Over the last fortnight, in the process
of building an ‘extension’ onto my present business activities, I’ve met an
extraordinary range of diverse leaders – some corporate, some entrepreneurial,
most a bit of both. Here’s what’s been interesting to me – they have each been
successful in their own way, achieving well (from my limited exposure to their
work & home lives) and motivated – but not a single one of them had
considered engaging an executive coach, a mentor, or an independent leadership partner to speed up the process of living their vision?
Here’s what I also noticed, when given
the opportunity to talk one-to-one, every single one of them – after 30 minutes
of me listening, asking some key questions and feeding back to them what I’d
heard – said they felt clearer, more motivated and more confident in their
ability to achieve the vision they’d been holding in their minds. They all said
that they’d invest in regular coaching conversations if they were sure to
achieve ‘twice the success in half the time’. That means that the expectations
they might been holding for 4 years are achieved in one. Imagine the reality of
what that means for work life, home life, family, fitness, finances … it’s got
to be worth exploring.
Here’re the 5 questions I get asked
most when a new executive leader is working out the value of coaching:
1. What if I don’t have any issues to
talk to you about
Great, because I don’t work with
clients who have issues, I work with clients who have unreleased potential.
They’re already successful at what they do. What they want from me is
perspective, clarity and someone to hold them accountable as they stretch their
abilities beyond what they’d do alone.
2. How can you teach me if you haven’t
done what I’m doing
I’m not a teacher or a consultant – I
don’t have your answers. I’m a coach, I have the questions – you’ve got your
answers. It’s a huge myth – perpetuated by trainers, consultants and mentors
(none of whom are coach trained) – that executive coaches will offer up solutions.
We won’t. I equip you to explore, get clear and expand. Your executive coach
should be executive coach trained and preferably have 1000s of hours worth of
relevant experience and quality client testimonials.
3. How can you help me get ahead in
medicine (or construction, media, IT, retail, oil & gas) if you’re not a
medic
Great leadership is about developing
the courage and skill set to know yourself deeply. You can only engage, inspire
and stretch your teams and collaborators to the point at which you’ve
experienced that engagement, inspiration and stretching yourself.
4. Most of the directors and CEOs I
know don’t use a coach
Don’t be too sure about that. And ask
yourself, of the leaders I have access to, are most of them true innovators,
creatives and ground breakers? Because if they are, you can be sure they’re
smart enough to be investing in all the development available to them to be
clear of their motives, to multiply their skill set and to drive their business
forward at speed. You’d be surprised at how many stand-out leaders are quietly
partnering with a great executive coach.
5. How do I know it’s going to be worth
the investment
You don’t. But here’s the thing – if
you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to get the results you’ve
always had. Expanding your thinking and your skill set is the quickest way
possible to start to play a bigger game. To stretch your vision, your action
taking, your confidence, your influence and your overall results. Do what you
do with a new restaurant, a new sport, a new relationship – book in a date and
have the experience.
See more at:
http://www.jenniferbroadley.com
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