Trevor Smith Founder, Executive Coach and Team Coach The Orchard Partnership Executive Coaching has emerged as an essential way of supporting peak performance for senior leaders and teams. In this article, we examine the benefits of coaching and how executives should use it to develop and maintain a competitive edge. Trevor Smith is the founder and Managing Director of The Orchard Partnership. He is ICF ‘Professional Certified Coach’ and EMCC ‘Senior Coaching Practitioner’ with over 3,000 hours of professional coaching experience working with senior leaders across a diverse spectrum of countries and industries. Prior to coaching, Trevor worked in Executive Management in the financial services industry in both Europe and Asia. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of St James’s Place International (Hong Kong) Limited, a licensed insurance company and subsidiary of an FTSE 100 listed company. He is a former board member of the International Coach Federation (Hong Kong) and former Board member of International China Concern, a charity which campaigns to end the abandonment of disabled children in China. Trevor has lived in Hong Kong for the past 21 years. Tell us a bit about your coaching style? Many executives say I am warm, friendly and provide a safe place to explore but I am willing to challenge when necessary. I am supportive, give fresh perspectives and as a Board Director myself, I have adopted a coaching style that is firmly grounded in the practicalities of the real world. Why should more leaders and organisations consider working with a coach? Maybe your first thought is “Why do I need a coach – what’s wrong?” The answer is probably NOTHING, yet some of the world’s most successful business leaders including Warren Buffet, OprahWinfrey, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt and Richard Branson have all partnered coaches to help them along their business journey. And a Stanford University survey of over 200 top CEOs and business leaders revealed that virtually all of them welcomed outside coaching to provide them with feedback, bounce ideas off a trusted source, help them Would You Enter the Olympics Without a Coach? Probably Not!
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