How can I benefit from Executive Coaching?

Version Four specialises in Executive Coaching for IT professionals and Project Management professionals. This is an audience that few Executive Coaches have experience in -- we do. We understand the special professional challenges that these people face.

Executive Coaching is not like consulting or mentoring. The Coach does not provide advice, rather, they give you the time and mental space that most people don’t otherwise have in order to reflect, in a structured and supportive way, on your job performance, and on how to leverage your strengths and address areas for growth. The Executive Coach listens in a non-judgmental way, stimulates your creative problem-solving, and guides you to insights and ways forward that you generate yourself. Think of the Executive Coach as Dr. Watson unleashing your inner Sherlock Holmes.

Areas typically covered can include:

• Leadership and confidence

• Team dynamics and work relationships

• Career progression and long-term professional goals

• Motivation and prioritisation

Challenges typically covered in Executive Coaching

General Topics

• I have a difficult relationship with a co-worker, and I want to make it better

• I have trouble speaking up in meetings

• I avoid disagreement, even when I am confident that I am in the right

• My team seems unmotivated

• I think the expectations of me at work are unreasonable

• I’m losing enthusiasm for my job

• I feel like my career has stalled

• I procrastinate

• I feel like I keep getting passed over for promotion

• I have poor work-life balance

• I really struggle with working from home

• I have trouble asking for help at work

IT Professional Topics

• The executives in my organisation have unrealistic expectations of technology and timelines

• I'm managing a mess of old legacy systems that are no longer fit for purpose

• I have trouble managing lots of consultants, sub-contractors and service providers

• The executives I work for don't understand the strategic value that IT can bring

• I spend so much time keeping our systems running that I don't have time to make strategic contributions

• I'm struggling to manage multiple interdependent IT projects

• I have a hard time keeping current with technology

• Why are so many of my projects behind schedule?

• Users have created a lot of workaround and home-grown applications that I don't manage -- people don't use the systems we have correctly.

Project Manager Topics

• Leadership has unrealistic expectations of how long projects will take

• My project planners suffer from optimism bias -- they think nothing will go wrong

• Our project requirements change often

• Project team members don't follow good project management practices

• I can't get people to update the plan or create meaningful Status Reports -- they think project management discipline is not their job

• The Project Management Office(s) (PMOs) have become self-important. They focus more on collecting status reports than on helping the project to succeed

• Their is poor communication across the project teams

• Our Project Management tools are not fit for purpose

• We can't get important decisions made

• Risks and issues are left unresolved for too long