There was a time when leadership coaching was new and untested. The skeptics were asking, “Why would a true leader need help with her role?” “Aren’t leaders born leaders?”
Fast-forward, and leadership coaching has been fully embraced as the new normal for high-performers who want to realize their potential. The ones who want to keep growing and influencing the people around them, who want to get the most not only from their careers, but from life as a whole.
But you still might be wondering about the specific reasons a leadership coach can be the turning point for you. Today we’re walking through five of the many reasons a leadership coach can change it all.
1. You’ll have a trusted sounding board firmly in place.
There are many wonderful aspects of leadership. You get to cast the vision for a team or organization, see your ideas and plans play out in the world, and shape future leaders.
There are few downsides, though, and one is that there’s often no one to bounce your ideas off of, who’s there to tell you the truth (even if you don’t always like to hear it). As a leader, you’re surrounded by people who report to you, or who might otherwise have an incentive to agree with what you say – after all, giving you honest feedback isn’t their role.
Your leadership coach, on the other hand, creates a safe space for you to open up and take risks with your ideas and solutions. The sky’s the limit when you know there’s someone there to bring you back down to earth and to encourage you when you’re into something big.
Can you feel the innovative ideas bubbling up? It will when you’re with your leadership coach!
2. You’ll take inventory of what you bring to your role.
Your leadership coach will bring years of experience and expertise to help you understand your strengths, gifts, and blind spots. You’re capable of even greater things, and often you’re too close to the situation to have an accurate overview of just how powerful your unique set of skills really is.
Through evidence-based tools like Clifton Strengths, you’ll learn more about which strengths come naturally to you, how to develop your standout talents even further, and use it all to live the very best life you can.
Coaching is about improving yourself, but so much of the work you’ll do is about making the best use of the skills you already have.
3. You’ll get clear on your long- and short-term developmental needs.
Are you satisfied where you are right now in your career? What do you see as your next hurdle? Do you have a step-by-step plan to get there? When you bring a leadership coach onboard, you will.
And just as powerful? You’ll have accountability. We’re not always ready to share our big aspirations with our friends and family, so our dreams often go unrealized because we lack the support we need to keep us on track. Your leadership coach will help you devise a plan to lay out your next steps (for both the coming days and the big picture) – and be your accountability partner.
4. You’ll master cross-cultural understanding, and dynamic team engagement will become second-nature.
The world is getting smaller as it becomes easier to connect with anyone from around the world. Your team likely reflects our exciting, changing world, too. Are you making the most of the talents on your team and within your organization?
New research and methods are coming out every day. Your leadership coach will make sure you’re on the cutting edge. A healthy organization does the very best work, and you’ll learn how your leadership skills can evolve to make sure you’re operating at your very best.
5. You’ll learn to harness your leadership skills to influence the bottom line of your organization.
Yes, leadership is that powerful. Even in the quietest moments, your leadership skills have a direct impact on your organization’s culture. You’ve made your way to an influential position, and now it’s time to learn, grow, and evolve.
A leadership coach helps you fine-tune the balance between your professional and personal lives and the larger community around you. Like so many other high-powered influencers today, you might just wonder how you ever survived without one!