What is Leadership Coaching?
Effective Leadership Coaching is about supporting and challenging clients to expand their capacities to lead teams and lead change, irrespective of the context. The terms Leadership Coaching, Business Coaching and Executive Coaching are frequently used interchangeably. Technically, Business Coaching supports a client as they tackle particular business issues whereas Leadership Coaching focuses on leadership development of the client in question. There is of course an overlap between the two. Executive Coaching is more of an umbrella term to cover any coaching engagement with an Executive.
Who is Leadership Coaching for?
Typical clients of Leadership Coaching are senior leaders who are ambitious and want to be even more effective, or indeed those who want to fast track to senior leadership positions. They may be looking to support their leadership development and growth and / or cultivate different leadership skills. Effective leadership coaching is tailored to an individual leader, resulting in a unique development program for each person. Clients are stretched, challenged and encouraged to experiment and reflect as they tweak their approach to be as effective as possible and / or achieve success in their career aspirations. When a client arrives with a growth mindset, it makes an immeasurable difference to the coaching conversations and the outcomes.
Leadership Coaching at Resonate Leadership
We at Resonate Leadership are passionate about developing such leadership capacity in organizations for the benefit of our clients, their teams, their organizations and indeed the world we live in. At Resonate Leadership, our world class coaches have both deep business expertise and leadership development expertise, so we can navigate both seamlessly. All of our Leadership Coaches have university-based coaching qualifications and blue-chip corporate experience.
Many of our clients are in the Professional Services sector. We have a particular interest in how the different stages of adult development influence leadership behaviours, so we can support individual leaders in understanding their own developmental edge and where they would benefit from targeting their self-development efforts.
Coaching Outcomes
The evidence from clients’ coaching experiences is that this work has a profound impact on their leadership as they broaden their perspectives on the challenges they face and cultivate leadership agility and a more balanced power and leadership style (advocacy vs. inquiry).
We have worked with clients facing significant challenges in their business and supported them as they navigated their way through them and developed greater leadership capacities at the same time.
We also have many examples of how coaching has enabled career success in tandem with leadership development. As an example, in professional services firms, the most measurable outcome is when someone on partner track ‘makes Partner’. We have many examples of working with such clients, often over an 18 month period, as they navigate this process, cultivate their leadership capacities and ultimately develop into a stronger, more capable leader and partner in their firm.
What does a Coaching Conversation look like?
An outside observer would think that a coaching conversation looks like any other conversation. It is a conversation of two equals, where the client is the expert on their situation and the coach brings coaching skills to metaphorically ‘peel back the layers of the onion’ to understand the core of the challenge the client is facing. World class Executive Coaches bring a natural curiosity, empathy and insight, to support you in achieving your goals. They thrive on clients achieving their goals, whether they relate to personal/ professional development, career, or challenges facing their organization. Coaching conversations are about supporting you to fulfil your and your organizations potential.
Format of Executive Coaching Engagements
A typical coaching journey involves six to eight coaching sessions over the course of six to twelve. They can be done in person or delivered virtually. These coaching sessions are usually 1.5 hours long, but it is important to allow time after to digest the session and reflect, rather than rushing to the next business meeting.
A coaching agenda is established at the beginning of the engagement, in conjunction with the client (more on that below). That agenda becomes a reference point, all throughout the coaching engagement, so we ensure that we stay on track.
At the end of an Executive Coaching engagement, there will be the opportunity to step back to assess the learning from the engagement and achievement of coaching goals.
What happens between coaching sessions?
In between coaching sessions, clients identify behaviours they want to practice or experiment with. Reflections on these often become the territory to explore at the next coaching session. We encourage cultivation of reflective practices also during this time, e.g. journaling, mindfulness etc. In fact, we build reflective practices into what we call our ‘weekly leadership sprints’ between coaching sessions.
