Innovative companies understand that coaching can help professionals substantially increase their performance at work. Are you ready to partner with a certified executive coach to boost your performance?
- You just took on a new and elevated leadership role. With many career transitions, leaders bring their knowledge, skills, experience (lessons learned) to their new role. The challenge they often face is that what worked with one organizational culture, environment or team, doesn’t always work in the next one. Well intentioned leaders often struggle more than necessary or even fail in a new or elevated role, not because they are bad leaders, but more so, because they don’t understand how to successfully navigate the waters of a new role, team or environment. Smart leaders understand and acknowledge they are not equipped with all the answers regarding what success looks like in their new role. Smart leaders also know how to temper their internal desire to showcase the fact they were the “right” person for the job with the time and energy it takes to understand the culture of the organization, the expectations of leaders in that environment or level (what is said and unsaid), their team, the business, etc. A certified executive coach partners with leaders by providing a confidential sounding board for ideas, an opportunity to role-play specific scenarios in a safe environment, along with powerful questions that help the leader create a solid transition and assimilation plan around the first 30, 60, 90 or 120 days in a new role. Having a plan rather than jumping in and simply figuring it out along the way will strengthen the possibility of a smooth and successful launch into a new role.
- You recently received unexpected (and relatively unpleasant) feedback about how you are being perceived in the workplace … and you want to change this perception. First of all, leaders who get unpleasant feedback could further their own personal leadership development efforts by thanking the person(s) who provided them with this valuable information (even though feedback can often be painfully embarrassing or seem like it is far from reality). As leaders go up in their careers, honest feedback tends to dissipate tremendously or it’s given in a light-hearted or joking fashion, which doesn’t seem as serious when it’s delivered. When feedback is provided, it typically means that someone wants to help the leader improve by bringing a challenge or opportunity to his/her attention. Let’s look at the opposite less desirable possibility (and what we would consider the less courageous way of providing feedback) … The leader is called into a meeting and told, “You are simply not a good fit for us any longer, and today is your last day.” or “We are going in a different direction.” or “We’ve decided to make some changes and today is your last day.” This feedback doesn’t offer much of an opportunity to really understand how to adjust behavior to create future success. Partnering with a certified executive coach provides a leader with a confidential environment, along with powerful questions to explore feelings about the feedback, behaviors that might be impacting the perceptions of others, and meaningful strategies for getting back on track.
- You want to take your success to the next level. Successful leaders typically continue to strive to achieve an even greater sense of success as they navigate their professional journey. Even though leaders seem to have achieved tremendous success already, at some point, they want more. This typically comes from an internal expectation or mindset of what success looks like (in the leader’s mind or vision for him or herself). What success looks like for one leader is not the same for another. Achieving the next level of success for one leader may be finding more balance or well-being with the competing demands of an executive level role and family, while another leader may define achieving the next level of success as being more confident and courageous in meetings or emotionally charged situations, and another may believe achieving the next level of success is being prepared for the next promotion or a smooth transition into retirement. Whatever the individual definition of success looks like, leaders who partner with a certified executive coach can work through the discovery process with a neutral, unbiased partner. Certified executive coaches are trained to ask powerful questions which help leaders define a clear vision of what success looks like as well as create a plan and timeline that works for the leader (if it’s the leader’s plan and timeline, the leader is more likely to make it happen – if it’s the certified executive coach’s plan and timeline … it’s time to look for a new certified executive coach). Certified executive coaches are also excellent accountability partners.
- You feel stuck or in a rut with your team or in your job. At some point in every leader’s journey, he or she will feel stuck or in a rut. It happens to even the very best leaders. No one wants to get stuck or feel in a rut … and staying in that place for any length of time can become downright miserable and create a dreadful day-to-day existence. Knowing how to move beyond this scenario can be quite perplexing, frustrating and often seem beyond one’s reach. Attempting to navigate this situation alone or listening to all the unsolicited advice from others can even compound the challenge. Partnering with a certified executive coach provides the leader an opportunity to take off the mask of “I’ve got it all together” and become vulnerable in a confidential environment. A certified executive coach provides a safe haven for expressing the often raw reality about the leader’s fears, challenges, frustrations and personal accountability regarding their current circumstance. A certified executive coach will work with a leader to help them shift beyond their current situation and create a new future that inspires and excites him or her.
- You find yourself surrounded by people who have their own agendas and you want a neutral, unbiased sounding board. In the workplace, leaders are bombarded (whether they recognize it or not) by a variety of individual agendas. It can be increasingly difficult for leaders to figure out what they think is best or the right thing to do when they are consistently peppered with opinions, suggestions and advice from those who have a stake in the outcome (even a small stake). While it is vital to understand internal stakeholder needs, relying on any one internal stakeholder as a confidant or sounding board, can unintentionally skew a leader’s decision-making and cause other unforeseen people-related issues that do not seem obvious on the surface. The value of partnering with a neutral, unbiased certified executive coach (who is not a part of the internal system or the people politics) is having someone ask a variety of powerful questions that help the leader think through a variety of possible outcomes. A certified executive coach can help a leader determine a strategy for decision-making that is more inclusive of the team, brings people together rather than pitting them against one another (winners and losers) and creates stronger alignment across the organization.
Important note: Remember, when selecting a certified executive coach, be sure to explore his or her credentials to ensure you are working with a certified executive coach and not a consultant who is positioning him or herself in the market as a certified executive coach. See our other articles on how to select a certified executive coach.
Cheers to your continued leadership success!
