to work alongside so many talented female Tax leaders and super moms. I have a front-row seat to see what our female leaders collectively create and it’s incredibly powerful. In the next 12 months, I want to continue to diversify our roster of executive leaders within Americas Tax and among the incoming partner class. I also want to focus on strengthening and protecting our culture of belonging.   

What are the most important lessons the pandemic has taught you and how do you plan to implement them in the future?

You don’t know where people are. Make no assumptions about politics, social issues, health issues, home life. There is no one universal experience. Be caring, make others feel secure, hold down the fort. Find optimism and opportunity. Recognise the role we play. Focus on wellness and taking care of ourselves.

Resilience and agility are two themes that emerged during the pandemic. Our 18,000 Americas Tax professionals never stopped providing first-class exceptional client service. The global pandemic has proven that we are stronger together, and above all, we are resilient in times of uncertainty.

The past year gave me a deeper appreciation for the power of empathy and inclusion, driving a recommitment on inclusiveness and belonging for all—EY people, clients, and the communities we serve—with ongoing programs focused on women’s advancement and leadership around the world. In the most recent round of EY US partner/principal promotions, 40% were women, an increase of 7% from the prior year, which represents the largest female class ever.

In FY21, my team hired over 900 students, with women representing more than half of the campus new hires and nearly half racially and ethnically diverse. Similarly, 75% of the US Tax incoming partner class are either racially and ethnically diverse or women. EY and specifically our Americas Tax practice is helping to accelerate women’s equity and driving change—both in the organisation and in the community. This commitment is unwavering and woven into the fabric of our organisation.

It’s a delicate balance to provide essential communications and analytical tools for clients to allow them to pivot their business while keeping DE&I and ESG-related initiatives at the forefront, something many businesses lost sight of given other pandemic responsibilities.

Finance Monthly speaks to author and President of CDR Assessment Group – Nancy Parsons about her company and their coaching tools, her philanthropic initiatives and the passion that drives her.

 

Tell us about CDR Assessment Group, your career path prior to co-founding the company and your books.

Twenty years ago, I co-founded CDR Assessment Group, along with my business partner Kimberly R. Leveridge, Ph.D. CDR is recognized as one of the top firms for combining the science of assessments with the art of developing people. We provide our proprietary assessments for leadership development and talent management for global clients.

Kim and I developed the CDR 3-Dimensional Assessment Suite® in 1998. The Suite digs deep beneath the surface to help each leaders’ self-awareness move to a whole new level to improve their performance, work relationships, success and satisfaction. Our coaching tools have helped leaders accurately measure their character traits and strengths, risks for derailment; and drivers & reward needs. The Suite is available in five languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German and English.) We have built a global team of certified CDR executive coaches and consultants who provide services for CDR clients.

In late 2017, I published a research-based book, Fresh Insights to End the Glass Ceiling and since publishing, I’ve been interviewed by over 50 radio hosts and a national television show. The book sheds new light on why the glass ceiling exists – and it is not what most people think. The personality-based research shared in the book reveals why so few women make it to the top, and the staggering costs of not promoting more women to senior leadership positions. My book is packed with practical solutions to end the glass ceiling for good.

I enjoy writing and have authored more than 30 articles and have had a blog since 2009. My second book, titled Transforming Leaderocrity is scheduled for release in late 2018. I have enjoyed presenting at international, national and regional industry conferences and am an NSA member. As a speaker, I have been described by others as being “refreshingly frank, gutsy, funny, wicked smart and passionate.”   When presenting to groups, I enjoy shedding new light on why people do what they do, both the good and the bad.

In 2016, I founded the Vets Coaching Vets philanthropic initiative and since then, our team has worked with six different veteran organizations to coach more than 50 transitioning veterans to accelerate their career success. Since 2000, CDR Assessment Group has been a women-owned WBENC certified business and is now affiliated with WBEA.

I am delighted to be married to the love of my life and have four grown children, three grandchildren, and three very spoiled dogs.

