to your potential
to your goals
to your future
Distinctions Executive Coaching is an executive coaching practice operating globally, and based in the UK. Prior to becoming a corporate coach, Joanna worked in investment banking with Citigroup, South Africa, for the most part as a Senior VP, overseeing multinational clients across a number of varied industry sectors. She also managed the international business segment for CEEMEA from Brussels and London, covering 16 industries across 38 countries. Her experience in international business and banking structures has proven an indispensable platform for relating to and understanding the variation of challenges facing her clients.
Using focused and measurable outcomes that are linked to the client’s business objectives and organisational goals, we use integral coaching techniques to help clients develop an understanding of their patterns, unearth latent potential, and learn how to go about using that potential to achieve their desired goals. Ultimately, coaching is a way of working with people so they are able to contribute positively to their organisations and find meaning in what they do.
We provide an effective and sustainable method to grow self-awareness, and enhance executive impact, influence and performance in leadership. We enable individuals to grow flexibility in managing change environments and to increase creativity and strategic planning. Working with us enables development of both individual and team behaviours, as well as the retention of top leadership talent.
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• Over 20 years of executive coaching experience
• As a prior SVP, a deep understanding of the variation of challenges faced by clients
• A rounded approach including Integral Coaching, Leadership Development, Somatic Intelligence, Systemic Constellations for Business, and the Enneagram
One-one coaching between a trained professional coach and a client in a business environment, with the aim of helping the executive become more competent and fulfilled in their career. Executive coaching is a skilful way to develop a leader’s self-awareness – to expand upon how they observe their world, and how their “way of being” affects their impact and influence as a leader.
Coaching tailored specifically around the CEO’s needs. Like every individual, every CEO is different and has a different set of challenges. To understand those challenges, the coach themselves should ideally have specific experience at management level within a corporate environment, and with strong business, industry, and cultural intuition.
Team coaching creates collective awareness around two distinct types of work: taskwork, and teamwork. Sharing, open communication, and building trust in team coaching helps to create a supportive climate where ideas can flourish and take shape. When people feel safe enough to make suggestions or challenge assumptions, we make better, more constructive decisions, collectively, and courageously. Team coaching is tailor made according to your organisation’s specific requirements.
Business coaching supports sustainable leadership behaviour change, by applying self observations and practices experientially, across the area of language, body (somatic) and EQ emotion, based on the understanding that human behaviour change takes place when we ‘embody’ practising new behaviours, rather than only from a cognitive headspace. Thus allowing you to gain clarity, enhance company culture and encourage positive change within your business.
To support you in minimising self doubt, building your confidence as a leader and aid in achieving your personal development goals, and provide guidance to move from good to great, by reflecting any blind spots back for observation and correction – often when we are too ‘in it’ we are unable to see the relationship between our habits and behaviours that don’t serve us and how they impact an organisation. An executive coach will gently reflect these growth points back to you, to update outdated habits and beliefs and offer relevant insight and coaching support to encourage high performance culture within your organisation.
The role of an integral executive coach is to support senior leaders in moving from good to great, in a confidential, adult learning space, acting as a sounding board, guiding leaders to self observe and self correct any behavioural blind spots, releasing old habits and beliefs that are no longer sustainable, and building up an internal behavioural muscle, experientially over time, that supports sustainable behaviour change and ultimately leads to success.
You want to find a coach who has been where you want to go, possibly with previous corporate experience. Also, research an ICF (International Coach Federation) highly qualified coach, with years of experience, both in the corporate world, as well as in their executive coaching practice
Life coaching differs from executive coaching, in that career coaching focuses on leadership development behaviour and career trajectory development, potentially after a career change or to enhance their current management processes, whilst simultaneously focusing on the life of the human being behind the leader, therefore improving their overall performance.
Absolutely. Executive coaches who consistently retain and refine their global professional coaching qualifications; via the ICF, the global regulatory body for coaching; know how to contract with you and your business for an effective coaching intervention, are in regular supervision sessions, and hold themselves highly accountable to tailor making an effective coaching intervention for their clients
Some coaches charge by the hour, while others charge by the engagement – the latter approach is preferred. Business coaching fees vary depending on the experience and qualification of the coach, their approach to coaching, and the results they achieve on behalf of their clients. I would link the pricing of the coaching to both the company requirements for coaching, as well as to the accreditation level and experience of the coach. For example, an MCC Master level accredited coach will have over 2500 hours of coaching experience.
Leading articles within the industry have highlighted calculations to simplify the process of measuring a Return On Investment (ROI) for these specific forms of engagement. Alternative measurement methods include ways to gauge the relationship between your coaching results and the objective set at the beginning of the coaching process; this is assessed via information from your Return On Expectation (ROE).
Business coaching works optimally when it is the right time for the coachee for their personal and professional development, as the mentoring process requires focus, discipline in the application of the self observation and practice, and repetition experientially in order to shift any unwanted leadership behaviours, evolvement into a great leader for the organisation. The buy in and commitment to the coaching journey thus needs to ultimately come from the coachee, rather than from line managers or HR.
An executive coaching approach can assist you in developing strategic thinking to improve your leadership skills & presence; moving from manager to leader; growing EQ emotional intelligence, impact and influence; having feedback and difficult conversations with ease; growing self awareness; a confidential sounding board for C-Suite, Exco or Board level coaching; and a space to explore Purpose, Meaning and a spiritual approach, as required.
If you are looking for a safe space to explore where you are currently in your career, where you’d like to get to in 3 to 5 years in your career trajectory, and what specific leadership behaviour tools or ‘muscles’ you need to develop experientially, over time, in order to get there, then career coaching sessions will be of benefit to you.
Career coaching is not another action item for you ‘to do list, nor is it a ‘tick box exercise’. To prepare for an executive coaching intervention, be prepared to be dislodged from your comfort zone, generally as adults, we only ever shift behaviours at the edge of our comfort zone and even the best business leaders can benefit for leaving their comfort zone and work on building relationships within their teams with a fresh perspective from a great coach.
It is important that you choose a coach who you feel you have trust and rapport with, and a coach that will both support and challenge you along the journey. It is common for a coachee to interview up to 3 coaches in coaching chemistry chats, prior to selecting the executive coach that is a right fit for you and your development journey.
Typically, a coaching engagement is 6 x 2 hour sessions, across 6-8 months. These sessions can be held face to face or virtually, and if virtually, can also be broken down into 1 hour sessions. A personality assessment tool, such as the Enneagram, as well as 360 Feedback tools, are often introduced into the program, if they are useful, as a coaching program is completely tailored to the coachee. Initially and at the end, a 3 way Line Manager, coach and coachee conversation takes place to engage the external stakeholder in the coaching, where we review the Coaching Outcomes program together.
Joanna Bown
Distinctions Executive Coaching
Phone : +44 (0) 7715 134776
Email : joanna@distinctionscoaching.com
Skype : joannabowncoach
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Distinctions Executive Coaching, 124 City Rd, London EC1V 2NX
Vat No: GB258500309
Company No: 10463670
A 48 hour cancellation policy is in place to ensure session times are filled. Reasonable flexibility is always given when rescheduling, but any appointments cancelled within a 48 hour period may incur a cancellation fee.