# Swell AI Transcript: Corporate Group Coaching - On Coaching (First Edit).mp3
SPEAKER_00:
Welcome to the Beyond High Performance podcast featuring content and conversations from me, Jason Jaggard, along with our elite coaches at Novus Global, their high performing clients, and the faculty of the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. On this podcast, you'll hear some of the world's best executive coaches and high performing leaders, artists, and athletes discuss how they continue to go beyond high performance in their lives and businesses.
SPEAKER_02:
If you've ever found yourself wishing your team could get more done in less time with increased satisfaction, this is the episode you've been waiting for. I'm David Miller, Chief Expansion Officer at Novus Global, and I'm joined today by two of our executive coaches, Deb Foy and Jennifer Tharp. If you've been listening to our show, you've likely learned how coaching can unlock what you are capable of. but imagine experiencing that spreading like wildfire through the entire team. In this episode, we dive into the power of coaching teams, how to create alignment around vision, what kind of reality comes when you get more voices in the room, and how quickly an organization's culture can shift through this work. We share stories from some of the teams we've coached, the work they leaned into, and the amazing results they experienced for themselves and their bottom line. Enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_03:
The wait is finally over. Our new book, Beyond High Performance, what great coaches know about how the best get better, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. This USA Today bestseller is more than 250 pages of expertise, anecdotes, and insights from Novus Global coaches, as well as faculty from the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. We are so excited to put our proprietary framework that has helped thousands of leaders achieve more into your hands. And we can't wait to see how you'll use the book to enhance your life and leadership. To learn more and obtain this essential resource for yourself, visit novus.global.com.
SPEAKER_02:
Welcome to On Coaching. My name is David Miller and I'm joined by two of our powerful coaches from Novus Global, Deb Foy and Jennifer Tharp. Today, we are taking an intentional look at the impact our work can have when working with teams. And I'd love to throw it to you first, Jennifer. And would you mind sharing a little bit of the difference between what it's like when we're coaching an individual versus when we're coaching an entire team?
SPEAKER_06:
Yeah, absolutely. So when we work with an individual, we typically start with asking them, what is your thrilling vision? One year from now, what would you love to create? And even in the realm of work, that is, it's looking at a scope of their work, what do they want to create? How would they love to exceed their own expectations, outperform last year, outperform their goals? So the conversation shifts when we're working with a team, because then we're not just thinking about what does one person want to create one year from now, maybe even six months from now, but what does that team want to create? And what would be thrilling, not only to the team as a whole, but we can even say to the leadership team. We bring everyone together to come to an agreement about what that thrilling reality would be. And that's what we coached for.
SPEAKER_02:
I can think of times that I'm coaching an individual and frankly, the thing that we're coaching on is probably the antithesis of what if we were talking to their supervisor, they might want. Like maybe we're coaching an individual on moving into a new role or we're talking to an individual about a vision that they have for themselves and what that looks like, but they don't really have the sign off or the buy-in of their supervisor or of the leader of the organization. You'll hear this a couple of times in some stories. This happened to me pretty recently where I was coaching like a project manager at a construction company. And in the midst of our coaching, it was a powerful, powerful exchange. And he really wanted to start a new division of this company. And I got to tell you, as a coach, I was hooked. I was in on the vision, there was something that was out of his intuitive fence and as I got deeper and deeper, this turned from an individual client into a corporate engagement and as I started working with the owner of this construction company, he started referencing when the person I was coaching was trying to start a division that he didn't want to start or that he wasn't as passionate about as the individual I was coaching and I started to realize the power of actually getting the team to buy in and not only the team, but that we call it the primary client. And if the primary client is bought in on where everyone's headed, man, like the results can be exponentially different and can not only impact that individual, but can impact all kinds of things can impact culture, can impact morale, can impact the bottom line. And so, I think that's right on, Jennifer, as you described that. Deb, I know you have a lot of experience moving from coaching an individual into an entire team or sometimes an entire organization. Can you highlight a couple of the things that you've noticed along the way?
SPEAKER_04:
Yeah, David, when I have found when I do that, when we go into companies and we coach teams, I've realized that they don't always know each other's vision. And so when you have a team that begins to understand each individual vision, things begin to happen. They go further, faster together. They then can challenge each other. I always like iron sharpens iron. So if you know someone's vision, you can then start to speak into them and invite them forward in what they want to accomplish or even beyond that. So that's a fun space to be in when you get into a team and you start not only with the primary client, of course, right, we align that vertically, but then we also start to align horizontally in within teams or even cross-functional teams. I've had that happen where we've created some team dynamic coaching and the primary client then identified cross-functional teams to be coached together. And when other people start to realize that who they work with and the struggles that they each have, that begins to open up a new space for them as well.
