Why Coaching makes sense for your Best Leaders

There is often an understanding that Coaching is only for failing leaders. This is just incorrect; most companies don't invest, or at least not for long, in failing leadership, and Coaching can only work when you are open to trusting and owning the coaching relationship.

Can it turn around a struggling leader? Yes, but only if everyone involved is engaged and willing. I need both the struggling leader and their leader in Coaching. Both leaders have to be committed for it to work. Most Coaching is good leaders seeking to become great, just like high-performing athletes use coaches to improve their performance to guide them to the next level. Being open to the feedback of Coaching is a sign that a leader is capable of growth and that ego is not driving their thinking; fact and emotional intelligence are. An outside objective perspective is critical to our growth. 

For the last few weeks, I have written about our profile as one of the primary tools I use in Coaching. I want to add some context for how I view a client. I'm looking at them as more than a profile, a title, a "problem," or a resume to be considered for the new role. When working with someone, I review the complete toolbox of who they are and what they have done, learned, and experienced. I love getting to know as much as I can. What are you doing now in your role? What have you done before? What was school like for you? What is the foundation of your childhood? I Love to hear family stories. We are made up of the layers of our past. Like an archeology dig, I will scrape away, looking for all the clues to the complex truth of the gifts, talents, and treasures that make up a person. 

STRATEGY

My job is to bring all the best to play in setting and archiving the goal of our engagement, to be the one place where they are seen, thoroughly listened to, and valued for all they are worth and worthy of. We get things done, make the forward movement, and have a positive and often fun time doing it. I tell them the truth, yet they know I will give them a path to make that truth not a slap in the face but a choice to be the best version of who they were designed to be.

I will not just share and run. I will build a path and a plan and walk with them to the top of the mountain and enjoy the view.