Relationship Coaching

People have to work together to get things done in organizations.  The quality of key working relationships largely determines how effective an organization can be.  In relationship coaching, people in a relationship work together on how they can bring out the best in each other in order to achieve their objectives.

Some relationships are as difficult as they are essential.  Two leaders may see things very differently and their personal styles may add to the challenge of working together.  If their differences can be put to work for a common purpose, it can be a great source of strength.  But if they do not work together well, it can disable the leadership team and ripple down the organization.

In difficult relationships, typically each person believes that the other should change.  Both may be correct.  The fallacy is in assuming that an individual should change independently of the relationship.  The more powerful approach is to work together on changing the relationship - the assumptions each person makes about the other, the ways that each reacts to how the other behaves, the blind spots each has about the impact of his or her actions on the other.  With both parties in the room, it becomes possible to work directly on these factors in ways that cannot be done in individual coaching.

The book The Elephant in the Room, by Action Design co-founder Diana McLain Smith, describes our approach to relationship coaching and the thinking behind it.

Please contact us to discuss whether relationship coaching is a good fit for your situation.