 

Can you detail the key services that CDR Assessment Group offers?

We provide consulting, executive coaching and training services that wrap around our unmatched assessment tools. We train executive coaches (both internal and external consultants) to use the assessment tools with their clients.

While most of my actual client work centers around coaching senior executives and executive coaches, CDR Assessment Group is able to reach and develop thousands of leaders and professionals each year. Of course, a good portion of my time is devoted to running and growing the business. We have a network of globally dispersed executive coaches who utilize our tools with their clients and who participate to serve as consultants and coaches for our projects as well.

One differentiator for us is that our assessments are like the Swiss Army Knife of the assessment world. In addition to using these tools for executive coaching, we use these scientifically validated measures as an integral part of our consulting and training services to help clients with:

Why would you say experienced corporate executives need the services of an external management consultant/coach?

Corporate executives need our propriety assessments and coaching so that they can gain an acute sense of self-awareness that they otherwise cannot achieve, even with the best soul-searching techniques. By completing their initial coaching debrief session with the CDR 3-D Suite (about 2.5 to 3 hours), they can hit the ground running with new, deeper insights to help them better understand their strengths, risks, vulnerabilities and motivation to a nuanced level. Equipped with this new level of self-understanding, they can improve their leadership capability well beyond their current effectiveness level. They can also begin to see what makes others tick and how to be more effective with their teams and stakeholders.

How important is it to have first-hand experience of running a business in order to provide valuable insight to other business leaders?

I think having experience as a CEO is extremely valuable as a coach because one has then walked in the shoes of strategy, operations and P&L. However, experience alone is not enough because one then only scratches the surface. By adding scientifically validated assessment tools into the coaching process, we accelerate impactful, usable real-world dialogue from the first coaching session. We don’t hold hands wasting valuable time getting to know our executive clients, we are able to dig deep and accelerate results from the first coaching session.

We then link executive team data to business strategy to be sure that the actual profiles of team members are well aligned to achieve strategic objectives.

Here’s recent feedback of a COO who is a Ph.D. in the pharmaceutical industry:

“I gained valuable insights into my leadership style and I particularly enjoyed her session on how stress impacts me as a leader. That part of our session is something I use almost every day. As a scientist, the data-based assessment was very appealing and gave me some good data to rely on when discussing my role at the company with the board and my CEO. In addition, while the assessments were very thorough, what I enjoyed most was my one-on-one coaching session with Nancy. Her advice, opinion, and experiential knowledge gave me some good perspective on my current job and also my future career. So much so that I wish I had done this years ago!”

 

What makes your job rewarding?

I am rewarded by knowing that we are revolutionizing leadership and talent development by identifying true talent to a level not done before. That will help us increase leadership effectiveness which has suffered to this point. I love helping people become self-aware to a whole new level. Most executives say they wish they had done this 20 or 30 years ago. Those “aha” moments and the sheer joy people have, despite acknowledging their risks and vulnerabilities, in going through the assessment debrief is my performance fuel.

Another area that brings me a high level of satisfaction is helping individuals get onto the right career path. So many leaders, veterans and others are off track but do not quite know how to identify what is the best career for them. We are able to help these individuals find clarity of their best course forward.

I also really enjoy facilitating executive team development sessions (that are custom designed based on the CDR data) once all team members have had individual coaching debriefs with their assessments. This transforms team dynamics, effectiveness and ability to convert conflict into positive performance.

 

What differentiates CDR Assessment from its competitors?

 

What do you hope to achieve with your philanthropic organization Vets Coaching Vets?

I am passionate about our philanthropic effort. We hope to build this program through building partnerships with corporations who benefit from hiring Veterans and who want to make sure they are hiring them and developing them in a way that taps into their inherent strengths and satisfies their motivational needs.

 

Jan Bowen-Nielsen is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Quiver Management – a European quality award-winning coaching, leadership training and change consultancy company working with clients across the UK and internationally.

