OUR SERVICES

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

“If leadership involves will and skill, then leadership requires the engagement of what goes on above and below the neck. Courage requires all of you: heart, mind, spirit, and guts. Your whole self constitutes a resource for exercising leadership.”

-Heifetz and Linsky, 2009

Directions for Change has an outstanding track record in the design, delivery and evaluation of leadership development and talent programs for significant APS clients such as the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC), APS Academy, Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, and Services Australia.

Over the course of three decades, Di van Meegen has in partnership with a wide range of associates and the University of New South Wales, designed and delivered numerous executive development programs (for executive level up to CEO level). She is a highly skilled adaptive leadership practitioner having worked extensively with CEOs and senior executive staff to embed adaptive leadership concepts behaviours into their conversations and culture.

EXECUTIVE COACHING

“Coaching improves leadership skills, confidence, decision-making, problem solving and wellbeing. 80% of organisations surveyed by the International Coaching Federation report increased productivity due to coaching.”

Di has extensive experience in coaching at CEO and senior levels in the public, private and not for profit sectors. She applies adaptive leadership principles to support growth in clients, support capability and confidence, make progress on complex issues and enhance their leadership know how, confidence, courage, resilience, presence, and political savvy. Her approach seeks also to take the client to “the leader leads to learn” approach to achieving change in themselves and the system. She supports clients in the areas of building interpersonal effectiveness, impact and brand, managing career transitions, burn out, disillusionment and adversity.

In her coaching work, she is committed to the International Coach Federation’s (ICF’s) ethics of coaching (see below). The ICF adheres to a form of coaching that honours the client as the expert in their life and work and believes that every client is creative, resourceful and whole.

This approach means that Di has a commitment to:

  • discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve and support them wholly in that

  • encourage and support the client in developing their coaching goals

  • elicit client-generated solutions and strategies, and

  • hold the client responsible and accountable for personal change.

Her method is to assess each coaching situation as it presents, and together with the client and in some cases their manager, design a coaching experience tailored to meet the range of needs expressed. Feedback from a wide range of clients indicate that while at times challenging, Di’s coaching has led to many significant learning moments and many clients have reported that the experience lead to significant professional and life changing break throughs. Integrity, honesty, confidentiality, and respect for the client are key and paramount guiding principles to her coaching work. As a coach, Di van Meegen is attentive and fully present, will use clever, probing and sometimes uncomfortable questions and will hold you to account to achieve your goals.

FACILITATION

“Effective facilitation creates a productive environment and offers a fit-for-purpose process for people to learn, grow, make progress and make decisions that are optimal. It is the art of balancing encouragement and challenge, support for individuals and challenging them to achieve. Highly effective facilitation helps a group to find the art of the possible.”

Di has a detailed knowledge of the scope, and operations of Australian governments at all levels and has worked in situations where the interests of public, private and not-for-profit sectors intersect. Her facilitation experience spans a Prime Minister’s summit, and long-term assignments with public sector agencies and interest groups in driving for example, significant change to Australia’s tax system and a wholesale repositioning of an industry body. She has been engaged by the World Bank in Vienna on an international public/private sector negotiation involving a range of complex highly contested issues.