From the sales conversation to company leadership. Tailored development for teams and managers. Experience since 2001, multinational clients and a specialisation in pharmaceutical companies.
Thinking through your decisions
Management Coaching for Difficult Decisions and Team Leadership
As a manager, you lead your team, shape business strategy and set performance goals. You also build relationships and foster strategic collaboration across departments and levels of the organisation. When weighing up strategic options, you need to understand what each means for your team and your own responsibilities. Management coaching at ED Development helps you think through a specific situation and put your own decision into practice.
Support for workplace challenges
What is management coaching?
Management coaching is a development partnership focused on specific goals at work. The coach helps managers develop their potential, think through their options, make their own decisions and take action.
Our people management services include support for executives and middle managers.
Our systemic coaching approach takes account of working relationships, your organisation’s expectations and what the manager can influence. Coaching can be a standalone engagement or follow on from a development programme, depending on what you need to address.
Your coaching priorities
What management coaching focuses on
The manager brings a topic from their own work. Together, we clarify what they want to achieve, what influences their approach and which options they have not yet acted on.
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Decision-making
Executive coaching and decision-making
When working with senior executives, we explore the consequences of each option for people and the way the business operates. The manager clarifies their own assumptions and priorities. They make the decision and remain responsible for it.
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The management role
Management roles and work priorities
We work with situations where a manager’s responsibilities or the expectations of them are changing. We identify what they need to handle personally, what they can delegate and where they need to clarify what has been agreed with their line manager.
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Difficult conversations
Collaboration and difficult conversations
We explore specific workplace disagreements and prepare for important conversations. The manager examines their own part in the situation, how they communicate and how others respond. They choose an approach to try at their next meeting.
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Coaching your team
The manager as a coach
We develop managers’ skills in observing work and leading conversations in which team members propose their own ways to improve. For sales teams, we also use joint customer visits. Managers acting as coaches recognise when to ask questions and when to give clear instructions.
Situations managers face
When management coaching can help
Coaching can be useful when a manager wants to work on their approach and can test the impact of new decisions in everyday work.
- A manager is taking on broader responsibilities and needs to adapt how they work.
- A manager wants to consider different perspectives and possible consequences before making an important decision.
- Meetings with colleagues in other departments keep returning to the same disagreements.
- A reorganisation is changing relationships and expectations, and the manager is considering their next steps.
- Under pressure, a manager responds in ways they did not intend and wants to understand their reactions.
- A manager needs to put approaches from a development programme into practice with their team.
- A manager needs to build salespeople’s development into joint customer visits.
- HR is seeking targeted support for an individual manager, with an agreed goal.
How we work
How management coaching works
We start by clarifying the brief and how we will work together. We adapt the process to the manager’s goal and how their situation develops.
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Understanding the situation and needs
A training needs analysis helps clarify the work context and identify an appropriate form of support. We identify what the manager can address and where the organisation needs to be involved.
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Agreeing the goal and process
We agree on the goal and how progress will be evaluated, the scope of the coaching and the confidentiality arrangements. If the organisation commissions the coaching, we clarify the expectations of the manager, the sponsor and the coach.
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Coaching conversations and testing approaches at work
Sessions focus on current situations. Between meetings, the manager acts on their decision and brings their experience to the next session. Together, we review what happened and what needs adjusting.
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Reviewing progress and agreeing next steps
We review progress against the starting point and the agreed goals. We identify changes in management practice and how to build on them. Any information shared with the organisation stays within the boundaries agreed in advance.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- since1993Management experience
- 25+Years of business development
- 60+Multinational clients
Didn’t find your answer?Elena Demeková, CEO and Senior Consultant
What is executive coaching, and who is it for?
Executive coaching provides one-to-one support for senior executives on issues relating to their role, decision-making and leadership of the organisation. At ED Development, we also work with middle managers. Whether coaching is suitable depends on the specific goal and the manager’s willingness to reflect on their approach and test new ways of working.
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
Coaching helps managers find their own answers and identify possible courses of action. Mentoring draws more directly on the mentor’s experience in a similar role or field. CIPD’s overview of coaching and mentoring explains the differences. If combining the two approaches is appropriate, we clarify in advance what support the manager needs and whether the consultant is acting as a coach or mentor.
How does coaching differ from a leadership development programme?
Coaching starts with the individual manager’s topic. Our Leadership and People Management programme systematically develops selected management skills through practical exercises and work on participants’ own situations. The two approaches can build on one another. Coaching helps managers examine how they use new approaches in their own working environment.
What will HR or a line manager be told about the coaching?
We agree what information will be shared before coaching begins. Confidentiality arrangements define what stays within the coaching conversation and what progress review the sponsor will receive. We also clarify the limits of confidentiality. The International Coaching Federation’s Code of Ethics explains the importance of agreements between the coach, client and sponsor.
What experience does Elena Demeková have in management coaching?
In her work with a recruitment company, Elena Demeková provided systemic coaching for senior executives and middle managers. Her systemic coaching experience also spans medical nutrition and retail. She draws on this work across different organisational settings when coaching managers. Explore ED Development’s client projects for further context.
How long does coaching take, and what determines the cost?
We agree the number, length and frequency of sessions according to the goal and scope of our work together. The cost reflects the agreed brief and the preparation required. After an initial conversation, we propose how we will work together and the terms. When evaluating progress, we look for specific changes in the manager’s work, such as handling a planned conversation or changing how they make decisions.
