Silhouette Coaching For Leaders

The Transformational Advantage of Silhouette Coaching for Leaders

We all have a few blind spots. Few leaders are fortunate to get feedback from their colleagues or employees who tell them that there is a disconnect between what the leader’s well-meaning intentions are versus how their actual words and actions are perceived by others. Those few clients who were lucky to get this kind of feedback were then able to work with me in a traditional coaching relationship to figure out and practice how to better align their behaviours with their intentions. Most leaders, especially executives do not typically get this kind of honest feedback from others.

Executives tend to be most susceptible to their unknown blind spots because employees may be fearful about telling them the truth about the impact of their behaviour. In fact, employees will shape their opinion of a leader and how much they will trust their leader based on the leader’s behaviour – because that is all they have to go on! Sometimes, if these blind spots continue to go unchecked they can erode the very things (like trust) that the leader is trying to build. This is where Silhouette Coaching (a.k.a. Shadow Coaching) can come into play. Silhouette Coaching acts as a clear, authentic and compassionate reality check for a leader with both strengths and challenges being illuminated. It can work with individuals and teams. This type of coaching works particularly well where re-building leadership and team communications and confidence are vital.

The higher you go up in your organization the more difficult it is to get the kind of feedback you need to keep learning and growing.

How it Works

Silhouette Coaching is a powerful and real-time learning process that draws from the realities of your day-to-day working life. How it works is that I as your coach silhouette you by observing you in your general daily activities or working to a specific result in mind – such as your presentation skills, influencing others, fostering buy-in/trust or engagement. It is a learning process in real time. It can also help with identifying thorny interpersonal and team dynamics. This may mean silhouetting you in your daily work environment, or at a specific event such leadership team meetings, presentations or all-staff meetings. The process begins by determining in advance what the key focus areas will be.

Silhouette Coaching enables me to observe you in action so that I can provide you with feedback about what I have observed – with an unbiased approach, empathetic, and a compassionate and gracious touch. This then provides us with a real-life backdrop against which to examine and reflect so that together we can explore the possible impacts of your behaviour on others. With this increased awareness and new perspective, you are able to put new behaviours into practice more quickly.

Silhouette Coaching provides an effective method to:

• Observe behaviour firsthand.
• Discuss and identify what behaviours are needed from individuals and teams.
• Explore the dynamics of critical situations.
• Discuss behavioural patterns.
• Identify micro-behaviours and body language that can make all the difference to success.

Alexandra Salamis

Reach out and learn more about how Silhouette Coaching can accelerate change and support you in achieving sustainable results faster.