Coaching
Robert has coached individuals from many different walks of life: entrepreneurs, property developers, yoga teachers, investors, consultants, tech executives, ex army officers, TV producers, osteopaths, those between jobs, and even other coaches.
Robert’s executive coaching clients have come from businesses including BAE Systems, Capital Group, Farfetch, LGT Vestra, and Pearson; charities including Cancer Research UK; government departments including Health, Education and the Foreign Office; and several startups.
The three main benefits of coaching with Robert are:
1. Clarity on the current issue
2. Clarity on the way forward
3. Clarity on how to get there
Coaching sessions are for one hour. They are entirely confidential. They can be booked ad hoc, or as a package. Below is an example of a coaching package for a corporate client.
1
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Current context
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Prior history
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Goal setting
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Presenting issues
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Self-assessment
2
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Self-awareness/ available feedback
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Johari Window
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Spotting patterns
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SWOT analysis
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Live feedback
3
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Alignment with company: vision, values, behaviours
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Job goals and challenges
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Career path
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Managing upwards and downwards
4
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Underlying issues 1: in the present
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Boundaries between personal and professional life
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Unconscious roles played or projected at work
5
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Underlying issues 2: in the past
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Systemic connections
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Historic entanglements
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Family dynamics
6
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Future planning
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Sustaining the change
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Establishing developmental milestones
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Working in the present
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Building resilience
ON SELF-SABOTAGE
In principle, the idea of self-sabotage is madness. Why would anyone in their right mind undermine their own chances of success or happiness?
Yet it happens. Among coaching clients, I have encountered it many times.
So how do we account for self-sabotage? Here are three ways:
1. You reach a certain point in your career and/or relationship - the point at which it’s going to the next level - and you do something to wreck it. Why? Because you don’t have the confidence to play on that next level. Maybe you suffer from imposter syndrome. You feel you have reached the limit of your capabilities and so pull back, or walk away, or get yourself ruled out. So that’s a capability x confidence explanation.
2. At a deeper level, you sabotage yourself not only because you feel you don’t deserve to advance, but worse, you feel as if you ought to experience failure. It’s a kind of masochism whereby you punish yourself. Perhaps you are repeating a childhood experience of feeling worthless. You repeat it because you didn’t understand it. Sadly, the repeating doesn’t resolve it. That’s a repetition-of-punishment explanation.
3. You have a perhaps unconscious attachment or loyalty to someone in your family system whose life didn’t go or hasn’t gone well. To do better than them makes you feel guilty - again, not necessarily at a conscious level. To sabotage yourself is to ensure you don’t go beyond them. Doing so would be to cruelly highlight their difficulties. In failing, you spare them from their failures. The irony being that most people in our family system want us to succeed, even where they have failed. This is a systemic loyalty explanation.
PS the word ’sabotage’ comes from the French for a wooden shoe. Workers supposedly threw their shoes into machinery to stop it functioning. The etymology is debated, however.
Josh
Investment Executive
“Robert has helped me find perspective as I reflect on my career and given me the tools to cope with performance anxiety and be a better employee for my firm and a better colleague to my peers. He is not afraid to have hard conversations and challenge me when he needs to which I have found has helped me overcome many challenges. I am grateful that we work together and look forward to continuous improvement with Robert's help over time."
Vivian
Green Energy Director
"Robert is an excellent coach. He helped me navigate a very difficult time professionally, by shifting my perspective, which in turn led to some big changes in my life. He is thoughtful and kind, but also managed to challenge traditional constructs and urged me to think critically about my core assumptions. "
Richard
Financial Strategist
“Robert‘s help has been invaluable. Given his multi faceted background, he can approach conversations from multiple angles. He has a wonderful ability to join the dots, provide challenge and and insight.”