Leadership coaching assists leaders in developing the necessary skills to become the best leader possible. These skills encompass effective delegation, holding employees accountable, conflict management, conducting productive meetings, time management, providing valuable feedback, strategic thinking, and more.
By developing these essential skills, leaders can enhance their ability to inspire and motivate their team members, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction. Leadership coaching also provides a supportive environment for leaders to reflect on their strengths and areas for growth, fostering continuous improvement. Ultimately, the impact of effective leadership coaching extends beyond the individual leader to benefit the entire organization, creating a culture of excellence and success.
The following is a case study on how Leadership Coaching can help you step up to the next level in your career.
Leadership Coaching Can Help Your Career Progression
I previously had a client who wanted to step up from Vice President (VP) to Senior Vice President (SVP).
Let’s call her Delores.
Delores is an energetic and compassionate leader in her late 30s, who works for a financial services company. She had interviewed for two SVP positions within her company in the last few years but did not land either position. She realized that upper management didn’t see her as a higher-level executive. But her goal was to become one.
One piece of feedback that she received was that she needed to learn to think more strategically. Her boss also let her know in her review that she needed to stop stepping in to help her managers do their jobs, and instead, build them into stronger leaders.
She decided to hire a Leadership Coach to help her attain her goal.
Leadership Coaching Can Help You Think Strategically
Delores and her coach worked on strategic thinking skills together. Her coach helped her see that she needed to schedule time for strategic thinking, just like any other task.
She started spending 15% of her time on strategic thinking, read about what strategic thinking is, and interviewed several SVPs and C-Suite leaders about how they thought strategically.
She found that strategic leaders:
- Look to the future to anticipate obstacles and uncover opportunities
- Create contingency plans
- Determine what calculated risks to take
The time that Delores spent on strategic thinking gave her ideas and perspectives to share during upper-level management meetings. Several of the upper-level leaders let her know that she was appearing to be a bigger asset to the organization.
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness and the nerve to never take no for an answer.” ‒ Rihanna
Leadership Coaching Can Help You Delegate
Additionally, she collaborated with her coach to empower her managers to take charge of their respective areas. By coaching her managers to resolve their own issues, she was amazed to see them swiftly become more self-sufficient.
Leadership Coaching Can Help You Improve Your Executive Presence
She also worked on Executive presence with her coach.
Executive presence revolves around your capacity to instill confidence. This includes building trust with your team, demonstrating competence and reliability to your colleagues, and crucially, showcasing to senior leaders your potential for significant accomplishments.
Leadership Coaching Can Help You Step Up to the Next Level in Your Career
Because of the work that she did with her Leadership Coach, Delores’ boss is now advocating for her to step up into an SVP role. Other members of upper management support her promotion, as well.
Instead of waiting to be promoted, Delores took control of her destiny by taking action to accomplish her goals —and you can do the same!
Donna Schilder
Donna Schilder