When I tell people I’m an Executive Coach, and I assist successful leaders in distilling their thoughts, building stronger relationships with stakeholders and teams, and partnering with them to hold themselves accountable to their goals, I usually get a follow-up question like, “How do you do that?”, which is inexplicably accompanied by a pained expression on their face. It happened just the other day, which sent my brain gears spinning that it might be fun to write a Thought Partner about “What Coaches Do.”
If you’ve not worked with a coach before or you’re wondering how a coach might help you, below are a few of the top issues my clients and I tackle together.
1. Succession and Career Planning – I often have conversations with leaders about their teams, discussing succession planning for their leaders and team members. Often, I have conversations with them about the next steps for themselves and the areas they can address that will create success for them in their next opportunity.
2. Building Relationships Intentionally – Interacting with key stakeholders isn’t always about “managing up.” Identifying and understanding environments and landscapes is a critical key to a leader’s success. Creating and cultivating mutually beneficial and reciprocal relationships of value in an emotionally intelligent manner can skyrocket a leader’s trajectory.
3. Impacting with Influence – Depending on the level of the leader, some clients can exert more influence than others. Learning techniques to expand the impact one can have while being able to subtly influence rooms they are not yet in is a tremendous area of focus. When practiced, yields major dividends.
4. Creating White Space – Finding “white space” or mental space to slow down and free up time to allow for more creative solutions to present themselves is a tremendous area of focus. The constant barrage of communication, both from meetings and other various communication channels, is endless. Peeling back the curtain on this issue is a heavy-hitter topic that’s often on our agenda.
5. Frequency of Adaptability – Exhaustion from a life lived on the Change Management curve is a real thing. Whether the organization calls it agility, adaptability, flexibility, or pivoting, adjusting to new norms, changes in the economy, technology, and workforce take a toll on a leader’s ability to consistently lead through change and uncertainty. Addressing this through a positive, realistic lens is key to preventing burnout and loss of well-being.
6. Realistic Leadership Assessments – Many of the leaders I coach share their feelings of self-doubt, second-guess their difficult decisions, and if they have what it takes to lead the businesses for which they’re responsible. Normal; all normal, and in fact, these thoughts can even be healthy, when framed accurately. Also helpful is hearing feedback from others around the leader as well, as in 360-degree feedback assessments. Often information shared in those formats disproves the leader’s imposter monster while providing areas that better serve their focus.
Numerous additional topics surface during our conversations, but hopefully, I’ve illuminated the benefits of working with an Executive Coach while also maintaining an unnecessary mystique of fascination. 🤭
Or, at the very least, made inroads to reduce the pained expressions that follow, “How do you do that”? 🤷🏻♀️
Truth is, I don’t do much. My leaders do all the hard work; I’m just (one of) their biggest cheerleaders.
