Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Victor Frankl
What’s up with your Work?
- Could you use a well-credentialed, private sounding board whose only agenda is to make sure you get what you want?
- Need a great transition with a promotion, job switch, or taking off on your own?
- Does team coherence seem like an oxymoron in your world?
- Would you benefit from objective perspective on chronic problems you’re facing?
- Are you launching something new or ready to ramp up what’s going on now?
- Can you imagine the difference it could make if you had dedicated counsel for staying at your winning edge?
5 Ways to Get the Most from Executive Coaching Programs
Here’s how to best capitalize on executive coaching programs:
- Make sure that you screen for the best match between your organization and the gazillion executive coaching companies in the marketplace.
- Make sure you’re discerning between great marketing and truly transformational coaching.
- Make sure the executive coaching consultant is relying on metrics that matter. If s/he isn’t measuring culture and consciousness development along with tangible achievements, you aren’t getting an accurate picture of your executive coaching results. And, if they aren’t measuring those things, you’re not likely progressing adequately in those domains and that’s a waste of executive coaching fees.
- Make sure you have plenty of soak time for integrating the takeaways from executive leadership development.
- Make sure that either personal executive consulting or executive leadership programs are addressing the yin and the yang of executive leadership development, i.e. the hard and the soft data, core competencies and culture, as well as the continuum between bottom line financial health and contribution to greater good.
Why Consult?
Just like Executives and Business Owners, Olympians use consultants to problem-solve. But unlike most business and civic leaders, Olympians invest in winning edge-focused coaching. Makes sense – top tier athletes don’t coach just to get over broken ankles, even if they’re recuperating from one. They coach for breakthroughs and transformation.
Likewise, top tier leaders don’t just coach to put out fires, they coach to sharpen and maintain their edge – to break through the status quo. I’ve recently shifted from calling my services “coaching” because “counsel” seems more appropriate. To me “counsel” embraces everything that coaches do but offers a greater depth of service.
Whether you’re squarely in the driver’s seat, changing vehicles, or ready for a radical sabbatical away from the steering wheel, good consulting can have a major impact on your effectiveness and efficiency for increasing:
profits, stakeholder loyalty, innovation, leadership and organizational capacity, excellence, vitality, work/life balance and team coherence.
Executive Leadership Development
The field of Executive Leadership Development is crowded and conflicted. Not only are there more “experts” out there than ever before, touting more theories than we’ll ever need, but there is a new paradigm of leadership emerging. The old profit-at-any-cost way of doing business is losing ground to concepts like “values-driven leadership” because that old standard is setting new benchmarks on the scale of failure.
And, the old “go-it-alone” mentality about leadership is morphing because studies are making it clearer and clearer that using coaches and consultants typically yields between 150% and 689% return on investment. Executive coaching and consulting options have exploded, making executive development a maze of conflicting choices. So how do you sort through it all to find the right match for your leadership development needs?
The data is clear that building values into your leadership infrastructure creates a solid foundation for reaching and staying at the top of your game. Finding coaches and consultants who know how to capitalize on values is the most effective way to not only develop as a professional but to also develop your entire organization to be more profitable, have higher retention rates, more innovation, and optimum stakeholder loyalty.
Executive development is a lot like athletic development. More and more successful leaders are finding out what Olympians have always known: you don’t hire a coach or consultant because you’re weak. Quite the contrary. Just like Olympians don’t hire coaches to fix broken ankles, [business leaders] are realizing that there’s nothing like ongoing coaching to keep you on the cutting edge.
No matter how good the method, there is no standard executive training that can address any one leader’s unique situation. Coaching for executive development isn’t just about teaching or training – it’s about maintaining the same kind of “leaderful” edge that Olympic winners do. Even after reaching the gold, Olympians go right back to work with their coaches because a winning mindset is always expanding its frontiers.
Good coaches know exceptional development, executive or athletic, isn’t an endgame; it’s more an evolutionary process – more like a carrot and stick than a destination. Good leaders coach to problem solve or to reach specific goals but great leaders never stop developing their vision and never stop improving their games.
Great leaders build dynamic cultures based on a full spectrum of values ranging from strong financials to strong corporate citizenship. Hiring an executive coach who understands the value of values is an efficient and cost-effective way to stay at the leading edge.
Why are Coaches Vital for Leaders
Coaching is an investment in excellence, innovation, productivity and profitability. Successful leaders are finding out what gold-medal athletes have always known
– high level coaching gets you an especially
high return on investment of your time, talent and treasure.
Olympians Don’t Hire Coaches Because They’re Weak!
Quite the contrary. Olympians hire coaches because that’s the best way to fine tune, analyze, and strategize to stay at the top of their games. Good coaching results in maximum performance. Likewise, Leadership and Executive Coaching Gets YOU to The Gold Faster, Better And Easier.
Being successful requires clear and effective action. But action is not enough: Coaching evolves your vision and [Read more…] about Why are Coaches Vital for Leaders