What is a leadership coach and what do they do?
A leadership coach is a highly trained and experienced professional who helps and guides managers to become better leaders, communicators and achievers. They help broaden your awareness so that you prioritise the welfare and performance of your employees, rather than just focussing on your own goals and aspirations. A professional coach helps develop your leadership skills so that you realise your organisation’s goals, quickly and efficiently.
However, leadership coaching is not about teaching, it’s about guiding, facilitating and collaborating, both to enhance your own self-awareness and your understanding of others.
Identifying your strengths and weaknesses is an integral part of enhancing your leadership skills, but this can often be difficult to accomplish on your own. For example, common issues include poor communication skills, a lack in confidence, inability to set boundaries or address conflicts in the workplace. An experienced leadership coach can help you work through these issues, develop your own leadership style and become a much more effective leader for your employees and your organisation.
Why do you need leadership coaching?
Are you interested in leadership coaching? Maybe you’re new to a managerial role and want to sharpen your leadership skills? Maybe you want to improve your chances of being promoted to a managerial position?
If you want to excel in a managerial role, then you need to demonstrate a specific set of skills. These skills includes self-awareness, integrity and resilience. That’s because successful leaders recognise their strengths whilst acknowledging their weaknesses and do their best to find workable solutions to turn these weaknesses into assets. They treat others fairly, inspire their employees to perform well and demonstrate both integrity and resilience when faced with challenging situations.
Leadership coaching helps you build and fine-tune these skills, fulfilling your unique potential and becoming the best version of yourself, both professionally and personally.
What are the benefits of leadership coaching?
Leadership coaching not only benefits the manager who is the direct recipient of this specialist coaching, but also the employees and their organisation. Everyone wins!
As your leadership skills improve and you become more confident in your abilities, your employees will also benefit from your coaching. They will feel more valued and inspired, perform better and work harder to achieve your organisation’s goals.
The benefits of leadership coaching aren’t limited to your development alone, it extends to everyone around you and your organisation. There are, however, a number of clearly defined benefits of this type of coaching, as follows.
Confidence and self-awareness
You become more confident in your leadership abilities, more aware of your strengths and weaknesses and how others respond to your interactions.
Social skills and communication
Your social skills improve and your communication with clients, employees, stakeholders and executives becomes much more effective.
Productivity and performance
Whether it’s time management, people management or goal setting, you become more productive and your performance noticeably lifts.
Culture and inclusiveness
Leadership coaching helps shape your organisation’s culture, reinforcing positive behaviours and promoting inclusiveness.
Retention and value
Strong and effective leadership results in high retention rates, increased loyalty and a much better performing company.
What to look for in a leadership coach?
An effective leadership coach knows how to unlock your unique potential and motivate you to become a better person and leader. They have the experience, skills and industry knowledge to provide the expertise you need to increase your self-awareness, identify your strengths and weaknesses and reach your full potential.
To ensure that you have found the right coach for your needs, always ask about their work history, experience and sector knowledge, as well as their philosophy and approach to leadership coaching. Lastly, always make sure that you feel comfortable with a potential coach, before making your final decision.
Characteristics of successful leaders
Leadership coaching helps to make you a more inspirational and trusted leader with the ability to safely manage your team and achieve your organisation’s objectives. Great leaders are those that create an inclusive and positive work environment and help others to reach their own potential. Successful leaders maximise efficiency, motivate others, build morale, make strong decisions, initiate action and achieve strategic and organisational goals.
Not everyone is perfect and not all leaders have the following characteristics, but they are a good starting point for evaluating your own leadership style.
- Effective communicators.
- Good listeners.
- Leads by example.
- Demonstrates integrity.
- Makes hard decisions.
- Inspires & empowers others.
- Responsible & accountable.
- Self-motivated.
- Confident.
- Resilient.
- Self-aware.
- People-orientated.
What’s your leadership style?
Generally, there are five different styles of leadership, but we don’t suggest that you pick one and stick with it! Our purpose in explaining these different leadership styles is to show you that there’s not just one way to be a successful leader. You need to play to your strengths and develop your own style that works for you, your employees and your organisation.
An understanding of the following five categories of leadership helps to start you thinking about your own style and how you can become a better leader. It also helps you get the most out of your leadership coaching and is a good starting point for your own journey.
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My Way
Also known as an autocratic or authoritarian leadership style, this is where the boss or CEO has complete control over workplace decisions. Team members and managers are not asked for their input, just expected to focus on their tasks. It’s all about controlling their employee’s work to achieve the boss’s vision. In today’s world, this is an unsustainable leadership style that usually leads to low retention rates and a hostile work environment. It can, however work for employees who need extreme guidance and rigid processes.