 Jan Bowen-Nielsen comes from a corporate background with senior management roles in the UK, Europe and America, including a CEO role for an international business in USA. He became known for being a good ‘trouble-shooter’ and at times a ‘trouble-maker’, so he gained a lot of experience in initiating and leading strategic change initiatives. When he returned to the UK in 2002, he set up a change consultancy together with a partner, called JBBI, believing that they were some of the first to combine executive coaching and change consultancy – coaching senior teams to successfully drive change through their organisations.

This brought Jan into the coaching industry and he found himself speaking at UK and international conferences about how his company used coaching to bring about organisational change. He was also invited onto the Advisory Board of EMCC (the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, the leading professional body for coaching and mentoring in Europe). Here he speaks to Finance Monthly about his career in coaching, the industry itself and his business.

 

What attracted you to founding a coaching company?

 Through my EMCC board work, I became heavily involved in helping to raise the professional standards in the coaching industry. In 2008, I exited JBBI and decided to focus on coaching, as I was receiving a lot of calls from previous clients and through recommendations to coach senior executives and leadership teams.

However, my vision was to spread the benefits of coaching beyond senior executives. I wanted to bring ‘coaching to the heart of leadership’. I could see huge potential if we get line managers within organisations to coach and develop their own team members to increase performance.

So, we designed and put together a practical coaching training programme for leaders, accredited by EMCC. This enabled us to give line managers an internationally recognised qualification in coaching and mentoring. The relatively short programme is designed to be practical, relevant and embed coaching skills into a leader’s daily working environment. It has been highly successful and a cornerstone of our business ever since.

 

What does the business look like today?

This month we celebrate 15 years as a business and we now have a great team of 19 coaches, trainers and consultants spread across the UK. All of our coaches are qualified and very experienced business leaders.

We work with large corporates, professional firms and high-growth businesses across all industry sectors. Our client list within the financial services sector includes well-known large corporates such as Standard Life, Tesco Bank, Macquarie Bank, Lloyds Banking Group as well as independent financial adviser practices.

Our range of coaching and leadership training courses has expanded significantly, and an important development has been how we train professionals, such as financial advisers, in coaching techniques to help them improve how they interact with clients and deliver their advisory services.

 

What is your ideal assignment?

An ideal assignment would be when we combine our coaching, training and change consultancy expertise to help develop a coaching culture within an organisation. This would involve coaching the team of top executives, training all line managers in coaching and adding other leadership skills to the mix, such as motivation, development, performance management and helping people through change. We have had some outstanding success stories which has attracted national media attention. Seeing how some organisations go from an old-fashioned command and control approach to a modern coaching style is immensely rewarding, as is witnessing the benefits on staff morale, personal growth and business results. This work allows me to see my original vision coming to fruition!

 

What motivates you most about coaching leaders?

Our coaching assignments vary considerably, but it is fundamentally about developing a business leader’s thinking, behaviours and performance. Sometimes, this involves being a sounding board for key strategic decisions, other times,  it will be about driving radical organisational transformations, or it might be helping a functional director (such as a CFO) to step up to a CEO role.

What really motivates me is when I see leaders get ‘aha’-moments and question some of their beliefs about themselves and the world around them, and through this insight get new ideas, or radically change how they think, behave and lead their organisations. Since these leaders are influencing many people in their organisations and in some cases, even their industry, the impact can be felt by hundreds, if not thousands of people. Months later, I may hear some positive news in the media or see something change in their organisation, and I know that I was there when the CEO made the ‘discovery’ that started this. It’s a great feeling to know that not only did I help the CEO, but also positively helped many more people. The glory of course goes entirely to the CEOs - it was their insight and decision-making, I just facilitated the thinking that led to it.

 

How has the coaching industry evolved and where is it going?

