An important purpose of professional development coaching is to assist those in leadership positions to develop the awareness, perspective, clarity of thought and emotional responsiveness to occupy their roles authentically and creatively.

Development coaching is particularly relevant as a method for developing leadership because the processes involved in becoming an effective leader essentially calls upon the ability to integrate content and process – doing and being.

Successful leadership is a function of certain qualities of character and certain attributes of intelligence.

There is also a moral component in leadership. For leaders to be successful they must be admired, and we admire them because they serve the task or common purpose of the organisation. They are intelligent, effective and are worth respecting because they are not self serving. Such people have a quality of ‘authenticity’ as those around them experience them as real.

The process of being authentic is an evolutionary one and comes out of increased self-awareness through reflection. Such self awareness involves untying oneself from ones past, received view of the world:  we have the means within us to free ourselves from the constraints of the past which lock us into imposed rules and attitudes. By examining and understanding the past, we can move into the future unencumbered by it - we become free to express ourselves, rather than endlessly trying to prove ourselves.

To summarise, successful, creative leadership is in part a function of being in the service of a common group or organisational purpose. Within that context the better able the individual is to operate intelligently and authentically (experimentally and un-defensively) the more likely he or she will be able to give shape and direction to his or her enterprise or part of it – offering leadership which is relevant and respected.

By committing to a process of self-awareness through learning, opening to experience (both internal & external) and experimentation, any leader prepared to take the risk of this way of being in work will gain considerably greater competence and inner authority.

(extracts from The Reflecting Glass). To find out more about how Development Coaching can support you, contact dee@southwestcoaching.co.uk