Clarity’s services are focused on business leaders and their senior teams, and are designed to get the best out of what the organisation already has within it. Everything we do starts with gaining a deep understanding of your objectives and challenges, and how these sit within the wider organisation. We also ensure that we understand and incorporate our solutions into existing HR and L&D frameworks.

There are three mutually reinforcing elements to the Clarity portfolio that go towards creating a solution that meets your specific requirements. Each piece complements and builds on the others to enable key changes to be effected at individual, team and business level. The three areas are below: please click on any area or service to find out more.

Coaching, Mentoring and Skills Development

Our philosophy is that every individual has boundless potential and if they are failing to fulfill it, then it is simply a matter of helping the individual identify where the problem or “blockage” is and what needs to be done to fix it. This approach is broadly based upon coaching … but not generic coaching by numbers – we combine a strong understanding of the challenges faced by growth company executives with a healthy dose of challenge, feedback and proven frameworks that help our clients look at old problems in new ways. Helping to develop the leadership that is in every executive is critical for us, so when we aren’t doing it via coaching we do so through specific training in leadership or in particular leadership skills. Read more about our specific services below.

Executive Coaching and Mentoring
Senior executives can occasionally struggle to deliver the value that their talent suggests they should. These individuals often only need some one on one work with an expert to unblock unlock the potential.

Coaching is now regarded as one of the most effective forms of support and personal development for senior figures. Executive coaching helps individuals focus on what they need to do to make a difference, and then supports them through delivering the plan they have created. It also provides senior executives with a much needed sounding board, helping them resolve dilemmas, releasing blockages and re-establishing focus and energy. Clarity’s coaches are hand-picked for their business as well as their coaching experience. As well as traditional coaching programmes, we have 3 services tailored to specific needs that we have identified with our clients:

“Pause …” is what one client has described as “turbo-coaching”. It is a highly challenging 2 session coaching programme, designed to help business owners, MDs and corporate executives to stand back and reappraise where they are, what is working and what needs to change.

“Pause in Pairs …” is based upon the “turbo-coaching” concept, but involves 2 executives instead of one. In addition to a session from a professional coach, it features facilitated “buddy-coaching” between the coachees with the aim of establishing peer mentoring pairs after the session and beyond. We ensure that our process links in to existing organisational performance management frameworks.

Our “Coaching Plus” service is designed to generate detailed and valuable input from selected stakeholders on both the individual client and the business environment, in order that the objectives for the executive coaching programme that ensues are informed by real and relevant business issues. This is particularly powerful for executives undergoing change or taking on demanding new roles.

Leadership Development
As an adjunct to our coaching programmes, it often becomes apparent that an executive needs specific input on one or two particular areas. We run leadership programmes tailored to the requirements of individuals and these are often woven into existing coaching programmes as we have found that this approach delivers most benefit. With a strong military background in our executive team, it is probably no surprise that we are passionate about leadership – our favourite thinking on the subject is on the resources page and we’d love to have a discussion with you about leadership in general, or on your particular issues.

Executive Skills Training
We periodically run one day workshops aimed at developing specific skills to fill gaps in an executive’s armoury. If you would like to find out more about any of the following, please contact us to discuss. These programmes can also be run in-house comparatively cheaply as they are pre-designed and off the shelf – or you can invest a little additional funding into tailoring them to your own unique challenges or needs:

The Leader as Coach
In today’s climate it is easy to view people development as a low priority - we need to see results today. The challenge is that we also need our best people to perform at their peak: focused, motivated and effective … and this is where coaching comes in as a key leadership tool. Master coach Geoff Shaw’s workshop examines the mindset behind a coaching approach to leadership and the core principles behind it. He then introduces you to a practical coaching framework, providing plenty of opportunity to practice the skills and receive feedback and tips in a supportive and safe environment. It’s powerful stuff.

Presenting with Impact
This workshop is based on the proprietary presentation methods of James Caplin, best selling author of “I Hate Presentations.” It is designed for people who are uncomfortable with presenting when the stakes are high, or those who are comfortable but wish to refresh and reinvigorate their style. James is brimful of tips and techniques to give you the confidence to raise the bar on the standard and impact of your presentations and to deliver what your audience needs every time.

Negotiating Skills for Executives
Led by Gordon Lovell-Read, former global executive with HP Consulting and until May 2008 Group CIO of Siemens. Executives are regularly evaluating and selecting suppliers but may only experience a major negotiation a few times in a career. Suppliers are doing the various types of deals day-in, day-out, and are highly trained in sales and negotiation strategy and tactics. We expose the secrets of professional negotiation, through a highly interactive experience, showing how to neutralize supplier gambits whilst maintaining a win-win relationship. You will leave with the confidence and knowledge to prepare for, and execute, effective complex negotiations.
Leading and Motivating Others: The Definitive Toolkit

The questions we are most often asked by senior executives are: “how do I motivate and influence my team?” and “How do I manage difficult people and non-team players?” Our workshop on leading and motivating others addresses these issues and more. It will provide you with the range of tools you need to get more from your people in a variety of work situations; this will include a psychometric tool to help you to understand your own leadership style and preferences.

