Executive Coach Toronto
Top 5 reasons you need to work with an Toronto executive coach… today
Our senses and their capabilities are limited but there is an aspect of ourselves that is unlimited, infinite.
There is an inner intelligence within you that is orders of magnitude beyond the sharpest intellect that has ever existed, and more easily accessible than you think.
It is an aspect of you that is managing itself, coordinating trillions of complex projects and teams every moment, and operating at a level of efficiency and innovation that is staggering.
As an Executive Coach in Toronto, We I work work with Executive, professionals, and business ownersare going to tap into this intelligence and simultaneously co-discover the balance between ourselves, the work and the relationships that make the work possible.Today, I hope we can do the same in this article.
b The world is our reflection. The more we can know ourselves the more we can know those around us and the situations and circumstances we work with in. If each previous experience is a pair of coloured glasses you see the world through, you are wearing a hundred pairs of coloured glasses, right this moment. So ask yourself:
- How clear is your vision?
- How accurate is your perception?
- Can you even see what is in front of you?
The world is complex, and moving faster every moment. In this fast paced world with higher levels of demand and less time, here are my top 5 benefits of working with an executive coach in Toronto or anywhere in the World.
1. What you can’t see is holding you back
In order to see things clearly we need to remove the coloured glasses of previous experience that are distorting our perception. We need to see things as they are, and the first step is to realise that we are wearing coloured glasses. This is where a trained executive coach comes in. An executive coach will help you remove your coloured glasses. They will give you a new perspective from your point of view looking out and another perspective of yourself from the outside looking in. Once the glasses are off, now what? Where to begin?
Many times we are not where we would like to be because we have not defined precisely where we are going. That is why an executive coach will start from first principles. What do I really want? If I could choose just one aspect of my life, that if I improved it, would leverage my influence and effectiveness in my whole life. What have I been struggling with and how would my life change if I was able to manage this skillfully or let it go? This level of discernment is a skill that can be learned and refined with training. A good executive coach will draw this out of you to arrive at a topic that is meaningful and fulfilling.
Let me give you an example from one of my clients in the C suite of a Fortune 100 company in North America. Everyone wanted this executive’s thoughts on just about everything. He is sharp, knowledgeable and above all is able to get things done. He also has a reputation to come down hard and fast on his team. Waste his time and he will make you pay.
How did he see it? He just didn’t understand why some of the people on his team didn’t take the same care and ownership he does before asking someone else’s help. He saw that his reactions to his team was wearing them down and he needed to find a better way to move the needle forward. He knew he wanted to be able to handle his emotions better to inspire those around him instead of leaving them frozen and fearful. He knew he needed to balance this with holding people accountable and getting the work done.
During our intake session, our first coaching session together, we conversed about his challenges and what was important to him. With open ended questions to refine the topic, frequent checking in with him to see if I was understanding where he was coming from, and actively listening as he moved from blaming others to taking personal responsibility. This shift in perspective got to the crux of the topic. His topic focused on developing his communication particularly when triggered into anger and frustration. This included building developmental objectives that we are presently working on together to refine his capabilities in order to embody his topic. This process requires complete trust and candor but the results are exhilarating.
2. Shattering your concepts
Perhaps you already know what your coaching topic is because that is exactly the aspect of your life you have not been able to achieve progress in, or maybe you have not been able to be disciplined in your action, or maybe you have no idea where to start. This is where the benefits of an executive coach become evident. In all aspects of life you have had a coach. In school you had a tutor, that showed you a different way to solve a problem. In sports your coach was on you, every practice to push you out of your comfort zone to achieve a new personal best. In the professional world you have the industry Guru’s that set the trends and guide best practices. However, in the executive world as one becomes more and more senior there are less and less people you can confide in, and on the other side there are fewer people that will give you candid feedback over fear of reprisal. The executive can become isolated, relying too heavily on past strengths and hiding limitations that if developed would open another level of effectiveness, and fulfilment. The candid and empowering perception and communication of an Toronto executive coach can be a source of concept shattering revelations that drive inspired action. When these limiting concepts are broken it is like a weight has been lifted and the body and mind move with new found energy and dynamism.
This is demonstrated in a newly minted executive I have been working with. He has moved to a new company. He’s in a new more senior role with a brand new team. The decade of trust and relationships he developed in his former company has vaporized and is now replaced by an environment where all eyes are on him to sink or swim. Out of fear of making mistakes he is not succeeding as he did in his former role where he knew the lay of the land, who he could count on and who to steer clear of. What he did not realize is that his high level of anxiety is preventing him from connecting with stakeholders that can help him map the lay of the land, and build the confidence he needs to succeed. Through powerful mind body techniques, and embodiment of a new way of being we have seen progress towards breaking the ice of frozen action and unlocking the information that will enable him to survey the territory, take risks and take action with confidence.
3. Getting out of your own way.
An executive coach will be there to help you to expand your idea of what is possible. Sometimes this is obvious and sometimes it’s more subtle. Many a time the armour that was necessary to fulfill our responsibilities in the past, is no longer necessary. It’s slowing us down, limiting us in the present, and is a vestige of the past that is no longer useful. Your executive coach (Toronto, wherever) will help you identify these limitations from a fresh perspective that causes you to honour the aspects of yourself that have brought you to where you are today and simultaneously, helps you to observe those aspects of yourself that are not serving you anymore, and replace them with a new way of living. It’s not the situation or the person, it’s you. A good executive coach will help you to get out of your own way, so you may finally overcome obstacles that you have not been able to surpass on your own. This is not a cheat sheet to solve a problem. This is about co-creating practices so you may embody a new way of living your life. This is not a band aid approach. This is transformation of skill development in action. If you’ve noticed that when you step on the brake, you are accelerating faster into a turn, your executive coach may help you realize that your brakes are fine. The issue is you have your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time. They will enable you to take your foot off the gas so you can stay on track and drive forward with conviction and poise, accelerating at just the right moment for maximum results.
