Navigational Coaching Becomes The Infrastructure For A Facilitation Business

Introduction

Pat Lipovski is a partner at Envision Group, an international partnership of seasoned Executive Coaches. They use the Navigational Coaching™ process like “leadership software” that enhances leaders’ communication soft skills. The end result for participants is a shift in leadership style from directive to developmental.

Situation

I was referred to the Navigational Coaching programme by colleagues, did the training and became a facilitator. In no time at all, I’d filled my first workshop with 26 participants. The results were so staggering, that I incorporated this immediately into my individual practice. When I’m facilitating, I look for what I call the “click factor”—that point when I can see in the eyes of the participants that they “get” the material. When people get this material, you can see their brains go into high gear. They immediately imagine the situations where they can apply this information.

It was obvious to me that this was the “missing link” I’d been looking for as a facilitator. I saw what they had created—what I consider to be leadership development “software”. This software quickly and simply develops leadership soft skills to go along with what I consider the leadership development “hardware” (physical tools to develop mission, vision, etc.).

Solution

• Everyone we coach now gets Navigational Coaching as part of what we deliver.We do that in two ways:
  • Bring the leader in and put them in a unique role—as a “table coach”/participant during their first exposure. We believe in the “watch it, do it, teach it” philosophy. By throwing our leaders in as “experts” and teachers the first time around, they learn more deeply. Prior to the workshop, leaders have reviewed the information at a high level, and have created specific real life scenarios to work on.
  • Work with the executive one-on-one to practice and deepen the skills. This is especially valuable for those with highly developed technical skills but relatively non-existent people skills.
• We also do our variation on Navigational Coaching called, The Navigational Leader as Coach™ program. This program is designed to meet the needs of busy leaders who are responsible for the development, growth and progress of others, usually in an organizational context (in business and in elite sports).
• We’ve created a complementary workshop called Navigational PlayBook™. Each PlayBook™ provides the “hardware” (leadership tools and systems ) to go along with the Navigational Coaching “software”.

Results

• Incorporating Navigational Coaching allowed me to grow my practice far beyond what I could have ever envisioned. For years, I’d looked for the physical processes to develop the “bedside manner” of leaders. I had never been able to come up with anything I was satisfied with. Navigational Coaching has made it so easy, simple and clear to teach leaders how to develop others.
• Navigational Coaching is a big business builder. Some of my client companies want to send their leaders back annually for Navigational Coaching Workshops. Leadership is tricky and can be a bit complicated. These companies see the benefit in regularly “refreshing” their executives’ developmental skills.
• People are coming out of my workshops and referring more and more people. They are getting results right away, and immediately realize the value of what they’ve learned. They tell their friends, and the workshops fill easily.
• Navigational Coaching makes it so easy to enable the setup for a developmental conversation. It’s simpler to set the stage to coach. Following the Five Step Navigational Coaching Model makes leadership conversations much more productive. When you clarify your intent as a leader going into a conversation—telling them the real true honest benefit to them, they listen willingly. You get buyin for your feedback. That’s a game changer for the organization.
• Participants “light up” when they gain these skills. They become quite excited. It’s the solution to multiple leadership problems that had previously confounded them. My business gets great word of mouth as a result of “the light” going on in these workshops. Navigational Coaching is “first aid” for leaders. It equips them to know what to do, and how to do it in most, if not all, of their leadership conversations.
• One company I’ve been working with has grown four-fold from applying Navigational Coaching. They have trained their entire workforce in coaching skills, and it’s shown up in the bottom line of their business. They sing the praises of Navigational Coaching by name—and my business reaps the good will.
• Navigational Coaching is an effective tool to work with the new generation of workers. This younger workforce needs to be guided and led more than previous generations. We can now give leaders the software and hardware that works with this workforce.

Where To Next?

Now you have an idea about how Navigational Coaching could enhance your facilitation practice, click on Case Study #3 to learn more.