SPEAKER_02:
Yeah, how often are we working with an individual and they're saying they just feel alone. They feel like no one really understands what I'm doing or how hard I'm working or, you know, I was talking to someone the other day and she literally wrote down as we were talking, she just says she has two supervisors and she just said she doesn't believe that either one of them could fully articulate what she does in a given week. And part of what we're working on is helping her to better communicate, it's this leading up principle to better communicate not only her vision but just the day-to-day outcomes that she's living in and that she's accomplishing for this incredible organization and that alone would be so thrilling to her. And the whole time we're talking, I'm thinking about the fact that how I'm itching to get under the hood with the team as a whole because there's an exercise that we do in our team training and maybe I'll pause here for a second. Like, we start most, not all, but most of our team engagements, our corporate engagements, we start by doing a two-day training where we're inviting all of the people that we're coaching and frankly, many of the people that won't be getting coached into a room together and we start to unveil some of like the language and the tools that we use so that as we start coaching key individuals and they hear words like integrity, they hear words, you know, ownership, they hear all these different new language to them, they're not going, where did that come from? They have context for where it came from. And in a minute here, I'd like to talk more about that training, but to highlight one of the aspects of our training that we really love is we'll actually have everyone in the room share their visions. So, at the end of two days, they're having at least the beginning of what their vision will be for the next six months to a year from now. And We'll invite people to share in small groups around tables and then often, depending on time, we'll have a key individual share in the room as a whole. And there's a question that I know I love to ask as that part is happening and once everyone's shared, I love to then say, hey, first, was anyone surprised by one or more of the visions that you heard? And almost inevitably, hands are up, absolutely surprised by that. And then I'll ask them the next question, is there any part of you that doubts they can do it? And almost every time you get people going, no, not at all. And in fact, you'll have people that will in the moment say, actually, when I heard your vision, I wasn't sure it was big enough. because I think you're already that kind of leader. And it's interesting to juxtapose the difference between how an individual sees himself and how the team sees them. And I found that to be incredibly powerful where I'm thinking about this leader to go back to the individual that I was talking with and she's saying, my team doesn't even know what I do in a given week. and I'm thinking about what if we were all in that room and they got to not only hear it, but they get to be co-conspirers in you accomplishing those tasks and accomplishing that vision. They feel bought in and ready to partner with you versus the seeming indifference that at least the story she was making up, is there's an indifference to what I do. As long as I accomplish a few things, all the other stuff that I'm spending my time on is the icing on the cake for them and we get to ask a lot of questions around that. I mentioned our training and I wonder, I'm gonna throw it to either of you that would like to kind of dive into this a little bit. As we kick off a corporate engagement and we begin that training, give us a little bit of some of the power and some of the way that you've seen that training really start this engagement off in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_06:
Yeah, you know, David, as you were talking about the influence of having shared vision on a team, what was coming to mind was culture. So even in a recent episode of the podcast, we're talking with other Novus Global coaches about the power of culture. In Beyond High Performance, Jason Jaggard talks about the culture that we create intentionally, that we shape with things like core values, but then the culture that occurs in our norms. And I find that the two-day training, it's like an activation point. Two days in a room with generally colleagues, not always on directly the same teams, but it's an activation moment in the sense that we're giving teams new distinctions, new concepts that we're inviting them to consider, play with this idea. What if it were true that you actually did create every experience that you're having? What if it were true? And what if that were true for each of us in this room? So that's a part of an ownership tool that we teach to our participants in those two-day trainings. So as an activation, it gives teams an opportunity to do anything from considering together what it would be like to step into that kind of ownership, ownership individually, but then ownership of the team, anything from that to then giving and receiving feedback in real time. And so I find that the activation, it's not only empowering and giving a sense of shared vision, but I find they can also be a launching point for teams to get more done in less time with greater satisfaction. That sounds lofty, but we've seen it happen again and again and again. Even this morning, I was on a check-in call with one of our primary clients, a CEO, and he said about my client, I've seen that she has changed in the last six months. She's more decisive, which creates a real business impact when it comes to the way that we're serving our clients. And so I think that launching point of the two-day training is what activates that change, and then it's worked out through an individual's perhaps their blind spots, their limiting beliefs, their narratives that they're believing to be true, what I must do in order to be successful. So it's a launching point.
SPEAKER_04:
David, I'd love to add that our trainings actually till the soil of not only leaders, but, you know, the teams and the culture for them to then utilize those tools in deeper ways. One thing that I see often is I love what you said about how it equips them and empowers them and motivates them to like build trust and not even like, when you say like, what is the current level of trust in our culture, in our teams to like, you know, what is that? Do we agree to that? And then where do we, where would we like it to be? Where does it need to be in order to do some of the things that we're up to or want to create? I find that it lays that foundation, if you will, to then take those tools and go deeper with the teams and individuals.
