Leading with Heart: How Velocity Coaching Transforms Leaders One Coaching Session at a Time

With so much happening in the world these days, good executive leadership has never been more imperative. To succeed in this time of volatility and uncertainty, companies need resourceful and compassionate leaders who can help their employees find creative solutions to a host of unexpected and never-before-seen challenges. 

The need for effective leadership isn’t just acute – it’s also changing. Today’s employees expect  a higher level of psychological safety and connection to purpose at the workplace than in years past, which means managers must rise to the challenge with a new style of leadership – one that inspires people at both the head and the heart level.  

One company that is leading the change in training and coaching this new generation of leaders is Velocity Coaching, whose programs have transformed the cultures at companies ranging from early stage startups to household names.  

Demand for Executive Coaching is on the Rise 

Executive coaching has been a popular model for developing leaders for decades, however, the coaching industry in general has evolved dramatically in recent years. While in years past, coaching was considered an exclusive, premium service reserved for executives and their teams, during the pandemic, tens of thousands of individuals left their stable jobs in favor of the flexibility and freedom a coaching career can provide. Today, you can find a coach for just about everything from weight-loss and dating to public speaking and podcasting.  

While that is good news for all the people looking for specialized coaching, the 20th-century model of coaching is dated and riddled with issues, from unproven methodologies and lack of licensing requirements to a lack of effective data and statistical analysis of coaching’s impact. Adding fuel to the fire, technology has played an outsized role in making executive coaching more accessible in recent years. Additionally, topics like personal branding, preventing burnout, and psychometric assessments as major trends in the modern coaching landscape.  

These internal trends don’t even touch on countless outside factors that are driving the explosion in the coaching industry. AI is transforming the workplace. Quiet cutting has become a major concern. And as inflation and economic uncertainty continue to put pressure on households across the country, employee engagement and morale continue to crumble, fueling even more interest in the kind of support coaching can provide. 

How Velocity Coaching is Rewriting the Executive Coaching Playbook 

While the objective of executive coaching remains the same (to create effective, high-performing leaders), the process of training executives is changing quickly as it adapts to the new demands of the modern C-suite. Gone are the days of coaching to help leaders deal with symptoms; today’s coaches have to help companies make long-term systemic change.  

Velocity Coaching is widely regarded as one of the top coaching firms in the world working to help leaders get consistent and sustainable long-term results from their teams. “If we only helped leaders improve the bottom line in the near term, we’d be doing them and their teams a disservice,” said Edward Sullivan, CEO of Velocity. “Instead we focus on creating a profound, long-term impact on leaders and their businesses by transforming how they debate, make decisions, give each other feedback, and so on. It’s not just about what they choose as a strategy, but how they work together to accomplish it.” 

The Velocity philosophy revolves around a few key elements. A continual need to learn and “level up” is one of these. Resisting “how-to” formulas and templates is another. They also bring significant experience to the table by recruiting coaches with hands-on operating experience in a wide variety of industries. “Our coaches are especially effective because they have been there before–they help our clients see around corners and anticipate problems,” said Sullivan. 

If there’s one factor that stands out above the rest, though, it’s Velocity’s relentless drive to teach leaders to lead with their heads and their hearts. For Velocity coaches, success comes from within. It has to come from the willingness to build trust and, at the same time, be ready to engage in tough conversations. This is a mantra that is present in full force in the brand’s coaching book “Leading With Heart.” 

Leading With Heart — A Window Into the Velocity Philosophy 

Best-Seller “Leading with Heart” was co-authored by Velocity Chairman John Baird and CEO Edward Sullivan as a handbook to help executives have more emotionally connected conversations in the workplace.  

The book centers on five unique and effective conversations for leaders to use in the workplace. These aren’t just ways to shoot the breeze or get to know an employee better. They’re purposeful, results-oriented tools that leaders can use to, in the words of the book’s subtitle, “unlock creativity, purpose, and results.” 

Its authors wrote Leading With Heart in a conversational manner, designing the book to bring the warm, thoughtful conversations typically associated with family and friends into the workplace. It equips leaders with the confidence and curiosity to get the most out of themselves and their teams.  

In the book, the authors reveal one of the key things that sets successful leaders apart is not following formulas or looking for performance hacks. Effective leaders, say the authors, are the ones who are willing to have heart-open conversations with their teams and, in the process, make their employees feel appreciated, safe, and ultimately more productive. 

This concept lives at the heart of everything Velocity Coaching does. It is a transformative focus for leadership that gives them the ability to adapt and come up with creative solutions that are uniquely suited to solving the problems and challenges that they face. It’s a skill that has become essential for entrepreneurs, managers, team leaders, and executives at every level of the org chart. 

“At the end of the day, employees who feel seen and appreciated work harder, stay curious longer, and are more creative problem solvers,” concluded Sullivan. “Which is why we encourage our clients to make heart-open leadership a daily practice–because what you do in practice, you do when the pressure is on in the game.”