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31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader
Balance
Day #30:Have a Coach
I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach theirmaximum potential.
–Bob Nardelli
Why do you need a coach?
- Personal Awareness – Locate and address deadly blind spots.
- Improve Leadership Skills – We don’t know what we don’t know.
- Build Confidence – We need a cheerleader and accountability partner.
- Sound Out Ideas – We can solve more problems if we have a confidential advisor to be a sounding board.
- Gain Objectivity in Perspective – See how others might see things and get a different take on things.
Successful people have a coach.
Those who continue to struggle try to figure it out on their own.
An effective coach isn’t free. When you pay for the service, you get more value.
I serve as coach to many types of leaders. It really doesn’t matter what their discipline is, they still lead. Good leadership is good leadership. It doesn’t matter where it’s applied. A leader in charge of an organization must have the overall vision for the organization in mind at all times. The big picture is not clouded by the details of getting to that vision. A coach assists in keeping that perspective. It’s crucial that leaders do not settle into an alternate reality. A coach assists in bringing that reality to the forefront for us.
My particular unique value is in the integration of strategy into performance. Most effective leaders think like entrepreneurs, and not like managers or people that log in hours and go home. We have a passion for something and will accomplish that very special something. Building a road map to success (strategic plan) is the first step. Next is taking that plan and making it become reality. Both of these activities are more difficult than they appear.
We can’t do our own strategy. Period. We need outside advice on the things we know best. We have subject matter knowledge; however, putting that knowledge into a format for implementation is a separate skill. We are too close to the information to be effective in developing a comprehensive plan. The proper assistance of a coach will help in gaining the clarity of options for your vision and even create a more direct pathway to fully achieving your mission.
In the implementation of the strategy, we struggle, and struggling wastes time and money. Having a confidential advisor who understands the structure of human potential in an organization will bring more value than the cost of the service.
Coaches are different, so interview several and note how you respond to their questions. In my world, coaching is listening and asking the right questions.
If you want to try me out, register for a 25-minute power session and see if it works for you. To get on my calendar, go tohttp://HughCalendar.com There’s no obligation and no pressure to buy. We must be a good fit for it to work for both of us.
There’s no worksheet for this episode. Refer to episode #23 to learn about the value of having a coach. Having a coach empowers us all to be a better coach.
Next: Day #31 – Continuing Improvement
