As a coach dedicated to expanding and enriching each coachee’s leadership effectiveness, David Bourassa is guided by two formulas:
| Self-Awareness + Reflection = Learning |
| Learning + Behavior Change x Practice = Growth |
The first step toward maximizing individual leadership effectiveness is to increase the leader’s self-awareness and capacity for reflection. Self-awareness and reflection result in learning, but learning alone is not sufficient to cause meaningful growth. The learning must produce behavior change, which must then be practiced to sustain the new behavior.
Practice is a multiplier because it speeds and embeds this change. The leader and the organization will know that the coaching has been a success when the coachee responds to situations like those of the past with new, more effective behaviors.
The role of the executive coach is to skillfully facilitate the leader’s journey from self-awareness and reflection to learning, and from this foundation promote the behavior change and practice that result in growth as a leader.
David is committed to the following principles in working with clients:
• Confidentiality: This is the foundation upon which David builds a successful partnership with each leader. He holds in strict confidence all conversations between the leader and coach.
• Respect: Every leader deserves to be heard and understood, from their perspective, free of judgment.
• Individuality: The coaching process allows a leader to uncover the power of his or her own leadership signature and to learn how to enhance their effectiveness within an organization while staying true to themselves.
• Partnership: Leaders always have the best answers to their challenges already inside them. Coach and leader bring their respective skills and experiences together in a shared drive to uncover the best solution and achieve the best outcome.
• Sustainability: Prompting, and then leveraging, the leader’s self-awareness and reflection is an important part of the coaching process. Self-awareness and reflection provide the basis for leaders to be able to recognize their own challenges and needs and to adapt their behavior going forward.