What is Leadership Coaching?
Coaches help people like you navigate transitions, set goals and priorities for life, make important changes, lower stress, create action plans and more. So how does coaching really work?
Coaching is the art of helping people grow and maximize their potential without telling them what to do. In a coaching relationship, you choose what you want to work on, you set your own goals and actions—in other words, you are always in charge. What we bring to the table as a coach is a set of professional skills for helping you identify what you really want in life, design action plans to reach those goals, and get those things done.
For example, say your big dream is to start your own company. A coach might start by helping you identify the key motive at the heart of your dream. It may be the desire to lead an organization that impacts the world, or wanting to be your own boss, or just to rise to the challenge of really using all of your God-given abilities. However you answer that question, your heart-level drive to be an entrepreneur will have a big impact on what business you get into, how you build your team, what kind of values you instill in your company, and so forth. A coach can help you think deeply about your aims so you are truly being strategic about where you put your time and energy. And once you’ve got a clear handle on an objective you are passionate about, the coach will help you develop an action plan, overcome obstacles along the way, and keep moving forward until one day, voila! You are a successful businessperson!
How Executives Benefit
As a coach, we specialize in helping executives, managers, Human Resource teams, and entrepreneurs:
- Build high-performance teams
- Develop business and communication strategies to navigate seasons of growth or transition
- Chart a career path that is both satisfying and significant
- Self-assess your personal leadership style and create action plans for your own development
- Evaluate and enhance internal communication
- Identify and expand strategic alliances or networking opportunities
- Develop time management strategies that work for you
- Balance work, family and personal life
Coaching vs. Other Disciplines
You might ask, how is coaching different than mentoring or counseling? Where mentors give wise advice based on their own experience, coaches help you fully draw from the well of your own insight and ability. Often the biggest obstacle to our dreams isn’t knowing what to do: it’s having the self-confidence to do it! Coaches have mastered the art of believing in people instead of telling them what to do.
And where a counselor’s goal is to move hurting people toward wholeness, coaches help people who are basically whole maximize their lives. Counseling focuses on the past, but coaching focuses on the future. Over and over, people who work with a great coach find they can reach higher and accomplish more than they ever thought they could on their own.