So You Think You Need a Coach?

By Martha Carlson, MBA, CPCC

People often ask me what I do as a leadership coach. They ‘get’ coaching in the context of swimming, softball, or even figure skating. But what does coaching look like in the business world?

As in sports, the job of a leadership coach is to help leaders maximize their potential, make good professional decisions, form stronger working relationships, and overcome challenges. Effective leadership in a business setting improves employee productivity and retention, affects organizational performance, and builds morale. That’s the value a good coach brings to the table, but it still doesn’t answer that main question: what does coaching look like?

A Valuable, Private Process

The task of improving any type of organization, workgroup or department takes a deep level of commitment from its leaders. These leaders often turn to coaches to help them find their voice, strengthen their role within an organization, and hold them accountable to take their skills to the next level.

Coaching is a private, individual engagement between a leader and a coach. It’s a confidential process, although key outside people, such as bosses and human resources representatives, may request progress updates, particularly if they provide the impetus (and likely the funding) for the leader to engage a coach.

Many coaching relationships are grounded in one or more assessments or feedback tools designed to build self-awareness and help pinpoint specific development goals and outcomes. Coaching typically takes place during regular 1:1 sessions in person or by phone, and often results in action items or assignments for the leader to complete between sessions. Together, these assessment and coaching processes deliver significant value to leaders:

Personal and professional insights. A coach is skilled in helping you understand your personal strengths and recognize potential blind spots. For example, you may have a natural strength in asserting your point of view effectively, and overlook it or discount it because it is so ingrained in your behavior. Or you may have a tendency to tell employees what to do rather than encouraging them to find the answers themselves, leading to an overly dependent team. A good coach can provide you with insight into these behaviors and help you turn that insight into action steps to make lasting changes going forward.

Accountability. A coach helps you maintain focus on desired outcomes for change, holding you accountable to stay on track to achieve your development goals. For many leaders, this accountability adds a level of urgency to the work, rather than putting it off until some undefined future date.

Sounding board. Many leaders benefit from the support of a knowledgeable, objective outsider when dealing with the day-to-day realities of their jobs. In a comfortable coaching relationship, you can let down your guard and step away from your leadership role for an hour or a day to talk frankly about challenges, dilemmas, opportunities, or key decisions. Often times the opportunity to think or process out loud—and have someone play back what they’ve heard—will help you resolve an issue that seemed insurmountable.

Tips on Choosing a Coach

Working with a coach is a personal and potentially sensitive process, so it’s important to find someone you can trust and relate to. Personal chemistry is vital: if you feel comfortable in a get-acquainted meeting or initial consultation, chances are you’ll feel comfortable with that person throughout the relationship.

Other considerations include:

Experience and expertise. As you approach professional coaches, decide what criteria will be important for you in choosing one. Professional background and/or academic credentials is one consideration; other considerations include expertise in your particular industry, knowledge about your area of emphasis such as IT or Finance, or the coach’s own leadership experience. Feel free to ask prospective coaches for professional references.

Philosophy and approach. Inquire about the foundation for a coach’s philosophy around developing leaders. What theories or practices will guide their approach to working with you?

At The Bailey Group, we believe that the awareness of the connection between one’s personal beliefs or past experiences and behaviors can lead to sustainable changes in behavior. This core concept guides our work: we typically help leaders explore their beliefs and experiences, become curious about the impact of their behavior on their effectiveness as leaders, and define and implement behavior changes that will increase their effectiveness going forward.

Logistics/Access. Sometimes, a successful coaching relationship requires a discussion about basic logistics. How often do you want to meet with someone, and over how long a period of time? Do you prefer to meet at your workplace or their office? If you need to work with someone you can reach in between scheduled appointments, make sure you find someone who is willing to be accessible.

Assessments and other tools. Most coaches are skilled in using a variety of assessments and other data gathering tools, helping you gain insight into both your personality, behaviors and leadership competencies. Feel free to ask them what kind of tools they use, or even what kind of books and articles they recommend.

Many leaders, working at many levels in a wide variety of positions and industries have attributed their successes to their work with a good coach. Whether you dip your toe in the water or jump in big time, coaching is a valuable career move that can help make the difference between simply playing the game and winning.