Why Does One Need Coaching?
We all have blind spots. Ask those closest to you – your “stakeholders” – how you can get better? What you learn might surprise you. In many cases, this can just be a conversation. In the workplace, getting honest responses may require an anonymous survey. Smart, successful people go through their lives acing tests, winning contests and proving how smart they are.
But when you become a leader, the equation shifts. It’s not about you anymore, it’s about the people you’re leading. The need to always win and add value can quickly become a problem.
There are several reasons for engaging with a high quality, seasoned and experienced coach. I have listed several of the reasons, I believe are important below.
Establish Competitive Advantage
Working with me does not have to be viewed as a weakness or an admittance of defeat. Rather, it can be seen as an opportunity to identify and strengthen leadership competencies.
Further developing strengths and competencies that a manager / executive may have overlooked about him or herself can catapult an organization into greatness. I can not only help develop leadership skill into a competitive advantage but also help identify ways an organization can stand out.
Opportunities are often missed by those closest to a situation or problem. An outside perspective can open up possibilities that may have previously been dismissed.
Gain a Clear Outside Perspective
Like most individuals, leaders often do not perceive themselves as others do or in a clear fashion. Working with me, I can help you remove the blinders that leaders often have regarding how they communicate, come across to their direct reports, view their own skills and capabilities, and perceive their organization’s challenges.
Developing and gaining a more accurate perspective is important since an accurate perspective is highly associated with achieving success for an organization.
Build Effective Teams & Relationships
People often gravitate towards others that are similar in personality or perspective. Working with me can help a leader broaden diversity of teams by leveraging internal relationships with colleagues and team members that have different personalities, perspectives, and work methods.
This can widen a leader’s perspective, helping the leader to make more inclusive decisions and become more productive. It can also help a leader gain insight into team dynamics and work toward repairing interpersonal issues that have been holding a team back.
Increase Confidence
Like most individuals, leaders often do not perceive themselves as others do or in a clear fashion. My goal with clients/students is to bring out the best in a leader. However, if a leader lacks confidence in his or her abilities or is unaware of the potential positive impact those abilities could have, the leader may be missing opportunities to be effective.
I can help identify strengths and capabilities and also help leaders develop strategies for leveraging those strengths. By showing leaders ways to get the results they are looking for, a leader can receive validation that his or her ideas and strengths can work.
Establish Trust
One of the main reasons organizations, leaders, and teams fail is a lack of trust. Although trust is established over time, communication barriers, misunderstandings, and a lack of follow-through are often reasons why trust is broken. The inability to move quick enough on promises and commitments is another reason why trust can be broken between organizations, its leaders, and its stakeholders.
I help leaders learn how to not only build trust between themselves and their direct reports, but also learn how to trust their team.