Newfield Executive Coaching More than just another tool in an organization’s toolbox

In the past decade, the phenomenon of coaching produced quite a buzz initially.  In more recent years, coaching has turned into an accepted and legitimate practice to take care of certain organizational concerns.  Organizations are hiring internal and external coaches to help build better leaders and managers.  Additionally, they are training managers to coach their teams, establishing internal coaching initiatives, and building coaching cultures.  From all the research being done in the field, organizational leaders have come to realize the value and return on investment that coaching can bring to their organizations.

Today, there are almost as many definitions of and approaches to coaching as there are people calling themselves coaches.  In the absence of clear distinctions and standards, coaching is still in danger of going the way of other business fads where managers and consultants are now called coaches but use the same old methodologies that have proven to be insufficient.  

The Newfield Network is a unique firm of highly trained, experienced coaches and leaders in the invention of coaching as a practice that transforms the performance of an individual, team, and organization. 

What Is Newfield Executive Coaching? 

The classic definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing in the same way, expecting a different outcome.  We all get trapped by our habitual ways of thinking and behaving.  For individuals and organizations to take new actions requires that the habits of thinking and acting that serve to sustain their current level of performance be altered to allow for new actions.

As a person takes on more and more managerial and leadership functions in an organization, their roles and responsibilities become more complex.  The need to engage in innovative thinking increases and the cost of missed opportunities rises dramatically.  Yet typically, as the time demands increase, they spend less and less time learning.  Executive coaching, done well, supports the organization’s members in new learning that results in greater performance and well-being.  Both are necessary for high functioning.  

Newfield Executive Coaching is a working relationship between the client (a manager, team member, leader, or team) and a Newfield Network Certified Executive Coach™. Newfield’s aim is to increase the client’s awareness of self, others, and the systems in which they find themselves so that new, powerful, and effective actions are available that are more aligned with the concerns and objectives of the organization.

Benefits of Executive Coaching 

The world of business is changing, and it is changing in fundamental ways.  Likewise, what it means to be an effective leader today has clearly shifted, as has our entire social/political/ environmental landscape.  More and more people, inside and outside the business community, are coming to a similar conclusion—the old rules of business, organization, and leadership, the ones that got us here, are not the ones we need moving forward.  They do not appear to be taking us where we want to go, particularly if where we want to go is a world with more sustainable and more equitable commercial practices, increased environmental health, and improved living conditions for larger and larger numbers of our fellow human beings.  

Executive coaching empowers people by providing them with a framework and approach that shifts how they show up and perform in their everyday life. 

Newfield’s commitment as an organization is to support these individuals and organizations in their unprecedented effort.  One of the ways we do this is through our unique executive coaching approach and methodology which have the client shift the way they see and thus act in their professional world.  The desired outcomes vary from client to client, given their own goals, concerns, and situations.  

Generally, by the end of the coaching engagement, the client will:

• Impact and influence others in a greater way
• Develop and practice strategies for being a more effective leader at every level within the organization 
• Create new actions and practices that support and sustain new behaviors and new outcomes in the workplace
• Enhance their communication, relationship, and trust-building skills
• Bring a higher level of creativity and innovation to the workplace

The Coaching Process and Relationship 

Newfield has highly trained and experienced coaches around the globe who have multi-cultural backgrounds and offer coaching in a variety of languages.  Typically, the coach and client will work together for a minimum of a three-month period and usually no longer than nine months.  Change takes time as does forming new habits for action.

The Newfield Executive Coach will meet with the client in person or on the phone to discuss goals and concerns.  The coach and client will clarify their expectations of each other and establish guidelines for a productive working relationship.  Together, client and coach will agree on their preferred way of working together (in-person, phone, e-mail, etc.) and their schedule for conversation (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.).

The central focus of the coaching relationship between a Newfield Network Certified Executive Coach and the client is the well-being of the client.  The coach asks powerful, fundamental, provoking questions in a safe and confidential context that allow the client to explore concerns, blind spots, and new strategies for the sake of generating new actions to produce desired results.  The relationship is founded upon mutual respect and trust.  The coach will hold the coaching conversations to be confidential and will not reveal any aspect of the coaching relationship to any outside party without the express, written permission of the client. 

In addition to the coaching sessions, the coach is also available between scheduled meetings via phone and email for consultation or feedback on an as-needed basis.  The Newfield Executive Coach will review the progress of the client against their stated goals and plan further activities, as appropriate.  Coach and client will exchange feedback on the coaching/client relationship to appreciate the successes and to learn from the shortfalls.