15 years ago, coaching often involved helping underperforming leaders. Now, leaders increasingly understand the benefits of coaching and our clients tend to be very successful leaders in their own right, yet are looking to improve even further and step up to another level. Think of how a successful sports performer looks to their coach to continue to improve and gain an edge over their competitors. It is similar in the business world.

We have seen coaching evolve from being an exclusive benefit for a few fortunate top corporate executives to become more mainstream. Large organisations employ internal coaches to help middle managers and other staff, and managers are trained to use coaching as part of their style. We are seeing coaching being applied to help business owners and entrepreneurs grow their businesses and we are seeing ‘health coaching’ for patients in the NHS. So, the coaching approach is now finding many positive outlets.

Coaching is not a protected term, anyone can call themselves a coach, but through the work that the professional bodies are doing, organisational buyers are increasingly discerning and will readily ask to see qualifications and credentials. They are right to do so, coaching is not an easy discipline and it takes a lot of skill and training to do it well.

 

 

What would you say makes you and Quiver Management ideally placed to provide coaching for leaders?

Over 15 years we have steadily increased our credibility as coaches. My entire team is made up of qualified and experienced business leaders who have long been at the leading edge of using coaching to help individuals, teams and organisations develop and grow. We’re proud to have won a number of quality awards for our coaching and training programmes. We are members of professional bodies and have signed up to their Code of Ethics. Our coaching training programmes are accredited by EMCC and our leadership training by the ILM. Most importantly of all, we have an impressive track record with excellent feedback from our clients.

 

 

What would you say are the top 3 qualities that make a good leader?

I am of course biased in terms of advocating that coaching should be at the heart of good leadership. Great leaders believe in the importance of developing their people and building capability, and they possess the coaching skills to have high quality development conversations with their team members. But of course, coaching is not the only quality that makes a good leader, I also believe that good leaders are visionary. They can paint a picture of the future and inspire their team to follow their vision.

The third element I would pick is their ability to execute. A great leader is able to engage, motivate and when needed - ‘drive’ their teams to meet their goals. I’m fortunate enough to be working with great leaders across many different sectors and types of organisations.

I would like to add one more characteristic of a great leader, and that is that they are often humble enough to recognise that they are far from perfect and that they are keen to continue learning, to be challenged and develop.

 
Thank you for taking the time.

You are very welcome, it has been a pleasure.

 Contact details:

www.quivermanagement.com

jan@quivermanagement.com

 

 

It’s a discussion that has been ongoing since business was a thing. Why should the boss be paid more than his/her employees? Here Chris Abbass, co-founder of Talentful, delves deep into the considerations to make when posing this question.

As the founder of a fast-growing business, I can attest to the levels of stress, sacrifice and sleepless nights executives go through to build and run their companies. At an executive level, you are expected to be available 24hrs a day and have a huge amount of responsibility for the successes, but also any failures your business may go through. Further, individuals who set up businesses take on an immense amount of risk – they have much less security, and put themselves at risk of potential failure if the business does not go to plan, which can greatly damage their reputation.

When it comes to CEOs and those at C level positions, though they did not start the business, they have the success of it resting on their shoulders. We have seen many individuals at executive level get fired for things that have gone wrong without the bat of an eyelash. Executives are in positions with the highest risk and are held accountable for anything that goes wrong or right in the organisation. Because of this, I believe that their pay should be reflective of their successes and failures.

Pay, at the executive level, should always be in line with how well the business is doing, how successful they are, and how much value the individual is bringing the business. If the business is performing well this should be reflected in executive pay. Conversely, if an organisation’s performance is very bumpy and inconsistent, then CEOs should not be taking home huge pay checks and bonuses.

An example of when executive pay has gone tremendously wrong was during the economic crisis when big bankers were taking home massive bonuses while firms were failing and people were losing their jobs and homes. As a business founder, I believe this is unacceptable and suggests individuals taking advantage of their position and thus their pay. This should never happen, but on the other hand, if banks and institutions are doing very well and are creating a lot of money for the economy, then executives undoubtedly deserve their large pay checks and bonuses. Overall, executive pay should reflect on how well the individual is doing. If you are making losses for the business and are putting your employees out of jobs, you should not be taking home a massive salary.

