Trust me - I’m a management coach

Coaching is not just another fad -- experts say it can boost an executive’s performance long term. Report by Roger Elgin

The Sunday Times
May 6th, 2001

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EXECUTIVES REAP THE REWARDS

THREE executives with the joint venture between Sita and Equant to manage their global telecommunications network have become enthusiastic about coaching after sessions with Laurence Lyons. "It's much better that I expected," says Diana Leonard. "I was afraid it would be very theoretical, but I saw immediate results that I could implement straightway." Her colleague, Patricia Waldren-Werner, agrees it was practical. She says: 'it is exactly the right formula for busy people. They don't have the time to spend sitting in three to four-day training sessions." Alexandre Gouvea agrees that the beauty of coaching is the time it saves, and says: "it focuses on my needs now and what is important to me."

by Roger Elgin, The Sunday Times

Keep it formal for maximum flexibility

by Erika Lucas

Managing virtual teams
Teamwork is an area which managers often fear will deteriorate in a virtual office environment. But according to Dr Laurence Lyons of Henley's Future Work Forum, the experience of most organisations is that teams actually become more effective - partly because distance forces them to become more organised about the times they do get together.

"If you know that you are only going to be in the office one day next week and you have a meeting, you are going to plan that meeting much better than perhaps you normally would do," he said. The challenge for managers is to put structures in place to ensure regular meetings actually do happen - and that those meetings are rich in opportunities for people to interact and be stimulated and motivated.

Sometimes, said Dr Lyons, it's simply a case of formalising what used to take place informally. "If you have a senior management team that needs to work closely together and kick ideas around, that can still happen but what we are finding is that management teams are now thinking this through and planning in a more formal way the kind of meetings that used to be spontaneous."

Professional Manager
March 2000

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Treat consultants with due respect

By David Bicknell

Computer News
 April 23, 1987

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So next time you see that DEC has won a contract against IBM, remember it may just have something
to do with how long the consultants were kept waiting

David Bicknell, Computer News

Laurence “Larry” Lyons was Consultant Relations Manager at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) UK from 1986-1988 where he defined and ran the consultant programme interfacing all Big Eight management consultancies at partner level and leading niche boutiques across Europe.