The coach and client may decide that it would be useful for the coach to interview the client’s colleagues, superiors, or subordinates.  The coach will do this only with the permission of the client.  Additionally, the coach and client may decide that it would be beneficial to have the coach sit in on meetings and observe how the client manages their communications and relationships.  After each session, the coach will provide feedback on the client’s behavior and work with the client to identify key opportunities for improvement, especially as these relate to the client’s key issues and concerns.  The client may also want to have the coach available to meet with other colleagues or superiors to discuss blind spots or to elicit feedback. 

One especially important item to note is that the client or the coach can stop the coaching relationship at any time if either assesses it is not producing the desired value or outcomes.

About Group or Team Coaching

Over time, an organization or team develops its own unique way of observing and behaving.  Based on this view, the organization and its members see only a limited set of possible actions and are blind to other ways of seeing and acting.  Group or team coaching is designed to shift the “organizational” or collective observer. 

The organizational observer is constituted by the views of the individuals participating, the views of the leaders, the prevailing historical culture, the values and core beliefs, the prevailing mood, the systems and processes, and the tools and technology.  The purpose of the group or team coaching is to reveal this “observer” to those constituting the organization and to alter and align behavior and beliefs to support the organization’s goals and objectives.

What Makes Newfield Different 

Newfield is an international education, coaching, and consulting organization, committed to bringing new learning practices and awareness to organizations for the purpose of addressing the pressing demands we are facing that traditional interventions and consulting are insufficient to address alone.

The Newfield Network team is led by Julio Olalla, one of the pioneers and founders of the coaching profession.  He is joined by an extraordinary group of certified executive coaches and consultants who have been facilitating personal and organizational transformation for over 20 years.  Our team is continuously learning and participating in research in the fields of linguistics, emotional intelligence, and mind-body connection.  Julio and his team have worked directly with more than 50,000 people in nine different countries over the last decade.

One of our foundational tenets is that a critical skill of a leader in any field is the ability to create the emotional field necessary to achieve the organization’s goals.  For instance, the mood necessary to inspire alignment around the organization’s vision is a different mood than the one required to handle a customer crisis.  And, those are different moods than the mood required of the sales team to develop strong customer relationships over time.  The Newfield Network has developed a way of working with executives and other professionals to develop this and other critical competencies to lead. 

As an organization, The Newfield Network is committed to continuous learning and, over the past decade, has enhanced and enriched leadership and coaching programs by integrating the latest theories and practices from leading thinkers in diverse fields.                                                                                                       

Based on contributions from the fields of philosophy, organizational theory, systems thinking, science, cultural diversity, emotional intelligence, movement theory and somatics, biology, cosmology (to name a few) we have developed a very unique and sought after coaching methodology that supports individuals to become masters at having conversations and taking action that produce the results they are seeking.  We teach our clients how to become masterful “observers”—of themselves, others and the systems they work within.  They are then able to identity the conversations, moods and systems that are, and are not, supporting their goals.  They are better able to have direct and powerful communications with colleagues and subordinates.  They increase their personal satisfaction with their work.  And all of this leads to a positive impact on the bottom line concerns of their organization. 

One of the signature elements in all of our work is our powerful distinctions around trust.  We reveal those areas where mistrust is impacting working relationships and the bottom line and provide a pragmatic process for rebuilding missing or broken trust.  We find that this is a pivotal and critical element to bring to any coaching relationship.

Newfield's Coaching Philosophy 

To take new actions requires that we break with the habits and conservative forces that have served us to reach our current level of performance, but now limit our ability to move forward or innovate.

The Newfield Network believes that the results you seek to produce are greatly influenced by the way you speak, the way you listen and by your emotions, your moods, and your physiology and presence.  Our coaching methodology offers participants a way to become new observers of themselves, of others, and of the various systems in which they, and others, play a role.  In doing this, participants break the old habits and ways of doing things that aren’t producing the desired outcomes. 

To do this requires commitment and practice, over time, as necessary for creating lasting change and for transforming our habitual ways of acting.  Through powerful conversations, Newfield coaching helps an individual or team create new practices, and sustain them in the face of daily pressures and demands.

In Conclusion 

Newfield coaching is a unique type of relationship and conversation designed to support the organization in inspiring new learning, facilitating new actions, transforming the ineffective habits of leadership and management, and re-establishing meaning and well being for the owners and employees while simultaneously supporting organizational goals.  Our approach and methodology of coaching allows teams and individuals to accomplish results beyond the predictable, in a mood of peace, well being and ambition.  Our approach to executive coaching is an opportunity for new learning that generates new outcomes.  

Entering into a coaching relationship requires the willingness to leave familiar shores and venture into uncharted waters, but the results are well worth it—for the individual, for the organization. 

For more information about Newfield’s Global Executive Coaching services, email Carolyn Keyes Carstens or phone +1.303.449.6117.  

© 2008 The Newfield Network, Inc.  This work may not be reproduced or transmitted without express written permission of the Newfield Network.  For more information, phone +1.303.449.6117.