Who needs leadership coaching? As tempting as it is to say everyone needs it, this is not always the case. While heavy weights like the president and sports stars are known to have personal coaches, and the stigma surrounding personal coaching has lessened, before you make the commitment to fund leadership coaching ask yourself these questions first.
1. Are there alternatives to coaching?
Executive leadership coaching can be a pricey investment, so before you make the financial leap consider some of the alternatives to coaching. Can the executive you are considering for coaching learn the skills you want from mentoring or high-level training? Have they exhausted the many print and online resources available for self improvement? And don’t forget that part of being a manager or supervisor is teaching new skills and developing those under you. If you have an executive that seems a good fit for coaching, first take a look at what their managers are doing to work with them. Make sure they are learning everything they can from the resources you are already paying for.
2. Is your staff committed to growth and change?
If your executive’s managers and peers are not on board with change, then you could be undercutting the whole coaching process. If your support staff if resistant to change, they are going to make it very difficult to implement any of the changes and improvements coaching has taught your executive.
3. Is your executive really committed to the coaching process?
You can’t force an executive to be receptive to coaching, and trying to could end up wasting your money and everyone’s time. The executive you are considering for coaching has to be receptive to the idea and committed to the process for it to achieve the desired results. Try to identify the executives who are most open to learning and change to get the best results.
4. Is the executive facing challenges that warrant coaching?
When you are considering coaching for an executive, you should consider the reasons why you think they would benefit from it. Would you like the executive to develop their communication, personal, and management skills? If so, then coaching can help with those goals. A coach cannot fill the role of consultant so make sure that what you need is a coach, and not a consultant, before moving forward.
Coaching can be an amazing investment under the right conditions, but it is not a cure all. If you use these questions as a guide, you can figure out who within your organization will benefit the most from coaching.
Derek Lauber, ACC
Co-founder and Managing Director, Lightbox Leadership
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