The ability to lead yourself, your team, and your organization through transformational change can be challenging, even if you have strong leadership skills. This is where leadership coaching comes in. Through the assistance of a coach, you'll be able to drive positive change and help your organization realize its true potential and reach new heights of success by developing leadership skills aligned with the organization's goals and the vision of the company's CEO or founder. Continue reading to learn more about professional leadership coaching in New York City.
Define what you want from your next coach
Before you meet, ensure you've defined what you want from your next coach — both for yourself and your team. A good coach should be able to challenge your thinking, help you work through current problems, and give you valuable insight into yourself and others. Before every meeting, make a list of questions you want to ask; it will keep you focused on what's most important at that moment. Be willing to walk away if your objectives aren't being met or if there are other issues: It's not about building relationships but finding solutions for problems. Above all else, remember that leadership coaching is a powerful tool for helping leaders drive transformational change.
What to look for when searching for a professional coach
When searching for a leadership coach, it is essential to find someone who can help you answer your burning questions and give you personalized feedback. A coach should have extensive experience working with executives or leaders at similar levels as you. To guarantee confidentiality, pick someone who works independently rather than through an organization. When scheduling sessions, schedule both a phone call and an in-person meeting. Ask about how they plan to work with you and how frequently they meet with clients on average. In addition, ask about whether your leadership coach has been formally trained and has completed any continuing education courses related to coaching. Finally, check references before signing up for any coaching services.
Examples of what expert coaching looks like
1. First-level support – Coaches need to provide first-level support to help leaders at all levels begin implementing fundamental changes and improvements. For example, they can guide preparing for and conducting effective team meetings.
2. Second-level support – This level of coaching is ideal for executives who have already implemented some of their improvement plans. While these leaders still need a lot of help, they're beginning to understand what they should do differently, which means they also know when that's not happening.
How does executive coaching improve your chances for success?
One of their roles is to provide regular, constructive feedback and hold employees accountable. Having coaching sessions regularly will help you focus on working towards your goals and achieving them. In addition, professional leadership coaching offers you a unique perspective. This objective opinion can get lost when you are surrounded by close colleagues or family members who may not have your best interests at heart. Also, when executed correctly, executive coaching helps leaders build trust within their team and fosters a good relationship with leadership over time. These sessions offer insight into how well your employees are taking direction from management, giving both parties a chance to grow together as an organization.
Is executive coaching worth it?
After all, coaching is expensive, and many of us aren't sure if our company's leadership cares enough to invest in developing us. The question of whether it's worth it can be answered by figuring out how much you get from coaching compared to what you put into it. The outcome will vary based on many factors: your goals, how well your coach can get to know you and understand your motivations, and how compatible your interests are with your coach. However, some possible outcomes could help you decide if leadership coaching is right.
Eight reasons why corporate training fails
According to the author and trainer Laurel Stowell, corporate training programs are plagued by eight failure factors. Though her list is geared toward Australian companies, these points hit close to home for companies worldwide. If your company has a training program that isn't seeing results, chances are it suffers from one or more of these failures:
1) Misaligned business goals;
2) Lack of senior leadership support;
3) Unclear objectives;
4) Ineffective communication;
5) Bad timing and bad planning;
6) Poor or inadequate delivery;
7) Not measuring success and
8) No action plan on how to use what was learned.
To coach or not to coach
Executive coaching is becoming an increasingly popular career tool for leaders at all levels. It offers a flexible and personalized approach to help individuals achieve their professional goals and reach their full potential. Today, more than ever, leaders need to perform at their peak level to succeed. Executive coaching provides executives with highly-skilled coaches who can provide essential insights and perspectives on leadership challenges that help business owners drive transformational change and maximize performance.
Summary
Are you looking to take your leadership skills to a new level? Leadership coaching in New York is one must-have, yet often overlooked, an activity that can help leaders at all levels of experience and across industries boost their performance and ultimately move up through their organization. Some of your peers may have benefited from leadership coaching, but perhaps you aren't sure if it could help you or don't know where to start.
