Executive Coaching

A survey done by PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) reported that the ROI of companies investing in coaching for their executives received an average of 7 times their investment.  25% of companies that had invested in executive and leadership coaching said they saw an ROI between 10 and 49.

What is it that these companies and their Executives learned from coaching?  Leadership.

Most Executives rise to leadership positions based on their performance in the workplace.  The higher they rise, the farther away they get from the skills that got them there.  While they have certainly benefited from mentors, nearly two-thirds of Executives responding to a Stanford study said that once they got put into their position, they received no real coaching or leadership training.

Shouldn’t the people managing your business have continued training to enhance their skills?

What Is Effective Management?

Effective management means creating a vision and motivating.  It means creating efficient systems to monitor and assess.  It means coaching and developing talent. The essence of what is effective management can be summed up in three attributes:

• Lead
• Develop
• Build

Effective managers have to be leaders of people.  They need to provide clear objectives and be able to consistently articulate them.  They must also be able to develop the people that will strive to meet those objectives.  Without a motivated workforce, productivity suffers.  Effective management also has the ability to build and nurture a team that can work together.

Each of these attributes takes strong “soft skills” to help businesses work effectively and efficiently.

Here are 7 ways Executive Coaching can help leaders on the path to effective management and business success.

People skills

People are incredibly complex beings.  Relationships take work.  Learning how to navigate the human element with peers, colleagues, and associates can be the difference between significant success and mediocre results.  Companies are finding that Executive Coaching can be a key factor in that success.

Boss-worker relationships are trickier than ever, there is great workplace diversity, and the next generation really does approach work differently.  Developing empathy and understanding of the way different groups work leads to better communication.

After all, it’s not what you say.  It’s what people hear when you say it.

Self-Awareness

The best leaders are self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses.  Studies have shown that employees are more likely to respect and follow leaders who have an accurate understanding of how they are perceived in the workplace.  A disconnect between the way Executives see themselves and how team members perceive them is an impediment in the workplace.

A Harvard Business Review survey of 1,000 business leaders revealed that the highest-performing companies had better self-awareness.  In fact, self-awareness was rated as more important than an MBA for Executives.

Conflict resolution

A happy workforce is a productive one.  Invariably, though, there will be conflicts in the workplace that impact productivity.  Leadership coaching helps equip Executives with the tools to resolve conflict as well as ways to spot it before it becomes a major issue.

Nearly 43 per cent of CEOs responding to a Stanford study cited conflict management skills as their “highest priority.”

Team development

A good plan executed by a good team will always beat a great plan executed by a dysfunctional team.  In addition to developing leadership teams, Executive coaching can provide tools to engage staff and encourage team performance.

Leadership succession plan

For all companies, nurturing the next generation of business leaders is critical.  Executive leadership coaching provides foundational work for identifying and coaching the next generation of leadership.

Objective analysis

Too many companies are still stuck in the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mode.  This means ignoring the warning signs or impending industry changes.  Learning to objectively analyse data and trends can help Executives provide the vision and direction the company needs to prosper.  Leadership coaching can give Executives even more confidence to make decisions by making sure objectives are aligned with vision and values.

Driving Change and Evolution

Today’s workplace is undergoing unprecedented change.  Business moves faster than ever before.  New technologies are disrupting traditional processes and systems.  For effective management, Executives must recognize these shifts and create a sustainable culture.  During times of transition, even experienced leaders can realise self-doubt.  Executive coaching can help provide an objective assessment and give leaders the confidence to move forward.

Change makes most employees uncomfortable.  Providing strong leadership can inspire others by helping them understand that change is not to be feared.

Leaders Provide The Vision

Leaders set the vision for their business.  Motivating employees to follow that vision and adopt it as their own is a skill that sets great leaders apart from the pack. Executive coaches help develop these skills.  They ask objective questions and challenge assumptions.  They help develop soft skills and people skills.  Executive coaching helps Executives gain self-awareness and grow their leadership skills. 

An Executive Coach can help leaders see goals more clearly and what it takes to achieve them.  By providing an objective viewpoint, they can help Executives craft an effective pathway to reach those goals and motivate a workforce.

Lead.  Develop.  Build.  Executive coaching provides a framework for effective management and optimising potential.