WHAT IS COACHING?
The International Coach Federation (ICF) is a globally recognized organization that sets the standards for professional coaching. According to the ICF, coaching is defined as:
"Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.".
Leadership can be stressful, and coaching helps leaders manage stress, maintain work-life balance, and prevent burnout. This enables leaders to sustain their performance over the long term.
Coaching is a powerful tool for leaders to unlock their full potential. It provides support, guidance, and a structured process for self-discovery and growth, ultimately leading to more effective and fulfilled leadership. Coaches help leaders identify specific skills and competencies they need to improve. They then provide guidance and support as leaders work on developing these skills. This targeted skill development enhances leadership effectiveness. Coaching encourages leaders to explore their strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. Through reflective conversations, leaders gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their motivations, which is essential for personal growth and effective leadership. Coaching also helps leaders become more adaptable and resilient in the face of challenges and change. They learn how to embrace change as an opportunity for growth rather than a threat.
WHEN WOULD A LEADER NEED A COACH?
Leadership can be a complex and challenging journey, even for the most experienced and skilled individuals. Often, leaders find themselves unintentionally hindering their own success due to deeply ingrained patterns and blind spots. Despite their proficiency and good intentions, there can be underlying psychological, emotional, or behavioral barriers that limit their potential.
As leaders ascend to higher positions, the availability of honest and constructive feedback tends to diminish. The isolation that accompanies leadership positions can lead to a sense of loneliness and a lack of diverse perspectives. This isolation can hinder personal growth and the ability to effectively address challenges.
This is where coaching plays a crucial role. Coaching offers leaders a safe and confidential space to confront their truths and confront their limitations head-on. It provides an opportunity for leaders to delve deeper into their psyche, uncovering hidden patterns, beliefs, and biases that might be impeding progress. Through the coaching process, leaders gain insights into misalignments within their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This heightened awareness sets the stage for transformation, as leaders learn to bridge the gap between understanding and actualizing change. The coach acts as a guide, supporting leaders in translating newfound awareness into tangible practices.
Crucially, coaching facilitates the transition from intellectual comprehension to embodied change. It helps leaders develop new habits, perspectives, and ways of being that are then reflected in their presence and interactions. The coach serves as a navigational partner, assisting leaders in building the 'muscles' of personal growth that are reflected not only in their actions but also in their authenticity and influence.
In a world where effective leadership is about adaptability, resilience, and continuous growth, coaching provides a dedicated space for leaders to refine their skills, transform their limitations, and ultimately unlock their fullest potential. By engaging in coaching, leaders invest in their own development, creating a ripple effect that positively impacts their teams, organizations, and the broader leadership culture."
PICKING YOUR COACH
A good coach is someone whose authenticity and presence can create a climate of trust and intimacy with their client. Trust is a key factor for a successful working relationship between a coach and his client.
A good coach is also able to demonstrate that he or she is holding a high degree of ethical standard. Confidentiality is at the center of each coaching engagement. It is important for a coach to give his client's interests his full presence and attention.
When a client speaks of things that are important to him and demonstrates growth in his mindset and sense of self, a good coach should be able to recognise these and facilitate further improvements in their client's developing headspace. A coach should have the ability to ask questions that reveal vital information needed to benefit his working relationship with the client.
He should be able to communicate effectively during his coaching sessions and use clear, articulate and direct language when observing and giving feedback that would positively impact his clients.
A coach should be equipped with the ability to integrate and accurately capture the system dynamics that would help his client to expand his perspective.
A coach should also keep abreast with his client’s plan, learning style and pace and reinforce his own commitment towards his goals.
“The essence of coaching is growing the whole person to grow the whole leader.
This means facilitating leaders to connect to their core values and core talents
to their organization, to their customer, and to their lives"
Kevin Cashman
HOW A COACH WORKS
There is no straight rule or formula on how a coach works. However there is a conventional wisdom on how a good coach should organise their work with the client.
An engagement for Executive Coaching, usually offers a minimum of 6 sessions of coaching, for up to 12 sessions. The number of session depends on the client's needs.
The first meeting would focus on coaching agreement, goal setting, trust building and discussions of agendas that the client deems pertinent to his learning outcome.
As the client starts to recognise and work on his limiting patterns, the coach will introduce practices that would enable the client to have a heightened state of awareness and more effective responses.
Each session could open the door to new possibilities and new courses of actions. The end- point of these sessions is to have the client shift and adopt new practices that strengthen their leadership effectiveness.
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