Mike’s MusingsClosely Held Business and The Muse

Mike Jay

This article first appeared in the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations, 2005, 3(2),53-56. It can only be reprinted and distributed with prior written permission from Professional Coaching

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ISSN 1553-3735

2005

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Closely Held Business and The MuseOver time, I’ve probably worked with more closely heldbusinesses than not. From an agricultural background,to sports teams, to family businesses, professionalpartnerships, small and medium enterprise to largecorporations that are often closely held, if not in legality,in terms of how they operate.

For all these entities, executive coaching needs to benimble and experienced in my view. Not only in theoperation of these business systems, but the way inwhich they implicitly function…most of the time,hierarchically, if not nobility; the rest of the time.

To cut to the chase, here’s something that I find issupportive of the coaching orientation when workingwith closely held enterprises. I call it my LeadershipCycle of Innovation for want of a better name:

You’ll notice that as complexity increases, therequirement for increasing leadership complexity,process complexity and in a lot of cases cognitiveleadership complexity increases dramatically. Thischart also gives you a quick checklist of what processcomplexity is required as you meet leaders at variouspositions in the cycle.

In the middle of the diagram, you’ll also notice what iscalled a B/I Leap. If you’ve never heard of the B/I leap,then maybe it’s time to help you understand how critical

this is to implicit leadership style. Generally, closelyheld business reflects the style of their leaders. In a lotof cases, these leaders emerge and are not grown per se.Michael Gerber writes some compelling ideas into hisE-Myth Revisited, which I recommend to coaches. Theother book that I recommend is the Cash Flow Quadrantby Robert Kyosaki.

In the Cash Flow Quadrant, which looks like thegraphic to the right, you’ll notice that there is a verticalline between the E/S and the B/I. The assumptions andbeliefs that work on either side are often very different.Many closely held corporate leaders are still functioningon the E/S side of the equation, which stands foremployee/self-employed versus the B/I side whichstands for Business Owner/Investor. Kyosaki pointsout that often times, our viewpoints are skewed to thesetendencies and the way we operate in reality oftendoesn’t match our intentions, or the reality itself. I findthis with closely held leaders more often than I wouldlike.

For those executive coaches working with largerorganizations, I find the following paradigm helpful tocreate some ideas of how the world works at this morecomplex level, say beyond the B/I leap.

In the Dynamic Engagement Array which I write moreextensively about at http://www.leadershipengagement.com we find a combinatorial approach that

Mike’s Musings

© Copyright 2005 PCPI. All rights reserved worldwide

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International Journal of Coaching in Organizations

Coaching In Closely Held Enterprises (2005/Issue Two)

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when identified with the Taxonomy of ExecutiveCoaching I wrote about early on in a musings columnpictured at http://www.leadu.com/taxonomy, thecoach has a pretty good platform for working from interms of the process complexity that these people face.

In some ways, coming to grips with the nature of closelyheld leadership being in over their heads, is often agood place for a coach to start, especially when coachescan show them the path through what they alreadyknow to be true.

Mike Jay________________________________________

IJCO Individual and Organizational Sponsors,2005 Issue 2

IndividualPhyllis Campagna, Bartlett, Illinois USAphyllis@xselps.comApril Chi, Sacramento, California USAcmiapril@aol.comNancy Giere, Grafton, Wisconsin USAngiere@wi.rr.comDonna Karlin, Ottawa, Ontario Canadadonnakarlin@abetterperspective.comDoug Kirkpatrick, Turlock, California USAkirk1@inreach.comM. Nora Klaver, Oak Park, Illinois USAnklaver@inqinc.comJohn Lazar, Forest Park, Illinois USAjblcoach@lazarconsulting.comDavid Lerner, Chicago, Illinois USAdlerner@human-innovation.comKimberly McNally, Seattle, Washington USAkamcnally@worldnet.att.netRebecca Merrill, Durham, North Carolina USArebecca@lifestructuring.comCB “Cork” Motsett, Jacksonville, Florida USAcork@bdspec.comAgnes Mura, Santa Monica, California USAagnes@agnesmura.com

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OrganizationalAdler School of Professional Coaching, Toronto,Ontario Canada www.adler.caCoaches Training Institute, San Rafael, CaliforniaUSA www.thecoaches.comCollege of Executive Coaching, Pismo Beach,California USA www.executivecoachcollege.comCorporate Life Coach, Auckland New Zealandwww.leslieh.comHudson Institute of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara,California USA www.hudsoninstitute.comKarlin Sloan & Company, Chicago, Illinois USAwww.executive-coaching-ks.comMKB Conseil & Consulting, Geneva Switzerlandwww.mkbconseil.chNewfield Network, Boulder, Colorado USAwww.newfieldnetwork.comOrenda Coaching & Consulting, Bellevue,Washington USA www.tlalliance.com

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