Nicky Terblanche

Senior Consultant

Nicky Terblanche Senior Consultant

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Nicky is a Professor of Leadership Coaching at Stellenbosch Business School and an executive and leadership coach. He has a PhD in leadership coaching, and master’s degrees in management coaching and electronic engineering. In his coaching practice he combines his analytical ability with his interest and passion for people to facilitate transformational learning in a business context. He is a Master Practitioner Coach with the European Mentoring and Coaching Counsel (EMCC).

Background & Industry Experience

Nicky started his career in the late 1990s as a software and electronic engineer after completing a Masters’s degree in Electronic Engineering specializing in artificial intelligence. After 18 years in the IT industry he changed careers to coaching and completed Master’s and PhD degrees in leadership coaching. He has been practicing as an executive coach since 2009 and in 2017 became a full-time academic at Stellenbosch University Business School where he teaches and researches executive coaching with a focus on artificial intelligence coaching. He is currently Professor of Leadership Coaching at Stellenbosch University. He has published more than 50 peer reviewed academic journal articles on coaching and coached more than 2,000 hours with 450+ clients. Nicky has supported senior leaders in complex roles global organizations dealing with ambiguity and significant performance pressure.

Coaching Approach

Nicky’s coaching is informed by his cutting edge research and underpinned by transformative learning theory, cognitive behavioral and positive psychology, systems thinking and complexity theory. He uses various approaches from these disciplines to help create self-awareness that allow his clients to identify obstacles and design strategies needed to transform themselves in order to achieve their goals. Nicky specializes in behavioral change, managing complexity, career transition, leadership and transformational coaching at a senior and executive leadership level.

Leadership coaching is about helping the individual reach their goals while considering the needs of the business. Transformational coaching is about taking a long hard look in the mirror, forming an understanding of what you see and then having the courage to undertaking the necessary work to change thinking and behavioral patterns. With Nicky’s guidance, the client can understand the origin of these patterns, how they are triggered and what the consequences of enacting them are. He then assists them in designing new strategies to engage with their personal and work world in a more optimal way.

Relevant Assignments

  • Coaching commissioners of a semi-state owned entity in Southern Africa. Focus: aligning diverse stakeholders, strengthening governance, and improving decision-making under complexity and ambiguity.
  • Executive coaching of senior management in a South African bank. Focus: driving alignment and execution in a matrixed environment, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and improving decision velocity under pressure.
  • Coaching of CTO and CIO of a start-up financial services company. Focus: aligning product, engineering, and business priorities while scaling execution discipline, strengthening decision-making under rapid growth and ambiguity, and building a high-performing technology organisation.
  • Senior leadership coaching of an insurance company. Focus: leading enterprise transformation, strengthening accountability, and improving cross-functional execution in a complex, legacy environment.

Education & Professional Affiliations

  • PhD in Leadership Coaching – University of Stellenbosch Business School
  • MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude, top student award)– University of Stellenbosch Business School
  • MScEng (Electronic) – University of Stellenbosch
  • BEng (Electronic) – University of Stellenbosch
  • Post-graduate Certificate in Coaching (cum laude, top student Director’s award) – University of Stellenbosch Business School
  • Master Practitioner Coach with the European Mentoring and Coaching Counsel (EMCC)