Leadership Coaching

Are you feeling overwhelmed with multiple priorities and a to-do list longer than your arm?

Concerned about managing conflict and giving feedback all while motivating the team?

Struggling to create good time management habits?

Not sure when to ‘do’ and when to delegate (not to mention how)?

Stressed and not entirely sure you have enough in the tank to keep pushing on?

You are not alone and leadership coaching will help. I have worked with professionals on these and many more issue for over two decades. Many of the skills that make us good leaders, are not the skills we are taught when learning our craft (e.g. accounting, design or quantity surveyor). It is no wonder that we find it easier to name shocking or average leaders we have had than those that shone.

58% of employees trust strangers more than their own boss.

Harvard Business Review

Is good leadership nature or nurture?

Sure there are more and less natural leadership tendencies, but this is so with many things in life. Regardless of where you sit on the leadership journey, you can always get better. I know, I’ve seen it over and over again for 25 years.

Rachel has helped me with Organisational development, Leadership training and development of company values. She is high energy, creative, trustworthy and can operate at all levels of the organisations. A great coach. She really makes a difference!

Adrian Stockhill. Wellington Water
Dr Rach in front of a brick wall.

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Want to up your leadership game?

Psst want to jump directly to the info on Small Group Leadership Programs?

Leadership is challenging and it doesn’t come naturally to most of us. To add insult to injury, ‘followers’ tend to hold us to very high standards. It is not surprising that I often see leaders feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or like an imposter.

Leadership is seldom taught, and even more seldom taught well. When leaders fail to magically transform into natural leaders after receiving the title (and if they are lucky a two-day course) the consequences can be dire for them and their team.

Rachel has provided White Associates with coaching for our senior leadership team, I wanted someone to grow this team into industry leaders and as part of my succession plan for the business. Rachel is highly effective, understood what I wanted to achieve and delivered outstanding results. The growth in my senior management team has been amazing and much of this is due to Rachel’s influence. I cannot recommend Rachel highly enough and I can assure you that engaging Rachel will be a great decision for you or your company

Graham White, Founding Director White Associates (Cost Consultants)

Leaders needs are varied and complex

I can’t begin to remember all the challenges I have stood alongside leaders on over twenty plus years, here are some that reappear and hence stay in my memory:

  • Balancing multiple life roles e.g. leader, team member, father/mother, partner, friend, carer, community person
  • Stress and guilt, twinned with, yep more stress and guilt
  • Dealing with those horrible working relationships that sap the joy from the job (and sometimes even your home life)
  • Perfectionist leaders with a tendency to micromanage, and difficulty stepping back from this
  • Managing tendencies for negativity and irritability in the office (and home)
  • Feeling stuck or trapped in a role or complex situation unable to move forward

“Rachel has provided high level mentoring and coaching for myself in my management role for many years. I have always found Rachel knowledgeable, trustworthy and very focused on results. I would have no hesitation in recommending Rachel in all forms of coaching or mentoring for personal, leadership and organisational development.”

Martin Adams, General Manager, Geocivil

1-on-1 Evidence-Based Leadership Coaching

Each leader is different, hence I don’t have a one size fits all approach for leadership coaching or courses. Each engagement is customised to the leader(s) based on what their unique needs are. Although the content differs wildly, one-on-one coaching does have a consistent rhythm that looks a bit like this:

  • We begin with getting clear on what you want to achieve. Sometimes this involves a manager and/or HR
  • We agree discuss and agree a package or process that works for you.
  • After every session you will have exercises and activities to try in your real life
  • At the end we review what you have achieved and what you need to put in place to continue your growth
  • We report back to your manager/HR if relevant.

[Rachel] coached me through the first year of this role and is skilled in linking business growth and direction with personal growth and direction. Her skills in helping our organisation set its direction for the future as a group and individuals were fantastic. She has multiple ways to help coach people and is adaptable to the individuals style and I would be happy to have Rachel back coaching me.

Brendan Adams, Operations Manager IPL

To know if working with me might be right for you or one of your team it is easier to get in touch. I offer an obligation and hard-sell-free 30 minute coaching session. You can even throw it right in my diary! One thing to tick of your task list under 70 seconds. Do beware if you are putting a sales call into my diary – to quote my mother, ‘there will be trouble and you will be right in it’.

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Rachel has a talent for coaching, she helped me individually coaching me through personal development areas for my role. I have also observed her coaching others with great results.

Krystal Riley. NorthTec

Rachel is an extremely professional and likeable person who is passionate about her work and the people she coaches. I have personally had Rachel as a coach and she has coached my staff, all agree that the experience has been life changing.

Steve Fraser. MD KRP Thaliand

Small Group Leadership Program

Leadership doesn’t improve without personal development and personal development doesn’t happen without making consistent changes. This program is designed specifically to enable real measurable change to occur.

One of the challenges of many traditional leadership programs is that they are often a day or two and back to business as usual. It is very difficult to create change in this way, even for the most motivated.

My small group leadership program is developed to to enable real measurable change to occur. With four foundation modules delivered in short interactive workshops (2-3hrs) 4 to 6 weeks apart, and activities and coaching circles between. It is designed to put learnings into practice before the course completes. See what David has to say 🙂

Thank you is not enough to express how thankful I am for all the time and effort you have put in. What could have been wrongly seen as just another ‘procedural leadership training’, has made such a difference in my life as a person, Dad and Husband and Leader.

Please feel proud … as much as there’s a lot of things I have still gotta work on, I feel like I have now got the confidence to properly look after and protect myself and the family in today’s crazy world!

David, Construction Cost Consultant

In between the modules, these things will happen ….

  • Leaders are given challenges to complete e.g. giving and receiving feedback, exploring personal values, practicing stress management techniques.
  • Peer coaching circles are held. During these sessions each leader brings a problem/challenge to the session. A facilitated series of round robin processes enables peers to coach each other through finding a way forward.

The four foundation modules are shown below. Please note these are usually customised to meet the needs and background of the leaders attending. Groups are kept to no more than 10 and no less than four. As this is a peer learning process it needs to be small enough for everyone to get involved, share and learn together. Yet large enough there are people to share. Our goldilocks zone if-you-will.

Rachel brings a heap of professional knowledge and capability, along with much personal experience learned in the trenches. Her straight-talking, genuine and empathetic approach to coaching helps to create rapport and a safe space to explore the tough issues.

Andy

Psst Aotearoa NZ businesses

I am a registered provider in the governments Regional Business Partner Network. You may well be eligible for funding of up to 50% of the cost of an inhouse small group leadership program. How cool is that? Find out more and register yourself. I am based in Dunedin, but both deliver online and/or will travel.

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Rachel was an important contributor in the ongoing development of staff through her energy and passion to bring new ideas and concepts in corporate leadership and management. I would highly recommend Rachel to companies looking to lift their business performance through improvements in the capabilities of the leadership teams.

Robin Baxter. BHP

Q n A With Dr Rachel

Do you work with small business owners too?

I surely do, in fact I love it. I have worked as a small business advisor and consultant in the past, which helps me hugely when working with business owners.