4. Powerful tools to find your flow.
Remember that time in your life where everything just seemed to fall into place? Everything slowed down, creativity was flowing, and it seemed like you weren’t doing anything. It’s almost as if it was all just happening in front of you. You became a spectator of flow. We have all had moments like this of total synchronicity. Living our life in flow.
It may sound counter intuitive but this is actually our natural state. So why is this not your experience? Let me shed some light on this, with a story about my two year old nephew. Children can teach us so much.
We were at a wedding and I spotted my nephew running down the hallway, grinning ear to ear, dangling a long stem wine glass from his hand as he sprinted down the hardwood floor of the hallway. I acted fast and snached the glass from him. Do you think he was shy to show me how he felt? No way. He screamed, wailed with tears and his face went so beet red with anger we thought he might be having an allergic reaction. Just a few moments later while his mother was consoling him, I danced a stuffed animal playfully toward him. He smiled and laughed, still with the tears running down his face.
Children have this innate ability to experience the moment fully, keep the best and drop the rest. As we have taken on more responsibility in life, most of us have not been able to maintain these qualities that are, in fact, our nature. The problem is that we have been living for so long unnaturally that even the natural has become unnatural, and the unnatural has become natural. Working with an executive coach will give you tools based on empirical data and hard science to help you manage your mind, and retrain your brain to form new habits that support you and let limiting habits wither away. With practice and persistence these tools will help you build emotional resilience, and live from a state that makes flow more possible.
5. An individual approach tailored to who you are and who you want to become
We are not merely intellectual beings. We are emotional, physical, social, spiritual, moral, and much more. We are inspired by different forces. Some may be very introspective, others may be more interpersonal, while neither of these may matter to some because for them it’s all about getting things done at all costs. Others may just need to know the system and where they fit in to feel confident and fulfilled. As a result of these different approaches and ways we see, act, and behave in the world, each person needs a tailored approach that meets them where they are. A good executive coach can see where their client orients from, and by analysing their capabilities and limitations can work with the client to co-create a new way forward. This new way is powerful because it uses the clients strengths to drive new learnings. These learnings help to develop needed capabilities to realize their topic while at the same time honing skills that are lacking or limiting the client from realizing their full potential. This is the way of the Executive Coach and is the secret to their effectiveness in co-creation with their client towards success.
Let’s recap.
The top 5 benefits of working with an executive coach are:
- They will help you to see what is holding you back, co-create an action plan to move forward, and work with you execute on the plan.
- They will shatter your concepts and guide you to new insights that will drive you to results
- They will enable you to get out of your own way, take ownership and in so doing harness the power to make a difference.
- They will teach you powerful tools to allow you to access your flow state and thrive.
- They will tailor their approach to you based on who you are and who you want to become.
You have capabilities beyond what you can imagine, and no matter how successful you have been there are some aspects of your life that need attention to take you to the next level. What we are talking about here is meaningful change that is co-created with you and your executive coach. Working with an executive coach with produce results you have not been able to achieve on your own, and the process is fulfilling, energizing, and fun to boot. I’m curious to hear your insights. Did the five benefits resonate with you? What interests you in looking for an executive coach? What hesitations do you have? If you’ve worked with an executive coach, What are your top five? A quality question can often be much more valuable than an answer so perhaps these questions will drive your development and evolution as an executive, and give you the nudge you might need, to start your journey with an executive coach.
About the author:
Spencer Delisle is the founder and head executive coach at Toronto Executive Coach Toronto.
Spencer has conducted seminars for hundreds of people in North America, across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East in his most recent visit to Iraq in August 2018. For the past 10 years Spencer has coached and given seminars for members of the European Parliament, senior members of the Federal Government of Canada (PWGSC, HRSDC, NRCAN), US Marines, US Special Forces, and top business executives from organisations such as TD, Bank of America, IBM, General Electric, Ford, Troy Police, as well as institutions such as McGill University, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, and La Sorbonne, Paris, France, a Canadian prison, and the general public. Spencer was awarded a bachelor of science from Mount Allison University winning the Henry Habib Scholarship for Academic and Leadership excellence, graduating the president of his class. Formerly involved in academic research at Mount Allison, and McGill University in the fields of oncology and cardiology respectively, he has also worked on the corporate side of science in marketing with Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
On June 21st 2015 Spencer was the master of ceremonies inaugurating the first UN International Day of Yoga Day at the prestigious Lincoln Center, and most recently was one of the masters of ceremonies for the 2016 World Culture Festival, that saw 3.75 million people from over 155 countries gather together in Delhi India demonstrating the power of unity and peace, celebrating the spirit of humanity like never before through yoga, meditation, art, music, and dance.
Spencer has recently finished teaching Sahaj Samadhi Meditation, a technique shown to train mental mastery, in a scientific research study that examined its effects on late life depression and anxiety. The study demonstrated that when Sahaj Samadhi was paired with treatment as usual it was 3 times more effective than treatment as usual alone. He is also teaching Sudarshan Kriya to first responders and the general public with Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and is presently teaching the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES). He is currently in partnership with Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), the London Health Science Center and The Schulich School of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, McGill, and the University of Toronto in multiple research endeavors.
Spencer can be found playing squash, meditating, working out, writing poetry, cheering on the Raptors, enjoying nature, and discovering cuisine and culture around the world in his spare time.
