Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Luciana Nunez, who is the coauthor of the book Coaching Power and partner at the Preston Associates. Welcome.

Luciana Nunez: Julie. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to before we get too far into things. Tell us about the Preston Associates. How you serving folks there?

Luciana Nunez: We are one of the very few, if not maybe the only, coaching boutique that serves leaders all over the world from San Francisco all the way to Hong Kong. And we’ve been in the market doing leadership coaching for well over 20 years from well before coaching was a thing. So we’ve done it all, we’ve seen it all, and it’s still as exciting as it was on day one.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Luciana Nunez: You know, I was a corporate leader for 20 plus years and I got into coaching, to be honest with you, a little bit by accident. So just to to give you the gist of it. In one of my corporate roles, I had a big scope of 3000 people under under my management. And I had a very simple brief from my boss which was upgrade the leaders. And at that time I thought, how do you upgrade 3000 people all over the world from Indonesia to Mexico? And I concluded that it was going to be through the lens of coaching. So then I became a coach, but I thought that I would use coaching as just another toolset in in my leadership belt. And then fast forward to a few years, as I was already the CEO of a company, I decided that actually coaching was the main vehicle that I wanted for the second half of my life. So I left the corporate world. I became a full time coach and here I am maximizing the power of coaching. Now, luckily for the thousands of leaders that I get to work with. So I did. The corporate life, got into coaching, and I love being on the outside in, but still very much in the world of of business and leadership.

Lee Kantor: So how have you seen the coaching profession evolve over the years? At first it was like almost for only the highest of the high potential people, the executive leadership were the only people really getting coaching. And now it seems like it’s being democratized across corporations, where pretty much everybody is getting can get access to coaching if they need it.

Luciana Nunez: You’re absolutely right. I think at the beginning of the profession, it had two components. I would say the first reputation that that was associated with coaching, actually, was that it was a remedial thing. You got a coach if you were in trouble. Over time, it became what you were describing, which is is that perk for the C-suite guys that that are in in the track path to to becoming the CEO. But in the last, I would say, five years, that trend has really democratized. And there’s different models of coaching and different layers of an organization, from entry level coaching that is very much AI enabled, driven by systems all the way up to still the top of the house, as we call it, very much getting that that one on one coaching. So that’s one aspect of how it has changed. Exactly. To your to your point, it has been democratized and scaled up. The other way that I have seen personally coaching change a lot, especially for me as a practitioner, is through the lens of team coaching. This is something hugely beneficial to companies, and it’s relatively recent that we have seen companies really embrace team coaching 80% of the coaching I do is, in fact, team coaching, and it’s a real game changer. But it’s not that popular yet. Not every coach can be a good team coach, and not every team is willing to to really take coaching to the next level by by committing to a process of of team coaching. So those are some of the key changes that this profession is experiencing. But I can see much more in the horizon still now.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a little bit about this team coaching? Are you working with specific teams within an organization? Or is this kind of group coaching where there’s a disparate number of people with different types of skill sets that are all together for this type of coaching?

Luciana Nunez: Ooh, great question. And yes to both. So we do both types of, if you will, collective coaching. Team coaching is for a team of people that work regularly day in and day out with each other. And that’s a very specific design of coaching because you want to deepen the foundations of trust, ways of working. You’re going to work on the business of the business. It’s one of my clients calls it. So it’s a much deeper form of coaching that maintains the same group of people throughout the journey. Typically for a year or two years, I have some teams that I’ve been working with for up to even 4 or 5 years. The other kind of coaching that you describe is what we call cohort coaching or group coaching, which is cross-functional coaching people that operate at the same level. Newly promoted director from different functions that they all at the same time want to work on similar things. They want to grow their strategic thinking abilities. They want to improve their executive presence. They want to understand how to influence stakeholders at the same time. And because they have the same need to grow at the same time in the same areas, it’s actually very beneficial for them to work with each other. So you could have a guy from finance working with a guy in marketing, and they both want to improve their their influencing ability. So they’re going to be able to be coached at the same time, but then also to coach each other to be able to develop that. So it’s a slightly different flavor of a collective coaching with different designs, different objectives. But but a lot of fun to to do as well.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with teams, um, that are cohesive and within the organization, how does that differ than their manager?

