CEO &  Executive Coaching

It's difficult being a CEO.

Employees and colleagues want you to like them, because you influence their pay and their promotion. And sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between people telling you what they think you want to hear and the truth.

In theory, your board of directors is there to help you.

But some boards will see admissions of uncertainty as an admission of weakness.

That's where an outside advisor can help. He's invisible to the firm and the board, so consulting with him is not a weapon someone else can use against you.

A good advisor or mentor has breadth of experience. He can be different from you and offer a perspective you might not have.

Above all a mentor must have been in your shoes and understand the pressures you are under.

What can you expect from a good CEO mentor?

1. Perspective. Someone who can validate or challenge your view of a problem.

2. Breadth. Someone who has a full range of functional experience and advise you in areas where you don't feel comfortable.

3. A strategic perspective. Expertise in formulating strategy, optimizing portfolios of opportunities and making sure that you are executing well.

4. A human side. Businesss is always about people. A good coach or mentor must be more than a technician, he should understand motivation, communication, team building, agenda setting and how to inspire and manage change.

5. Values. Your coach should bring you back to the core values that make businesses successful.

6.  A sense of humor.  Without a sense of humor, life is too bleak. There is too much to do. Great leaders have great senses of humor. Alistair Davidson likes to joke that when he started his first business, he thought he was a genius. After five years, he just wanted to climb back up to average. (A little humilty helps too.)

Alistair Davidson has advised over 50 companies in the past three years. He has been on the board of directors of four companies and provided strategic, marketing, business development, turnaround and personal consulting to many different companies in many different industries. His executive clients have include entrepreneurs, international executives coming to the US for the first time, government and not for profit clients.

Many executives appreciate his keen strategic insights and the practical experience of bringing 12 products to market.

In addition to startups, he has provided strategic consulting to very large businesses and organizations such as the Canadian military, Canada Post, AT&T, Baxter International. He has particular expertise in performance improvement and has worked in or consulted to over a dozen industries including financial services, high tech, healthcare, services,  government, manufacturing and telecom.

As a contributing editor to the magazine Strategy and Leadership, he is on the forefront of strategic thinking. And over the past twenty years, he has developed thought leadership in three areas: strategy, information management and growing high tech businesses, authoring three books in the area. He has taught strategy and international strategy at the MBA level. He is a frequent lecturer and presenter to executives on how technology changes strategies and businesses.

He is a trained facilitator and certified in administering the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory. He has an MBA from Harvard, has founded 3 firms and been CEO of six.

For more information on executive and CEO coaching, please contact Alistair Davidson or take a look at his background .

All inquiries will be treated in confidence.