Whether you are a newly promoted manager or a seasoned leader, a good coach can take you from where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow. Coaching should not be reserved for top-level executives or global leaders, it can help move anyone closer to their full potential. Despite the many benefits of coaching, most managers and leaders do not have a good coach and therefore miss out on a critical component of development. Why? Well, coaching comes with a cost, both in fees for the coach and in time. Plus, a good coach can be hard to find. Many businesses today struggle to find a coach that matches the culture, needs, and vision of their business. And let’s face it, effective coaching can be uncomfortable at times, so many people avoid it altogether. Coaching, however, can be worth both the investment and the discomfort. Here’s why:
1. Blind spots
You are only able to see your actions and behaviors from your own perspective. You may be missing a great deal of information, data, and observations about the world around you that would only be visible through someone else’s lens. A good coach challenges your perceptions and allows you to shift how you see yourself and understand how others may see you.
2. It’s lonely in leadership
Sometimes being in a leadership role means you have to guard your words and actions a bit more than you would like. A coaching relationship allows you to have a confidential conversation with someone whose intent is to take your frustrations and challenges and turn them into opportunities and moments of growth. It gives you a safe place to vent, and with the help of a good coach, you will move pretty quickly from complaining about the problem to solving it. You may not even notice it happening but an effective coach will lead you through that process.
3. Consistency
Perhaps one of the most valuable skill sets you can gain through coaching is becoming more consistent. As a leader, consistency builds trust, builds perceived competence, and allows for an environment of open and honest feedback from your team. A coach can help you look at your interactions and assess where your own behaviors might be inconsistent with the message you are trying to send in your organization.
4. Feedback is priceless
Feedback, even when delivered poorly, is priceless. Getting feedback from others allows you to stop and reflect on your own behaviors and intent. Sure, you might decide after reflection that the feedback was wrong, but it still causes you to stop and think. Far too often business leaders go through life doing what they always did, what they think is right, or what they saw someone else do once. Stopping to reflect on your own actions is what allows us to innovate, create, and change. A good coach becomes your vehicle for reflection and can offer a lot of feedback from their point of view, and also help you learn to collect feedback from those around you.
Our business only gets better if our leaders do. Investing in a good coach represents a deep level of commitment to the growth of any individual and it will have lasting impact on the effectiveness of the leader, the engagement of the teams they lead and the bottom line.
Leading Through Influence
We develop better leaders so they can build a better future. Contact Us to learn about leader development via our training, workshops and executive coaching.
