A leadership coaching programme usually combines an intake or assessment, goals agreed with the leader and often a sponsor, a series of coaching sessions, and a review. Common themes are delegation, feedback, difficult conversations and decisions under pressure. What's easy to leave out is the pattern under those behaviours, which often decides whether new skills hold.
Tobias is the HR director of a logistics group in Jebel Ali, and there are three proposals on his desk.
Twelve operations managers were promoted this year. Most of them were the best people on the floor. Now they lead the floor, and it shows: two are doing everyone's job for them, one avoids every hard conversation, and one has started managing the way he was managed, which nobody enjoyed the first time.
All three proposals list nearly the same modules. Delegation. Feedback. Difficult conversations. Emotional intelligence. Resilience. Each one has a slightly different diagram.
Tobias remembers last year's cohort. Good programme, warm feedback forms, a certificate each. Six months later, two of those managers had left, and the rest were leading almost exactly as they had before.
He isn't asking which proposal has the best diagram. He's asking why the last one didn't hold.
What does a leadership coaching programme usually cover?
A leadership coaching programme usually covers a leader's real situation through a series of coaching sessions, often with an assessment at the start, goals agreed with a sponsor, some group workshops and a review at the end. The common themes are delegation, giving feedback, difficult conversations, decision-making and staying steady under pressure.
That's the shape most proposals will show you, and there's nothing wrong with it. The question is what the shape is actually working on.
If you're choosing a programme for your leaders and want to talk it through, Sara, our veteran RS Method Master Coach, offers a free session on Zoom of 20 to 40 minutes. She'll listen to what you need and tell you plainly whether we're the right fit. You can book it here. Or read on.
What is each part of a programme actually for?
Each part of a typical programme has a job. Knowing the job tells you what to ask.
The intake or assessment. A psychometric profile, a 360, interviews with the leader's team. Its job is to show the leader how they're experienced, not only how they see themselves. Ask what happens with the results after the first session.
The goals. Usually agreed between the leader, the coach and a sponsor in HR or the business. Their job is to make the coaching about something. Ask who sets them, and whether the leader can bring something private that never goes into a report.
The coaching sessions. One-on-one, in a group, or both. This is where most of the change is supposed to happen. Ask what the sessions work on when the agenda runs out, because that's where the real material tends to show up.
The workshops. Shared language and shared skills for a cohort. Useful, especially for new managers. Ask how the workshop content gets from the training room to Tuesday morning.
The review. A final assessment, a sponsor conversation, sometimes a repeat 360. Ask what's measured six months later, not only at the last session.
If one part of a proposal can't tell you what it's for, it's padding.
Why do new skills fade when the pressure comes back?
Because a skill is learnt in a calm room and used in a hot one.
Tobias's manager who does everyone's job for them can describe delegation perfectly. He did well in the workshop. But on a bad night shift, with a client on the phone and a truck late at the port, something in him takes over before the skill can. In the RS Method we describe it like this: every pattern is a thought fused to a charge. His thought might be "if I'm not doing it, it isn't being done properly." The charge is the weight his body put on that thought, often long before he had a shift to run.
A programme that teaches the skill argues with the thought. It's a good argument. But under pressure the charge fires first, and the skill arrives a second too late. Removal works on the charge itself. The memory stays. The weight goes. And what usually follows is quieter than people expect: the manager delegates, not because he's remembering a model, but because nothing in him is pulling the other way any more.
If you can see this pattern in your own people, or in yourself, a conversation with Sara is a good first step. It's free, it's on Zoom, and she'll help you see what's underneath and what can be done, with us or elsewhere. You can book it here.
What does a programme look like when it works on the layer underneath?
It starts with listening, not with a module list.
We don't publish a standard leadership package, because the work for an organisation is a custom RS Method experience for your team, tailored to your industry and the outcome you need. What stays the same is where the work aims: at the pattern under the behaviour, not only at the behaviour.
In practice, that means a few things.
The work is hands-on. Leaders don't sit through theory about why they react the way they do. They do the work and notice what changes.
Nobody has to bare their life in front of colleagues. In our group work, personal stories never need to be shared with the group for the work to resolve. Leaders who'd rather work privately can have one-on-one sessions with one of my trained RS Method Master Coaches or with me, in paid sessions or a package, arranged through Sara.
And skills still have their place. Once the charge comes off, the delegation model and the feedback script finally have room to work. If you'd like a plain map of the different kinds of coaching a programme can include, our piece on types of leadership coaching sets them out, and team coaching in Dubai covers work with a whole leadership team.
How do you read a leadership programme proposal?
Take the proposals on your desk and run each one through these six questions. It takes about twenty minutes per proposal.
- Circle every verb. "Learn", "understand", "explore" and "practise" point at different layers. Count how many describe a change in the leader, not only in what they know.
- Find the private space. Is there anywhere in the programme where a leader can bring something they'd never want in a report? If not, expect the deepest material to stay at home.
- Ask what happens under pressure. Ask the provider, in writing: "When a leader knows the skill and still doesn't use it under pressure, what do you work on?" A vague answer is an answer.
- Check who delivers. Ask who will sit with your leaders, and what their own training asked of them personally, not only professionally.
- Move the measure. Ask what's measured six months after the last session, and how.
- Picture your hardest case. Choose the one manager you're most worried about. Read the proposal again as them. Would anything in it reach what's really going on?
If a proposal passes four or more of these, it's taking the layer underneath seriously. If it passes two, you're buying a very good workshop.
One more thing. If someone on your team is struggling with burnout, anxiety or depression, a leadership programme isn't the place for it. Point them to a doctor or a mental health professional. If they're already working with one, they should keep going. Nothing here replaces that.
What should a leadership programme give your people?
Before you sign, look for three things.
- Work on the layer under the behaviour. Skills matter, but the programme has to reach the pattern that fires before the skill. That's where every RS Method experience aims.
- Practitioners trained under one principle. Your leaders will feel it if the person in front of them is managing their own nerves. The Master Coaches who work beside me in RS Method rooms were trained under it: the practitioner is transformed before the practitioner is trained.
- A design that fits your people, not a catalogue. Every team experience we run is tailored to the industry and the outcome, and it begins with a free conversation with Sara, who'll say so if we're not the right fit.
For the bigger picture, our overview of leadership and executive coaching in Dubai sets out both ways to work with us, and executive coaching or leadership coaching helps an individual leader choose. You'll find the thinking behind all of it on The RS Method.
For anyone buying development, the question that matters is whether change lasts after the last session. Marko Mladenovic, three years on: "I am still in such a peaceful, blissful, joyful state. I feel like I have finally found the answers on my question, Who am I?" Those are one person's words, not a forecast for your team.
If you're choosing a programme for your leaders, the next step is a free session with Sara. Bring the proposals if you like. Book your free session with Sara.
Robert Simic, training the next generation.
P.S. The proposals will still be on your desk on Monday, with the same modules and slightly different diagrams. Before you choose one, book your free session with Sara.