In 2020 Argidius Foundation invested in coaching support for CEOs and senior leaders across its partners. The objective was to support them to positively navigate the Covid pandemic. The Creative Metier coaching team provided group and team coaching to 41 CEOs and senior leaders across 14 partners from 2020-21.
Across the partners we observed the pandemic prompted new challenges. However importantly, it also turned up the heat on the challenges that were already being faced. Whether it was succession, scale, team culture, leadership or systems, the pandemic accelerated the need for change and innovation whilst also challenging the mechanisms in place to deliver that change.
We have now evaluated the support and discovered three common themes for impact, despite the different contexts of the coachees:
- The coaching supported leaders to gain clarity about direction and priorities during these moments of change
- The individual and team coaching supported cohesion and improved communication across the newly virtual or challenged team
- The coaching built confidence to make critical decisions in a timely way and to take those steps that needed to be taken to secure the organisation and its impact
In his interview for the series, Nicholas Colloff, Executive Director at Argidius Foundation and commissioner for this work, reported that he has seen better functioning management teams, clearer roles and stronger ability for team members to fulfil those roles alongside a stronger sense of prioritisation. He also noticed that partners have recognised the value of coaching for themselves and for their entrepreneurs.
Overall Argidius are seeing more active, cost effective and impactful organisations, which are delivering impact for the enterprises they serve in terms of incremental revenue and employment generation, alongside their own ability to raise capital. What Argidius are seeing is partners’ progress towards being more impactful, but also more sustainable and capable of generating more funding for themselves.
Listen to Nicholas’ interview as the funder perspective to the left, and hear the impact first hand from a selection of the coachees below.