Luciana Nunez: Mhm. Well often the manager is in the room and that’s part of what we designed for in terms of dynamics. Because all of a sudden yes, you have the manager in the room and there’s a component of hierarchy in in the conversation. But you also have to make everyone feel equally comfortable to sometimes challenge the manager, challenge the leader, put their opinion on the table and have a conversation with they’re going to hash it out and debate it. So to some extent, in in good coaching, a good coach can get that dynamic out of the way, because you also read the leader of the team to also create space for the team to show up. Because if everybody keeps deferring to the manager or the boss, you don’t shift the the power dynamic. So a capable, experienced coach learns and knows how how to both leverage the presence of the manager in the room, but also put it to the side if it’s not helpful.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does Preston associates, um, with, um, kind of coaches all over the world? How do you handle kind of the cultural differences when it comes to, um, how organizations behave and what their expectations are from, uh, workers and executives and leaders and coaches?

Luciana Nunez: That’s actually a super insightful question, because to your point, different companies have different corporate cultures, one layer of culture. Different countries have different social cultures. Um, environment? Cultures. So for us to be able to competently as a company, to competently navigate all of these layers of culture, the first thing that we do is we have coaches that are operating in that culture. Um, in a fluid way, they are they are native to that culture. They know how to navigate the cultural component of their their country, their, um, demographics, the the day to day reality of your culture. At the same time, we also have only coaches that bring a personal experience in the world of leadership, with at least 15 years of experience in different companies, in different organizations, because this makes coaches very comfortable with navigating a corporate culture, but also being able to understand, oh, this, this corporate culture is a little bit more open, a little bit more willing to take risks, a little bit less hierarchical, whereas the same coach starts to work with a different client, then that coach will very quickly realize, no, this company is much more process oriented. This company is much more risk averse. So you become a really good reader of cultures. If you’re an experienced business coach and you become a great navigator of cultures if you’re an experienced coach. So a big part of how we select for this is, again, by picking a local coach and an experienced former business leader. And the way we leverage them, a global view is that all of our coaches really work super closely with each other behind the scenes to connect the dots between, even in the same company. What’s the culture like in the US versus in France, versus in the Middle East? So we have a lot of conversation to really unpack the elements of those cultures.

Lee Kantor: So is there a Preston Associates Methodology that you expect your coaches to all adhere to? Or is it, you know, like you said, you hire somebody in Indonesia that’s a local Indonesian executive, former executive that can share their specific knowledge there, and then you’re just helping them get the gig. Is that how it works, or is there a Preston Associates way of going about this activity?

Luciana Nunez: There’s definitely a Preston Associates way of of going about it. And even internally we call it the TPA way. We call ourselves the shorthand for the Preston Associates. It’s TPA, so we call it the TPA way. So throughout the last 20 years we’ve we’ve really leveraged and created and took hundreds of frameworks through the test of time, but also through the test of different geographies. So through that process, we we know what works and what doesn’t. And we train all of our coaches to be super fluent with every single one of those, those frameworks. But then we also trust their expertise and their seniority to adapt the framework to the culture, to the client, to the situation. So we are able to do both keep, if you will, a certain quality control that we have to make sure that if you’re coached by a person coach in the US versus in the Netherlands or in Singapore, you’re going to get the same quality of coaching, you’re going to get many of the same frameworks of coaching, but you’re also going to get the coach to adapt to your environment, to your system, to your surroundings. So that’s one way we we guarantee, if you will, that quality of delivery, the second way that all of our coaches operate is through the lens of what we call the process. We coach a person doing a role within a system, and we prepare every coach to be equally fluent in all three levels of of this reality. Because regardless of where you are in the world, you will always be a person doing a role within a system. Does that resonate?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, absolutely. Now talk about the book coaching power. Was is this kind of the methodology? Is that the reason the book is here?

Luciana Nunez: Yes, the methodology is the how of the book, but if you will, the why of the book was a little bit, you know, rocked by the big shifts that we see in the world of leadership in the last 2 to 3 years, where we have realized that the old command and control model of leadership is broken. If if you think of the the old school leader that had all the answers, that gave the direction that was there to be the expert. That model is no longer valid. The world is moving too fast. The new generation’s Gen Z’s millennials. They don’t want to be bossed around. They want to be coached. In a world where you can Google anything or ChatGPT anything, having all the answers is no longer differentiable. So we truly believe that coaching is the ultimate leadership skill for the future. And the book, to your question, is all about the how. How can I live with a coaching style? How can I build the fundamentals of coaching to learn to coach my team, my people in one on one? In a team setting? Asking good questions is a big part of the art of coaching the right active listening, the right ability to have an empowerment conversation. So. So if the why of the book is to make leaders comfortable leading with a coaching style, the book is all about how.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re saying the why about coaching is kind of at the heart of this. And then you’re going to give that the how to do it, the nuts and bolts of how to do it. But it’s a mindset shift, right? You’re asking the person to kind of change their way of thinking, to say, okay, let’s take more of the mindset of a coach rather than this, um, you know, kind of ivory tower methodology that might have been successful, you know, a generation or two ago. Is that a difficult, um, ask for the, the leader or, you know, this is something that maybe they hadn’t grown up with, that this is kind of news to them. Is is it a challenge to kind of open their mind to this way of thinking?

