by Dr. Keith Merron (USA)
Over the last 35 years of coaching and consulting, I have coached individuals, built teams, and designed and delivered hundreds of workshops. My primary focus has been on working with leaders as both a coach and an organisation development consultant. My work as a coach of team will be the focus of this article.
To begin, I want to admit to having been a workshop junkie over the years. I have loved participating in personal growth workshops and even more, creating and leading them. I love the insights that come from participants as well as being an agent of people’s transformation. Over time, however, I have grown to recognise the limitations of workshops. Often it is hard to sustain the learning without sufficient support and sometimes the learning fades rather than strengthen.
In contrast to my past devotion to training, I now believe that in the realm of leadership, training rarely works very well as a standalone approach to leadership development. The concept of training is based on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge that needs to be imparted to a person in order for them to become a better leader. But leadership at its best is not taught. It is discovered. Great leadership cannot be learned by following five easy steps or adopting three simple processes. Instead, it is earned through an ongoing examination of oneself, and by fully embodying one’s authentic ability to inspire others. To achieve this aim, I have developed a process for group or team coaching I refer to as “cohort coaching”.
Source: iCN Issue 30 (Group & Team Coaching); pages 21-23
About Dr. Keith Merron
Keith Merron is the Managing Partner of Leadership Pathways, a consulting firm dedicated to helping organisations with bold visions achieve sustainable high performance and industry leadership. As an organisation’s effectiveness and an executive development consultant, he has more than 35 years of experience assisting executives and managers in business, government, and education.
In the context of his consulting, he works with the C-suite as a transformational coach. In addition, Keith has designed and led over 100 seminars and workshops for leaders. He has helped create some of the most innovative leadership training programs in the country. Through his consulting firm, he regularly offers a workshop for coaches called: The Art of Transformational Coaching. See his website: www.leadership-pathways.com for more information.
Keith received his Doctorate from Harvard University in 1985, where his studies spanned the fields of human and organisation development. He is the author of five books on human and organisational change and is putting the finishing touches on a new book, tentatively titled: The Art of Transformational Coaching.
