Our SERVICES
Located around Australia, ECI Partners is a select group of accomplished and respected former executives, clinical and organisational psychologists, proven entrepreneurs, and industry experts. Our executive and leadership coaches develop an easy rapport with clients and invariably become long-term trusted advisors.
EXECUTIVE COACHING
Executive coaching is a deeply personal, transformative opportunity for executives to develop to another level. Our role is to help facilitate this change from the current, to an even better future.
ECI Partners creates a safe space for learning, reflection, planning and development. We coach leaders to develop new skills, sustain high levels of performance, develop new perspectives, support remedial improvements, and more.
We recognise that executives are people too and that our professional and personal lives are completely integrated. ECI executive coaches bring evidence- based psychological approaches and real-world, lived-in experience to each coaching engagement. Our executive coaches build deeply trusted, confidential relationships and executives rely upon us for objectivity, insights and compassion as we work together on the things that are important.
No two executive coaching engagements are the same and as such, every engagement with ECI Partners is bespoke. We work with executives to establish coaching goals, measures and objectives, for each engagement. This provides a roadmap that we use to help guide the coaching journey to make sure we are focused on the right direction.
RESULTS*
Leaders rated the extent to which executive coaching with ECI Partners contributed to their development.
Executive coaching made an “outstanding or significant contribution” in the following areas:
• Problem solving (94%)
• Leadership (83%)
• Stakeholder management (77%)
• Decision making (75%)
• Achieving goals (73%)
*Source:
Confidential coaching impact review completed in conjunction with University of Technology (Sydney), 2020. “Rate the extent to which executive coaching has improved your effectiveness in the following areas.”
EXECUTIVE COACHING — TESTIMONIAL
“Universities are complex environments that are constantly changing. We have valued working with ECI Partners to help us as we’ve transformed our Business School. They have a high caliber team who quickly understood our environment and a were able to successfully help our leaders to navigate through change.”
— Greg Whitwell, Dean, The University of Sydney Business School
POD COACHING
Working in small ‘Pods’ executives are supported by a professional coach in individually tailored programs designed to fast-track performance, capability development and culture. Pod coaching is executive coaching at scale that also builds social capital across organisations.
Pod leadership coaching, is a unique, proven way to help organisations create deeply personalized, yet scalable, development forums to fast-track capability and cultural development. Pioneered by ECI Partners, approximately 4-5 selected members of your organisation work intensively as a ‘performance Pod’. An executive coach leads the Pod meetings, and each meeting has a specific focus and learning goal. We work with you to develop the learning goals and consider how to best commingle participants.
Professional coaches introduce evidence-based approaches and use prompts such as pre-readings, case studies, videos, blogs, etc. to stimulate new ideas and learnings. Pods work collaboratively together to convert the theory into practical new ways of working and leading. In between Pod Coaching meetings, participants practice what they are learning, and the executive coach can provide further personal support.
CASE STUDY: RAIL DELIVERY
Working in small ‘Pods’ executives are supported by a professional coach in individually tailored programs designed to fast-track performance, capability development and culture. Pod coaching is executive coaching at scale that also builds social capital across organisations.
OUR ENGAGEMENT
ECI Partners work across arms of NSW Government and has worked closely with Rail Delivery to design and deploy a bespoke executive coaching program that supported and developed the key capabilities of senior project delivery professionals.
The program we developed had to be certain it would address the added challenge of engaging 20 participants of incredibly diverse backgrounds, people with a huge range of industry experience as well as diverse roles within Rail Delivery.
ECI Partners pioneered the development of a pod coaching program that:
• addressed the unique and specific needs of Rail Delivery
• introduced an evidence-based approach to learning and development
• translated academic theory and research into an experience that was highly practical and deeply personal, so we could meet each person’s development goals
• facilitated greater cohesion, connection, and collaboration across the organisation
THE RESULT
Pod coaching is an ideal way to develop an entire team, and individuals in a more personalised format across an organisation, even if they are not always working with one another.
