How to Choose the Right Coach as a Leader

The world is full of leadership coaches, right? Every business leader seems to have one!

But choosing the right leadership coach for your organisation is super-important and takes some proper consideration before reaching out and making that investment.

And yes, it is an investment. In you AND your business 💷💷💷

In this blog, I want to get you thinking about why you might need a leadership coach and what questions you need to be asking when looking at who and what is available. After all, you want to make sure you get a healthy return on your investment, don’t you?

WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE? 🤔

What you should be looking for in a potential leadership coach depends on the ‘WHY’.

In other words, why are you thinking about getting a leadership coach? And what problem are you trying to solve?

This should shape what and who you’re looking for.

It’s super-important to be able to articulate this in your own mind – and to potential coaches you’re thinking about hiring. That way, everyone’s clear on the goal. And any leadership coach – worth their weight in gold – will be honest about whether it’s something they can help you with or not.

WHAT A LEADERSHIP COACH MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP YOU WITH 👇

As I said above, be very clear on the goal you want a leadership coach to help you achieve and share this with them upfront. Then the coach will help you to achieve the goal by focusing on the obstacles that are holding you back.

Here are some examples of why Leaders work with Coaches:

• You need help figuring out what the right goals should be.
• You feel lost and need some help mapping out the steps to achieving your goal.
• You suffer from imposter syndrome or you lack confidence and are feeling overwhelmed - and want to get unstuck
• You want to leverage your natural talents and strengths and elevate your performance to the next level to smash your goal.
• You want someone to talk too about what’s on your mind in a safe and supportive environment.
• You have too much on your plate and want to re-prioritise and have better ways of working.
• You want to make a change and need some accountability to make it happen.
• There’s a lot of conflict in your team and you don’t know how to handle it

BOTH EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS MATTER 📚

A super-duper leadership coach – in my opinion – will have a good combo of business experience and coaching credentials. They should be able to ask great questions, to help you get to the root cause of the issue and move forward.

I’d also recommend you ask any leadership coaches you’re thinking of hiring to demonstrate what results they’ve delivered for their clients. In fact, why not ask to speak to some of their clients so you can better understand their style and approach?

TRUST IS AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING 🤝

It goes without saying that you must be able to trust your leadership coach 💯

Not only will you be laying bare your imperfections as a leader of people, but you might be sharing commercially sensitive or confidential information with them too.

Trust is built over time of course, but it’s always worth asking how your leadership coach will make sure that discretion is assured.

So it’s important that you meet any potential leadership coach face-to-face or online before deciding to do business with them and check out their testimonials. After all, they’re going to learn a lot about you and your business and potentially take you to places you may not want to go (figuratively speaking of course!).

Successful leadership coaching is underpinned by creating a deep and meaningful relationship between the coach and the business leader. So, you need to do your due diligence to make sure they are right for you and can be trusted with your confidential information.

UNDERSTAND THE LEADERSHIP COACHING PROCESS ⚙

Leadership coaching techniques and types can vary enormously.

Some leadership coaches do group work, others do one-to-one sessions, and some do both.

Some leadership coaches focus on strengths, or performance or career progression or life in general.

Some observe leaders in their own settings. Some rely on specific theories and exercises. Some use feedback tools or motivational practices.

The point is that the leadership coaching approach will vary based on:

• the goal you want to achieve or the problem you’re trying to solve 🤕
• what the leadership coach has been trained to do 📜
• the nature of your business 🏪
• your cost and timescale requirements ⏰

Therefore, it’s important to ask how your potential leadership coach will go about their work. What processes will they use? What will you be required to do? How long will it take? That way, you can decide if you’re comfortable with their approach before you take them on.

ONE PROCESS TO CONSIDER IS STRENGTHS-BASED COACHING 💪

You may or may not know that I’m a Certified Gallup Strengths Coach.

This is a particular approach that involves identifying a person’s strengths, and then coaching them to use their strengths effectively to hone a more impactful leadership style that helps them to hire and manage happier and higher performing teams.

If you’re interested in hearing more about how I’ve used this process of leadership coaching with my clients, then why not book a FREE consultation with me? 📲

TO SUM THINGS UP THEN

📈 Loads of business leaders are investing in leadership coaches but with so many to choose from, it’s hard to know who and what is right for your business.

🤔 To start with, think hard about the problem you’re trying to solve. If you can articulate this clearly, you’ll stand a better chance of finding somebody who can help you to achieve your leadership coaching goals.

📜 Your leadership coach should have both business experience and coaching credentials in my opinion – and be able to work with you in person.

⚒ The tools and techniques they’ll use with you and your business will depend on what you want to achieve and what they’re trained to do. So, make sure you understand the process and commitment required upfront.

😶 Finally, you must be able to trust your leadership coach. Ask them how they make sure that discretion is assured.

📲 Oh and don’t forget, I’m a Certified Gallup Strengths Coach, so contact me if you’d like to know more!

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