The really important benefit of leadership coaching in a large organisation is the increase in productivity that the coaching usually creates.
In this article I will show you how this benefit is created, but first…
The Fatal Assumption
It is often assumed that management and leadership are the same. They most definitely are not.
Management is about being able to do things, leadership is about getting other people to do things with enthusiasm.
These days most managers are lucky enough to be sent on management training courses from the time they obtain their first management level position.
Many of these courses are excellent. They teach the managers how to carry out all manner of good management tasks, like; planning, setting objectives, developing strategies etc.
Feedback Reveals the Lost Opportunity
Anyone who has had the misfortune to work in an organisation that has initiated 360º feedback without great care will probably tell you horror stories about disillusioned managers who suddenly find out exactly what their colleagues think of them.
There are numerous case studies that illustrate how out-of-touch managers often are with the feelings, thoughts and opinions of their colleagues.
The problem seems to be that managers become so engrossed in “doing” that they often lose contact with the people around them. They fail to take into consideration the feelings and thoughts of the people they are managing. Those people start to feel under-valued and insecure. As a result their performance suffers.
360º feedback can be devastating, but it should not even be necessary to do this type of survey if managers were using quality feedback as part of their leadership style.
What Good Leaders Do
Good leaders take great care over communication. It is no accident that so many of the great speeches in the English language are delivered by great leaders. They have taken the trouble to find out about people’s concerns and their speeches address those concerns.
In my coaching I use a model of a Communication Cycle which shows managers an excellent way of communicating with their teams. This method draws people into the team, makes them feel valued and allows the leader to constantly take the temperature within his or her team.
How Leadership Coaching Helps
Leadership is a behaviour; good leaders act in ways that mere managers do not. The good news is that behaviours can be learned.
The advantage of coaching is that it allows time for the learning to take place. The unique personality of the manager can be developed into the style of a leader. And when that happens synergy starts to develop within the team and synergy is the secret of improved output.
The second benefit on which we have been working lately is “evolutionary leadership.” This is about how leaders evolve in time with the ever-changing world around them.
I will talk more about how a leadership coach works with managers to develop their leadership potential in the next article.
