McKinney Consulting, an international professional services firm, has expanded its executive career coaching business, to include executive performance and entrepreneur CEO coaching.
Since its foundation in 2001, one of McKinney Consulting’s main areas of expertise is executive search, where it has placed middle- and senior-level talent for organizations in a wide range of sectors and sizes, including Fortune 100 companies.
According to Steve McKinney, who is also a Master Certified Coach, trained at Harvard University in Leadership Coaching Strategies, his company has been in the executive search business for more than 20 years, and it has successfully honed in on top-tier candidates in its searches by being able to keenly identify the strengths and talents of individuals. Taking the experience and knowledge he has gained throughout the years on what makes a successful executive, McKinney applies this to executive coaching, by coaching clients how to become successful in their current or future roles. Coaching can help executives identify their blind spots, improve communication skills, and develop their leadership skills.
“In our executive search service, we cater to our client organizations that need to hire the best individuals on the market. This is complemented by our executive coaching, where we teach professionals who want to become better in their job, get promoted, or become more hireable,” McKinney says.
McKinney has led global product development for a major shoe brand and has been based in South Korea for almost 20 years, making him an expert in managing multicultural organizations, and he is able to impart this expertise to clients. Aside from providing coaching on executives' careers, he also provides coaching on their performance, especially when they are promoted to a new role, which may require a different skill set from what they were used to, as well as if they are assigned overseas, particularly in Asia. He is currently working with several Asia-wide leaders on this, engaging them on a six-month or nine-month program, where he spends an hour with them every other week.
McKinney’s extensive experience in entrepreneur coaching was invaluable for his involvement in the Korean Government’s K-Startup Grand Challenge Program. Where he served as a coaching judge, helping to whittle down over 2000 entrants from across the globe vying for a $320,000 prize pool.
“I have been honored to serve as a KSGCP judge whenever called upon, and the coaching of entrepreneur CEOs has been some of my life's most rewarding work,” he says.
Stakeholder management is a major component of McKinney’s performance coaching program, and he has successfully helped clients learn this vital skill to strengthen their career. According to McKinney, he helps executives formulate an effective stakeholder communication management plan, which is one of the keys to success for leaders. Ineffective communication with stakeholders often leads to misunderstandings that can inhibit executive performance.
Stakeholders are defined as the people who have influence over one's projects or business, extending beyond their direct or indirect reports. Basically, it's someone who is in a position that could impact one's job and career.
Once the stakeholders have been identified, McKinney helps clients determine how often they should communicate with them, and which channel to use.
McKinney shared a case study of a German accounting manager based in Korea whom he coached. The manager had a good stakeholder communication plan with his direct boss in Singapore, but no plan with the Korean country manager, who was his legal boss even though it wasn't reflected in the org chart. McKinney pointed this out to the manager, and they worked together to create a stakeholder communication plan that included the Korean country manager and others.
One day, he received a call from the manager who told him that he had been verbally attacked in a meeting by other leaders in the company. The Korean country manager, whom the manager had developed a good relationship with through their communication plan, came to his defense. The country manager was able to do this because he knew the whole story and was able to advocate for the manager.
“The moral of the story is that we have more stakeholders than we realize, and it’s important to identify them and to develop a communication plan for them. With my performance coaching, the client was able to develop a deeper stakeholder communication management plan and continues to thrive today,” McKinney says.
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