LEADERSHIP
& TEAM
COACHING
Experienced and trusted to help organizations and senior executives navigate change and prepare for the future.
ENERGY INDUSTRY
With 40 years experience in this space, I've worked with the best and the brightest -- assembling and preparing senior executive teams globally.
EXECUTIVE SEARCH
Providing career guidance has been my life's work and has uniquely prepared me to help senior executives chart their own paths.
PROVEN PROCESS
Coaching should provide real ROI. Understanding how we measure success is always a component of my client engagements.
SOUND METHODOLOGY
I follow the principles of the International Coaching Federation and am trained through the Hudson Institute of Coaching, one of the world's oldest and most respected coaching programs.
FLEXIBLE CONTRACTING
Coaching engagements typically range from 8-12 one-on-one sessions -- in person, via phone, or video conference. I work with clients to create customized packages that best fit their development needs and schedules.
C-SUITE PLANNING
I specialize in building executive confidence, management preparedness, leadership skills, and communication acumen required for senior and board level challenges.
WHY LEADERSHIP COACHING MATTERS
Today’s leaders are under constant pressure, and at times may need to SHIFT their approach to meet the demands of all of the stakeholders, in the work place and in their personal lives. Business leaders face increasing pressure from their employees, peers, superiors, boards and shareholders for competitive and effective strategies to create cohesive and dynamic corporate cultures and a differentiated and diverse market position.
Leadership coaches work with senior executives to help them identify and reach aspirational and transitional goals -- working within an organizational structure, and independently to prepare and position them to pursue new opportunities.
Leadership coaching is a proven professional practice employed by corporations and their leaders with a desire to see executives take their game to the next level with the support of a coach acting as a guide and partner in the desired change as imagined and articulated by the coach’s client.
Leadership coaching is a confidential and supportive process employing the client’s resources and desire to make lasting changes in their personal and professional lives.
"I work with leaders to help them identify and reach aspirational and transition goals -- supporting their commitment to change for the best of self and the organization."
JOHN McKAY
John brings his clients a well-honed skill of discovering what leaders and their teams need to move forward. His ability to ask penetrating and thought-provoking questions gets at the heart of issues. From strategy to operational capability, John’s seasoning, built from experience and deep listening – including what has not been said – provides his clients with new insights that enable shifts toward desired outcomes. He has been privileged to work with world class executives, witnessing significant client growth and success achieved through their joint collaboration.
He has supported executive leaders and their teams through the daily rigors of self-management, consistent team alignment, and management of stakeholder relationships – all in the face of increasing demand for results. Decades of gathering and sharing stakeholder feedback that directly supports clients’ objectives, John holds a mirror for his clients to see their situations clearly. It is only through assessing this “reality on the ground” that his clients can choose the actions that most assuredly will move them forward with the clarity and the energy to affect the changes they desire.
John’s 45+ years of business experience include sales and general management in the global energy industry. He spent 36 years in executive search tapping into his clients’ corporate cultures and team dynamics to identify and bring high level talent to senior leadership teams and Boards of Directors. As co-owner, John built of a 20-person boutique executive search firm which was acquired by a leading global search firm. Here, John became the Global Leader of the Energy Practice and a core member in the CEO and Board of Directors practice.
John earned his B.A. in Marketing at Gonzaga University. John continues to lean into his community providing Pro Bono coaching to newly graduated University students. He co-locates between Calgary, Alberta and Palm Desert, California.
WHAT MY CLIENTS SAY
GLOBAL HR EXECUTIVE
TURNAROUND SPECIALIST
HOUSTON, TEXAS
“John has good business acumen and natural curiosity in people. It is supported in deep listening skills and an ability to ask piercing questions. Searching both for what is said and implied. It is both a science and an art. John aided me through precise questions, intense listening and reflective observations. As a result, I am making informed decisions and have a custom built plan to go forward with.
PRESIDENT/CEO
HOSPITALITY COMPANY
CALGARY, ALBERTA
“Valuable sessions. John builds trust easily and all coaching sessions felt comfortable. I gained insight into my personal and corporate leadership style and John’s coaching allowed me to explore and act on self improvement in my own style”.
PRESIDENT/CEO
ENERGY SERVICES
CALGARY, ALBERTA
“I thoroughly enjoyed my sessions with John. I found his style to be patient and welcoming. He is a skilled listener and a great facilitator; identifying areas that I needed to work on, while leaving the work to me. Through his questions and guidance, I was able to first understand, then draft and articulate a plan for my company and myself that meets the needs of both. I unreservedly recommend John”.
ABOUT TEAM COACHING
Individual leaders can achieve much within their own command, leading multiple functions or domains of expertise. However, a group of these individual leaders, when part of a team, do not necessarily function cohesively and effectively together. Team coaching enables the team to function at a level greater than the sum of its parts. It ignites a collective leadership power within the team.
In partnership with the team, we identify the right conditions for the team to accomplish its work. With internal alignment and clarity of purpose and objectives, team members develop the strategies for doing the work well. The team improves its norms for working together and garners the organizational support to get the work done. Ultimately, team members learn together and achieve more through their collective leadership.
Improving how the team learns enables the team to improve its effectiveness over time and achieve more. Team
coaches support the team leader, individual team members, and the team as a whole. The team members start to
also coach within the team and the collective leadership increases… leadership greater than the sum of its parts.
These same leaders take their new team coaching skills to their own teams, creating a groundswell of improved
teamwork that drives results and accelerates real change throughout the organization.
