The higher you climb on your career ladder and the further you grow your business, the more complex your leadership responsibilities become. You want to set a good example, navigate your team well, make the business succeed, and in the midst of it all, keep yourself sane (because hey, you’re human too).
That’s a lot to navigate alone, but here’s the good news: you don’t have to. Instead, you can hire a leadership coach to help you grow as a leader to make your team and the business thrive — and even enjoy the journey.
In this guide, we’ll lead you through the best perks of hiring a leadership coach, what working with them looks like, and how you can find the right person for you.
Why Hire A Leadership Coach?
Every leader is different and battles with their own unique set of challenges. A leadership coach can help you identify problem areas in your career and develop solutions for them. They can equip you with the essential tools and skills to perform at your best and gain more confidence in yourself as a leader.
Some of the common reasons why leaders hire coaches are:
- They are being promoted to a role that requires a new skill set.
- They want to perform better and create more results.
- They want to lead their team more effectively.
- They are looking for a way to achieve a better work-life balance.
- They want to make better business decisions and meet key targets.
- They want to find their unique leadership style and get comfortable with their identity as a leader.
- They’ve reached a plateau in their role or career that they don’t know how to progress from.
- They want to stretch the limits of what’s possible for them and their team to achieve.
As you can see, the motivation behind hiring a leadership coach can be many. In some organizations, leaders are provided coaching in-house or with an external professional arranged by the human resource department. If you don’t have this opportunity or you’d rather work with a coach of your own choice, you can find the perfect one for your needs in our free directory, CoachCompare.
[ Read: 12 Top Leadership Coaches to Transform Your Career ]
Leadership Coaching VS Consulting
The lines between coaching and consulting can be a little blurry when it comes to the area of leadership. Here’s how you can tell them apart.
Leadership consultants are experts in the area or industry you’re in, so they can help you with practical knowledge that they haven’t just gained through training but also practical experience.
Coaches, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily savvy in the business you’re running, but they are experts at bringing out the best in you. They can help you build stronger self-awareness and aid your personal and professional growth as a leader.
So in a way, consultants give instructions and answers while coaches give guidance and help you find the answers you’re looking for yourself. Coaches and consultants use different frameworks and tools that can be useful but serve different purposes.
Benefits Of Hiring A Leadership Coach
Hiring a leadership coach won’t just bring a positive change into your life and career but will also benefit your team and the business or department you’re leading. Here are some of the biggest benefits of working with a coaching professional.
Uncovering Your Blindspots
The more you invest in your own growth, the more potential your business has for growth. In order to do that, you need to see your own strengths and weaknesses as a leader clearly. This way, you’ll know what leadership style feels the most natural and productive and what unique traits and skills you can capitalize on to bring out your best performance. You will also uncover the shortcomings you need to improve on — or hire someone to fill the gaps in your skill set.
Seeing your blind spots as a leader will also expand your current direction into a larger vision by breaking down your perceived limitations of getting there. You will be able to connect the dots and see the bigger picture, and perhaps pursue objectives with your team that you previously thought were impossible.
Building An Image
Your image as a leader will be key to your career progress. This is true whether you’re the head of a small team inside an organization or the CEO of a global brand. Working with a leadership coach can help you define the image you want to broadcast about yourself as a professional.
You’ll break down the key elements of your personal brand and how you can best embody it within your organization and outside of it. You’ll also gain clarity on the distinction between who you are as a personal brand versus what the brand of your organization looks like.
Developing Key Skills
Most leaders don’t receive adequate training in their first leadership role and instead try to learn the necessary skills. Even if they do get trained once, many of them try to use the same knowledge in their subsequent leadership positions, despite those roles requiring a completely different competency.
Some of the most important skills leaders need for high performance are…
- Goal setting and KPI tracking
- Team management and performance review
- Emotional intelligence and empathy
- Complex decision making
- Personal and public communication
- Adaptability
- Conflict management
- Crisis management
- Negotiation and sales
- Critical thinking
- Time management
A leadership coach can help you identify where you currently score on these skills and define the ones that are your current priority to improve on.
Developing A Stellar Team
Leadership coaching helps you assess the competency of your current team to make plans for hiring and talent development. You will work with coaching frameworks to define what skills and personality traits are critical for the success of your team and how you can provide the training and coaching your team members need to get there.
You’ll also develop a team vision to align everyone’s objectives and tie them to the larger vision of the organization. This will help increase motivation among your reports and improve team performance, as well as their trust in you.
Increasing Profitability
Developing your leadership skills will indirectly affect the profitability of your business as well. As you get more equipped with the skills and tools needed to run your team or business efficiently, you’ll see your leadership quotient improve. You’ll find that you make better long-term decisions and can spot any problem areas to act on sooner before they become critical.
Improving Wellbeing
Working with a coach will also help you achieve a better work-life balance as a leader (and a human being). You’ll learn how to manage your time and deliverables better, which will lead to decreased levels of stress and anxiety.
When you take care of yourself and make your wellbeing a priority, you’ll arrive at your meetings feeling calmer and having more patience to assess decisions properly. Overall, you won’t just perform better in your leadership career but also enjoy the experience more.
What To Look For When Hiring A Leadership Coach
The Right Qualifications
Before you start working with a coach, assess whether they have the right credentials and experience to help you with your specific challenges. Some coaches take certifications, while others participate in training programs and pick up real-life experience in a professional environment. Not all certifications and coaching courses are created equal so make sure you do your research.
The most widely recognized certifications are those issued by ICF, the International Coaching Federation. They provide three different levels of certifications named Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and Master Certified Coach (MCC).
Other well-known coaching associations that issue certifications are:
- European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC)
- Association for Coaching (AC)
- European Coaching Association (ECA)
- European Association for Supervision and Coaching (EASC)
Positive testimonials or recommendations can also act as proof of experience, as well as any media appearances your potential new coach had in the past. The most important thing is that their experience is relevant to the areas you want to work on and that you get along with your coach on a personal level.
A Clear Process
Each leadership coach has their own process and methodology to help you reach your goals. Before you start working with them, assess whether it’s aligned with your objectives. Most coaches offer a free discovery session to new clients where they lead you through their approach and answer your questions.
A Structured Coaching Engagement
Last but not least, get clear about how the coaching engagement is structured. This includes the number of sessions you’ll have with your coach monthly, their fees, and their cancellation or rescheduling policy. Ask them how much time their process would require from you so you can fully commit yourself to doing the work with them.
Where To Hire A Leadership Coach
If you’re looking for the right leadership coach for you, head to CoachCompare. It’s a free directory to find hundreds of leadership coach profiles, among other specializations.
These vetted profiles share detailed information about each coach: their credentials, values, and the services they offer. Clicking on the tags below each profile will help you make your search even more specific to what you’re looking for.
Try CoachCompare now and find the perfect leadership coach for your needs.
