My coaching
My involvement in coaching began when I was based in Frankfurt as leader of CMS across Europe. In my role there, I was one step removed from operational management and found that the key skills that I needed were persuasion and an ability to build consensus. I undertook the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme (www.meylercampbell.com) in order to become better at my job and to codify my previous management experience. I found coaching as an approach to leadership both hugely stimulating and effective.
Like coaching, leadership in a professional services organisation is about allowing individuals to set their agendas and own the outcomes. Competitive advantage usually comes not from the work that leaders bring in and do themselves but from their ability to build teams that deliver consistent and high quality performance.
Having found the experience of developing others both personally rewarding and significantly additive to the bottom line, my own style of leadership evolved to become predominantly facilitative. My later years as a law firm leader were primarily about putting this into effect: having a clear sense of direction for the organisation as a whole and allowing individuals and teams the flexibility, and providing them with the support, to achieve success within that framework.
From that point on, as I spent more time coaching in my leadership role and also as a member of the Meyler Campbell Faculty and tutor of its Business Coach Programme, I was clear that I wanted my future career to be as an executive coach. While I found the experience of leading a law firm and working alongside very able colleagues profoundly satisfying, I am delighted now to have the opportunity to work on a one-to-one basis with clients who are senior leaders in a variety of different organisations and industries.
This journey has involved challenge as well as opportunity, through which I have benefited from working with my own coach. The challenges of finishing a role and leaving an organisation, navigating push-back from within and charting a course for the next stage of my career are all experiences that many senior leaders will face and which equip me better for my own coaching work with clients.
Contact Dick: dick@dicktyler.com