Interview with Kevin McKee Joint Managing Partner at Cole-McKee (retired)

Over the past 20 years Kevin has worked with top leaders in many different organisations, as a trusted adviser and coach. He helped them develop their personal leadership styles, build on their strengths and become even more self-aware. By doing so they understand their own abilities, their motivations, and their limitations. He considers achieving deep self awareness as 'money in the bank' for the individual. Particularly for anyone in a large organisation, who then moves to a different working environment such as setting up on your own. In his career Kevin specialised in coaching and consulting at CEO/director level, and top team development, consulting with them on organisational change.We were introduced via a mutual contact Justin Skinner who I worked alongside 20+ years ago at Direct Line. He was keen we meet when he heard I was moving into coaching as Kevin had 'been there, done that'.As he draws towards the end of this career, he is keen to impart his knowledge and inspire others to follow their dreams. His start point for anyone venturing into a new field of work and wants to be a success is to focus on three things: 1. network, 2. network, and 3. you know where this is heading don't you?One of the early books on networking was called: 'Build your well before you are thirsty'. Another great insight he shared with me was from a good friend of his, Tony Walmsley who once ran a petrochemical plant before going into consulting. He used to say: "Don't just do something, stand there!"As a very busy operational manager, he often observed people rushing around like headless chickens. When they didn't need to.Kevin's background is in psychology where he learned about models of learning and how the brain works and assimilates information and the importance of reflection. In the reality of the business world he believes it takes real courage to apply that without being viewed as not actually doing anything!The essence of organisational development is to enable the individual to become more self-sufficient, but this can also mean effectively doing yourself out of a job. Recognising that we all need to eat - you need to be aware of the impact your reflective approach has in an environment where there is an 'addiction to action'.Keven had always been pretty dismissive of online and telephone coaching pre-pandemic, but when you have no choice, he climbed on that learning curve and was pleasantly surprised what you can do.It left him feeling al lot more optimistic about hybrid learning and working. It was a real joy speaking to a seasoned coach who is handing on what he knows to those at the start of their journey.Send us a text🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, and please rate or share if it resonated.

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.