13 Jun What Does A Leadership Coach Do?
Want To Be A Leader? Work With A Leadership Coach!
By working with a Leadership Coach you are able to gain a better understanding of yourself and others. A leadership coach will help you develop the leadership skills necessary for personal and professional growth and ultimately long-term success in your career. While the specific skills you learn may vary depending on your goals and the coach’s expertise, this article will detail some common leadership skills that can be fostered through the coaching process and the benefits these skills will provide for the person being coached.
Why Are Leadership Skills So Essential In The Workplace?
Possessing effective leadership skills is expected for higher-level positions for several reasons:
- Guiding and influencing others: A leader’s primary role is to guide and influence their team or organization toward a common goal. Leadership skills enable individuals to inspire, motivate, and direct others effectively, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards shared objectives.
- Driving productivity and performance: Strong leadership skills contribute to increased productivity and improved performance within a team or organization. Leaders with the ability to set clear expectations, delegate tasks, provide feedback, and foster a positive work environment can enhance the productivity and efficiency of their team members.
- Making effective decisions: Leaders often face complex situations that require sound decision-making. Leadership skills help individuals gather relevant information, analyze options, consider different perspectives, and make informed and timely decisions. Effective leaders also involve team members in decision-making processes when appropriate, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement.
- Building and managing teams: A leader’s success depends on their ability to build and manage high-performing teams. Leadership skills facilitate the recruitment, selection, and development of talented individuals who can contribute to the organization’s goals. Leaders with strong interpersonal skills can foster collaboration, resolve conflicts, provide support, and promote a positive team culture.
- Communication and relationship-building: Effective leaders excel in communication and relationship-building. They can clearly convey expectations, provide feedback, listen actively, and inspire trust and open dialogue among team members. Strong interpersonal skills enable leaders to build strong relationships with colleagues, superiors, and stakeholders, fostering cooperation and collaboration.
- Change management: In today’s dynamic business environment, change is inevitable. Leaders with strong leadership skills can navigate and manage change effectively. They can communicate the need for change, address resistance, support employees through transitions, and adapt strategies to meet new challenges.
- Inspiring innovation and creativity: Leadership skills play a vital role in fostering innovation and creativity within a team or organization. Leaders who encourage risk-taking, embrace new ideas, and create an environment where individuals feel empowered to contribute and experiment can drive innovation and lead to positive outcomes.
- Creating a positive work culture: A leader’s behavior and leadership skills significantly impact the work culture and employee morale. Leaders with strong leadership skills can create a positive and inclusive work environment, where individuals feel valued, supported, and empowered. This, in turn, enhances job satisfaction, engagement, and retention.
Benefits Of Working With A Leadership Coach
There are many benefits of working with a leadership coach. They are as follows:
- Improved self-awareness: A coach can help you gain a deeper understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, values, and personal leadership style. This awareness enables you to leverage your strengths and manage your weaknesses more effectively.
- Better communication skills: Effective communication is crucial for leadership. A coach can assist you in improving your verbal and nonverbal communication skills, active listening, clarity of expression, and adapting your communication style to different situations and individuals.
- Increased Emotional intelligence: Leadership involves understanding and managing emotions, both your own and those of others. A coach can help you develop emotional intelligence by enhancing your self-awareness, empathy, relationship-building, and ability to navigate difficult conversations or conflicts.
- Enhanced decision-making and problem-solving: Coaches can guide you in honing your critical thinking skills, strategic planning abilities, and decision-making processes. They can help you become more objective, consider different perspectives, analyze data, and make sound judgments in complex situations.
- Improved Vision and goal setting: A coach can assist you in clarifying your vision for yourself and your team, as well as setting meaningful and achievable goals. They can help you align your goals with your values, create action plans, and track progress toward your objectives.
- Better conflict resolution: Leaders often encounter conflicts within teams or between individuals. A coach can equip you with strategies for resolving conflicts, fostering a positive team culture, and promoting open communication and collaboration.
- Ability To motivate and inspire others: A coach can help you develop techniques for motivating and inspiring your team members, such as providing feedback and recognition, setting high expectations, promoting a sense of purpose, and empowering others to take ownership and contribute to the organization’s goals.
- Increased resilience and stress management: Leadership roles can be demanding and stressful. A coach can teach you techniques for building resilience, managing stress, maintaining work-life balance, and nurturing your overall well-being.