SPEAKER_02:
I think that's so powerful. Debbie, something that you said sparked a thought for me. Have you, either of you, had an experience where you would ask a client to, maybe it's in the beginning stages, you ask a client to identify, let's keep using trust. Hey, identify, like how much trust do you have on your team? And the primary client is going, Oh man, we implicitly trust one another. Or, you know, it's off the chart, that trust on this team is off the chart. Because a lot of leaders have that kind of You know, it's not always blind positivity, but there is something about like a leader that is looking at it saying, man, we're charging the hill, we're charging together. And then you get under the hood a little bit as a coach when you're working with some of the rest of the team and you start to notice, hey, some of the even the positive story, maybe that's not actually accurate. So, man, whether it's trust, whether it's around like we are a high feedback culture, that one gets a lot. Oh, we love feedback here. And then we'll get into a team training and they'll go, We don't really do that. Have you had experiences with teams where reality comes when you get more voices in the room?
SPEAKER_04:
Absolutely, I've experienced that where they have, they have sort of a misalignment. They think it's one way, but their current reality is another. And so there is an awareness that goes on also from our training. And as we move into coaching, there is a greater awareness around current reality, because I loved how you said you pop the hood. And that's like getting real sober around what that reality is in a very neutral, non-judgmental way to go. hey, you know, good to know, but what do you want it to look like? Where do you want it to go? And then have an alignment because you might have multiple people on the team or you may have the different levels of leadership that really see it one way. But yet when you get under the hood, there's many proof points and data, if you will, that tells a different story.
SPEAKER_06:
And that makes me think, Deb, I remember working with I was a group coaching, a group of engineers, and I remember getting into the coaching, and when I invited them to consider that a complaint, a chronic complaint, can be neutral, it shifted something. Not just in the person I was coaching at the moment, but for all three of them. And their chronic complaint in that moment was, my time is not my own. Sometimes it would sound like, I never have enough time, or I can't, I just can't take control of my calendar. Yeah, yeah, there's a big they kind of looming over the conversation, which showed up as a disempowered conversation for them. And it was remarkable to see that when we invited that chronic complaint into the conversation in a neutral way, that it actually opened up new possibility and new creativity. And you know what? Because we had a clear focus on what the vision was, what they were creating in that five-month contract, it was absolutely worth it to get creative, to close that gap, to be the disruptor. And you know what was funny? One of them came back the next week and said, I experienced so much value in putting reflective time on my calendar. I think it was an hour every morning before the day starts. They experienced their days as quite chaotic, right? So an hour of reflection was really going for it. One of them came back the next week and he said, you know, other people have noticed. that I am more thoughtful when I'm giving my expected delivery time on this piece of the process. His team worked across teams, so there was a lot of interdependence on them meeting their metrics, meeting their goals. And so, wouldn't you know, the other two in the group the next week decided to try out, you know what, I'm going to see what I can do with an hour of reflection time on my calendar. And that was a trend that just continued. They iterated, but they continued throughout the contract.
SPEAKER_02:
You make a powerful example there, you share a powerful example there where sometimes when we're working with a team, there are multiple ways we can approach that engagement. And sometimes it's, you know, we have a team and then we're going to do what you just referred to as group coaching. So, that's two, three, maybe even four people in a group and there's something really powerful. And sometimes we're taking an entire team and each person on the team is doing individual and What I love about our work is we get to customize that for the need of the client. And so, the client is identifying how many people in the organization want to get coached. And so, sometimes it's budgetary or sometimes it's actual outcomes that they're looking for. They go, oh, these three really have a similar function in the organization and we'd like for them to almost have an opportunity to learn together. I find there's power in both approaches. Sometimes it depends on the individual. But I'd love to, now that we're, since we're talking a little bit about that in the example, I'd love to double click a little bit into what is it like when you're coaching a team within a team, right? So there's a group coaching dynamic that's a part of the whole. What have your experiences been in that scenario?
SPEAKER_04:
I guess when I've coached teams within teams, I find that they really have a tendency to be able to look at their edges together. Like, what are the edges that we all need to find? Not only individually, but collectively. And so what is it that is getting in our way? I remember coaching a team, they weren't putting their name in the ring. to get new work that could be awarded to them because they didn't think it was possible. And so we coached them and then they got to a point where it's like, okay, let's put our name in the ring to get this business that we thought we would never be able to get awarded. And what happened? They got awarded the business. And so it was like, yeah. So they got to find new edges of growth. And then the executive team sees that and goes like, we need that same mindset shift to happen in these other areas of our business. And that's what begins to happen. And then that morphed into the finance area. They're like, let's increase profitability globally And so then we started coaching in that space to impact that area because they never thought that was possible. And I have a client that's referencing like, when you go into billion dollar organizations, they kind of reference them as the barge. to turn a barge takes quite a bit of energy, effort, change, disruption. And so often people and companies want to like drop speedboats, if you will. And so what's the speedboat in your organization that could create some disruption into a space of what results could we create that we didn't create before and get some wins to then how can we multiply that across different spaces in the organization?