Luciana Nunez: I think it’s that.

Luciana Nunez: Challenging at this stage, because what I have found with the clients that I work with is that they get it intuitively. They realize that the way they have been leading, if they’ve been, you know, in in the world of business for 20, 30 years, they have first themselves understood that the old way of leadership that they used to be very comfortable with ten, 20 years ago is no longer giving them the same results. The world is now a place where people work remotely. There’s hybrid leadership. So for them to be able to give directions and tell people what to do and expect that that’s enough, they know it’s not enough. So I think they’ve all first hand experience that, that that model is no longer working. And then intuitively, they start to realize that when they change gears to go from like you describe the leadership mindset more into a coaching mindset, they start to see, you know, intuitive results. They start to see how people engage differently, respond differently, take more, more ownership, find their own way to their solutions versus expecting them to solve it for them or to give them the answer. So when people intuitively try coaching skills, they see that it’s a better way. What I do think they sometimes struggle with is, okay, so how do I do that more consistently? How do I do that more regularly? And how do I how do I do that more effortlessly so that it starts to become second nature? And that was really the premise of the book, is to help people practice those skills on a small scale, first in ways that feel very practical, very simple, very approachable, because we realize that there was nothing like it when we started to write the book and we did a bit of research, nothing was fully focused on helping leaders lead with a coaching style, so that really inspired us to make it to your point, applicable to both help create that mindset shift, but then also help create that up skill in terms of how they embrace it.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there anything you’ve learned over the years to help that person that might be struggling. To become more vulnerable. To become less controlling and more trusting. Um, these are some of the qualities that it takes to be a good coach. And it’s something that a lot of people have a difficult time with. You know, a lot of people’s ego is such that it’s hard to, uh, you know, give up some control and to trust that other people are going to, you know, end up where I’d like them to go.

Luciana Nunez: Yeah.

Luciana Nunez: You know, I, I can relate to what you’re describing because we have seen as coaches that leader that came, you know, very confident, confident, very, very assertive. And even those leaders, at some point in time start to realize that it’s no longer working for them. Sometimes that realization happens in in their business life. Sometimes it can happen in their personal life. I can tell you that with some of my clients. The big aha moment happened when they started to look at how were they showing up, even in their families as parents. They realized that, you know, at some point when your kids started to grow up, if you if you were trying to control what they do and how they, they do it, it’s just not going to fly. So in working very closely with clients, we get to see what’s under the hood and we get to understand their their motivation. So sometimes if someone is, to your point, a bit resistant to make that mindset shift in the world of business, because they were very used to the results that they were getting from that style. The unlock is to actually help them see the power of leading with a coaching style in their family or in their social ecosystem, because then they start to see, oh, people respond to me very differently when instead of telling them what to do, I start to be curious. I start to ask questions. I start to engage. We start to have a thinking partnership, a conversation among peers. And that makes people, to your point, start to trust, to open up, to become more vulnerable. And sometimes for some people, it’s easier to practice those things in their personal life. And then when they bring it to the world of business, boom. Game changer.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the remote office, uh, you know, remote remote working and things like that. And it seems that, uh, especially during the pandemic, obviously there was a big shift towards that by necessity, but it seems like there’s more than a few companies that are just trying to go back in time and to pretend that that didn’t happen and that making people return to office or these people just laggards and that that they’re not going to kind of buy into this type of thing. Or is that the trend that’s going to overwhelm the people that are trying to be more open to this level of flexibility and this kind of kind of coaching thinking.

Luciana Nunez: You know, we’ve we’ve seen.

Luciana Nunez: Everything in the spectrum. The beauty of working in, in a very global business and with very different sizes of companies from very mature and very conservative to younger startups that by, by, you know, almost design were born remote. We’ve seen all of the different variations from, you know, the all remote, all virtual, all distributed, all the way back to hardcore, everyone back in the office, everyone back 9 to 5. We’ve seen the different degrees of of this shift. And what we have concluded is that the world of the future is going to be in the middle. There’s going to be a degree of flexibility that allows people to have some time in the office and some time working from home. But what we’ve also seen is that the more intentional you make the design of every situation to the objectives. The more you engage people. So for example, instead of mandating people to be back at the office Tuesday to Thursday, 9 to 5, make it around those meetings where there’s going to be co-creation, there’s going to be creativity, there’s going to be problem solving, but there’s a clear added value for that magic that does happen when you are face to face, when you are in an in-person environment where you’re shooting the breeze to try and come up with a new idea, but build the situation and the and the location around the business objective and not the other way around.