Executive pay should be an accurate reflection of the amount of work and pressure the individual takes on and should be proportionate to the size and profitability of the business. If a company is losing money, then this should be reflected in executive pay, and conversely, if the company is over-performing those at the top should reap the rewards.

James Scouller spent nearly 30 years in the corporate world before becoming an executive coach. In that time he worked in engineering, fast-moving consumer goods, fashion retailing, packaging and wallpaper.  In his last 11 years he held three international CEO roles.  After the third, he left to set up The Scouller Partnership, an executive coaching firm, in 2004.

James coaches leaders and their teams – his clients are CEOs, heads of divisions and subsidiaries, MD-owners of smaller private firms, other senior executives and younger high-potential managers.  Their age range is typically 35 to 55.

 James is also author of The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, a critically acclaimed book which has received international recognition for its new ideas on growing leaders.

 

Why do you think executive coaching has become so popular?

Put simply, because it works.

Traditional training is great if you want to learn technical skills and absorb theory, like law or accounting. But as most of us have noticed, it’s not so good for transferring interpersonal skills.

Think of the people you know who’ve gone on expensive leadership courses. Did they behave any differently on their return to work? For almost everyone I’ve talked to, the answer is always ‘no’.

Why didn’t the training help? It’s because if we’re trying to learn and apply new behaviour that clashes with powerful limiting beliefs and the habits they create, the old beliefs and habits triumph every time. And that blocks the learning.

For example, imagine you’re teaching senior executives to handle difficult conversations better. They may hear what you’re saying, but deep down they often believe it’s risky to open up and say what they’re really thinking and feeling about the other person’s attitude or performance. This is because they’re often afraid of conflict or coming across as a nasty person. Those fears – which stem from limiting beliefs – will easily overwhelm an embryonic new behaviour. So under pressure they won’t change their behaviour even if they’ve practised several role-plays.

The only way to build and apply new behavioural habits in the face of powerful limiting beliefs is to surface and examine them. But I don’t know any executive who’d open up to the rest of the group on a training course and admit private stuff, especially stuff they are uncomfortable with. It’s not going to happen.

But it can and does happen in private, with a skilled executive coach they trust and respect. The coach can help the person let go of the old belief and build new habits that persist even under pressure.

In other words, the coach can go to places that the trainer can’t. That’s why I think executive coaching has grown so quickly in the last twenty years.

 

So what kind of results can clients achieve with good coaching?

It’s no exaggeration to say the effects of executive coaching can be transformational.

Let me show you two typical examples of before-and-after coaching profiles. Both clients scored themselves on 32 qualities – 10 focused on their mental performance state and 22 on their ability to choose their behaviour skilfully under pressure.

To make sure they weren’t kidding themselves, we also interviewed their colleagues at the start and end of the coaching assignments. In both cases, the observers’ comments backed up the clients’ own ratings.

The important thing to note is the dramatic change in both clients’ overall profiles.

As you can see from the first example, over 13 months the client achieved a huge change in her overall profile, with feedback from colleagues confirming she had become ‘much more effective … with greater leadership presence.’  You can see she changed all of her negative scores into positives. She’s since been promoted to a Managing Director role.

The second client’s challenge was to become a more skilful leader of organisational change. After 14 months’ hard work, he achieved a remarkable change in his overall profile. Feedback from his six observers confirmed the shift. His mental state changes laid the foundations for his improved ability to connect with and influence others while displaying greater leadership presence. He has now adopted a much more personal touch when communicating with both board colleagues and everyone else in his firm.

 

How does this kind of individual transformation benefit an organisation’s performance?

The major mental and behavioural shifts that you can achieve through good coaching always translate into performance gains for organisations – sometimes very quickly.

