Having ‘felt the fear and done it anyway’ and changed my career, one key issue that has become a common theme with my journey into consultancy is the need for personal development both within and outside work.
Many industry leaders I have met have talked about the desire to take the time out for themselves, so they can develop greater insight into why they are doing things right and what they can do better. Indeed with the introduction of Behavioural Economics as a key strategy for the financial regulation of the UK financial services industry, we are now seeing a wider acceptance for the irrationality of human behaviour in general and a capacity for self-deception and dysfunctional work culture that can lead to high risk and avoidable problems.
Indeed the social science tells us that work based ‘motivators’ such as money and power or ‘de-motivators’ such as the threat of punishment only lead to short-term commitments. Professors of motivation theory such as Victor Vroom (expectancy) and Edward Deci (self determination) found that reaction to extrinsic motivation factors is short lived.
With the new fast paced, technologically laden world of work and a basic human need and desire for a work-life balance, career professionals are now looking to other, alternative methods to create harmony and balance whilst maintaining high performance and provide meaning and satisfaction within their work.
Executive coaching helps senior executives and their teams clarify their goals and facilitates strategies to achieve them in ethical and sustainable ways. This provides the opportunity for constructive behaviour and culture to grow and organisations to develop compliant conduct and client centricity.
Coaches are interested in helping the coachee perform and to progress, and the organisation is interested because that progress is almost certainly linked to results.
This aligns with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) drive for effective culture and behaviour within retail financial services firms and in protecting consumers’ best interests. The regulator is now interested in the holistic approach firms are taking rather than just a tick box exercise to buyer beware approaches that have so clearly failed.
So what we are now seeing amongst top executives and motivated management is an open mind in employing an executive coach within their organisation to develop positive cultures that promote long lasting behavioural change and facilitates a client centred business.
Such enterprise has started with leadership and a vision for people management and performance change brought about by organisations employing executive coaches to work with leaders, teams and employees to better understand and support the need for lasting change and how this can be attained effectively, ethically, efficiently and holistically.
