Have you considered executive coaching?
This quote by famed US football coach Vince Lombardi is important because it challenges the assumption that people who have worked hard to become leaders are somehow automatically equipped with all the skills they need to be effective at it.
The reality is the skills required to secure buy-in to a leadership culture are usually quite different from the technical experience or entrepreneurial skills people have developed to succeed. But that doesn’t mean those skills can’t be learnt, which is where executive coaching can help.
What is executive coaching?
Executive coaching provides targeted support for senior executives to help them develop communication skills, critical thinking, and ways of working that will help them effectively and efficiently deliver on business strategy.
It can be done as one-on-one sessions or in group workshops, in person or online, or as a mix of all these. The best option depends on whether you want to address an individual need or develop a wider cultural approach to leadership.
Know your goals
At the start of any executive coaching, it’s important to understand what you want to achieve.
Are you hoping to improve team or individual performance? Support change management? Engage employees?
By understanding your goals, any support can be focused around those desired outcomes, and be connected to the overall business strategy. Bringing in an external coach can often help you refine what you’re trying to achieve, and plan a strategy to achieve it.
What can executive coaching help with?
Improving connection and communication flow between leadership and employees is often a focus of executive coaching. Building good foundational relationships with employees helps them feel seen and supported by the business leadership, which builds loyalty and makes a team work together more effectively to achieve strategic goals.
Some of the skills executive coaching can help develop include giving and receiving constructive feedback, having crucial conversations, project management, effective strategic planning, team motivation and managing team dynamics.
Give it a try
One of the most common misconceptions about executive coaching is that it means someone is failing in their job, or a company is in trouble. In reality, it’s about making sure your senior executives are fully equipped with everything they need to lead with confidence. It’s about setting them up to succeed on behalf of your business so things don’t go wrong, rather than trying to turn things around once they have.