Why Do Top Leaders Still Need Coaching?
By leadership author and keynote speaker Ross Shafer
Hi I’m Ross Shafer and I’m glad you found the Relevant Leaders Club where I post a new video every week to help you grow your business or your career.
This week I want to talk about why coaches are important and why wildly successful leaders still feel the need to be coached. You first introduction to coaching was a kid playing sports. We all had bad coaches who thought leadership was yelling… so the word coach still makes you cringe. But if you had a good coach, you learned discipline from the coach, you learned to push yourself further when you felt like quitting, and a good coach taught you skills and techniques that made you better than you ever thought you could be. I played football throughout High School and College and the role of my coaches was to encourage me when I did well, which taught me about competence and excellence. Whenever I got a little lazy or tried to ‘phone-in’ my performance, the coach would get in my face with “Shafer, I know you can do better than that because I’ve seen it.” Some people think it’s different if you happen to be competing in an individual sport, which is WRONG! Every team requires individual achievement, and whether you are on a team or work alone, you still obsess over your individual performance, don’t you? In sports or business the coach tells you, if everybody does their job, the team wins. While you improve your individual strengths, the coach’s job is to keep his or her eye on the overall victory, the goals and makes sure you are contributing to the team’s eventual outcome. If you’re on a team or not, it’s still up to you to fine-tune your individual skills.
A few years ago, I had a speaking engagement with pro golfer Greg Norman. He told me that when he was at his peak he still hired a coach to examine his swing and work on his mental game. Even a pro like Greg, who made millions a year, was depending upon a coach to keep his game tight. Now, there are some leaders who flat out refuse to get coaching. They consider themselves visionaries; they know it all and they spend a lot of time instructing you on how to do your job. That’s a stupid leader because a lack of humility can bring down a company faster than overspending. The best leaders can’t stay objective 100% of the time. Too many reports and meetings and fires to put out will steal your time and energies. You need an objective observer who knows your strengths and weaknesses and can get keep you focused on the goals; someone who wants you to succeed and can remind you to be fair, communicate clearly, stay organized, and continue to inspire people in the ways they need to be inspired. Leadership is a tough job but it doesn’t have to be done alone. Every great leader has advisors; the President of the United States has a cabinet, an NFL coach has a general manager and specialty assistants, a public company has a board of directors. Do YOU need a close advisor who can coach you through confusing times? Do you need a trusted confidant to help you weigh the pros and cons of an expensive new idea? If you do…great! You’ve out-wrestled arrogance. But, how do you pick a coach? First, the person could be someone you already know and trust, but you have to give that person permission to speak freely and you have to be willing to hear bad news. If you get an outside coach, you MUST have rapport with that person or each coaching session will be so painful you’ll stop doing it. You want someone who has an acute knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses and isn’t judgmental. What are the coach’s duties? Whether you are beholden to shareholders or simply want to maximize your leadership skills, your coach’s primary directives are to keep you aligned with proper ethics, promote transparency, help you communicate better, and teach you to reduce friction among your team. Having someone smart in your corner will give you the confidence to be your best self.
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