Enlightened leaders want to get better. Research supports one-on-one coaching to be the most successful method for developing high performing leaders.
Executive coaching clients chooses behaviorally-defined goals that will help them grow professionally, and help the company, law firm or accountancy firm meet their strategic objectives.
How do you convince leaders to change? How can you optimize their talents and potential?
Executive coaching offers a tremendous opportunity to leverage leadership talent and resources, both of which can steer an organization towards success by involving key stakeholders.
Are you working with a coach and developing your full leadership capability?
Getting Leaders to Change
Marshall Goldsmith has been called America’s foremost executive coach by several leading magazines and newspapers (Fast Company, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review). His model for behavioral coaching outlines a reliable process to help leaders achieve positive, measurable changes in themselves, their staff and their teams.
First, the coach secures an agreement with the client (the organization) and the leader being coached with respect to two key variables:
1. What are the key behaviors that will lead to the greatest positive change in leadership effectiveness?
2. Which key stakeholders should determine (one year later) if this change has occurred?
Goldsmith and his associates work only with leaders who:
• Are considered good coaching candidates
• Are seen as high potentials within the organization
• Have not committed an integrity violation
• Are willing to make a sincere effort to change
Involving Key Stakeholders
In this model of behavioral coaching, the coach asks key people involved in the leader’s performance to participate in the coaching process. The coach requests direct help in four critical arenas:
1. Let go of the past. Key stakeholders must agree to focus on a future that can improve, as opposed to a past that cannot. Goldsmith calls this process “feedforward,” in lieu of feedback.
2. Be helpful and supportive—not cynical, sarcastic or judgmental. If people don’t give the leader a chance, he or she will stop trying.
3. Tell the truth. Key stakeholders are advised not to gloss over or embellish reports.
4. Choose an area for self-improvement. The leader must be very open about what he or she is going to change. As part of the process, he/she will ask for ongoing suggestions. Stakeholders, too, will be asked to select an area for self-improvement and to solicit suggestions. This makes the process a two-way street, allowing stakeholders to serve as “fellow travelers” in the quest for self-improvement (as opposed to singling out one leader who must change). It also greatly increases the value the corporation gains throughout the entire process.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a more collaborative and enlightened leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.
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