When participants were asked to provide feedback on their pod coaching experience, they provided the following results:
• 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed the pod coaching program was worthwhile
• 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed they were learning practical ideas from the program that they can use in their roles
• 100% of participants felt the program is making a positive impact on their performance
The Pod executive coaching experience also enhances esprit de corps within an organisation as the participants return to their roles having had a shared experience, a large part of which is experienced at a deeply personal level, which builds bonds between peers.
TEAM COACHING — TESTIMONIAL
“ECI Partners has partnered with us to help facilitate and stimulate our strategic roundtable conversations each quarter for the last 5 years. With the pressure and business of our daily work, it would have been tempting to cancel these, and that’s why we didn’t. They’re too valuable and ECI’s contribution to initiate, facilitate and help us always be looking ahead and noticing our blind spots has been invaluable.”
— Sandy McLelland, CEO, ALTRAC Light Rail
TEAM COACHING
High-performing teams don’t develop by accident. We take your team on a developmental journey that seamlessly fuses business with human dynamics. This yields rich and lasting results, because ECI Partners help teams move from functioning to genuinely achieving and sustaining high performance.
Teams are highly complex systems operating in increasingly complex environments. This means teams need to have clear goals, strategies, systems, measures, etc. AND need strong ‘social capital’, high levels of trust, effective feedback loops, genuine engagement and effective ways to resolve conflict. We help by focusing highly interdependent teams on the ‘Smart’ and ‘Healthy’ attributes of highly effective teams to strengthen collaboration, communication, decision- making and problem-solving skills while enhancing rapport and trust to work effectively on enhancing the team’s, and organisations, performance.
CASE STUDY: POWERING AN EXECUTIVE TEAM ON ITS STRATEGIC TRACKS
ALTRAC Light Rail is the company responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of CBD and South East Light Rail and the operation and maintenance of the Inner West Light Rail.
During the delivery of this high-profile public infrastructure project, ALTRAC had multiple important stakeholders including the NSW Government, the City of Sydney, the local businesses and residents, the media, regulators, delivery partners and shareholders. It was a highly complex and technically demanding project where extensive, ongoing stakeholder management was vital to its success.
Equally vital to success was ensuring the discipline and focus of the CEO and their executive team did not falter over what was effectively a marathon project.
ALTRAC’s executives had to work as a high-performing team throughout. They had to be sure their decisions were completely thought through, and that every emerging issue or challenge was treated in a highly strategic manner.
Failure was never an option for the consortium. Rather, optimising delivery, while managing multiple variations, became their driving objective.
OUR ENGAGEMENT
ECI Partners accompanied ALTRAC’s leadership team on every step of the marathon by working closely with the ALTRAC business and the CEO and executive team for more than 5 years, covering the early years of development and delivery, through to the organisation’s operational phase.
As well as setting the pace, our objective was to help keep the leadership team out of the weeds and ensure their focus remained on strategic performance. With large complex projects, that traverse distinct stages, it is critical that the leadership knows when and how to change gears.
We set a rhythm with the executive that centred around a quarterly roundtable workshop that required a half-day commitment. We chaired the meeting and played the role of a catalyst to draw out constructive dialogue, work through emerging challenges and their impact on the core strategy, as well as facilitating the resolution of conflicts and maintaining alignment and commitment within the team.
Moreover, a bespoke process and purpose-driven agenda was developed to encourage each executive to think at a deeper level so that they could develop new insights and perspectives that weren’t immediately apparent in their day-to-day rhythm. Over time this process evolved and adapted to the changing nature of the business and its environment, although it always remained focused on the key drivers of organisational success and health.
THE RESULTS
Before, and continuing through the pandemic, the discipline of our purpose-built roundtable meetings was maintained. They proved vital to the CEO and executive team in terms of plotting strategy and collaboratively negotiating challenges. The process ensured everyone remained aligned and focused on the things that really mattered.