360 Feedback
A coaching programme may include 360 feedback (in our case, using personal interviews with colleagues and sometimes family if appropriate). Alternatively, we use a Leadership Agility 360® which is a very comprehensive tool to identify the stage of leadership agility a client is at and where their developmental edge is. 360 feedback gives a rich view of the territory we are working with and may result in the identification of blind spots.
The Leadership Agility 360® is a registered trademark of Changewise.
Typical Coaching Agendas
Those who receive coaching, bring a variety of coaching topics which are woven into their tailored leadership development programme. Because of our flexible approach, we can incorporate these specific needs.
Many clients want to focus on areas such as team performance, communication skills, listening skills, self- awareness, office politics, confidence-building, working relationships, making better decisions or other specific behaviours they want to cultivate. Equally, they may wish to focus on how to address challenges they are facing in a new role.
It may surprise readers to know that many leaders struggle with self-confidence. As part of a recent leadership programme we ran, approximately 40% of participants stated that increased self-confidence was a key outcome of this group coaching programme. Imposter syndrome was quoted as an issue by many.
How Executive Coaching can make a difference
Leadership coaching is frequently a game changer for clients and their teams. It brings a fresh perspective on the challenges they are facing and enables them to be a more effective leader for the benefit of the entire organization. We often call this ‘a balcony perspective’ as leaders get the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and see challenges from different angles.
The end result, is a leader who has expanded their leadership capacities, has greater self-awareness and capacity for reflection and ultimately who is delivering better outcomes for themselves, their team and their organization. Because of the tailored nature of an Executive Coaching programme and specifically the coaching agenda, it can deliver results that Executive training programmes cannot.
How to make the most of an Executive Coaching engagement
The following tips may help in making the most of a coaching engagement:
• Engage in an Executive Coaching engagement with a growth mindset.
• Think about what you want most from a coach: support, challenge, a thinking partner, experience in industry or HR or a psychology background.
• Have a chemistry meeting with your coach or indeed a selection of coaches.
• Ask as many questions as you wish of your coach to clarify the process and how they work.
• Come with an idea of what you would like to get out of coaching and create a coaching agenda with your coach. This may relate to maximising team performance, your own professional development, skills development etc.
• Consider 360 input to get a broader perspective on the coaching context. Feedback from your team, your peers and your boss if appropriate is a real addition to the process and assists with developing further self-awareness.
• Lead the coaching conversations in the direction you want to take it – arrive with coaching topics in your mind so you can maximise the benefit of each session.
• Try to do coaching earlier in the day, before you become pulled in different directions and your mind becomes too busy.
• Review progress against your coaching goals at each session to keep the focus.
• At the end of the programme, assess the success of the coaching engagement in conjunction with your coach.
Reflections on the evolution of Executive Coaching in the last decade
As an Executive Coach, I have noticed how perceptions of the profession have evolved over recent years, as we face ever more challenging times in the complex world we live in. Those who previously attended leadership training for Executives are now favouring the more tailored and flexible Executive Coaching option. Business leaders are availing of coaching to gain a fresh perspective, develop new skills, enhance team performance, personal and professional development, support them to achieve specific goals and ultimately achieve their full potential and that of their business/ team. There are however many more coaches in the market with a variety of backgrounds, so it is crucial to find the best fit for you. We encourage clients to meet their leadership coach for a chemistry session before committing to a coaching engagement. This is both a financial and personal investment and it is a great opportunity to develop the coaching relationship. Your leadership coach will walk you through what’s involved and answer any questions about the coaching process.
In Summary
Leadership coaching is a tailored approach to your development as distinct from training which tends to be more generic and more effective earlier in an individual leader’s career.
Whether you want to achieve world class success for your organization, cultivate better working relationships, deliver improved team performance, practice new skills, enhance your communication skills, fast track your career or create psychologically safe environment for your teams to be at their best, leadership coaching may be the game changer you and your business need.
If you wish to explore Leadership Coaching, please get in touch and one of our coaches will be in touch for an exploratory conversation.
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