Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors said: “ What stands in the way becomes the way.”

One of the approaches I use in coaching executives and directors is to help them find obstacles (what stands in the way), to help them see what they can do next (what becomes the way).

This is a somewhat different situation to that where executives and directors want to improve their performance; for example by being coached on improving their leadership presence.

Obstacles arise in many ways.

Recently I worked with a CEO who is thinking about the challenges in his industry sector arising from disruptions to traditional technology.

He is confronted by an obstacle i.e. the plethora of health-related Apps. He is worried that his business will potentially be wiped out if consumers using these apps go straight to medical specialists rather than through his business.

His thinking model was that the traditional B2B model he had found successful was going to be replaced with a B2C model.

However by rethinking what is really going on in the market, he got to see that the consumers’ involvement through apps is actually going to be a boon if they handle it cleverly. Instead of being a B2B business where he is selling a particular health service in response to a prescription from specialists, his business is actually morphing into a B2C2B business. It’s just that now the consumers are taking a more active role in their health treatment and will actually increase demand for his company’s services if he acts strategically.

By thinking about the obstacle (the rise of medical apps) in a coached conversation, this CEO got to see that the apps actually give him the way forward (a new channel to market).

By Ian Sampson – Ian is a Cause & Effective Associate. If you are facing obstacles as an executive, CEO or Director contact Ian here for a no-obligation exploratory discussion about how coaching can offer new ways forward.