Roland Cox
I’m an integral coach committed to advancing personal transformation, mostly with executives and teams, through assessment, coaching and leadership. I’m privileged to work closely with maturing leaders, witnessing how this influences teams and organisations. My own understanding and practice of an unfolding consciousness also continues to deepen. In August 2003, I founded Aspiral after spending the nineties in media, ‘exploring the self’ and travelling. I’ve built up a solid client base, enjoy consistent business growth, and have been active within the profession.
I’ve published articles on coaching, diversity and one personally significant piece on a lone illumination while trail running on Table Mountain one misty night. I’ve lectured and run group supervision at the South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP) and served on the COMENSA ethics committee. I work nationally but live in Cape Town with my wife Alison and daughters Caitlin and Sarah.
Coaching approach & methodology
My approach is founded on my Lifeline training in Rogerian counselling in 2001/02 and I believe that empathy, honesty and good mapping of the ‘landscape’ are essential in coaching. I value the quality of relationship as a profound influence on personal transformation. While the integral methodology frames my coaching approach, it’s also influenced by professional training as a psychometrist and the use of assessments (including the Enneagram), ontological coaching, neuroscience, somatic work, various developmental models and the wisdom traditions. Clients experience a coach who is sensitive, analytical, uses metaphors and asks provocative questions. Specific feedback I’ve received includes: empathic, warm, knowledgeable, sense of humour, wiser, gentle, non-judgmental, authentic, ‘genuinely cares about the outcomes’, honest, professional and easy to talk to.
Coaching experience
I’ve been coaching for fifteen years. My earlier experience focused on career coaching and I have assisted around 350 people in this area. As this work matures, I welcome coaching around transition, identity and self-determination, especially with those who want to re-examine their careers or become more self-directed. My organisational work involves executive, leadership and team coaching at senior levels. I’ve worked in public and private sectors (from SMMEs to multinationals) across sectors such as ICT, tourism, media, education and widely in finance and children’s rights. I’ve coached at executive level at BAT, DStv, Grundfos, Juta, Nashua, Old Mutual, RAPCAN, Sentinel, Servest and Veritas Wealth among others and have delivered over 3000 hours of coaching and 800 hours of assessment feedback. I’m an associate of two major coaching schools in Cape Town and am involved with two Cape based NPOs – a founding member of the School of Hard Knocks (SA), who deliver short programmes that leverage sport to tackle unemployment, anti-social behaviour and poor health. I also head up Personal Development at the Catholic Leadership Academy.
Coaching credentials
I trained as a counsellor/facilitator at Lifeline and gained an Honours degree in Industrial Psychology (UNISA in 2001/2); registered as a Psychometrist with the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) (2003); completed Integral Coaching Principles (with James Flaherty in 2006), the Associate Coaching Course (2007) and the Professional Coaching Course (2009), all at the Centre for Coaching (UCT, GSB). I’ve completed several shorter courses, including The Diamond Approach (Almaas) online through Naropa University; Level 1 of The Thinking Environment (Nancy Kline), Conscious Embodiment (Wendy Palmer) and the Leadership Maturity Framework (Susann Cook-Greuter), Coaching in Action (Alan Sieler) and Somatic Wisdom (Cynthia Merchant). I’ve also completed several short Enneagram courses and I’m an accredited and experienced user of an Enneagram profiler. In 2015, I completed a MPhil in Management Coaching at Stellenbosch University’s Business School (USB).