As further proof of the effectiveness of the process, it has transcended two CEOs and become a central forum for generating insights, strategic discovery and decision-making.
TEAM COACHING — TESTIMONIAL
“ECI Partners has partnered with us to help facilitate and stimulate our strategic roundtable conversations each quarter for the last 5 years. With the pressure and business of our daily work, it would have been tempting to cancel these, and that’s why we didn’t. They’re too valuable and ECI’s contribution to initiate, facilitate and help us always be looking ahead and noticing our blind spots has been invaluable.”
— Sandy McLelland, CEO, ALTRAC Light Rail
BUSINESS ADVISORY
& FACILITATION
Whether one off, or with regular ongoing cadence, we undertake bespoke business advisory and consulting engagements, and facilitate important workshops with Boards, CEOs and executives to address improvement opportunities. These have included team facilitations that create clarity, alignment and commitment to execute strategy.
We also regularly conduct stakeholder reviews to help provide current and accurate perceptions about an organisation’s effectiveness. With this, executives and teams are empowered to make decisions and take action. Organisational redesigns, capability audits, business planning, Board reviews, and other specialised engagements are ways ECI Partners seamlessly fuses business, with human dynamics, to help organisations and teams go to the next level.
CASE STUDY: STRATEGY SINGS WHEN PARTNERS ARE IN SYNC
Law firms constantly change. They are always undertaking intergenerational change, but today, more than ever, they must constantly adapt to the changing and more complex nature of the challenges their clients face, as well as the forces of digital transformation and intensifying competition.
OUR ENGAGEMENT
ECI Partners has been in partnership with Holding Redlich for over eight years now. We provide expert advice to the leadership team, business units and practice groups as well as offering specific coaching programs to individuals and teams as part of the implementation of the firm’s strategy.
Our advisory work has assisted the firm’s national executive and business units as well as hone the strategies of various practice groups. We pursue exceptional performance and excellent relationships with all those we work with.
We are very proud of the work we have done on behalf of the national partnership to facilitate greater collaboration through a series of state-based partner workshops. The series had the dual goals of adding value to clients and ensuring the firm performed more effectively.
The design and conduct of a national conference for the firm’s special counsels, using highly interactive and evidence-based techniques, resulted in unanimous commitment to a new actions.
We designed, and manage, a talent development program of Pod coaching for potential partners to prepare people for higher duties and to expand their repertoire of leadership skills.
Throughout the pandemic years, we developed and delivered an online wellbeing seminar for all staff, making sure that no one slipped through the cracks and individuals had a mechanism for expressing themselves and found support for their unique circumstances.
And finally, we also provide individual executive coaching to partners so they can achieve their personal performance goals and boost the collective firepower of the firm.
THE RESULT
ECI Partners has contributed to Holding Redlich across several important dimensions and the success of this partnership is reflected in the following measures:
- 100% of participants in the pod coaching program believed it had made a positive impact on their performance
- 100% of pod program participants also said the program exceed their expectations
- The leaders of the firm’s national practice groups rated our facilitation of their planning workshop at 4.1 out of 5
- 4.8/5 of practice group leaders believed the facilitator was knowledgeable, engaging and involved the whole team
We also received qualitative feedback from workshop and program participants, and the following two statements are indicative of the comments they make:
- “That was the best strategic conversation we have ever had as a firm.” (State Managing Partner)
- “Great information. Would be really useful as a full-day interactive workshop.” (Partner, and participant in a half-day planning workshop)
We’ll take all that. But there is more to it than performance scores.
An ongoing partnership is a relationship that is being judged every day, every week, month, and year. To be strengthening a relationship over several years there must continue to be value added to the relationship and the work. More than that, there must be an affinity with the firm, its people, their values, and their vision. When we are in sync with our partners there is complete alignment with objectives and the strategy sings. It’s harder to measure, but like a beautiful singer, you know it when you witness it.