SPEAKER_02:
What I hear and what I like about even that the idea of the barge is the bigger that an organization is or even the bigger that a vision is, it's one thing to have one person trying to turn the wheel, right? It's another thing when you have this entire, you know, this army, this team that's all rowing or pulling in the same direction. And there's something that's so wild about that. We've heard the famous examples of, hey, if you're one degree off from your destination, one degree off, all of a sudden, you know, when you actually get there, the further away that it is, the further away you will be from that destination, just being one degree off. And so, when we get an opportunity to coach, whether it's an entire organization or the key leaders within an organization, it's this invitation to move in the same direction. to actually choose, to actively choose to move together. And the group coaching setting, Jennifer, that you referenced, there's something that is an inspirational about hearing someone else's struggle and witnessing their breakthrough. It's inspiring to hear someone's vision and for them to identify their current reality and to watch, even just to, if you didn't say a word in a group coaching setting and you just got to watch the interaction of another leader with their coach, there's something that gets on you as you leave and you go, oh my gosh, I want to play with setting aside an hour to be reflective. I want to have conversations like that with my supervisor to make sure that we're not that one degree off. And that to me is just a little bit of the value of this team coaching approach.
SPEAKER_05:
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SPEAKER_02:
We've had the opportunity now. We've talked a little bit about some of what's different. We've talked about that initial training that I'll say not every team does the training. I think it's incredibly powerful for them to do it because it really does set the tone and gets us moving. We'll move faster with the training in place, but not everyone does it. And then we've talked about what happens when you actually have a group that you're coaching within the team. I'm curious, and this might be a fun one because I have a decent amount of experience here. Do you have experience when a primary client says, we want to bring in a coach, but the person that you're coaching didn't ask for it? And so, they've been assigned a coach. And I see you both kind of laughing a little bit. I hear it. I love it. Because that means you've probably had the similar experience to what I have. But tell me a little bit about the beginning stages of someone that, you know, they were invited into coaching. That wasn't a thing that they necessarily asked for. Where have you seen it go wrong? And where have you seen it turn into like a really powerful experience?
SPEAKER_06:
You know, the first thing that comes to mind, David, is that I am thinking of one person particularly that occurred to me as a challenge, and I love a good challenge. So we get on that intro call, which was just the two of us, and I was just ready to meet this person where they were at. And, you know, one of the things that I love about our approach at Novus Global is that it's an opportunity to invite someone to just be grounded about current reality and to ask the simple question, what do you want? what do you really want in this work? And I found that by starting with those basic conversations, those simple conversations, that that relationship warmed, that trust developed, even over the course of that hour-long conversation. And then, of course, as we moved forward. So I found that in the beauty of the approach, like the work works. So, It's hard to not appreciate it when you see the work happening, unfolding. And I think that was a lovely way for that to unfold.
SPEAKER_02:
Deb, do you have experience starting with someone that they said, I didn't ask for this?
SPEAKER_04:
Absolutely. So I just want to say, though, that we create a sacred space for people, for them to come into the space and go, hey, this is what I'm wrestling with. And I often hear, I've never said this aloud to another human being before. And so those are spaces that you can't go to your corner store and get it. You can't take a pill to create it. It's a space that people typically don't know what to do with because it's not in mainstream. And so I find myself explaining that to people when I get to work with them and go, everything's welcome here. We're here to create the space for you to crush whatever it is that you're looking to crush. And it doesn't always go beautiful. I've had it go sideways because like that person maybe didn't realize the space and how to utilize it. Sometimes it takes a while for them to get comfortable in the space. I mean, we create a warm space, we create a welcoming space and neutral space for them to grow. but not everybody wants to grow and so as an organization we then continue to let our primary client know that if that's not happening we then inform them in that way because that's their investment and we communicate that back and say what's most resourceful in this situation. But I must say like anyone we coach, a group or individual, we coach the gold out of them. They have much gold inside of them and we coach that out of them and so they are a different leader that produces differently after this experience with us.
