Coaching for Leading Cultural Change

Yesterday I had the pleasure of delivering 3 seminars to over 600 International Masters Students at University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School. These students had enrolled in the Managing Strategic Change elective which involves a blend of online lectures and live seminars over a period of 12 weeks.

Having delivered a coaching programme in the summer for the European Summer School for Advanced Management #ESSAM involving managers from across the globe studying for their Executive MBA this was  an excellent opportunity to introduce these current students to the exciting field of coaching relative to managing and leading change. 

The aim of the seminars was to explore with the students the relevance of coaching models and approaches to managing strategic change in organisations inclusive of cultural change. The students were to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of selected coaching models and discuss the core question: Is personal coaching and group coaching necessary to lead successful change? 

The engagement was excellent and the sharing of different perspectives really impressed me.

The proposition that successful change leadership is not just dependent of hard analytical skills; it is also significantly dependent on the conscious leadership skills of the change manager/leader was a central theme that emerged from our dialogue.

The role of coaches who can support the conscious leadership development of change managers/leaders involved in the likes of cultural change initiatives; and indeed any kind of strategic change work was clearly articulated through the discussions.

The base line conclusion was that coaching support relative to strategic change work and the development of change managers/leaders, conscious leadership skills positively impacted on the overall competencies of the change leader.

Drawing from our recent book published by Routledge; Building a Culture of Conscious Leadership  Building a Culture of Conscious Leadership  in our next seminar together we shall unpack a framework for thinking about Conscious Leadership building on yesterday’s seminar on coaching change leaders.  We shall drill down into the critical function of rapport building, enhancing emotional intelligence, generating dialogue and increasing one’s reflective capabilities as key conscious leadership capabilities.  

If you feel you would like to learn more about our approach to coaching the conscious leadership skills of change managers /leaders please do contact myself at [email protected] or visit our website at www.culturalchange.co.uk