Executive Presence: Coaching in a VUCA World

Disruption is pushing us ever faster toward an incredibly smart and creative future—one that demands dynamic leadership skills as:

• Computers double their capabilities every 12 to 18 months
• Intelligence explodes at a pace both incomprehensible and overwhelming
• Customers’ expectations become even more demanding and immense

How can we up our game as we coach leaders who work in this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) global environment? Use these coaching elements.

Know Your Client Intimately

Intimately means deeply enough to have more meaningful conversations!

My company’s philosophy is “Relationships are built on trust and respect—cemented with shared experiences.” Get engaged with your client and stay engaged. Be sincerely interested in their business, know what’s important to them, learn what drives them and what they enjoy outside of work. That’s not prying—that’s caring.

In his classic best-selling book, Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, Harvey Mackay lists things to learn about your client so you can better understand how to build trust and intimacy.

Become a Knowledge Ninja

As executive coaches, it’s important for us to be well informed about a lot of things—and with the vast amount of information at our fingertips, knowledge of our clients’ business trends is readily available.

Be especially attuned to your clients’ industry developments. Feel what they feel if you walked in their shoes. Visualize your client’s typical daily routine—if there is such a thing! When your coaching practice includes shadowing your client, pay attention to their behaviors throughout the day as they make decisions, handle people, attend events, does tasks, and manage interruptions. Try to think like they think.

In a VUCA environment, ask yourself, “Does my client view me as a valued partner? Do they sense that I appreciate them right where they are? Do they believe that I am totally non-judgmental? Finally, would I want to be coached by me? Why?”

Know your client, know their world, and know that your coaching consistently brings value to their development.

Listen at the 4th Level: Intuitive Listening

Did you ever notice that the word listen carries the same letters as the world silent? Being an exceptional executive coach requires listening at the deepest level, called Intuitive Listening.

In a VUCA world, situations are not always black and white; there are plenty of grays. It’s your responsibility to acknowledge those gray areas. Pay attention to your intuition or a sensation that is telling you there is more to understand than what is being shared. Listen to not only what is being said, but how the client is saying it or even what the client is not saying. Ask yourself, “Is the client skirting an issue? Is their tone of voice changing with different degrees of inflection? What am I sensing that is being left out? Where are the gray areas?”

Realize that when your client is talking, they expect you to hear their ideas along with the facts. By honing your probing, open-ended questions, you will allow your client the spaciousness to share openly, to discover and to reveal their personal thoughts. You might say something like, “I can sense there may be more to share on this….” Then sit back and listen!

Now, show up with executive presence knowing you are competent and confident to coach leaders in this speeding world of Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous global disruption.

©Valerie Sokolosky, PCC