Julia Langkraehr’s Blog

A sports whistle is a symbol of a coach - and just as sportspeople have coaches throughout their career, so should business leaders

Why every leader deserves a coach

Have you considered providing coaching for your leadership team?

Think of your leaders as sports stars. Whether they’re Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, or Olympic Gold medallists, they’ll still have a team of coaches.

Coaching is one of the best ways to ensure everybody is able to perform to the best of their ability, throughout their career.

I still hire coaches to help me improve my performance, work through difficult issues and achieve priorities and goals.

As a coach myself, I’ve seen numerous examples where underperforming employees have been reinvigorated, learned how to deal with stress, deadlines and difficult clients, and have become effective leaders.

Sometimes we lack confidence, sometimes we lack resilience. It’s not just about motivation, it’s about connecting a person’s mindset with their abilities and skills, and identifying and eliminating any saboteurs.

Sometimes our worst behaviour comes out as leaders when we are unconfident, fearful or feel under fire.

Coaching helps to build a leader’s confidence, be responsive versus reactive and be a more resilient and better team player.

Individual business coaching helps leaders show up at their best in order to create a healthy cohesive leadership team, the bedrock of all successful companies.

How can you find great business coaches?

The first step is for the CEO or owner to have a strong commitment to the positive impact of coaching.

Secondly, it is important to find a coach who uses a methodology that works for you.

Ask for referrals from business leaders you respect and for a complimentary coaching session.

This will help you to make sure there is a match of the experience of the coach, the process they use, and that the chemistry works well.

Good coaches work with leaders to magnify their strengths, build their confidence and help them to be more satisfied and fulfilled at work.

In tandem with this, they work with people to encourage individual performance within the company value system.

How much is your most unproductive team member costing you in lost revenues, time and lack of delivery?

As CEOs, we invest time, money and energy in recruitment, hiring and training, why wouldn’t you invest in your people’s ability to deliver at the highest level?