An executive coach can teach overlooked non-executives some "must have" leadership skills

Innovation and agile thinking for leaders should not be limited to technology, whether the person is a senior leader or how they might impact business growth. Throughout my leadership career in transformational change, training and coaching, whether I've been working with start-ups, SMEs, larger corporates or government agencies, I’ve experimented with new ideas within the organisation that was relevant to their situation. Often leaders rewriting their business model, through the OD change process, will often try something out with a pilot programme, then aim to take them enterprise-wide once results show a positive return on investments. While some culture or change initiatives flounder and some plateau as useful but limited, others have been major successes.

Three major successes that have worked with different organisations I've worked with include:

·        Financial bonuses for high-value programs of work - The introduction of a spot bonus program for non-bonus level employees when they are required to do additional work for a system upgrade or major change program. Sometimes the challenge here is that while tech teams are used to working weekends and late nights for global projects, people with little exposure to project management may struggle with work/life balance. For these situations, as well as bringing in consultants, invest in culture-building change initiatives that reward your people, like flexitime, family fun days, food parcels to save effort cooking a family meal, as well as access to coaching or EAP support. Also, leaders who are more visible help build the morale, reminding your followers of the fabulous culture at work and maintaining higher levels of engagement. Monthly corporate updates may not be as relevant during a time of change, as many are in change overload. Make time for writing blogs, running regular coffee stand-ups where your people can hear from their leadership team, opt in to a brown bag lunch session and choose to take up an open invitations to come ask questions personally. All these change initiatives go a long way in change.

·        Easily accessible programmes for mentor coaching and leadership coaching. A mentoring program that recognises each staff member as a leader and emphasises the importance of their contribution. Leaders who genuinely provide active listening and coaching are building their team one person at a time. One team I worked with was preparing for a national tender, where the company's prospective client wanted to meet those who would be delivering the services at grass roots level. Many struggled with talking in public about their company, so they set up a workshop on their brand story and then built a coaching program that worked in group and one-on-one sessions. The outcome was that the personalised coaching built their self confidence and team morale. They went on to win a significant program of work in Hamilton and Auckland. The benefit of leadership and mentor team coaching is that it can reach several levels down into the organisation, and it brings the senior leaders face-to-face with their sales and front-line teams through some of the group work.

·        A community service program that allows employees to perform volunteer work during normal business hours. While initiatives such as these often start within the IT, People & Culture, Program Management Office or Senior Leadership Team, there is no reason that they must stay there, and in fact you’ll likely find that they’ll all spread if leaders are willing to lead the way.

Let me now add a fourth initiative that I’m convinced is a winner. A growing number of organisations are looking to provide executive coaching for non-executives within their organisation. Some are looking for change managers that have a coaching and training background, so that they have an internal coach who can up-skill their leaders and project managers, equipping them to build a coaching culture and change resilience.

As an experienced Executive & Organisational coach, I’ve been hired to run leadership workshops on both change resilience, what is change, and how to have a coaching culture. I recently ran a pilot program for a promising team of IT managers, offering them a combination of customised feedback on their performance and formal training on leadership skills to build their career and soft skills. Another common trend is showing you're a 'good' employer by offering career transition or career management programmes, often outsourced, for those that may be impacted by a systems upgrade or pending business model change.

What are those leadership skills that are often over-looked? Three overlooked “must have” skills for great leaders don’t necessarily involve your technical skill-set, such as technology, sales or finance: rather it might be'soft' skills such as emotional intelligence, the ability to change your personal narrative and triggers, or the ability to lead authentically. There are many options, including sales conferences and leadership off-sites. Many organisations want to hear a series of talks on a key theme, such as how do we improve on our diversity track record. Or it may be that you need your teams up-skilled on a more general skillset such as what is our company culture and how does this narrative play out in our team. Another area might be needing your leaders to upskill in corporate finance or for your team to know how their work contributes to the bottom line that's discussed in regular leadership talks. It may be that sales people need to master formal negotiation or conflict resolution skills, learn the skills of building and keeping strong relationships with their customers or master the basics of change management. These are all learned skills. These don’t come naturally, and they demand effort and practice in order to be truly mastered. 

It’s also crucial for leaders to carefully choose an Executive Coach that will fit an organisation’s culture and engender credibility. Often leaders will engage a former colleague with whom they’ve had a high-trust work relationship for some time and whom they know they can count on to balance the desire for candour with the need for tact. Each coaching conversation is confidential, however the sponsor of performance or leadership coaching will often have a pre- and post- program meeting with their team member and the coach. From there a length of program is agreed with objectives and a contract. The feedback from managers that have had coaching in initial programs is often spectacular, and their excitement is palpable. This then needs to be maintained and embedded, so that all leaders have been trained in similar skill-sets. Never cut back on training or leadership development and coaching, as it goes well beyond traditional skills development.

While talent retention is a happy by-product of this initiative, its primary goal is to develop a new generation of leaders who possess a more mature and well-rounded set of leadership skills at an earlier stage of their careers. This effort is often only apparent within IT and senior leadership teams at present, given their importance in terms of strategic initiatives and succession planning, but I fully expect that coaching culture programs of training will start to have a longer shelf life in more organisations that have been undergoing transformation.

Why? Because we’re simultaneously developing stronger leaders and stronger loyalty. We're also addressing high turnover and low engagement. The high turnover of millennials is a challenge for some - they are known for short attention spans and their interest in climbing the career ladder, so organisations struggle with constant hiring to replace people. By mentor or executive coaching your people, or giving them training options, we’re letting them know how critical they are to our company’s success. Do you want to make someone excited about their careers? Tell them you’re betting the company’s future on their ability to help lead it. And you’ll support them with a coaching program as part of their individual or team development.

If you would like to discuss leadership coaching and development, or how team coaching using a 360-degree framework could build your productivity, culture and outputs, drop me a note on LinkedIn.