Creating winning teams - in the UK and internationally

Executive and corporate coaching for leaders and teams

Coaching leaders at all levels in the organisation

Coaching is widely recognised today, in business and the professions, as a rapid and cost-effective way of developing leaders and teams at all levels.

OPC leadership coaches are qualified and experienced, each with a minimum of 7 years' experience of coaching in a corporate environment. In addition to working with corporate clients, several of our leadership coaches work in the education sector, coaching leaders at all levels.

We develop leaders and teams for our clients in the UK and abroad, through individual or group coaching and facilitation.

What is coaching?

Coaching is a structured conversation which enables creative thinking and deepens thought processes. The client chooses their own goal or objective, and then works with the coach to achieve these within an agreed time-frame. Executives and senior leaders look for an experienced executive coach to act as a sounding board, to challenge and to give feedback which their own colleagues do not give. Leaders at all levels can benefit from developing their potential with the right coach.

Your OPC coach works with you to achieve the goal you choose

Coaching example - corporate: A senior leader wants to maximise the potential of her high-performing international sales team. OPC completes a DISC profile for each member of the team, with an individual feedback session by phone and a written 8-page report for each. Stage 2 is a half-day coaching session for the team leader, analysing what the profiling reveals and developing ways to optimise motivation for each of the sales staff. In Stage 3 each team member has a short individual coaching meeting with the DISC coach from OPC; this is followed by a team-building session, facilitated by the coach, in which the group shares their DISC results and creates a 3-month plan to build on the learning, decide new targets and agree strategies to achieve them. As the team works internationally, OPC also provides coaching in intercultural and advanced presentation skills.

Coaching example - in education: A deputy head is unhappy about her job-position in a newly re-structured educational organisation in the UK. She is convinced the vision for the new company is ill-conceived and has lost motivation for her work. She has a series of 5 coaching sessions with an OPC coach which help clarify her thinking, re-awaken enthusiasm for the job and initiate a constructive relationship with her new boss. For more on coaching in education see our Consultancy page.

Your goals can be in an area of communication

You may wish to focus on a goal connected to your work in the UK or internationally, such as

• Cross-cultural skills
• Meetings and presentations
• Confidence and professionalism in English.

OPC offers you a choice of corporate coaches depending on the results you want to achieve. If your aims cannot be achieved by coaching alone, your OPC coach may advise that you consider a training option instead, or in addition.

If you lack confidence in public speaking, presentations or meetings, you will find that working with one of our presentation coaches is very successful.

If you want to improve your English, we recommend you use our English language teachers in our specialist division called Oxford Professional English. If your pronunciation is unclear, their Diction Coaching will help you speak clearly and be understood easily.

OPC coaching options

• as a stand-alone
• as follow-up to a training course from OPC
• as follow-up to a course from another training provider

Coaching after a training course, to integrate new learning into your job

If you choose to follow your training course with a coaching package, you receive much more value and benefit.

Without follow-up coaching, you can leave a course with a good Action Plan which you never implement because you are too busy. Follow-up coaching supports you in transferring new skills from training into your job - and helps you make the time to do so.

Coaching example: After a group course in international influencing skills in a large international oil company, one participant took a course of 8 coaching sessions by phone, over a 3-month period. At the end of the programme, not only had her presentation and meetings skills greatly improved, but all-round confidence and work-load management had significantly improved in addition.

Coaching workshops

OPC runs a series of coaching workshops for businesses and organisations.

 The first is a 1-day workshop called 'Release Your Potential: the 7 Steps to Understanding Coaching'. This course can be customised for  businesses or educational organsiations and run in-house or as an open course.

The second is a 2-day workshop 'Introduction to Coaching' for leaders at all levels, a varied and practical course to introduce the skills of coaching and show how they can be used to enhance motivation, improve performance and grow confidence. Day 2 builds on this and shows how coaching might fit in to the systems and processes of your organisation and allows you time to consider the implications and practicalites of implementing coaching into existing management practices. This workshop gives you credits which count towards the ILM qualification courses below.

The third element in our coaching development programme is our courses leading to the Institute of Management (ILM) coaching qualifications at Level 3 and Level 5.

DISC profiling

We use the DISC personality profiling system with clients - they find it effective and practical in improving communication, both in the workplace and with clients. As a development tool for individuals and teams, DISC creates awareness of strengths and challenge areas. In addition, when used with a coach it is the springboard to useful insights, improved relationships and raised levels of performance. The 4 styles identified by the DISC profiling system are:

D (Drive)

I (Influence)

S (Steadiness)

C (Compliance).

We process our DISC questionnaires through People Keys. To receive your DISC profile, first contact us at OPC to request the log-in details you will need. Then click here to log in.