SPEAKER_02:
That's really good. I remember being in the corporate world and the first time that my supervisor got me a coach. And I remember the wall being up and the question, and I've run into this question with clients as well, but the question that I had was, are you here to spy on me? What is your intention? And does my boss mean you for good or for harm in me? And I'll walk into engagements with clients. You know, Deb, you and I worked with a company and you graciously invited me in to work with one of your clients. And our first session, the question was, why do they think I'm doing a bad job? I'm one of the best salespeople this company has. Why would they give me a coach? And I remember 10 years in or 13 years in at the time as a coach thinking to myself and saying to him, no, that's why they've got you a coach. What you just said is exactly why, because they see something in you and they know that you have more in the tank and they want to invest in you. And that's one of the things that I love to help remind our clients is that if someone got a coach for you, it's because they believe in you. And we've started in, like Geraldine and our team from client services, they've done like a really incredible job because as we've noticed this over the years, we've started to shift the way that we are introduced to clients. Helping them to see from the beginning that this is an investment into you, not because you're a problem, not because something's necessarily going wrong, but because you're doing so well that they want to pour rocket fuel on it. And when leaders start to view us as their partner instead of their inquisitor or like their punishment, it unlocks an amazing bond that I think you've just talked about, Deb, where they're going, I've never experienced such a judgment-free environment. I've never experienced a meeting where I just get to explore what I'm capable of. There's always someone telling me to work harder, try more, and to be in a coaching space where I get to ask the hard questions of myself and sit in that and accomplish things that I once thought were impossible. That individual becomes the biggest cheerleader, please keep giving me coaching. But there can be that turn in the beginning, that little bit of that resistance in the beginning where again, that introduction and then our coaches are just well trained in meeting a bit of that barrier and finding ways to get around the barrier so that that individual understands, hey, no, this isn't punishment. This is actually a gift and this is because you've done so well.
SPEAKER_06:
David, it comes to mind, coaching is an invitation. When a leader hires a Novus Global coach for someone on their team, they're saying, I'm inviting you forward. I see that there's more. And it makes me think about, we often say around the firm that the role of a coach, one role of a coach is to say the thing to our client that maybe no one else will say. We're meant to be a fierce advocate, is something we would say in Novus Global. We intend to be fierce advocates, not only for the vision of Q4 goals, but also because, Deb, like you said, the gold is in them. The gold is in them. And so as a coach, I think it's my privilege to get to shape that sacred space and explore in a spirit of neutrality and also welcome, like come and be fully who you are, be transparent and leave a little bit different.
SPEAKER_04:
Yeah, Jennifer, that's exactly what was coming up for me as you guys were talking is I don't believe that most of our clients have experienced a fierce advocacy to be the best version of themselves. And that's what we do best.
SPEAKER_02:
Deb, Jennifer, I'd love if we pulled the curtain back a little bit to share some of the nuts and bolts of how we do this, kind of our internal process at Novus Global, because there's a little bit of an art to it. There's an art, we've referenced it some, there's an art to introducing who is going to get coached, you know, to their coach. There's an art to choosing who's going to get coached on each team. We can, we help with that as like, I'll have that from a primary client often. Hey, this sounds amazing, but I don't, I don't even know who to have get coached on our team yet. Can you help me choose who to invest in in this way? And we definitely can. But one of the things that we do that I think is unique to us is that because we have our 40 coaches, 40 plus we get to kind of matchmake a little bit and get to know a little bit of who is going to be getting coached and connect them with the right coach.
SPEAKER_06:
We have mentioned here that we believe coaching is a sacred space. And so we approach matching coaches and clients in that spirit. So it's a very intentional process where the coach that is most closely connected to the primary client, they would have a conversation. And they would start with who on your team might be the best fit, the most primed perhaps, or where might the opportunity be? So identifying those people on the team who might be coached, that's the first step. And then behind the scenes, that coach will work with our client services and with other coaches at the firm and identify which other coaches might be a great fit. And great fit can mean a lot of different things. It could mean the coach's availability. It could mean their past experiences, as in professional experiences. It could mean who they typically coach, right? Like, for example, if we have a coach, even if they were newer at the firm, but if they typically have worked with CEOs prior to entering the firm, that would be notable to us. So there are several different metrics we'd be looking at to establish a great fit. But we might even say, like, we want to have high confidence out of the gate that there's a match there.
SPEAKER_02:
It's really intentional that we stay on the same page with the primary client during the engagement. And we've developed a check-in system as a team where as we get into our coaching time with the team, whether again, it's a group or an individual, we are consistently circling back to the primary client. And I'd love again, as we continue to pull the curtain back into our process, Jennifer, if you would share a little bit about what a check-in call is like with a primary client, give us some context into what we're accomplishing during that time and how it keeps us on track as we're all rowing in the same direction.