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Laid Back
Also known as the laissez-faire style, this is a very casual or hands-off approach to leadership giving employees more freedom with little managerial input. Employees are expected to know their jobs and work towards attaining their set goals. Decision making is left up to the team leaders and everyone’s input is expected. This style works well when the employees are experts or specialists but can often result in a lack of direction with no specific goals.
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Team Orientated
Also known as a democratic style of leadership where leaders listen to their employees’ input and make decisions based on this input. They are open to new ideas and strategies, encourage their employees to grow and value their experience. With this style of leadership, employees feel motivated, valued and part of the decision-making process. It can, however, result in lengthy decision-making processes and poor choices if the employees are not experienced.
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Goal Setter
Also known as a transactional style of leadership, the goal setting approach is focused on achieving clearly defined objectives and hitting quotas. Employees are motivated to make a sale or hit a KPI with set benchmarks that need to be attained by a set deadline. The benefit of this style of leadership is in the clarity of the set goals. Employees know exactly what’s expected of them and the consequences of not achieving these goals. However, there’s little room for flexibility and employees can often feel like cogs in a machine, rather than valued participants in achieving an organisation’s goals.
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Big Picture
Also known as the transformational leadership style, the big picture approach is more like the captain of a ship who charts a course but leaves the attainment of their destination to the crew. This style is more about guidance and lighting the way rather than any form of actionable strategy. Leaders have a firm focus on the organisation’s goals and are very good at inspiring and motivating their employees. However, full of big ideas, they are often isolated from their employees and their vague guidance often results in confusion and a lack of clearly defined goals.
Whether or not your leadership style tends to follow one of the five approaches listed above, leadership coaching can help you fine-tune your style and bring out the best in yourself and your employees.
Testimonials
Adam Dragic
Founder and CEO – Solar Energy Enterprises Pty Ltd
“Paul personally has this uncanny ability to lead us to find the drive within our soul, and not through hard work but by looking within, and finding a way to follow our passions.”
Marilyn David
Belle Property
“I learnt that based on our surroundings, our emotions heavily influence our decisions. In a high stress and a minimal time frame environment, we are forced to make decisions under pressure. An example of this is real estate. It is a high-pressure environment, you are under the pump constantly with deadlines and you are required to make a call or decision on matters that you have not yet had much time to think about and this can sometimes work to our advantage because the result can work well, better than you thought they could. On some occasions rational decisions can backfire and require more work to rectify. When this happens, I like to take time, breathe and de-stress to help with better decision making. I do this daily when I feel stressed.”
Walter Bugno
Past President – Campbell’s Arnott’s Asia Pacific
“15 years ago Paul introduced me to the concept that there is more to leadership and driving performance than just financials, processes & systems, that it was about culture, soul, love, heart & passion. Since then, every company that I’ve worked at I’ve adopted the philosophy of putting people first, of motivating with the heart, about leading with the heart rather than the head, and giving people the freedom to achieve their innermost desires, and it’s worked! It has made us successful”
Ready to move forward?
Find out how leadership coaching can help you just click the button below to book an obligation free 20 minute informal chat with Paul.
On our call together we’ll discuss:
- The challenges you are currently facing
- Your goals and dreams for the future
- How this coaching can help you
- What results you can expect
- Any questions you might have
- Next Steps
This coaching is not for everyone. If for some reason we don’t think life coaching is the right fit for you, we will let you know (always kindly) during our call.
Click the button below and I look forward to hearing from you.
Ready to move forward?
Find out how life coaching can help you just click the button below to book an obligation free 20 minute informal chat with Paul.
On our call together we’ll discuss:
- The challenges you are currently facing
- Your goals and dreams for the future
- How this coaching can help you
- What results you can expect
- Any questions you might have
- Next Steps
This coaching is not for everyone. If for some reason we don’t think life coaching is the right fit for you, we will let you know (always kindly) during our call.
Click the button below and I look forward to hearing from you.
FAQ's
What is leadership coaching?
Leadership coaching is an individualised program that helps managers and potential managers reach their full potential and become better leaders and communicators.
Who can benefit from this type of coaching?
People who are new to their managerial role or those who want to gain a promotion or reach their full potential can all benefit from leadership coaching.
What can I gain from working with a leadership coach?
A leadership coach helps you recognise your strengths and weaknesses and learn more effective ways to inspire others. They help you leverage strategic thinking, lead organisational change and maximise the performance of your employees. You gain confidence, self-awareness and balance in both your professional and personal life.
How can a leadership coach boost your business outcomes?
As you become a more effective leader who inspires, motivates and guides your employees, their performance and outputs are lifted and your organisation’s goals are achieved more quickly and smoothly. Employees who feel valued remain loyal, retention rates increase and productivity is optimised.
How can I contact DNA Coaching?
To find out more about leadership coaching or to book a 10 minute chat with Paul, Contact Us today. We look forward to helping you achieve your professional and personal goals.
