#33 The 7 Top Reasons why 20 Minutes is the New Sweet Spot for Leadership Coaching

This article has the potential of making me very unpopular in the over-crowded marketplace of leadership coaching.?

And I’m fine with that.?

I’m not going out of my way to alienate people. Quite the opposite.?

I want to inform and help.?

It's just that the people I want to inform and help are not other coaches but leaders of change and organisational transformation who have accountability for doing better than the standard 70% failure rate of most change efforts.

Those who need to galvanise the leaders and managers in the business to balance the challenging tasks of keeping the lights on, whilst also delivering the change agenda.

The ‘sticky middle’ have a tough job but effective COOs, CPOs and CTOs (transformation not technology) know that supporting this critical layer in the organisation, developing their change capabilities, and aligning them fully behind the transformation will result in both business growth and efficiencies.?

All of which can be achieved in 20 minutes.?

What do coaching clients want?

Clients of coaching report they want sessions more regularly than the typical 1 every 4/6 weeks. They also prefer shorter sessions, that reflect the pressures on their time. But, more than that, shorter sessions mean several important things can happen that are not available in longer, less regular sessions.

We hear you.

Here are the Top 7 Reasons Exigence Concise Coaching is exciting our coaching clients.

1.

Short sessions enable fuller concentration to be brought to a coaching conversation and maintained. This is key for both the coach and the client. The result is more focus and a better quality experience.?

2.

There is less padding. Most coaches we have spoken with recognise that, in longer sessions, there is a lot of re-rapport building that occurs at the start of each session, which is frankly a waste of valuable time. We have found ways to eliminate the need for this which means stakeholders are getting much greater value from shorter coaching sessions.?

3.

Shorter sessions require some pre-work which, as coaches, we always hope happens ahead of our coaching sessions but, unless you have a methodology that prompts such thinking like Concise Coaching does, then leaders often arrive without having given the aims and objectives of their coaching session sufficient time and space to prepare. No judgement, it is just a reality of being a busy leader in an organisation. But, again, this can result in wasted time and investment.?

4.

Fewer cancellations: If a 2 hour coaching session has to be postponed or cancelled at the last minute because of the nature of the leader’s job or the context of the business, that is a significant cost to the organisation, written off for no benefit. Worst case if that happens with Concise Coaching, is that 20 minutes gets lost.?

5.

More flexibility: Exigence Concise Coaching can be booked on a needs-led basis and, as a result, a leader/manager who wants access to a coach can have one within 24 hours rather than having to wait another 4 to 6 weeks for their next traditional coaching session, by which stage the ‘emergency’ will have passed.?

6.

Developing the reflective practitioner: All Exigence Concise Coaching sessions are followed by some guided reflection exercises so that leaders can reflect on their insights and also firm up their action plans. All of this activity begins to help develop more proactive and thoughtful leaders, leading ultimately to greater self- and other-people-awareness.

And, whilst it can be a bit frustrating for coaches, we all recognise that much of the development that coaching generates comes as a result of the experimenting and trials that leaders undertake as a result of the coaching session.

7.

Real-life contexts are needed in which to practise and learn, not the petri dish of an uninterrupted two hours with an Exec Coach. Shorter, more frequent sessions enable this in an approach that is more akin to Sprint methodology rather than a waterfall or more linear approach.?

In conclusion

20 minutes is both highly effective and cost-efficient. So affordable, in fact, that a Chief Operating Officer observed recently that one session was 20X more affordable than a traditional coaching session. So, when you need to provide individualised support for key cohorts of your change leaders and managers, let us know and we would be happy to help.

Just?click here ?to contact us and we’ll get straight back to you.

Exigence provides a full suite of evidence-based business coaching solutions, driven by a desire to help individuals and teams to achieve their performance potential. Find out more here or book a call to talk through how we can support you.