Navigational Coaching Boosts Revenue 10% In Eight Months and Adds New Revenue Stream
Introduction
Dr. Mirella De Civita is the President of Papillon (Butterfly in English) MDC Inc. and President of Grand Heron International Inc. Both businesses are based in Montreal, Quebec. She is both a Licensed Psychologist and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accredited by the International Coach Federation. She works with senior executives and senior management teams from middle- to large-sized organizations across the globe. She is also a mentor in the McGill MBA Mentoring Program. Here’s the interview.
Situation
We started the company in April 2010 as strictly an executive coaching firm. Our business was focused on “C-suite” executives—coaching and assessments. I had no intention of developing or adding training to our offerings. I firmly believed, “We’re not a training business.” Navigational Coaching came to my attention from knowing Cheryl. Because of who she is, it got my attention and I felt it was worth consideration.
I was “blown away” by the training and by the material (certified November 2010). That set me on a mission to present NavC to all my existing clients. Of course, I had to first justify to myself how these trainings—which I had never intended to provide—fit into our business model. The way I “spun it” in my head is that Navigational Coaching is about developing leaders. NavC allows me to present my clients with a broader offering of leadership development tools. It is another service we provide to leaders to help them and their teams take flight.
Once I settled that mentally, I consistently marketed the Navigational Coaching Workshop to all my clients. It took a while for them to understand what the workshop would give them for their investment. It took a full year (October 2011) after being licensed for a single client company to agree to a pilot program. That client is one of my biggest international client companies though. That single workshop has been the most important event in growing Navigational Coaching in the Quebec market.
They started with, “Let’s do an HR training as a pilot”, and now it is mandated training throughout the company. The Human Resources managers were so “blown away” and so turned on by the workshop that the news spread like wildfire through the company. The company did three more HR group trainings. I got a kick out of starting each workshop with a challenge. I told them that they were going to experience being able to make a dramatic change in just a few minutes with a person. No one believed me that this was possible, but they were all thrilled and excited within a very short time as they saw that they could do that.
Solution
These initial workshops led the company to integrate Navigational Coaching organization-wide. They decided to take my program and provide this training throughout the entire company (two facilities here in Montreal, Quebec, and two more in Poland). They also asked to “rebrand’ Navigational Coaching, and include it in their own training manuals.
The most wonderful surprise is that the demand for the workshop grows spontaneously. Colleagues at this company’s facility in Poland heard about Navigational coaching and brought me over to work with their leaders at two of their facilities there. I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with the two Presidents. Then, I worked with their Executive Teams and HR teams.
I knew I had made the right decision to keep the Navigational Coaching at the “top of the house”—top executive level. Getting initial leverage into an organization is easier from that position. Once top executives are all using a common language, it’s easier to get the buy-in needed to take it throughout the organization.
The thing I like most about the program is the “space” that it allows coaches to create in front of the group. Navigational Coaching has such flexibility that it’s easy in the moment to “go with” what comes up naturally in the room. The trainings are open to non-decision makers and independent contributors—employees who have no team or decision-making power, and float from project to project. It provides them with a tool to quickly align with their colleagues on new projects.
Navigational Coaching demonstrates that caring for others is what makes leadership work. As they work with the material, participants simply come to understand that fact. When your conversations and feedback come from caring, you connect and they listen. One of the most exciting pieces of feedback I’ve received is hearing, “I’ve shifted into knowing that I really need to care about the person before I give feedback.” Now, that is powerful!
My perspective in working at the executive level is that the facilitator absolutely must be a certified coach, and experienced in working with executives. It’s not enough that they just be an excellent trainer. They must be skilled at putting the training into context for executives. The facilitator’s demonstration of coaching skills is a huge part of the success of the training. When you have that coaching background, you don’t panic. You’re able to smile at the executive participants, regardless of what they ask, and say with profound confidence, “There is a way. Let’s figure out what’s best for you.”
Results
- In the eight months after our first sale of Navigational Coaching, NavC has increased our revenue by 10%. We did the Navigational Coaching certification in the fall of 2010. We got our first company-wide mandate almost a year later in October 2011. From October 2011 to July 2012, our company—that was already doing well—increased revenue by 10% from NavC.
- We’ve added an additional revenue stream that we’d not planned on. Cheryl and Brent are in the development stages of creating additional “leadership conversations” workshops, and I see this as a way to continue to build our revenue.
- In the Quebec area, adding Navigational Coaching has “put me on the map” insofar as training is concerned. It has really boosted my reputation as an executive coach and as a leadership development company. The fact is that when we present Navigational Coaching workshops, other leadership training companies simply cannot compete with us. Our ratings from participants are uniformly the highest rated program of all training programs the company has given.
- We are now targeting company-wide trainings and associations of professional groups (Human Resources, accountants). Once we’re able to get a toehold, the workshop sells itself. Eventually, we expect to present workshops open to the public. It’s really opened up possibilities that we hadn’t even been thinking of for our company.
Where To Next?
Now you have an idea about how Navigational Coaching could enhance your facilitation practice, click on Case Study #2 to learn more.
