4 Reasons to Hire a Leadership Coach to Succeed

Leadership coaching has resurfaced after the financial crash of 2007 with more and more companies valuing what it brings to the table. This demand has been fuelled by a considerable number of CEO failures over the last ten years. As such, the solution has been identified to provide leaders and future leaders with a leadership coach to bring out the best in CEOs and develop the qualities needed to be a good leader.

Providing you can find the right leadership coach you can make yourself become the best version of you.

Figures from the CIPD show that in 2014, 78% of companies were planning some kind of leadership development activity.

So how exactly will leadership coaching make you a better leader and person?

Identify and sure up your Blind Spots

One aspect that CEOs often neglect is identifying what aspect of leadership they need to improve. It could be that you have good business acumen but your ability to inspire and motivate lacks the magic to make it happen. The fact is leaders come in all shapes and sizes some excelling in some areas and falling short in others.

A good leadership coach will be able to look at your abilities objectively, and show you how you can improve and optimize areas of your leadership to make you better in your role.

Bill Gates never said everyone should get a coach for nothing. He obviously recognized that although he was fantastic in his niche, he needed development to be able to lead.

Keep Rooted

Many commentators have concluded that often a CEO fails because their ego has made them blind. One such commentator, Sydney Frank, author of Why Smart Executives Fail researched CEO failures over a six year period and concluded that most of them were ego driven.

Other statistics back this up. The Harvard Business stated that two out of five CEOs fail not because of incompetence but an ego that makes good productive business impossible.

Other research shows that when you take on a new role you have a 40% chance of demonstrating disappointing performance, while 82% of new leaders fail due to an inability or unwillingness to build partnerships with peers and subordinates.

If you have a good relationship with a leadership coach you have someone who will tell you what you need to know to make better decisions rather than receiving advice from a subordinate with one eye on promotion.

Better Results Better Focus

Having a coach means you have a sounding board to discuss ideas. You can go through the impacts to the business and come to better conclusions. Charts, tables, only go so far when assessing decisions as they only provide a snapshot of one facet of the business. Again, the issue of being told what you want to hear is a problem, but not if you have a career coach.

Moreover, confidence is essential to good leadership. Having an executive coach just to give you an external opinion often will inspire you to make the bold moves needed for exceptional success.

Faster Executive Job Hunting

With more companies investing in leadership coaching, many using an external coach to give potential leaders a “cold hard truth” sounding board, having leadership coaching under your belt will give you a significant advantage in landing a new position.

It is hard to imagine any company not being overjoyed that their new executive is already grounded in leadership coaching, has made good their blind spots, and is well grounded, realising there is no ‘I’ in team.