Leadership Development Consultant, Monique Breault Discusses How Maximizing Leadership Potential Improves Productivity and Profitability.

Another example is a man that recently contacted me from a very large manufacturing company because he realized that he had more things to learn about how to interact with people to get better results. His communication approach led employees to be afraid of him. People were avoiding him. And it turns out that he was steamrolling people. He had a very high level of power in the organization but his temper was getting in the way of productivity. It turns out that he was seeing people as objects and not seeing them as human beings. And so I helped him realize that that’s how he was seeing people and what the impact was, which opened his eyes and all of a sudden he started changing how he interacted with people. He would show interest in their lives. He would be more patient with them. He would watch his impulse to jump in and fix things. He became more patient and in touch with his compassionate side and was able to show some vulnerability, which is often underneath why people steamroll others because they don’t want to be steamrolled themselves. The HR manager called me after I worked with him and asked what drug are you giving this man? Because he is just a very different person. He is civil. People enjoy working with him now. What’s going on? It was lovely to hear that his practicing new mindsets and behaviors were having a positive impact. This is inspirational for me and why I do what I do.

When I worked for Hewlett Packard back in the late nineties and early 2000 as an organization development consultant, I would work with the general managers and the senior executives in helping them run the people side of things in their organization. I’ve found that the moments that brought me the most flow and the most joy and the places where I noticed the biggest impact were the ones where I was having one-on-one leadership, coaching conversations with people and where I just felt in my gut that this was the work I was meant to do. I could feel a sense of connection with the other person. I got feedback that they were transformed as a result of working with me and they were so much happier. 

I then realized, wow, I want to do more of this because it feels like it’s my calling and it’s something that I’m good at and it’s something that impacts people. As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve realized that my calling is to grow conscious, connected, compassionate, courageous leaders in service to a whole and healed world because there’s a lot of suffering in the world. I work every day towards answering the questions of how we can alleviate that suffering and how can we learn to show up in a way that is more loving and honors the interconnection that we have with one another? 

I learned early on that I need to value the work that I do if people are going to pay for it. I need to ask for what I’m worth. There’s a tendency when you open a practice to want clients; I would undervalue what my consulting was worth and that meant that my business didn’t grow as fast as it could have or be as profitable as it could have been. I learned to develop confidence in what I offer and ask for what I’m worth. I’ve also discovered that people will pay more for something if they think it’s more worthwhile. It’s a really interesting human tendency.

What should organizations consider before working with a leadership coach?

Before I begin working with a client I ask them how courageous their leaders are. I think that’s the most important question. There is a popular book right now written by Dr. Brene Brown titled “Dare To Lead”   She interviewed a hundred CEOs and asked them, what do they think is most important right now in the world? And they said courageous leadership.

Before working with me I also want them to know how they will measure the success of the coaching intervention and how they will know and track that things have changed.  When evaluating and choosing a coach, they need to check out the credentials of the person and their experience, but then give the executives a chance to interview several coaches to establish if there’s chemistry or not. Because like any professional relationship, coaching is a very personal one and to go deep you have to trust somebody. Some people feel more open with different types of personalities than others so I think it’s always important for people to interview more than one coach to see who fits best and who’s going to meet their needs best.

If you would like to learn more about Monique’s services visit her website @http://www.moniquebreault.com/