Strategic Decision-Making
Strategic decisions can seem strange to executives who are only beginning to become familiar with the wider strategic game as a consequence of growth. Using real examples of decisions made in a strategic context, we consider the landscapes and risks that often steer thinking and what signals might be around when they are in play. You will leave better equipped to embrace the strategic decision landscape with handy tips for immediate deployment. Led by Gordon Lovell-Read, former global head of HP Consulting and until May 2008 Group CIO of Siemens.

Coaching Skills Training Programme
This programme, run by one of the UK’s top coaching trainers, challenges you to take on the coaching mindset and apply it to tools and methods that already work for you. Indeed rippled throughout the course is a strong focus on the practical application of your learning once you return to the day job. Whatever your role, if you want more powerful results from your interactions with others, or if you want the most solid of foundations on which to launch your coaching career, this course is a must … and will represent a fantastic investment.

“There is no doubt that people who are coached to high performance generate more energy, creativity and engagement than those who are simply managed to it. Imagine the effect on your company’s bottom line if everyone adopted a coaching approach to leadership?”
Andy Foster, Managing Director, Clarity Partners

To find out more, or to book a place on one of our courses, please click here to access our specially-created Clarity Coach Training web site.

Board and Top Team Effectiveness

“When is a team not a team? When it’s a top team!” goes the old joke. Senior teams are often made up of single-minded individuals with a strong attachment to the function they represent, and Clarity’s proven approach is based on identifying the individual strengths and working with the leader and team members to help them build a common focus and effective way of operating.

Executive Team Development. The executive teams of growing companies face a myriad of pressures that can affect their performance: unclear direction from the board, poor time management, difficult relationships with investors and within the team to name but a few. Clarity provides bespoke programmes for these teams, running a parallel series of group and individual sessions whose input is defined by in depth pre-consultation with all key stakeholders.

Board Effectiveness Reviews. Effective boards set the vision, ensure that the strategies are in place to achieve it, assess the external environment to question all assumptions on which the plan is based and ensure that the élan and entrepreneurialism of the executive team is scrutinized by a “second house”. If we accept that the board is the most significant strategic asset that a company can have, then it is imperative to provide regular evaluation of how well it is performing and to make improvements where a requirement is identified. Our effectiveness reviews are carried out in close consultation with the chairman and in accordance with the 2003 Combined Code on Corporate Governance; however, we believe that ticking the compliance box should be a welcome bonus rather than the raison d’etre of the exercise.

Observation, Facilitation and Coaching. There are many occasions where it is extremely beneficial to have an independent observer in a board or executive team meeting to feed back what they are seeing and provide expert analysis and recommendation. Some examples might be where a board or team has unhealthy dynamics, it feels that it is not making best use of its time, it isn’t making effective decisions, or it is simply concerned that it isn’t getting its processes right. Clarity provides individuals who have facilitated or coached the boards of FTSE and Fortune 500 companies.

Board Formation. If you are unsure whether you need a board, it’s unclear what boards are for, or you don’t know how to form one then please contact us and we’ll facilitate you through the process. This can be as theoretical or as hands-on as you want, but the full service would involve a mixture of instruction and challenge to clarify precisely how your board would make a difference, and advice on recruiting appropriate chairmen and Non-Executive Directors.

Facilitated Strategic Workshops and Board Retreats

Facilitation of Off-sites and Strategic Reviews
The biggest responsibility of the leadership level within a company is in setting a clear vision, putting in place challenging , yet achievable, goals and designing, then implementing, an action plan to take the organisation to its objective. Board meetings or executive team meetings are usually structured to generate discussion and decision-making around a standard grouping of topics to allow best use of the time allotted.

However there is often a need to consider some issues in more detail and at greater length than time allows for, and in these cases it is beneficial to go off-site with an external facilitator to ensure that the broader discussion is suitably structured to achieve the desired outcomes. Clarity’s experienced facilitators can provide structure, focus and challenge to help top teams to constructively debate and define the way forward for the organization, resolve dilemmas or make the right decisions on key initiatives.

How it works is up to you: We can provide a full end-to-end service, including sourcing of venue, provision of facilitators, workshop planning and the production of value-adding summaries of discussions and decisions that took place. Alternatively we can simply provide a facilitator to work with your team or board at a venue of your choosing.

Organisational Design and Development
This is a consulting service, delivered by our highly experienced OD team. If you are an HR or OD director who would like to review current policy, outsource an upcoming project to the experts or if you would value some mentoring as you roll out your own initiatives, please get in touch.