Convinced that it’s only the elite C-suiters with declining performance that require guidance from a leadership coach? This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Even high-performing executives stand to benefit from tailored professional mentoring, but what is leadership coaching and how is it beneficial exactly?
What is leadership coaching?
Leadership coaching is about providing individuals in management positions (including CEOs, founders, senior managers, and executives) with the necessary guidance, advice, and skills to successfully lead their teams.
Crucially, leadership coaching is for everyone who performs a leadership role within a business – not just those at the top of the organisational hierarchy.
Another common misconception about leadership coaching is that it’s only helpful for those struggling with their performance.
However, it’s actually a far more effective tool for those at the height of their career.
Who’s considered a ‘high-performing executive’?
If your role revolves around strategy, leadership, driving business results, and aligning teams around a shared vision, and you often report to the CEO or Board of Directors, then you’re likely a high-performing executive.
This title can be attributed to a wide range of roles, including C-suite positions such as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer, as well as non-C-suite roles, including Managing Director and Executive Vice President.
Why is coaching important in leadership?
A leadership coach – with the right knowledge, experience, and expert insight – can assist high-performing executives with:
Identifying blind spots
With great success comes…blind spots.
Often, as individuals move higher up in a business, there are fewer people around them who are willing to provide their honest, unfiltered feedback.
In fact, a report from the Trades Union Congress found that one in three workers feel uncomfortable approaching their managers about problems at work, while a Glassdoor poll revealed that nearly half of UK employees have lied at work.
Whether these actions and emotions are driven by a lack of psychological safety, fear of repercussions, or distrust in leadership, this naturally creates blind spots.
Afterall, you can’t see the label from inside the jar.
Even if colleagues are willing to provide honest feedback, it’s important to remember they’re inside the jar with you.
A leadership coach, on the other hand, offers an external viewpoint, holding up an unfiltered mirror that provides executives with a different perspective.
In this way, leadership coaching gives high-performing executives the opportunity to think, consider, and identify not just areas of weakness, but also hidden areas of untapped success.
Pushing performance past the plateau
It’s common for high performers to focus all their attention on stabilising the business when they first move into leadership positions. While this is a tried-and-true method for keeping the boat steady, sticking with stabilisation can lead to something less desirable – stagnation.
It’s during this performance plateau that leadership coaching can be most valuable by introducing deliberate disruption. Designed to incorporate challenge, stretch, and discomfort, a leadership coach can help executives to not just maintain their current performance, but to reach the next level.
Consider an elite athlete, for example, when they’re performing well – do they train harder? No, they train differently and look for marginal gains. Leadership coaching can ensure executive performance pushes past the plateau and extends into new areas of opportunity.
Encouraging self-reflection
Generally, the more responsibility an individual takes on within an organisation, the busier they become which has a direct impact on the amount of time they can dedicate to thinking – one of the main things they’re actually being paid to do.
The result? Rather than bringing value to the business in the form of strategic leadership, they get bogged down in operational bottlenecks, high stress, and a barrage of low-value, day-to-day firefighting tasks that fail to move the business forward.
Leadership coaching affords high-performing executives with the chance to pause, get perspective, and see where their priorities really should lie. Without this reflection, their performance runs the risk of becoming reactive rather than intentional.
Enhancing existing leadership attributes
Often, individuals that work their way into executive positions already possess great leadership attributes.
That’s why the job of a leadership coach isn’t to show them how to lead, but help them to avoid becoming trapped in ‘the way they’ve always led’.
Some of the most successful, high-performing executives are those who can move away from the rigidity of long-held habits and methods, embracing change rather than rallying against it simply because they’ve ‘always done it another way’.
Because even the things that initially made you successful can, over time, quietly make you obsolete. As Albert Einstein reportedly said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
Leadership coaching is therefore designed to support the evolution of how leaders work, helping them to take advantage of changes (such as Artificial Intelligence) and prevent them from repeating the same patterns again and again.
Improving emotional intelligence
According to research from TalentSmartEQ, 90% of top performers have high emotional intelligence.
While this attribute may not seem like a defining leadership quality, emotional intelligence in a leader often results in enhanced team trust, more empathetic professional relationships, and improved workplace cultures.
Leadership coaching plays a pivotal role in boosting this intelligence through fostering self-awareness with honest and constructive feedback and helping executives to regulate their own emotions through stress management techniques and mindset work.
Navigating career transitions
Moving from one position to another (even within the same organisation) isn’t always a seamless process – especially if you’re taking on more leadership responsibilities than before.
While your performance may be exceptional as a Head of Department, moving into an executive role brings with it the challenge of shifting your mindset from ‘doing’ to ‘thinking’.
A leadership coach can help you to navigate this career transition more smoothly by reframing your identity into a strategic leader and helping you to understand your core values as well as your existing strengths and weaknesses through comprehensive feedback.
Combating isolation as a leader
Regardless of where you sit within an organisational hierarchy, being a leader can lead to deep feelings of isolation and heavy responsibility.
This is supported by the findings of a YouGov survey which was carried out on behalf of The Start Up Loans Company. This research found that 44% of smaller business owners in the UK experienced loneliness or isolation while running their business.
Interestingly, 37% of medium-sized business leaders also reported feelings of isolation, highlighting just how segregated individuals in these positions can feel regardless of the size of the organisation.
A leadership coach offers high-performing executives a confidential, safe space to express their concerns, fears, and complex business decisions without fear of political repercussions from other members of the business.
Coaching also supports leaders with identifying their own emotions and self-regulating, helping to combat feelings of ‘imposter syndrome’ and relieve self-inflicted pressure.
Driving organisational performance
As always, the bottom line remains key for all businesses.
And while leadership coaching may not seem like the most direct route to driving organisational performance, the fostering of self-reflecting, adaptable, and emotionally intelligent leadership often creates a ripple effect that has a positive impact on the entire team.
In short, highly-skilled, well-equipped leaders are instrumental in fostering a trusting, respectful, and resilient workforce, allowing their team to do what they do best while they focus on vision and strategy.
Why high-performing individuals can always benefit from further training and development
At the Drew Povey Consultancy, we find one of the easiest ways to explain why high-performing executives should still invest in leadership coaching is by comparing them to elite athletes.
We call this the ‘corporate athlete mindset’.
In the same way that the very best athletes demand a coach to support them with acquiring rest, feedback, and reflection, feedback, development, and conditioning (in the form of skills and mental training), top executives require a similar level of coaching to maintain or improve their performance.
Crucially, it’s important to remember that enlisting help from a professional leadership coach isn’t a sign that you’re falling behind. Let’s face it, if you were really struggling, you’d be speaking to the HR department.
Instead, seeking out leadership coaching as a high-performing executive is a sign of wisdom and strength, used strategically to ensure that you don’t fall behind in the first place.
Professional leadership coaching for high-performing executives
With more than twenty years of experience working in elite level sport, education, and business, Drew Povey leverages his in-depth knowledge across these areas to support the performance of executives with unique leadership coaching programmes.
To create these tailored programmes, the Drew Povey Consultancy draws on business psychology and bespoke techniques, incorporating a wide range of elements in line with the executive’s specific development requirements.
Whether you’re eager to learn more about these highly effective leadership support models or have a related question about self-development, please don’t hesitate to get in touch today.
Simply fill in the online contact form and we’ll reach out shortly to find out more about how the Drew Povey Consultancy can help.