Practitioner Diploma / “There is no better way to learn this work”

Alistair Russell is an experienced management consultant who works with executives to develop their organisations and leadership teams. Having held senior roles at PA Consulting Group and CIO Connect, Alistair now leverages his coaching expertise as a director at Laing Russell. A graduate of the 2021 Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching, he shares his experience of the programme.

You started out with a degree in engineering science before carving out a successful career in management consultancy. Who or what introduced you to coaching and led to you signing up for coach training with the AoEC?

I guess it started during my consulting career with the growing and deepening understanding of the process of working with clients. Seeing the enduring benefit of using a more facilitative, joint problem-solving approach; seeing how working as a process consultant (as described by Ed Schein) could produce a more sustainable outcome for the client at an individual, team and indeed organisational level. I had the privilege of working with some really able people that guided my own development as a consultant. On reflection, a key moment was being asked to lead PA Consulting’s “Process Consulting” development programme. The programme was for experienced, senior consultants. As ever the act of leading a programme prompted me to have to think much more clearly about what I did as a consultant.

And then during my time in executive education at Durham Business School, working with senior HR and HRD professionals as my clients, I become more aware of the role of the executive coach, we would often include “manager as coach” components in our senior exec development programmes.

Then when both leading the consulting practice of CIO Connect and continuing to develop my own practice, I found I was moving ever closer to coaching in me as an advisor to chief information officers and their teams. My associate team included two AoEC faculty members and then I met John Leary Joyce.

Finally, it was the opportunity offered by the pandemic, not travelling and thinking about what I wanted to be with Laing Russell that I settled on coaching being a more significant part of my portfolio, increasing my non-executive director work where coaching skills come to their fore, too. So, I just went to the place I knew well. I knew the faculty, I knew the leadership - it just made sense, and I knew the faculty and the cohort would be good and challenge me.

What were some of the positives and challenges you experienced while doing the diploma?

The great positive was experiencing first-hand how to build strong, mutual developmental relationships that were just online over video 1:1, in small groups and as cohort as whole.

My colleagues were all great and offered a diverse, rich set of experiences, and they were all interested in learning deeply.

Because of family issue, I couldn’t do the final module and the assessment with my original cohort and had to work with a subsequent cohort. And the welcome I got from them was just as supportive and open, especially as I was starting from scratch for that all important assessment module.

The first challenge was getting over that performance anxiety, leaning into as we tend to say these days that whilst it might be awkward coaching, is something you learn by doing. There is no better way to learn this work. And as someone that has a bias to intellectualise and think about things before acting, jumping into the practice sessions was hard and still is when I am faced with it! And getting over that challenge was perhaps the most important development outcome from the programme.

What is your top advice to others considering coach training?

I guess I was a relatively special a case in having known of and worked with AoEC for over 15 years. I had experienced a number of their open taster sessions on coaching, coaching supervision and their style and ethos suited me.

So, I would take time to get to know the development organisation and its people. Talk to past graduates of the programme.

And do take time to understand how the training organisation puts into practice the requirements of the accrediting bodies that are relevant to you and make sure their approaches suit you.

Looking back at doing your diploma, what has been its lasting impact on you as a person and you as a coach?

Increased confidence in trying new approaches, always being open to continued development in my behaviour in the moment with clients. Whilst not sitting down and writing a full blown, ready to submit reflective essay, I do take a moment every month or so to talk things through with my supervisor and decide what I am going to try next.

Can you tell us more about your personal coaching model and how this has evolved since doing the diploma?

I have written a few times on my company’s blog about integrating coaching into our consulting practice. I called my personal coaching model Diamond GESA!! Diamond reflecting the divergent and convergent stages of a coaching session and GESA an acronym being my synthesis of many of the models we had considered G - goal; E - explore; S - solution options; A - action.

Like all models it is wrong, but it was helpful to me at the time to reflect the sense I was making of coaching and provided a framework to talk about what it meant to me. And helpfully in the moment of perhaps a tricky point in a session, it acts as a reference point for me to think about what next.

One of things that has significantly developed since the diploma is finding out how to let myself slow right down, to not be in such a hurry to get the client to an action or an answer, to guide clients through to a place that can be much more profound in their development.

You now head up management consultancy Laing Russell and are developing your coaching practice; can you tell us about the type of clients you are working with and some of the issues and opportunities you coach people around?

Our clients in Laing Russell are typically defined by their context. Our clients are the C-suite leaders with responsibility for enabling their organisations to deliver the most value through the use of digital and data technologies. Often called the chief information officer or CIO. So, alongside leading a team of consultants that work on issues of strategy, governance and getting the operating model right, we work as coaches to the CIOs and members of their senior teams.

Issues in this role as in many others, include building trust and effective collaborative relationships with colleagues at senior executive level; choosing where and how to spend their time, choosing where and how to intervene in the complicated world of organisations; choosing how to make effective use of that most precious resource their own time and energy

You have since gone on to do the AoEC’s Gestalt Coaching Skills Certificate after completing your diploma. Why has this coaching model resonated with you and what value does it add to your coaching work?

This is a hard question to answer, so thank you!

So, making sense of the world has always been important to me both emotionally and intellectually. When I discovered that there was a name and a whole body of work that had recognised the importance of working with the specific and the whole, I was both overjoyed and intrigued.

Through the diploma and subsequently, I have found the value of some of the techniques that flow from the Gestalt philosophy and indeed taking some the ideas that I am coming to understand and finding my own ways to use them as a coach.

For example, I am struck by how useful a judicious use of saying how I am feeling in a coaching session can be or indeed inviting the client to repeat something that they have said with even more vigour or emphasis, can all be in prompting a new insight for a client and opening a new productive line of thinking into action for them.

Can you share a success story or testimonial from one of your clients that highlights the impact of your coaching?

“Having recently stepped up to be part of our CIO’s management team, I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to work with the Laing Russell coach, Alistair Russell. Our focus has been to support my development as the leader of my own area of Business Systems and also as a full member of the CIO’s team. I have worked with Alistair for a year now and I found his coaching of tremendous value. The coaching has been instrumental in my growth and development as a leader, focusing on a number of key areas including engagement with stakeholders inside and outside of the organisation and development of my team. I am more than happy to recommend, Laing Russell and Alistair.”

“I work in a fast paced, constantly changing environment where often the day to day takes over. Alistair helped me to focus on the elements of my role that are truly important and value adding and understanding how this can impact my personal development. It has also meant I am able to delegate more effectively and concentrate on the more strategic elements of my role. I work in a management role in an area which is under constant pressure and Alistair’s approach to guiding my own thinking was hugely beneficial and increased my confidence in my own abilities significantly. For anyone looking to enter into a professional coaching arrangement, I can’t recommend Alistair highly enough!”

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a coach?

I am always learning, always developing, it’s exciting because you can never know what will happen. And of course, you do get the rewards of clients saying how beneficial working with you has been, which is very rewarding.

Our deepest gratitude to Alistair for sharing his personal journey and experience of coach training at the AoEC.