SPEAKER_06:
I was on one earlier today, so happy to share. So it was a time where, and it typically is a time where the entire coaching team and the lead coach, and then a representative from client services, get on a call with the primary client. And that could be one person, there could be a team of two, maybe even three, depending on the team and the structure of the coaching. But our purpose there is to check in on what is the change they're seeing. And so that's where we'll start. We'll ask them to go first. Tell us what you're seeing. What have you observed? Because we want to know, you know, it could have been two months-ish, you know, maybe three since the last check-in. we want to know what change are you seeing in your people? And then we might share as well, one thing that I'm noticing, I'm observing, and by the way, we all have clear agreements on not triangulating. So if a leader ever brings up, you know, like, well, I've really noticed that this shift and I would like for it to be different. We will actually reflect back. So here you go, if this is going to be you soon, if you're signing a contract, we will reflect back to you to say, hey, have you given them that feedback yet? Because our desire is to have teams that are communicating with each other and taking these swings. So we have a 30-minute conversation where we check in. What are you saying? We share what we're saying. And then we ask the primary client to dream. If it's going to be another two months until we talk again, three months, you know, longer, then what would you love to see from this person, from this group? And so it's a little bit more of like amplifying vision throughout the contract. Not only do we have clear outcomes that we're aiming at, but that gives us a little bit more insight into what would really thrill, not just the outcome, but what more could we be coaching them toward?
SPEAKER_02:
My experience is that people drift back into what's most comfortable for them. And if as coaches, if we just let it sit, because even us as coaches, like it's very easy to kind of go back into what's comfortable. And I've noticed that these check-ins are an opportunity for us to reground in where we're headed. and why we're headed there. Hey, we've been working for the last three months with person A, are they still headed in the direction that we all are like rooting for and that we see that they're capable of or have they began to drift back into what's comfortable for them? Hey, primary client, the person we're talking to, Are you still leading the charge toward the thing that we all agreed that we wanted? Or are you allowing yourself to drift back into what is comfortable? And these check-ins have become an integral part of the system for who we are at Novus Global because we get to intentionally slow down and ask those questions, get regrounded and have almost like we looked at the map, right? We were going, we're making good time, we stopped to look at the map again and go, oh yeah, we are heading in the right direction, in the same direction. All right, now let's look up and keep moving forward. And there's power in that communication. And for the primary client, the amount of times I talk to a primary client and they'll go, how involved do I get to be when you start coaching my team? And I'll go, ooh, you get to be very involved. And sometimes it even makes them a little nervous. Like, what do you mean? And there is this like invitation that you're not outsourcing fully your team's development. You are partnering in your team's development and each check-in call and the communication that happens in between the check-in calls and all of that is a part of that partnership. And it's been instrumental in some of the results that we get with our clients. It's a really, really beautiful and another sacred space that we create that most leaders don't get. Most leaders, they start and to have someone consistently checking in, we still go in the same direction. Are you still thrilled with these results? What else do you want to see? And those questions become powerful. And imagine doing that, not for one person on the team, but for three, four, 10, 30, a hundred people on the team. And there's something that's just, again, it changes the dynamic, not only of an individual, but of a culture. And there's something about, I'd like to just touch for a moment. We have an entire episode on company culture, but I'd like to touch for a minute on how corporate coaching, like team coaching helps to shift culture faster. And I wonder as you process that, I'd love to hear from either or both of you around that idea of what does team coaching do to culture? How does it shift it?
SPEAKER_04:
I believe that it has an opportunity to shift it very quickly because it's changing the level of ownership from multitudes, not just one or two, but you're taking a group of people through. You know, what comes up for me is we've worked with companies where they have 20 to 40 people at a time going through this. And so the momentum that is created in that space is unlike anything else to have 20 to 40 people. You know, I always kind of use the analogy of like the old Viking ships, right? And you had everybody rowing. And so if you had one side rowing and the other side stopped, you'd be going in a circle. But when you have 20 to 40 people getting coached at one time and had the common language and tilled all the soil, everyone's rowing at pretty much a same pace. And so we're creating a current and we're going to our true north. And so I just think the momentum and the contagiousness of the passion we begin to what I've noticed is that when we coach teams which impact cultures, we begin to ignite the culture in a whole new way.
SPEAKER_06:
You know, almost an example of the opposite, right? So I'm coaching a leader who has said repeatedly, like, OK, I am going to create agreements, not expectations. I'm going to go to my and we have a podcast on that that I sent to her. We've coached around it, creating clear agreements. not just having expectations that live in her mind, right? Or in vague language. So she continually is going out to her team and she asks, what specifically can you do? Can you do this thing? And by this time, and I see her doing the same thing over and over. And it does create a level of satisfaction for her that she's creating clarity for herself, for her team. But I imagine, I really wonder about what if across their teams, they were all thinking in the terminology of, oh yeah, she's asking me for a clear agreement because I know that it's going to slow us down if we only create expectations on our team, not clear agreements. So like such a practical, small switch, a shift in habit, But if it were multiplied, like if they were all the Vikings rowing in the same direction, yes, there could be more speed. And you know what actually, it comes to mind too that it's less personal, right? So some of the things that we teach to teens, they're less personal in the sense that if we all have a shared vision, and if that's the North Star, then of course we want to ask for a specific commitment and a buy-win. And it's not because I don't trust you. It's just because I want us to achieve the thing that we're aiming at. And I want to know how I can use my own ownership in helping that to happen, just as you're using your ownership to make that happen.
