Want To Be A Strong Leader? Hire a Leadership Coach
Once upon a time, people moved into executive leadership roles after years of grooming at the same company. Today we change jobs 12 times throughout our careers, and many of us change industries multiple times. With this kind of job change, how are leaders developed? How do emerging leaders develop the leadership skills and business acumen they need to become mid- to senior-level leaders and CEOS? They hire leadership coaches.
According to the study, “Coaching A Global Study of Successful Practices outlining Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2008-2018,” commissioned by the Institute for Corporate Productivity on behalf of The American Management Association, “We expect that coaching will become one of the keys to developing and retaining scarce talent in the future, and we think companies that learn to leverage it well will have a significant competitive advantage in the global marketplace.”
When I became a new CEO of an architectural firm, I hired a leadership coach, and productively worked with her for several years. Devoted to improving my leadership skills through a wide variety of methods, I attended conferences, read books and magazines, worked with mentors, learned from my network, joined the Chief Executive Network, a non-competing CEO peer roundtable organization, and hired a leadership coach. Every activity helped and fed upon the other methods, but having a seasoned leadership coach walk with me through vital early decisions helped crystalize my and our organization’s success.
Although you may feel uncertain about hiring a leadership coach, consider these five reasons I discovered that hiring a leadership coach is a worthwhile investment.
1. Leaders Set the Pace of the Organization
Whether you lead an organization, division, regional office, or team, you are the single best accelerator to set the pace of the group you lead. If you are driven to build your knowledge muscle, everyone will benefit. Likewise, if you aren’t keeping up with the fast pace of general and industry-specific change, you can dramatically hamper your team’s success.
2. Gain a Fresh, Outside Perspective
Working with a leadership coach provides you with a fresh perspective from someone who isn’t afraid to speak their mind and is a way to avoid groupthink. Being asked the right questions by my leadership coach helped me reach a superior solution and more skillfully prepare for alternative arguments and lay out my reasoning.
3. Affords a Private Conversation Before Important Decisions
Leaders are frequently called upon to make critical decisions often without the ability to discuss them with internal stakeholders. Your leadership coach is a trusted confidant, is unbiased, has your success as their foremost priority, and has experience dealing with similar challenges.
They say leadership can be a lonely place. At some point, the buck stops with you. Having a dedicated person who is in your corner can improve your confidence and job satisfaction.
4. Opportunity to Formulate Your Pitch
A leadership coach not only helps you make better decisions, but they will also help you package a vision or concept into a more well-thought out and better-communicated presentation before you deliver it to your client or team.
5. Offers an Accountability Partner
As you move up the corporate ladder, you may find you have fewer peers and fewer opportunities for accountability partners. Your leadership coach can fill this vital role and help you follow through on your goals for a project, client, or the entire organization.
As with any relationship, the success of a leadership coaching relationship depends on the clarity, dedication, and communication of both parties. If you haven’t given leadership coaching a try, talk to someone who has had a successful experience, and engage them in a dialogue about how it helped their career.
