With the uncertainty that still exists around, “what’s next”, COVID, flu season, war, threats, politics, and how we work, leaders are looking, more and more, to coaches for a dependable, reliable, impartial, skill enhancing, confidential relationship that can form part of their personal Board of Directors.
If you’re like me you've got some passion around the things that you're doing. You’re doing them because you believe in them, you want to see them through and you believe there is value in doing them. You get all wrapped up in the work you're doing. You’re passionate about the work. Then, things change, you’re asked to move in a significantly different direction.
Have you ever walked into a meeting at work and not remembered how you got there? You were just there, you were on time and you were ready to lead the meeting! Have you ever been so wrapped up in what you’re doing and what you’re thinking that you zone out in a meeting only to find people looking at you quizzically and asking impatiently what you think? Often times we are present to ourselves and not present to what is going on around us.
Trust. What does it mean to you? As a concept for people who are responsible for others in an organization, I believe trust gets overlooked and dismissed too soon by too many. The result is that there isn’t a focus on building trust and it isn’t seen as important as maybe it should be. It certainly can be something we don’t consciously work on, which is funny because we spend money on outdoor courses aimed at building trust. That trust, where dangers are imminent, and trust is obvious, doesn’t appear to directly translate back to the office!
Being a coach to your team provides a number of things the other roles do not. In this role you help your people find their own answers - this takes you out of the know it all or go to person role (scary?). When your people find their own answers they generate a higher level of trust in themselves - they grow. As they grow they develop a depth and a strength of character that allows them to reach further and out perform their own past best outcomes.
Would it surprise you to know that 70% of leaders rate themselves as inspiring and motivating? You know how this goes, right. On the other side of that coin, 82% of employees see their leaders as fundamentally uninspiring (Gallup). 65% of employees would forego a pay raise if it meant seeing their leader fired (Forbes). When people who are a responsible for others in an organization confuse managing for leading, you get these kinds of results.
