Leaders: What's All This Buzz About You Being Coached and Leading Like A Coach?

Every leader - new and seasoned- should be coached and lead like a coach. 

A Navy Seal or a Psychologist? This was the question I was contemplating my freshman year of high school. A tad different trajectories, but I knew I wanted to become one or the other. I settled in on the idea of Psychologist, and I figured if I was going to help others I should start being helped myself.

Any extra money I mustered up was used to hire mentors in an effort to start experiencing the process. I hired both therapists and coaches and eventually leaned more towards coaches. As I became a business owner and coach myself, I hired multiple different coaches who have pushed me and more importantly helped me push myself beyond my own self-imposed upper limit. To this day, I have a coach.

I'm convinced that if anyone is going to lead, inspire, and manage others, they should be working with a coach outside of their business.

In this article, I want to first dive into why being coached is critical and how your business and personal life benefits. Then I'll share some on being a leader who coaches.

But first... if you're going to coach your team, you must be coached yourself!

Why Be Coached...

• Awareness."The one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.” Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO). Awareness is at the core of improvement and leading. If you don't first see how others see you, it will be difficult to inspire, motivate, and lead through hard times.
• Iteration and Adaptation. You don’t become better by only reading, listening, and learning. Instead, learn + implementation+feedback = leveling up. You can google everything but knowing how to best adapt that to your uniqueness is what a coach can help you do.
• Buy-In. As a coach to your team, they will respond better if they know you're also working on your own development. Don’t think you’re above that… that’s a ineffective approach. When people around you see your continued improvement, you won't have to say much to get their motor going.
• Transparency. Coaching is relationship to practice vulnerability with no backlash. Working with a coach outside of the organization allows for full transparency and honesty. 
• Level-Up. I think we all have what we think is our full potential, or upper limit... and it's typically far from where we can actually go. A coach helps you get uncomfortable and push through what you thought was your best. 
• Mindsets. I like to run 100 mile ultra trail marathons, and every time I make it through one I'm reminded it's all about mindset. I feel that being a leader is the same. Have the mindset that you'll find a way, create what is needed, and shine when everything feels impossible.
• Feedback. Leaders give the best feedback when they are constantly looking for feedback. Coaching can help you openly receive feedback and become highly effective with your feedback. 
• Focus. While you're honed in on the day to day, great leaders need to be envisioning 2-3 years down the road. A coach helps you pull back and see the bigger picture... and then align each day with the big picture. Leaders can also be swayed by the "recency effect", which is making big decisions based on the most recent events = sign of unclear focus.
• Master Time. From how to become more effective with meetings to aligning time with where your efforts ought to be, an experienced coach can help you be most effective.
• Plan Like the Boss You Are. Over the past decade I’ve created a very simple Quarterly, weekly, and daily planning process that helps leaders simplify their planning and create greater productivity in every aspect of their days. 
• Clarity. Working with a coach can help you get clear in your thinking, which ultimately is helpful in making better decisions faster. 

Let's Chat About What STOPS You From Being Coached

Time, money, maybe a less than favorable previous experience... or you're concerned you'd become dependent on the coach?

• Time. If you're too busy to develop yourself... then your success is limited. The greatest leaders are the one's who are intentional about their time.
• Money. A good coach is an investment. Remember what you're really investing in... not the coach, not the process, BUT the Outcome! The benefit is significant and typically a huge ROI. Most often, the money doubt is simply a short sided excuse -harsh? nah ;)
• Less Than Favorable Previous Experience. Yeah.... I've had a couple of those. In fact, I can attribute at least $20k lost to sub-par experiences with previous coaches. On the flip side, I can attribute 6-7 figures worth of return on my investment into coaching. The important factor here is that you know who you're working with. Do you know anyone with whom this coach has already worked with? If the coach won't get on a call with you, or meet in person prior to working together... then do NOT proceed.
• Becoming Dependent on the Coach. Coaches don't make hard decisions for you, they empower you to make the hard decisions with full awareness and the right tools. As a coach, one of the best feelings is working myself out of a job. While I think its always good to have a mentor or coach, it's good for clients to move on. Don't look to your coach to do anything for you... look to them for guidance and clarity.

Become a Leader Who Coaches

Telling, demanding, and imposing are not helpful as a leader. Instead, you want to guide, facilitate, and empower. This is what a leader who knows how to coach can do. 

Over the past few years, I've created a model for leaders to help you coach your team. I call it COACHing for Leaders.

Below is a 4 min video to highlight this model...

If you'd like some more free information on this, simply email me directly: [email protected]

All of this reminds me what I tell my kids very frequently.... BE COACHABLE!

I wish you to best in all of your 2019 endeavors. Push yourself and enjoy the process!

Best,

Drew