Nine years ago, I coached the engineering director of a £5m engineering firm in Scotland. His boss was the Managing Director and owner of the business. He’d hired the engineering chief three years earlier to help him win more business in four ways. First, by inventing new products. Second, by raising on-time delivery of customer engineering projects (as too many had been arriving later than promised). Third, by delivering the projects faster. Fourth, by responding quicker to customers’ requests for quotes.

The engineering director had been given money and three new engineers to support him. In all, the investment had added hundreds of thousands of pounds to the firm’s cost base.

After three years, there’d been no invention. On-time delivery of projects to customers (which was the most important metric of all) had worsened. Engineering projects were taking longer – so long they were now behind the industry average. And customers were receiving quotes even slower than before.

The Managing Director had done everything he could to help this man improve his performance. He was a fine engineer, but nothing worked. Unsurprisingly, relations between the two were tense.

I was hired to help the engineering director turn his performance around. With the Managing Director’s input we agreed three coaching goals to be achieved within seven months:

 

(1) Improve project on-time delivery from 40% to 80%.

(2) Cut project lead times from 11 weeks to 9 weeks.

(3) Raise the percentage of customer quotes answered within 5 days from 42% to 60%.

 

After seven months the results were staggering. The client had raised on-time delivery from 40% to 93%; well beyond the 80% goal. He cut lead times from 11 to 7 weeks (the best in the industry) and 2 weeks better than target. And he boosted the percentage of customer quotes answered within five days from 42% to 63%, just ahead of the 60% target.

The firm’s sales and margins soon increased and the ROI from coaching was clearly visible.

 

What is the key to getting results like these?

You won’t be surprised to hear there’s no single key, but certain basics must be in place. Yes, the coach must be well-trained. But more than that, coach and client must build a strong relationship based on two-way respect and trust. Clients must feel their coach knows what they’re doing, understands their challenges and that everything they discuss remains confidential. That’s the first thing.

Second, clients must be serious about growing as a leader. Clients have to put work in if they are to change their behavioural habits under pressure. The clients who get the best results with me are the ones who do what they said they’d do between meetings.

It’s important too that the whole process is measurable. After all, companies are paying for clients to be better executives or leaders than they were before the coaching. In other words, clients and their sponsors want to see positive change.

It’s essential to set measurable goals at the start, with feedback from the client’s colleagues, and measure progress as you go. At least halfway through – and certainly by the end of the coaching – the client and sponsoring firm should be able to see what change there’s been with measurable data. I don’t think coaches can forget that companies want a return on investment. You’ve seen how we can measure results from the earlier examples.

I’d say the fourth key is the coach’s own experience as a leader. Too many people approach leadership as an intellectual concept. To some degree it is, but as seasoned leaders know, it’s also a felt experience. Coaches working in the leadership field need to have experienced the pressure – the difficult times – of having to lead, of having to connect upwards, sideways and downwards. My own first-hand experience as a leader means I can understand other leaders’ personal challenges and emotions – plus the wider pressures on them coming from the rest of the company.

There’s a fifth key. If clients want transformational results, it means they’ll be working on their inner limiting beliefs, feelings and perhaps their values. Here it’s not enough for coaches to rely on tools and techniques. In my view, they need to be working on their self-mastery – that is, mastery of their minds and habits. Why?  Because clients will have to work on self-mastery if they want to achieve transformational outcomes. Coaches must walk their talk and show their own commitment to self-mastery so they can act as models for their clients.

The final key is a clear coaching process that’s grounded in sound, powerful ideas around leadership and personal growth. Coaching shouldn’t jump around from session to session in a random way.

 

You mentioned powerful ideas so let’s talk about your book, The Three Levels of Leadership. Who is it for and why has it sold so well?

The book is a practical manual for leaders and people aspiring to be leaders. This is regardless of their field, whether it’s business, military, education, charities or whatever.

