Once mainly used to solve problems or “fix” poor performers, leadership coaching now focuses on enhancing performance for leaders and has become more and more common in boardrooms around the world.
In fact leadership coaching has grown into an industry, with an estimated $1.5 billion in annual revenue in the US alone and more than 30,000 professional coaches globally. Many big businesses, including corporate titans GE, Goldman Sachs and Google, have turned to executive coaches.
But you don’t have to be a Goldman Sachs-sized enterprise to want you or your team to become better leaders.
If you want to increase productivity, execute more efficiently, improve communication, minimise conflict, retain staff and ultimately better your bottom line, executive coaching is one of the best investments you can make in your business.
What is Leadership Coaching?
Leadership, or executive, coaching is one of the most important methods for improving the leadership skills of those in positions of authority, whether it’s an executive, manager, supervisor or business owner. Coaches work with business leaders to enable their development and build their capability to achieve short and long-term organisational goals. However, you should not wait until someone is promoted to a leadership position to begin coaching. Mid-level management should be nurtured for eventual executive status.
What Are Some Of The Benefits?
Improved leadership skills
Coaching can help people become better leaders by developing their communication skills and emotional intelligence, which is the ability to understand and manage emotions of both themselves and others. They become more self-aware, learn how to manage impulses and develop empathy. The result is a leader who better relates to others and manages more efficiently.
Execute winning business strategies
Many organisations struggle to get things done. Coaching can help leaders become far more effective in execution, accelerating performance and delivering results. This can involve assistance with time management and the skills needed to influence others, build relationships and request resources. An executive coach will help identify what’s stopping leaders from getting results, get clear on their objectives and clarify the direction they want to take.
Argument resolution
Conflict as a result of employee dissatisfaction has a huge effect on workplace harmony and productivity. Coaching equips leaders with the necessary tools to alleviate conflict, as well as provide them with a better understanding of its nature. Better understanding people and their situations also boosts employee satisfaction and retention rates.
Succession training
Talent development is important for leaders, but it should also be applied to their successors. Mid-level management should be nurtured for leadership roles which will help their transition process to the next level when the time comes.
A global survey of over 2,000 coaching clients from 64 countries found that the mean ROI for companies who invested in coaching was seven times that of the initial investment.
On the back of those statistics, is leadership coaching something your business is investing in?