Not long ago you were part of a small team of people with a big idea that you thought could change the world. Now you’ve taken on significant investment and are responsible for a rapidly growing team who are looking at you for direction. Your burden of responsibility has increased dramatically and you need to learn to lead quickly. Having coached a lot of new leaders in this situation, in venture capital and private equity-backed businesses, I’ve turned that experience into five pieces of leadership advice.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Executive Coaching
4 questions to improve your leadership self-awareness
Many of my coaching clients come to me because they want to understand what type of leader they are now, and identify what they need to do to become a more effective leader in the future. As their executive coach, my job is to act as their guide on this journey of self-discovery and learning, of which improving self-awareness is a key component.
Leadership can be viewed through four principal lenses. Looking at oneself through each lens allows a leader to ‘see’ multiple perspectives and build self-awareness, so forming a more complete picture of their leadership style and presence. The Four Lenses of Leadership mental model asks four questions:
1). How do you see yourself as a leader?
2). How do you think those around you see you as a leader?
3). How do those around you actually see you?
4). How does the literature’s perspective on leadership influence your own?
Continue readingThe management, leadership & coaching principles of Bill Campbell
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell (Amazon UK, US) is a book about a man who helped build some of America’s greatest companies, including Apple and Google. A former college football player and coach, Bill didn’t enter the business world until he was thirty nine. Moving quickly though through executive roles, he went on to coach the likes of Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Ben Horowitz and Bill Gurley, to name just a few. He passed away in 2016, leaving a legacy of growing companies, successful people and an enormous amount of respect. The book is essential reading for any manager or leader operating in a fast-moving, high growth business.
This post is a summary of Bill Campbell’s approach towards management, leadership & coaching. For more inspiration, sign up to my monthly Newsletter: a curation of blogs, articles, books and podcasts about the future of business and leadership.
Continue readingHow to find & choose an executive coach
Working with an executive coach is a deeply personal and developmental experience. So it’s important to take the time to find and choose the right one. This post explains the role of an executive coach, and provides helpful tips on how to find and choose the right one for you.
Continue readingA collection of the best articles & books for new leaders
Many of my executive coaching clients are new leaders in startup and high growth technology businesses. They often find themselves thrust into a new leadership role without much previous experience or training to prepare them. The spotlight and responsibility of first-time leadership can be daunting but it is an incredible place to learn. As part of my Executive Coaching and startup specific Founder Coaching services, I curate a reading list of the most insightful leadership articles that I have discovered for clients to read and reflect on. From the thought provoking to the practical, here is a continually updated collection of the best articles and books which will help you grow and succeed in a new startup leadership role.
A collection of the best books about executive coaching
Are you a manager or leader who wants to develop your coaching skills? Are you already an executive coach investing in your personal and professional development? Here is a list of the best books about executive coaching that I have read.
How to coach your employees
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever (Amazon UK, US) is one of the best books I’ve read for managers and leaders who want to use a coach approach with their employees but don’t have the time or inclination for formal training. It’s short on theory but long on practical tools and techniques that are a shot to the heart of great coaching.
The author identifies seven questions to ask when taking a coach-approach towards engaging with your team. Rather than spoil the book, I’ll share two challenges that he identifies for anyone seeking to be a better coach-manager or coach-leader.
Continue readingVictor Frankl on finding meaning & happiness
Man’s Search for Meaning (Amazon UK, US) by Victor Frankl is essential reading for anybody interested in happiness, personal growth, the psychology of suffering and mental health. It chronicles the author’s time as an inmate in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. The early chapters do not make for easy reading but the book opens up into one of the deepest and most eloquent explorations of finding meaning and man’s search for meaning and happiness.
Continue readingStriving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man… This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can only be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning.
What is the difference between coaching & mentoring?
The words coaching and mentoring are often used interchangeably, though there are in fact important differences. In his book Coaching for Performance (Amazon UK, US), the late Sir John Whitmore, explains what the difference between coaching and mentoring is. Whitmore is the founder of the coaching movement in the UK. The book is widely considered to be the industry gold standard for performance based coaching.
Continue readingHow to be a great mentor
What does it take to be a great mentor? Talking at the launch of the Forward Partners mentor network event I shared my thoughts about mentoring entrepreneurs (Forward Partners are a leading London-based early-stage venture capital firm). I talked about the importance of listening and understanding, before giving advice, and suggested some questions that mentors can ask to helpfully open up a mentor conversation.
I started with a quote from Sal Virani’s recently released book Mentor Impact. Based on over 200 mentor interviews and extensive personal experience of working with accelerator programmes across Europe, he launches the book with a quote from one of the best mentors he interviewed (also a founder who had been through an accelerator programme). That person’s advice to other mentors: Continue reading