I think it’s sold well because it has new ideas and tools to help 21st century leaders meet their greatest challenges. It has probably the most compact, complete learning model you’ll find for executives wanting to grow themselves as leaders. I compare the book to a Swiss army knife – it gives you all the key ideas and tools you need in one unified, compact master model.

 

So much has been written about leadership already. Why do we need new ideas? 

You’re right – the market for leadership books is saturated. But so much of what’s out there is either academic or based on personal experience. So it isn’t intended to – or able to – help leaders grow.

Meanwhile, all the data shows that business leaders are struggling to engage employees. And research shows repeatedly that the higher your people’s engagement, the higher your margins, innovation, customer service, growth and shareholder returns. The biggest survey I saw showed that only 13% of employees feel fully engaged and nearly twice that number are actively disengaged, meaning they’re prepared to commit hostile acts. The rest, just over 65%, don’t care at all. That’s not the only problem. Belief in business leaders’ competence, trustworthiness and honesty is 20% at best.

In short, leaders are struggling to lead. That’s why we need new ideas and that’s what I aim to deliver.

 

Could you give us a quick summary of the book’s main ideas?

The book provides an in-depth, easy to read collection of models and tools which I call the Leadership Mastery Suite. Keeping things simple, it has three learning blocks.

The first is mental model mastery. It’s about surfacing, unpacking and replacing your old mental models around leadership and being the leader to help you pay more skilful attention to what matters most.

The big idea here is what I call the four dimensions of leadership.

Let me explain. Without realising it, pretty much every leader I work with, holds unhelpful ideas (mental models) around leadership and what it means to be a leader. These ideas usually cause you and others serious problems. For example, they increase leaders’ sense of inadequacy. This magnifies your tendency to be too task-focused (and ignore the need to connect with and influence people) or be too relationship-focused (and ignore the need for clear tough choices and decisions).

Mental model mastery is about uncovering these unhelpful ideas, challenging them and then replacing them with something far more useful and practical: the four-dimensional view of leadership. Once that’s done, it’s about helping you understand the four dimensions in detail and the specific aspects you need to focus on in your role right now. This is the foundation stone for the other two learning blocks. Without this foundation, I’ve found most leaders find it harder to succeed.

Historically, I’ve used confidential one-to-one coaching in this learning block. However, I’ve recently introduced a one-day intensive for those who want powerful experiential learning in a group setting. I also offer an enterprise diagnostic to help leaders understand which of the four dimensions they need to focus on right now and which aspects within that dimension need action.

The second learning block is self-mastery. This is the most transformational of the three learning blocks. It’s about helping clients handle the four dimensions of leadership with more skill, presence, flexibility, energy, resilience and genuineness. This enables you to connect with and influence people better.

Self-mastery is where we get into limiting beliefs and the tools – especially a technique I call 4R – for helping you change your behavioural habits even when your hot buttons are pressed. The results you saw in those earlier diagrams came from self-mastery coaching. Most of my client work is in the self-mastery zone, although I expect my assignments in the other two learning blocks to grow in the next five years.

The last block is knowhow mastery. The aim here is to help you gain the technical knowhow most leaders lack in addressing the four dimensions of leadership, which was the big idea in the first learning block. If you set aside the question of seniority and sector, there are only four knowhow areas all leaders should master. They are:

 

For knowhow mastery, I combine one-to-one coaching with group coaching, team coaching, workshops and enterprise diagnostics.

 

What should readers do if they’re interested in learning more?

The ideas and tools I’ve touched on here are explained in the second edition of my book, The Three Levels of Leadership. If you’re interested in exploring coaching or any of my other services you can email me at james@thescoullerpartnership.co.uk and ask for a free “How to lead change” extract from the book. Or you can call me on +44 (0)1525 718023 to explore the Leadership Mastery Suite and discuss how I might help you or your organisation.

Contact details

James Scouller
The Scouller Partnership
Website: www.thescoullerpartnership.co.uk
Email: james@thescoullerpartnership.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1525 718023

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