Director

My core mission

People in business are accountable to deliver within a set of ever-shifting operating conditions. Business as usual, continuous improvement and fundamental change all co-exist at the same time. Inevitably, individuals and groups are required to share ideas and insights, to challenge one another and to make decisions so that the business can move forward in an aligned and purposeful manner. 

However, sustainable progress depends almost entirely on HOW executives and their teams interact with one another. It has been my lifelong experience that the more clearly and unambiguously people communicate when they interact and the more impactfully they engage, the sooner individuals and groups will find the alignment, focus and motivation necessary to direct their energies in a committed and relevant way.

Knowing where people stand enables meaningful engagement and problem-solving. In contrast, environments in which people do not feel safe to speak out breed disengagement, cynicism, resistance, malicious compliance and the “illusion of progress.”

My core mission is to help individuals and groups in leadership connect to the responsibilities in their roles, to understand the pressures and challenges they face and to consciously and constructively impact individual colleagues and the teams they work with. When people at work represent their views openly and clearly, without fear, or a silent pressure to say “what they think the boss wants to hear,” a necessary pre-condition for real progress emerges, namely understanding. 

This focus is what makes my work unique, important and inspiring.

How do I bring my core mission about?

• I specialise in working with leaders and leadership teams. Practically, my facilitation takes many forms:
• One-on-one coaching
• Team alignment sessions, aimed at getting people behind or around new ways of working or an important new initiative
• Difficult conversations
• Re-contracting relationship expectations and conflict resolution.

The result of my facilitation is that the distraction, noise, politics, misunderstandings and one-upmanship that existed before an intervention all disappear, allowing people to connect with and understand their expectations of one another, so that the organisation to get on with the business at hand. Typically, people respond by saying, “We’re experiencing our work interface very differently,” or “All the convenient conclusions we used to draw about each other aren’t there.”

Working with your people

I mentor, guide and coach senior executives across the private and public sector.

People buy into who you are before they buy into your ideas. Integrating your full self into how you embrace your role, therefore, is critical. When people buy into who you are, they will buy into your conviction, your resolve and your belief in what needs to be done, as well as your belief in them.

I facilitate performance compacting, conflict resolution, relationship contracting and executive team alignment processes.I help executives understand what is going on in their organisation and what is going on in themselves – rather than what they think is going on – so that they can interact without pretence or assumption.

I am interested in working with people who want to develop their leadership and relationship capabilities. I challenge and encourage people to grow and develop as human beings, but also as role holders at work. I help people engage with one another genuinely, without pretence, chicanery or persona. This work is crucial.

Working with reality in all its messiness

I help people listen to one another – and to speak to one another. I create environments where people feel safe to listen and speak to each other honestly and without fear of retribution. This enables them to shed convenient assumptions about one another, to see the “truth/reality” in what is being said, to gain perspective and to move on with clarity and progress. It is often the “unspoken” views and opinions and the “misunderstood” inputs from our colleagues that cause re-work, misaligned goals and poor delivery of results.

Getting it just right

My work is most fulfilling when I have steered people to the point where they feel safe enough to say exactly how they feel, thereby provoking genuine, reciprocal conversation. The result will be a connection that is real, authentic and unpolitical. These moments are what make sustainable progress possible.

I am considered an expert in applying process psychological principles to executive coaching and the facilitation of executive teams. Drawing on Gestalt Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology and Process Psychology, I bring both academic grounding and practical application to my interventions.
Over the past forty years, I have worked across all business sectors in South Africa and, increasingly, globally, delivering large-scale transformation projects and successful executive interventions.

YSA – Yudelowitz, Shannon and Associates

I co-founded our leadership consultancy twenty-five years ago. It is through YSA that I have primarily delivered my work in executive development, coaching and team facilitation.

Gemini Consulting (1998–2002)
Managing Consultant in the People Discipline, managing strategic accounts, leading large-scale change projects, and providing CEO/MD-level coaching.

Anglo American (1996–1998)
HR Development Consultant, establishing and managing the Group’s Performance Management Unit.

Standard Bank (1993–1995)
Manager: Group Performance Management, representing Group HR on bank-wide projects.

Lecturing
I have lectured at University of Natal, Psychology Department, Wits University and the Wits Business School in psychology, neurophysiology and management. I have authored numerous academic articles in neuropsychology.

• I am widely recognised as a thought leader in executive coaching and process-oriented psychology.
• I have developed extensive expertise in facilitating executive performance compacting, conflict resolution and executive team alignment.
• I am known for action-oriented coaching that establishes clients’ awareness and challenges them to experiment with new mindsets and behaviours.
• I am frequently invited back by clients from decades past who have experienced a lasting impact from my earlier interventions.

• Masters of Management (cum laude) from University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Business, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Masters of Social Science (cum laude) in Neuropsychology from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa
• BA (Hons) in Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

• Gestalt Organisation and Systems Development International Programme run by the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, Ohio (2009/2010)
• Recess College for senior executives and professionals, facilitated by Elisabeth Henderson, The Netherlands (2006)

• Member of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA)
• Member of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)
• Member of the South African Clinical Neuropsychological