SPEAKER_02:
I think there's a game changer in what you just said for people to, I really want people to hear it. How often are the people on your team just doing the function of their role, right? We talk about this within like, you know, what a low performer and the questions they're asking and a performer and a high performer and then we move, we invite people to move into this idea of meta performance and Often, we find that when we get into a team, there is a vision, maybe the leader has a vision, or maybe even the leadership team has a vision. but it isn't a shared vision. It's with, you know, the actual people that are serving the functions and the roles of the vision, they're doing a job and they just want to do a good job often. Or maybe if they're a high performer, they want to be the best at doing the job. But when you start to use language and you start to have the concept of shared vision, All of a sudden, feedback isn't an attack, it's an invitation. All of a sudden, you want to notice where there's room for improvement and where there are, maybe you're that one degree off. All of a sudden, you're rooting for others rather than fighting for resources. because we're not, it's not I hope I can get mine, it's I hope that we, that word we on team, I hope that we can move toward this shared vision of fill in the blank, whatever that is and there's something so powerful and that to me is like the crux of when we get to come in and here's like an interesting point. The coaching market is saturated. Can we agree for a moment there? You know, you throw a rock, I live in LA, you throw a rock in LA, you're gonna hit an executive coach. It means a lot of different things, you know, whoever you hit. They might have a different definition of what that is. Our like firm is full of people that would be successful individual executive coaches, but we choose team. intentionally decide I'm going to be on a team. When I meet, I have some amazing friends and they're really talented coaches, but often they left team to get out of the, they'll call it the mess of team. And so, they will intentionally are going, I like to work with teams but I don't want to be on a team. We're a team that loves working with teams and we love it so much that we have, in a way, given up some of our own vision to be a part of this collective vision at Novus Global. And the collective vision, we have a lot of internal language around it, but truly is just unlocking what humanity is capable of. And there's something so beautiful to that, that, you know, there's 40 plus of us that have decided to dedicate our time and our talent to that. I'm curious, as we get deeper into this idea of shared vision and as we start to think a little bit more about what it means for a team to really get it, do we have like maybe a story or an example or two of, you know, we're a year in, six months in, maybe we're a few years in because a lot of our clients will keep coming back over and over because they reach one level and they realize again, hey, there's what we got here. Now that's just Tuesday. That's a normal day in the life of our company and we're ready for whatever's next. Do you have examples of where you've seen breakthrough happen in the midst of a team engagement?
SPEAKER_04:
What comes up for me, and these are like leadership breakthroughs, to go back to what you said early in the conversation, is I had in particular this one leadership team, they were wondering why are they getting coached and They went back to leadership to find out, got the answers, and then like, as we started coaching, they started to unlock this new level of their own ownership to their leadership. And so they were, I believe like they were in neutral when we first met. And they were coasting, you know, we have that conversation of they're just coasting, they were successful and they were achieving results. Yeah, they're doing fine. But yet, we then started in the coaching, we were inviting them in their leadership to like, what would be the next gear in their leadership? And Jennifer like, what do they want? And they were like, well, I've always wanted to be that next level leader. but kind of didn't know what I was missing. And we started to tinker under the hood, if you will, around, you know, go live and all our tools and methodologies. And they started to then move into that next gear of their leadership. and we're showing up utilizing our tools into their existing life, into their meetings, into their interactions with the people that were on their team, in interactions with leadership, the executive team, and it was just they started to explode in ways that the leadership team always wanted them to, but for some reason they were being held back in their own interior world of how they saw themselves, what they believed that they were capable of, and they just moved from like neutral to I believe like gear three and four, and they're continuing to move in to new gears, and they are just so passionate and actually impacting the culture in ways they never thought were possible. And to like, they were up to 30 million in sales, and they moved to 33 million in sales. And these leaders had a lot to do with it. And so they just got 3 million more than what they thought they were going to do, totally connected back to coaching.
SPEAKER_01:
Hi, my name is Mike Park, and I'm a proud graduate of the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. The faculty of the Metta Performance Institute not only provided the training, tools, and experience to learn how to coach people toward powerful growth and thrilling results, but also advocated for that kind of growth and results in my own life. I had the unique opportunity to have world-class executive coaches invest in my development, both professionally and personally. It's a privilege to be part of a tribe of coaches fiercely committed to exploring what we are capable of together. If you're looking to become a coach or to set up your coaching practice to reach the next level, I highly recommend the certification from the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. To fill out a free assessment of your abilities as a coach and to connect with someone to find out if the Metta Performance Institute is for you, check out www.mp.institute.