We All Have Blind Spots
All in all, if you don’t have all these skills you may still get promoted, but you will likely struggle in some areas because we all have “blind spots” in our work life. By blind spots at work, I am referring to areas in which you may have limited or no awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, behaviors, or impact on others. These blind spots can hinder your personal and professional growth, as well as negatively impact team dynamics and overall performance. Common blind spots include ineffective communication styles, lack of self-awareness, resistance to feedback, or an inability to recognize your own biases or limitations. Leadership coaching can be highly beneficial in identifying and addressing these blind spots at work.
What Can You Expect In The Leadership Coaching Process?
Coaching begins with an assessment of your behavior at work. This is the HOW you behave and communicate. We use the world-famous DISC assessment.
Then we assess what motivates you at work, the WHY you move into action — using a tool we call the Driving Forces™ assessment.
Next, we assess your competencies. In other words, WHICH competencies you have mastered and to what degree — using the TTI DNA® assessment.
Based on the results of the assessments, we will create a customized coaching plan. This is a very personalized process, and the skills you learn will depend on your unique circumstances and objectives. We will tailor the coaching approach to address your specific leadership development needs and support you through weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly coaching sessions.
Our Assessments
We are certified to use the TTI SI TriMetrix® DNA assessment: This multifaceted tool measures your work behaviors, your motivators or driving forces, and your work competencies.
The TriMetrix® DNA is a powerful assessment combining three sciences, helping you to explore three key areas of performance:
- HOW we behave and communicate — using the world famous DISC assessment
- WHY we move into action — using the simple yet powerful Driving Forces™ assessment
- WHICH competencies we have mastered and to what degree — using the TTI DNA® assessment
The 25 competencies measured are:
- Appreciating Others and Conceptual Thinking
- Conflict Management and Continuous Learning
- Creativity & Innovation and Customer Focus
- Decision Making and Diplomacy
- Employee Development and Flexibility
- Futuristic Thinking and Goal Orientation
- Influencing Others and Interpersonal Skills
- Leadership and Personal Accountability
- Planning & Organizing and Problem Solving
- Project Management and Negotiation
- Resiliency and Self Starting
- Teamwork and Understanding Others
- Time & Priority Management
The Leadership Coaching Engagement
Depending on what goals you have identified as a focus for coaching, or what we discover in the assessment phase of coaching, coaching engagements can typically range from three months to several years. For coaching work on a specific area of concern or a particular set of leadership skills, a six-to-nine-month engagement period is common. The frequency of coaching sessions varies depending on the focus of the work but is often weekly or bi-weekly meetings for the first 3 months, and then the frequency may be adjusted(increased or decreased) based on any issues identified for the remaining months. A coaching agreement is utilized at the start of the coaching relationship which clarifies the expectations.
Accordingly, although coaching agreements may be time limited in their focus- many senior executives develop long-term relationships with their coaches. They often discover that the regular insight and perspective of an “outside” expert is extremely valuable to them. This could mean a monthly or quarterly session or an annual “check-in.” Whatever the timing, coaches can help keep the executives performing at their highest level, on track, and continually assessing and developing their leadership skills.
The Coaching Investment- The Cost Benefit Analysis Of Coaching
The cost of leadership coaching in 2023 can vary depending on several factors such as the coach’s expertise, reputation, location, and the specific coaching program or package being offered. However, to provide a rough estimate, leadership coaching sessions can range from $200 to $1,000 per hour.
Some coaches offer packages that include multiple sessions or a specific coaching program with a set duration. These price of these packages often ranges from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the level of support and the length of the coaching engagement.
However, many coaching clients and studies on the efficacy of coaching report that the cost of coaching results in an outstanding return on the investment. The International Coach Federation (ICF) reports that “leaders who participated in coaching saw a 50% to 70% increase in work performance, time management, and team effectiveness.” Other studies support these metrics on the impact of coaching further:
6X average ROI on the cost of executive and career coaching
72% improved communication skills
67% improved their work/life balance
53% improved executive productivity
70% enhanced direct report/supervisor relationships
67% improved teamwork
And research from the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, reports that executive coaching helps improve performance, satisfaction, and well-being.
Best Leadership Coaches
Not all coaches are created equal. Our coaches have backgrounds in both coaching and mental health. This gives us a more holistic approach to personality than your typical business coach as workers are people first, each with their own unique personalities and backgrounds. Our coaches also have had specific training and certifications in personality assessment, and emotional intelligence, as well as years of experience in coaching leaders at all levels and in many disciplines.
Schedule A Coaching Session
Now that you know the benefits of working with a coach, schedule a session and get started on your coaching journey today to transform your career and life. Make an investment in your future that will pay dividends for years to come.