Why Every Leader Needs a Coach

Being a leader can be quite challenging in today’s world, and, unfortunately, most leaders are failing to win at leadership. One of the best ways to help leaders get in shape, so to speak, is by hiring a leadership coach.

Much like professional sports players, those who are in the major leagues need to have a coach to keep them on top of their game, seeing things they can’t see from within the trenches and being that tough cheerleader who keeps you IN the game even when you might prefer to quit.

Coaching for top business leaders has been around for quite some time. But today, coaching is its own industry which has topped the $2 billion-dollar mark and is growing like gangbusters… and for good reason.

Different Types of Coaches

It is an unregulated field with such a variety of subject matter expertise, approach, and skill which makes it pretty overwhelming to figure out who you would even lean on as a coach.

We’d like to start by helping you differentiate easily between life coaches and business/executive coaches:

  • Life coaches are goal-focused and help you get past your personal obstacles to achieve what you are going for. They can help during major life transitions or when you need to figure out your next steps.
  • A business or executive coach is much more focused on life inside your work. Business coaches are focused on achieving positive results and they help you navigate situations within your organization. From managing your team, navigating politics, strengthening relationships, or being more effective in your work, an executive coach is going to help you reflect on your challenges and work a plan to move through them. An executive coach uses his/her knowledge and experience of human dynamics and pairs that with the experience they have within organizations to be able to help you up your game IN the game you are playing.

 

While there are some very stark distinctions between both forms of coaching, in general, both a Life Coach and an Executive/Leadership Coach help their client work towards a certain objective or purpose.

Why Every Leader Needs a Coach

After 20 years of coaching leaders in different industries and at different levels, it was time to take stock and consider the current dynamics of the world today.

As leaders, there’s more coming at you than ever before:

  • Information, data, and analytics move at the speed of light.
  • Technology is entering new dimensions and changing the very core of how we operate in our daily lives faster than we can complete a lease on a vehicle.
  • Human dynamics are intense – by next year more than half of the workplace will be younger than 39. Purpose-driven, flexible work is a requirement to attract top talent (which by the way is getting more and more competitive) and the need for inclusive, positive, and engaged workplaces is an expectation we can’t quite seem to satisfy.
  • Your ability to achieve goals despite barriers, roadblocks, lack of staff, budget, or time is more engrained in our business practices than ever.
  • We have more options for communication than any other time in history yet employees feel disconnected, un-included and, and under-communicated to.
  • Although technology is taking over routine tasks and robotics are real, the need for social skills, people management, and build relationships are repeatedly named as the top requirements for success in the organization of the future.

Clearly, being a leader today requires a lot more than doing a good job or having good connections. Having a coach essentially gives you a partner in crime. A coach is someone who is there for you – just you.

It is his or her job to believe in you, to root for you, and to help get the resources or perspective you need in order to get through the tough stuff. What you discuss with your coach should be held confidentially so you can feel comfortable talking through some of the harder elements of your work.

The Energize Leadership Approach

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we want to tell you a little bit about our coaching philosophy at Energize Leadership. Here are three unique values we bring to our coaching.

OUR “WHOLE LEADER” APPROACH

We focus on the whole leader and support your personal needs in order to thrive at work. The goals of our coaching engagements are always related to your goals at work, but it’s critical for leaders today to take care of themselves and their home life in order to succeed and thrive in the workplace. We go through some strategies to use with your outside support systems and make sure you are committed to the things that help you thrive in all areas of your life.

OUR LEADERSHIP FOCUS

We focus specifically on leaders and apply leadership development tools, concepts, and activities to accelerate progress.

You will benefit from our coaching in unique, one-of-a-kind ways because while we meet you where you are and drill down to your unique situations, we are always working to develop and hone your leadership skills – you know, the ones that will serve you best wherever you go throughout your whole career.

OUR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND

We have experience as consultants with backgrounds in organization development, which means you have access to consulting support alongside your own development.

Because we are also consultants, you get the side benefit of having extra hands on deck to deal with the challenges you have with your team, colleagues, leaders, and other stakeholders you have to manage as you build and hone your reputation as a leader.

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Hopefully you can see now why we believe every leader needs a coach. Why do it alone when you can lean on someone else to get you through some of the tough stuff? You have enough on your plate as it is, you don’t get a bonus award for figuring it out by yourself.

At Energize Leadership, we seek to help leaders move to the next step in their professional endeavors. If you would like more information on our coaching programs, contact us today!