The F-L-I-G-H-T of On-Site Executive Coaching

While the vast majority of my work is done by telephone, I've been doing more in-person/on-site work this year, shadowing, observing, debriefing, and coaching my executive clients as they do whatever it is they they have to do on a given day. It's a fascinating, informative, enlightening, fun - yes fun -, intense, different, and often quite powerful day-in-the-life for both me and the individual executive I'm working with that day.

With this, a fair amount of air travel has come, which I've found to be pretty okay, actually - certainly far better than I first expected. I dunno. I guess you could say that there's just something about the flight that I've really come to enjoy:

• F - Figuring out what to pack, bring, etc. to look and feel my best
• L - Letting check-in and security personnel do their thing without affecting my mood
• I - In the air with my thoughts, a good book, some new tunes, or just some pleasant conversation with a fellow passenger
• G - Getting ready for a full-day of shadowing, and all that implies
• H - Harvesting whatever observations, insights, and implications the day has to offer and putting them in whatever context best serves my client
• T - Turning around after a good day's work and heading back home, a bit wired, a bit tired, and very much at ease

I think my clients enjoy the 'flight' too, although perhaps for slightly different reasons:

• F - Figuring out what meetings to schedule and the agenda for the day
• L - Letting me interact with more and more of their 'true self' as the day progresses
• I - Inquiring more and more about what else I was noticing - and what else they seemingly weren't
• G - Getting more conscious and purposeful about the impact and influence they're having - and can have - on others
• H - Holding the day just completed as an invigorating, albeit slightly exhausting, growth experience
• T - Thinking deeply about their Lessons Learned and how best to integrate them on an ongoing basis

So to all those I've shadowed so far, thanks. To all those on the docket to be shadowed, start planning your pre-flight checklist. And to anyone else interested in being shadowed for a day, please give me a call!

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related: http://www.ggci.com/management-coaching/mentoring.htm