Transition Coaching for Senior Lawyers and Managers
Posted on March 15, 2011 at 07:00 PM
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You've been promoted, congratulations! But do you feel there is no one to turn to get through the challenges you face as you climb higher in your career? Leading Executive and Leadership Coach Toni Butler provides a case study summary of how one local Managing Partner of a law firm found the benefits of coaching.
During a recent round of meetings with law firms in Asia, I was encouraged to learn that coaching is being used less for remedial issues and is now more focused on building capability and supporting those with potential. While their need for support may be less obvious, it is beneficial.
A little while ago, I was asked to coach a Partner who had just taken on the local Managing Partner role. The brief was to assist him (read her/him) to establish credibility in the role, attend to some challenging leadership issues, and continue to manage the competing demands of the partner role, including building and maintaining a business profile.
With few others around him in which to truly confide, the role of Coach was that of sounding board, devil’s advocate and confidante, in addition to providing a few practical suggestions here and there. As with an athlete, the coach’s role is to help the client increase awareness of their own technique and collaboratively develop strategies to refine that technique for greater impact. We interrogated his techniques around communication, meeting management, organization, people leadership and control.
After almost 12 months of coaching support, the Partner is well established in the role and feeling much more confident dealing with some of the more difficult issues. Review meetings have confirmed the positive outcomes of the coaching support and the law firm is now providing coaching support to their Senior Associates in preparation for promotion to Partner.
About the Author
Toni Butler - Guest Contributor
Toni is an executive and leadership coach with over 30 years experience as a manager, leader and coach across the Australasia region. She is often described as a challenging coach who readily blends theory with practice and a strong sense of pragmatism. Toni is able to draw on a range of tools, techniques and methodologies relevant to the particular needs of clients, along with a readiness to challenge the status quo to bring about change and deliver return on the coaching investment.
Her client base has geographic and sectoral diversity, a result of living in Australia, Asia, India and the UK and working in the legal and financial services, hospitality, development, retail and logistics sectors.
Coaching for personal transformation and leadership impact, clients include:
• Executive and senior leaders in professional services, financial services, health, FMCG, mining
• CEOs of not-for-profit organisations
• Senior public sector leaders
• Entrepreneurs
• Emerging leaders and high potentials in manufacturing, education, investment banking
Continuous learning is a fundamental tenet for Toni. She has a business degree in human resource management and economics, where she received academic awards in her penultimate and final years of study; a graduate certificate in business and has pursued a masters in international management.
She is a certified practitioner of a range of instruments including:
• Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching
• Marshall Goldsmith Global Leader of the Future assessment tool
• Human-Synergistics® products – Life Style Indicator, Group Style Indicator, Leadership/Impact, Management/Impact
• PRINT® - a tool to reveal the unconscious motivators that drive behaviour
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®
• PsyOpus® Team Synergy Scale
• Rosinski’s Cultural Orientations Framework
Toni is accredited by the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach.
Beyond work, Toni loves new adventures and strives to live by her motto of “never let security be your anchor”. As evidence, she obtained her motorbike license in her 40s and rode her BMW motorbike from London to Tokyo via Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. And that was just the start of her motorcycling adventures.
+61 (0) 488 006 769
+852 8121 0928
Note: the views and beliefs expressed by our independent contributors are of their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Star Anise. All personal development matters of an individual are unique to that individual, and coaching should be tailored to suit that individual's needs.
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