Coaching as individual as the person – Hüffer Top Executive Coaching – methods
Innovative coaching methods are under continuous development and these, in all their variety, are often not known by clients. Fortunately, from monitored business psychological research and our wide-ranging practice spanning decades, we know what will achieve the best-possible effect for participants. Accordingly, we use very individual methods and coaching and management development concepts that improve performance, capacity management and the quality of life for senior executives.
The management and design of Top Executive Coaching is individual, matching each client’s requirements (in accordance with their management level, role and business conditions), and drawing from a rich pool of individual methods tailored to the requirements of each client that go beyond coaching in the narrower sense. Different areas such as leadership, negotiation, rhetoric, rational problem-solving and decision-making, scheduling and target planning, organisational development, dialectics, management by objectives and strategic company management all decisively increase the skills of the person participating in the coaching. That being said, we always work out the individual methods based on the goal and plan the most efficient route for behavioural modification and innovation.
The specification of the necessary content for the relevant role of the participant in a particular company leads to very individual coaching methods. This is because each corner of the triangle – personality structure, role and company – affects the others and requires continuously optimised and adjusted methods and content. Example: The same person in the same role would generally face completely different challenges in a different company. This is where Hüffer Top Executive coaching takes a very individual approach so that the three factors consistently match seamlessly with no gaps to complicate the work. This is because “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Kurt Lewin).
The characteristics of the demands on CEOs, CxOs and executives are distinctly different. As a result, the fact that leaders not only want a different form of coaching, but actually also need one has been an important factor for effective coaching at Hüffer AG for many years:
Coaching for CEOs, managing directors, business owners …
As sparring partners, we are often one of the very few points of contact on an equal footing. We are the companion and confidante of a top executive. The latter is often in an immense area of conflict among different stakeholders and their interests. Investors, supervisory board, analysts, customers, business journalists, employees and adversaries – the pressure, even defending one’s own position, increases by personality dimensions that are not adequately used and are therefore a gateway for weaknesses or may even be the weak link. Our work reinforces the person, on the one hand, through an exchange of ideas and discussions at the highest level, the reflection of concept thinking and actions, as well as the joint development of powerful scenarios and solutions – and, on the other hand, the encounters provide a possibility for personal development.
Coaching at CxO level
These top managers in the company need a coach who can serve them mainly as a neutral and supportive advisor on issues of management ability and own personality. On one hand, these executives have already proven their qualities in the past; on the other hand they are constantly on probation or on their way to “the top”. Anyone wanting to get there has to prove at this level that he or she fully meets all the management and personality requirements necessary for the highest level and does not need to develop them. But since even this level differs a great deal from the executive level, the challenges here are sufficiently great to convincingly assume the position and asserting themselves offers enough of a challenge that the coach accompanies as a supportive consultant.
Coaching at executive level
More than at any other management level, executives want a coach who challenges and promotes them like a trainer. In this, the focus is on practical management skills and these are supported by the matching personality structures and behaviours that can be freshed up. Usually, participants want clear recommendations that they can apply quickly and efficiently and thus achieve the desired results within short notice.
Even if we know that various levels require different coaching contents, methods and processes and can be approached in a practiced manner: no coaching program is identical to another. For this reason, Hüffer Top Executive Coaching is as individual as the client himself.