I am often asked, “what difference will it make to our profitability if we hire a leadership coach?”
My answer is always the same, “leadership coaching can improve individual and team performance. If your objectives are correctly set this will improve output. When output improves it should impact on your bottom line.”
The key to success is synergy. What I mean by synergy is teamwork that enhances the combined output of the team. In other words you will get greater productivity from a well led team than you would get from the sum total of the efforts of each individual.
The Change That Makes the Difference
What happens to most managers is that they become too focused on “me” and the work I have to do – their “to do” list. When they get themselves into a bubble of self-focus they are not leading their team. They are thinking about “me” not “them”.
The job of a leader is to lead, not just to do.
The role of the leadership coach is to enable the manager to become a dynamic leader so that he or she becomes focussed on achieving goals through the efforts of their team rather than just through their own efforts.
Where the Challenge Originates
If you study the career paths of managers what you typically see is a pattern that looks something like this:
- an executive is good at his or her job, so they are promoted to a role of team leader.
- When they are promoted they suddenly face several new, and often unexpected challenges.
- They have to delegate work. The often find this difficult because they are asking people who used to be colleagues to do things they know to be extra burdens on their time.
- They have to organise not just themselves but a team of people.
- They have to master the art of management and very often appropriate training is not immediately available.
- They often fall into the trap of doing more and more of the things they are good at; the things that caused them to be promoted. They overload themselves with work and become increasingly “me” focussed rather than “team” focussed.
This pattern is repeated as they climb the corporate ladder. The tendency to become more and more “managerial,” by which I mean focussed on managing tasks, rather than becoming leaders.
Enter the Leadership Coach
The role of the leadership coach is to help the manager change their focus. To make them aware of their behaviour, and how it is limiting their team’s performance, and how a change of focus can enhance their output.
Once the manager becomes aware of the benefits it often only requires small changes in behaviour to achieve dramatic results.
Of course, it is not always easy to make small changes in behaviour, but with good behaviour change techniques and plenty of encouragement, most managers make the changes and feel a lot better about themselves as a result. They often report that their stress levels are greatly reduced and they manage to achieve more in less time.