SPEAKER_06:
Actually, it comes to mind that you spearheaded work with a global client where all three of us were there in person leading this team of about 40, 50 people who were strategically selected to be in a room to save five to $10 million going into Q4. And get this, by the end of the day, because of the trust that had been built over those years of Deb, you and others of us coaching their teams, by the end of the day, they were set to save 15 million, 15 million. And they had a specific plan with commitments around, like we were saying earlier, they had clear agreements about who is doing what and which part of this plan and by when. They had a follow-up strategy. So they were well on their way after just one day of work together to save $15 million.
SPEAKER_02:
And I remember that one tangible day was so powerful and thank you, Deb, for inviting us both into the room to be part of this. But I remember talking to the primary client afterward and we were having a conversation and he says at dinner, we wouldn't have been able to do that a year ago. this team, the trust that you're talking about, Jennifer, that you felt in the room, that same trust, it wasn't that they didn't like each other, it wasn't that they were at each other's throats, it wasn't that, it was just that that same amount of trust wasn't to that same level where they could walk in and they weren't defensive and they were collaborative and they decided together, right? Same direction, what the goal was going to be. And then through just a little bit of coaching in the room and some exercises that we put together, they were able to walk out of that room with that plan to save $15 million. And it just strikes me as this is the power of the work that we're doing with the teams that we get to work with. And that invitation I think is an incredible one
SPEAKER_04:
since that meeting occurred. They've had further meetings and now the discussion is totally different. Each of those leaders walk into the meeting saying what is possible and now they're not wrestling through all the different mindsets, all the different what-ifs, why we can't do it. They're now, they're starting points at a different point and now they're starting to move into what are we all capable of. That's how they're entering into the meetings and now they're getting further in the discussions and the execution of the strategies that they've put forth rather than staying in the same place of rustling through with the old mindsets. Now they've created new mindsets
SPEAKER_06:
And that occurs to me as part of the fruit of that shared language, the shared framework. Because you imagine, you know, just one of them had that, what if we could? What if it were possible? But with all of them on the same page, that's powerful.
SPEAKER_04:
And in addition to that, that group was also in that location. They were losing people to another manufacturing facility down the road from another company. And because of this cultural shift that started to occur, because of coaching, people were not leaving. They were coming back because of what was happening culturally.
SPEAKER_02:
Jennifer, Deb, thank you so much for this conversation. It's powerful even for me to remember the amount of intention we put into each of these clients and just to celebrate some of these results is honestly, like I feel myself getting like, let's go, let's go get it. And so, there's something really beautiful about that. Maybe you're listening and you too were feeling, let's go. And you're thinking about how you want to invest in your team in this next season. How do you want to move them from a team that's doing a pretty good job to a team that's achieving unprecedented results? If that's you and you're listening, I want to invite you to go to our website, Novus.global, and there's a contact us page. fill out the form, one of us will reach out to you. We would love to explore with you what you and your team are capable of. Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_00:
All right, we have a few more things to let you know about before we go. First, podcast reviews really help us serve more people. So if this podcast is helpful for you, we'd love your help to get it into as many leaders' hands as possible. Please leave us a review, even if it's not five stars. And if you really want to go the extra mile, let us know what you'd like to hear more of, or what you think we could do better to serve you and the people you care about. Okay, second, we have more resources for you online and they're all free. We have free assessments, educational videos, articles from sources like Fast Company, written by our coaches and clients, all designed to help you use our tools in your everyday life and leadership. To dive into the free treasure trove of goodies we have for you, go to novus.global and then click on resources. Some of you have been listening for a while and you haven't yet taken that next step to hire a coach. This is your time. I can't tell you how often I've heard from clients around the world that they wish they would have talked to us sooner. If you have a sense that you're capable of more, we would be thrilled to explore what coaching could do for you and those you influence. Simply email us at begin at Novus.global or click the link in the show notes. You also might be listening to this thinking, Maybe you want to be a coach, or maybe you already are, and you have a vision to build a six or seven figure practice coaching people you love in a way that brings life to you and your clients. Well, that's why we created the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. It is an in-depth coaching apprenticeship designed to help you create the coaching practice of your dreams. The first step in exploring that is simple. Just go to www.mp.institute. There we have free assessments to help you see what kind of training you need to create the coaching practice the way our coaches do at Novus Global. Finally, this show was produced by Rainbow Creative with Matthew Jones as Executive Producer, Steven Selnick as Producer, and Rob Johnson as Audio Editor and Engineer. We love working with this team. Find out more about how to create a podcast for you and your business at RainbowCreative.co. Thank you so much for listening. We love making these for you. And remember, dare to go beyond high performance.