Jo Manton of JMA Leadership on the value of Executive Coaching and nurturing leaders
The Leadership Gazette would like to give a warm welcome to Jo Manton, Director and Executive Coach at JMA Leadership; a company that works with leaders who want to achieve their career ambitions and enable those around them to achieve theirs.
After working for 25 years in the corporate world, Jo began her journey as a Leadership and Executive Coach in 2012 after completing a post-graduate Certificate in Coaching with the i-Coach Academy in London. Although she has been designing and facilitating in-house ‘Leader as Coach’ training programmes for years before this, Jo says the academy was the place she fully developed her understanding of how to create lasting change.
Her experience led her to become a qualified somatic coach practitioner at the highly acclaimed Strozzi Institute in California. It was during this time she worked as a Principal Consultant for a niche consultancy and began working on establishing her own company. From this, JMA Leadership was born in 2018.
JMA Leadership is a client-focused leadership development consultancy. Jo and her team at JMA Leadership work together to deliver the highest quality leadership consulting, facilitation and coaching to enable their clients to meet their business and financial outcomes.
“We are convinced by the evidence that well-led organisations outperform their less well-led competitors. We believe that nurturing leaders is a sound organisational investment.”
Their approach links leadership research with actual business needs, and they use this to create a personal appetite for better leadership. They focus their work on enabling their clients to develop leadership skills and build their teams’ capabilities through:
• Executive Coaching — stretching and supporting business leaders to achieve their goals quicker than they would on their own.
• Team Development — creating conditions where teams can improve relationships, drive collaboration, and increase their performance.
• Leader as Coach programmes — showing senior teams how to change their organisational culture and embed lasting change.
Interestingly, a JMA Leadership executive coach tries not to use the words ‘expert’ or ‘specialists’ as they believe their clients have all the resources they need to achieve the outcomes they are seeking.
“We spark — or ignite — their awareness of what they can achieve (if needed) and accelerate them towards achieving their goals quicker than they would on their own.”
Working in line with their values and through building a strong working relationship, clients who take on a JMA Leadership executive coach discover what they need to learn about themselves and others. Overall, the outcomes are life-changing; more time, energy and feeling more capable, purposeful and focussed.
We asked Jo what the best piece of leadership advice she has received and why?
“To focus on a maximum of three things that you want to achieve — or change — at any one time and to break them down into small wins.”
Jo advises her clients to always think about the very next step. By focussing on that first, rather than trying to achieve a goal overnight, you build up your confidence and learn as you go.
“Becoming a good leader doesn’t happen overnight, but through the myriad of little things that you do to make progress and achieve goals.”
Before starting JMA Leadership, Jo remembers working for one organisation that underwent significant management changes.
During this time, there were promotions into leadership roles in which some of those who were promoted didn’t demonstrate the shared values and ethos on which the company operated. Over time, it became clear that those in the most senior leadership positions did not identify with, or demonstrate the behaviours of, what she would describe as ‘authentic leadership.’
However, she decided to apply for one of the new roles in the structure — giving them a choice over whether to place her or not. She realises now that what she was doing was giving her power away.
“What I learned from this situation is to pay close attention to the values of the leaders around you — don’t ignore what people do and say, and how they show up with others — pay attention to the small things, don’t excuse their behaviour as a ‘one off.’”
JMA Leadership work across a range of industries, from large corporations to smaller businesses in the UK and across the globe. Over 70% of JMA Leadership clients come via referral or having worked successfully with them in the past. JMA Leadership’s plan for the next 12 months is to grow their business through strengthening their existing relationships and utilising a distinctive marketing strategy to attract new clients.
If you’re interested in keeping an eye on the work that Jo Manton and her team do at JMA Leadership, make sure to follow her online through LinkedIn and through their website.
www.jmaleadership.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-manton-2594b14/