Luciana Nunez: And then if you need the same people to have heads down time, planning time, time to process, to think, to read, to, you know, be strategic, that’s a good time to actually do it in the quiet of your house or even in a different location. Some people might actually sometimes be outside of their regular office, and they might book a co-working space or a different place where they can engage their reflective gears or even, um, creative gears into a different mode of work. So, so designing the moment and the environment to the business objective is what we think is going to be the biggest trend of the future. The companies that get that right are going to be the difference between the best and the rest.

Lee Kantor: So now, uh, can you share a little bit about what that ideal client for Preston Associates looks like? Is there like you mentioned, all different, uh, size and stage companies? Is there a sweet spot for your firm?

Luciana Nunez: Um.

Luciana Nunez: To some extent, I think I think we we add the most value in instances where there’s either a big strategic challenge or where aware, there is something that needs to shift in terms of how things work today are not going to be the same thing as how things will work tomorrow. So if you’re in very, very early stages, if you’re still very much in the doing mode, building a product, testing your hypothesis, coaching any kind of coaching. But coaching in general is not going to be necessarily that helpful for you, because you’re not yet thinking about the leadership aspect of things. So we add the most value when there is already a strategy in place, when there’s already a team in place, when you already are going from where you are to where you want to be. That’s our sweet spot. And we do a lot of work with finance, with fast moving consumer goods companies, in the pharmaceutical space, in the industry of energy as well. So companies that have, by definition, complex challenges in their hands. We’ve done a lot of work in the in the education and technology intersection because this is very much booming and in in in the face of transformation. Another sweet spot that we find we really add a lot of value is when teams have dysfunctions. This this happens a lot, especially in this context of remote leadership and strategies that need to change a lot in a short period of time. That’s when we help bring clarity back to the table. We help rebuild the foundations of trust of a team, and we help get that team back into different routines and norms. To go back into that high performing team stages that that we know is one of the drivers of of performance.

Lee Kantor: And who is the ideal reader of the Coaching power book?

Luciana Nunez: Well, we were very.

Luciana Nunez: Inspired by that leader that wants to lead with a coaching style, the leader that has a team or even a leader that needs to influence peers in a cross-functional setting. So if if you have realized that the old command and control is not giving you the results that that it used to, and you want to learn to live with that coaching style. This book should be on your bedside table, because we’ve also written it so that it’s very easy to navigate. You can zoom in the chapter that feels most relevant to you. So if you really want to understand the foundation of one on one coaching, zoom in that if you want to go into what does it mean to do team coaching, zoom in that so so the leader that wants to bring and build those coaching skills is the leader that I think is going to truly, hopefully enjoy the book. We’ve given a lot of heart to the writing process, a lot of soul to the to the process, and we can’t wait to put it out there in the world and and get the readers to tell us what they think.

Lee Kantor: And, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more coaches? You need more clients?

Luciana Nunez: Well, we.

Luciana Nunez: Are very happy with the cadre of coaches that we have at the moment. So thank you. First of all, for for asking that we look, at the end of the day, you become a coach because you want to maximize your impact. You want to be able to help more people. Nobody became a coach to to get rich fast. We are in the business of helping people. So yes, we are always wanting to help more leaders, help more companies perform, engage, do what they do better and and also do it with with more enjoyment and and more, more passion. So if you think that your team has more fuel left in the tank and you want to take it to the next level, let’s let’s definitely work, work together and explore what we can do.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, either about the book or about the Preston Associates, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Luciana Nunez: You can go to the Preston Associates. Com and then you’re going to have the bios of all of our coaches, the different methodologies of coaching that we had the different offices that we have in the world from the Silicon Valley, Bay area all the way to Hong Kong. I think everything you can read about is on that website. And then you also have emails to reach out to me personally and start a conversation. We’re big believers in people connecting in, in, in a real life environment. So I welcome anyone reaching out also on, on LinkedIn. My name is Luciano Nunez. I’m based in New York. Find me on LinkedIn and let’s get the conversation going.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Luciana Nunez: Thank you. Lee. It was my pleasure.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.