Wisdom8, a London-based CEO, board and executive development firm, has introduced a different approach to improving boardroom dynamics, with its unique Top Team coaching programme.
The firm, which develops top business leaders in some of the world’s largest fast growth companies, have pioneered the Roundtable programme to unify and coach whole teams together, as opposed to classic one-to-one executive coaching.
Top Team coaching is designed to unlock latent executive team performance potential by resolving in-fighting and improving alignment, strategic focus and collective ownership.
Wisdom8’s board level coaches encourage a climate of trust and openness to overcome obstacles such as parochialism and ‘survival of the fittest’ mentalities – often a driving force for high achievers, but a major cause of poor team collaboration.
Wisdom8’s co-founders, Georgina Woudstra and Katherine Tulpa introduced Roundtable in response to a need for CEOs and Executive teams to balance individualism with cohesion.
This is done through provocative, independent challenge from top board level coaches to help the team reach their performance aims, both at a personal and business level, while equally drawing out their softer skills and collective wisdom of the team.
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Says Jonathan Thomson, a Wisdom8 Coach: “Many executive teams don’t work well as one team. One of the reasons is by the very nature of the structure – they have a functional role, which they defend. What’s more, the training and development executives receive during their upwardly mobile career often focuses on functional capability or people management, while the leadership skills required for seeing the big picture and managing the dynamics of a board can be neglected.”
Furthermore, Katherine Tulpa, who was recently awarded Coaching Mentoring person of the Year by Coaching at Work, comments: “Having top teams communicate in a way that is truly effective can be a challenge for many organisations, especially those working in multi-cultural, fast growth environments. Our programme helps to address this, along with other leadership issues head on, through a rounded approach that generates greater understanding, inspiration and debate.”
