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Client testimonial

“Contrary to other programmes I’ve attended, this stuck.  It’s still in my mind.  The commitments I made at the end are indeed the four things I’ve been working on since I came back. Thank you.” (Professional Services firm leader)

"One of my biggest challenges in my new position was to have my direct reports work as a team, and not just work as a collective group of professionals. As well as coaching me, Caroline came up with unique, creative and outside the box methods to help me with the team, which was the hardest issue I inherited. She played a key role over a couple of days of a very unique session with my directs - and we ended the meeting with an whole-hearted endorsement of the team-concept, ground rules and definite game plan. Almost a year later, I can say that it is not only working very well, but has set a great example for the rest of the company too." (CFO)

"I came to coaching with a degree of cynicism, but Caroline's strong analytical and intellectual approach gave real meaning to our discussions. That is, Caroline would never approach an issue without a deep understanding of the actual science behind it, which she combines with her excellent sector based knowledge. She also has an innate ability to ask the right question - she manages to peel back the layers of perceived complexity around an issue by simply asking very, very good questions.  As a result, the answers reveal themselves in a way that is authentic and meaningful for the person being coached. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to work with Caroline." (Senior lawyer)

“I thought you did a superb job. Very structured, no glitches, very helpful.  You’re extremely gifted.” (Investment Banker) 

WHAT WE DO

SevenShift Leadership is a bespoke advisory firm that works with clients to strengthen their ability to lead and inspire change, in a way that not only enables them to achieve great results but also creates greater long-term personal satisfaction.

As well as crafting customised 1-1 coaching support for individuals, we help executive teams and boards become more than the sum of their parts as they pursue their shared goals, and we design innovative learning programmes for experienced people who want to extend their range as leaders in the face of new challenges.

We typically work with leaders around or in advance of times of change – when someone is new in their role or embarking on a new phase of their professional life, when a new team forms or needs to work together in a different way, or when there is a shift in direction or ambition in an organisation that requires a corresponding shift in leaders’ attitudes, behaviours or skills. 

 

EXAMPLES OF WHAT WE MEAN

Some of the work we have done in recent years includes:

  • Forming a network of a dozen hospital CEOs each seeking to lead transformations in their organisations, and over the course of a year providing guidance on change management and self-management, facilitating mutual peer-to-peer learning in group sessions and providing coaching support to individuals and their executive teams
  • Working with a senior banker making a move from an organisation with a very different culture, to help him find a way to be ‘himself‘ whilst meshing with his new company, including work to establish more effective and appreciative relationships with his direct reports and unite his previously disparate team around shared goals
  • Coaching a policy leader charged with leading the country's response to a national crisis over the course of a year, to help him resolve complex operational issues and then to plan his transition back into post-crisis working life
  • Developing and delivering a year-long programme of workshops and group coaching for the 100 most senior partners of a global law firm to help them develop the capabilities and confidence needed to move into a more strategic, more relationship-driven way of relating to their clients
  • Helping a successful, high profile social entrepreneur to identify how best to make practical progress on her noble life goal of improving social justice, by sharpening her priorities, translating them into a workable action plan and finding the right model for her new business venture
  • Working with an ex-CEO having taken early retirement in difficult circumstances to help her plan a new portfolio life that builds on her past experience and takes full advantage of the ‘blank piece of paper’ that she now has

HOW WE DO THIS

We help leaders first lead ‘themselves’, for example by...

  • Creating a personal information base with which to raise leaders' self-awareness, gathering examples from trusted people and analysing patterns to help identify truly distinctive strengths and unexploited opportunities - comparing that with the leader's own mapping and analysis of the same
  • Working with the leader to determine their ‘story’ – what really matters to them, what choices they want to make as a result, and how to articulate that in a way that sparks followership in others using all we know about how human beings process information
  • Helping the leader identify ways that they can play to their strengths more fully in pursuit of their goals, either by shifting what they choose to do or in shifting the way they work, and how they can manage or compensate for areas of relative weakness
  • Developing within leaders a greater ability to manage themselves in the face of challenges and obstacles, in a way that builds their long-term resilience and allows them to more quickly bounce back in the short-term
  • Helping leaders learn about decision-making biases and how they can use this awareness to approach risk and evaluate new possibilities more objectively

...we then help leaders lead others

  • Setting the leader's personal aspirations in the context of the surrounding organisational reality, and finding ways to create a virtuous circle between the person and the organisation
  • Working with them to craft a wider transformation ‘story’ that sets direction and motivates action in others
  • Creating stronger alignment and commitment within a group of their colleagues, whether a formal team or a network of potential collaborators and contributors
  • Helping them develop the finesse needed to harness differences in viewpoints and personalities in a way that is productive rather than destructive
  • Developing their ability to be a true coach to potential successors and to generate optimism and resilience in others even in times of challenge and uncertainty
  • Identifying the roots of challenging relationships, learning how to hit ‘reset’ and get the best out of people even when they don’t see eye-to-eye with them
  • Taking a systems approach to changes they are trying to make, helping the leader be creative in how they identify and engage key influencers
  • Understanding and planning for the levers that the leader needs to pull to make change happen