Coaching for Leadership Development: from Good to GREAT!
“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.” – Jim Yong Kim
(Korean-American physician and anthropologist serving as the 12th and current President of the World Bank)
If you are a manager, a head of an organisation, a supervisor, or an executive, it is implied that the very moment you assumed your role, you already took over the responsibilities of being a leader. And one of those responsibilities is to lead your organisation to success. However, the road to success is not an easy one – to travel that road, one’s leader should not just be a good leader but a GREAT one. While good leaders are usually proficient and effective on organisation priorities like creating sales reports, allocating resources, and administrative management, they fall short of exhibiting the true essence of leadership.
The true essence of leadership is not about telling others what to do, but rather it is about maximising people’s full potential and making them fully engaged.
So how can coaching help you in your journey from being just a good leader to being a great one?
Before we jump to that, there are two essential points you need to remember about coaching.
First, always keep in mind that coaching is not an instant solution for your development needs. Your journey from good to great takes time and patience since it involves a process of developing self-awareness and insight.
Second, coaching is two-way process of learning, not a one-time fix. You need to participate and commit yourself to the coaching process. Also, as the quote above has mentioned, even though you are already a leader you must always allow yourself to be open to new ideas. An open mind and a teachable heart will make the coaching process more effective.
Here are the core skills of great leadership that you can get from coaching:
Emotional Intelligence – Emotional Intelligence is the ability to be aware, handle and express your emotions and also being able to understand the emotions of others.
Sometimes leaders give more importance to IQ and neglect the importance of EQ when it comes to leadership. The result; they get easily stressed, have emotional breakdowns, and become disoriented. Coaching, however, can help you develop your emotional intelligence. With the right tools and proper guidance, you would definitely be adept in any development you need.
Social skills – Social skills are our skills to interact, communicate and socialise with others. Social skills are very important in leadership development.
Sadly, some of today’s leaders take this skill for granted. The results: increased staff turnover, decreased team performance, unsatisfied employees, and under-developed staff.
A coach can help you develop this skill by evaluating the current level of communication in your team and then educating and empowering you and them to achieve extra-ordinary results.
Gaining these core leadership skills will help you and your team experience the following:
– Decrease occupational stress
– Make informed and decisions
– Reduce staff turnover
– Increase Team performance through Collaboration and Teamwork
– Increase Personal Well-being
– Communicate effectively and with Influence
– Increase your Leadership Performance
– Enhance Creativeness
In this fast-paced, competitive and developing era, settling for good is a big risk especially if you’re a leader. As leaders, it is our responsibility not just to be okay at being good, but we must encourage ourselves to strive for excellence in ourselves and others.
If you want to learn more about coaching and how to become a professional coach, contact the Australian Institute of Professional Coaches 1 300 309 306 or email [email protected] . We look forward to speaking with you soon.
