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Why You Need an Executive Coach

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Col. Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.

Col. Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I want the truth!

Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!

This scene from A Few Good Men staring the iconic Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson represents why you need an executive coach to effectively run your business.  As a leader, we’ve seen time and again a search for answers.  A search that often times comes about when problems arise, or a change is needed.  Unfortunately, the truth is often times difficult to find.  It’s not that truth is elusive; it’s just that no one on your leadership team wants to tell you!

We recently conducted a poll of the executive coaches within our network on the topic of telling the truth. Roughly two-thirds of the coaches responding reported that their leadership engagements involved being a trusted advisor able to provide much needed objectivity to the C-Suite.

Trust is the primary reason that executives approach an executive coach.  Think of it as acting as a sounding board.  Leaders typically are under the false impression that there already exist sounding boards within the organization that they run and lead.  However, it’s this falsity that brings on strong negative reactions from leaders.

The common perception that friends and sounding boards exist can easily be debunked when you consider that as a leader, you have the power and authority to hire, reward, and fire.

May CEOs that we work with would agree with the statement; “It’s lonely at the top.”  While the view can be fantastic (think executive pay packages and perks), they also know that having the ability to open/close facilities, make difficult succession decisions, and deciding which business pursuits to attempt has tremendous impact on the lives of others.

With such territory, comes much stress… Enter the executive coach. The role of the executive coach is to enable the leader to make their best decisions, get their best results, and become the best leader possible (No short order).  In order to do so, the executive coach delivers the truth that the leader is missing;  The truth about what is happening currently.   The truth about what impact their future vision will have.  The truth about what the executive doesn’t want to hear, but must hear in order to move forward successfully.

You CAN handle the truth (You just don’t like it!)

As the leader of the organization, you must enable yourself to receive the truth.  That is not easy.  No leader likes to receive push-back, especially when we are working so hard to advance the organization in the right direction. But it is exactly this message, that of truth, that needs to be heard.

We worked with one leader that used to make all of the decisions himself all the time.  He had no sounding board to bounce ideas off of, nor would he accept one.  This worked well, until the economy turned and the water table surrounding him/his business lowered revealing the many tree stumps and boulders.  It would take careful navigation moving forward to not only keep his company afloat, but his role as the CEO.  He came to us with the goal of getting the proper direction, one that he knew could not be attained from his staff.  In the end, we provided the proper navigation and through his strategic execution moved the organization forward successfully with him at the helm.

Will you/your organization have such a happy ending?

What’s the Point: Leaders need objective/unbiased perspective in order to successfully lead.  Perspective provided by executive coaching leads to better decisions, better results, and better leadership.

Are Your Leadership Beliefs Limiting Your Success?

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We had an executive coaching conversation with a client recently.  The leader in the conversation was a highly successful 30-something that grew his Inc 500 organization from scratch, but was now in position to realize that his leadership beliefs were limiting growth.  He realized the following two business aspects were present now that he achieved lift-off for his organization:

  1.  PLATEAU – The organization wasn’t a startup anymore. He had successfully grown from thought/ideation, creation, implementation, launch pad to lift off, but now the organization had achieved a plateau.
  2. POTENTIAL – The organization (or a leader therein) had achieved growth, but he realized that they’d only achieved Point A results (When Point B is where they should be).

We asked several questions to him, with the majority revolving around “How will you push through that plateau and/or achieve full potential?”  That’s why we created Tip of the Spear’s Centered Executive Coaching programs for leaders just like him to solve exactly those challenges.

In our experience as Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaches we’ve seen leaders behave in dramatically different ways, and several facets of leadership belief modification that have made Centered Executive Coaching so impactful for leaders and their organizations.

It’s a paradox for most leaders… What made them successful might be limiting them from achieving their full future potential. As Marshall Goldsmith said, “What got you here won’t get you there!” At the heart of this is a “core” leadership belief system which accounts for much of their success:

  • I am successful
  • I choose to succeed
  • I will succeed

At risk is something akin to implementing a change initiative… You might get worse before you get better! Most leaders are not willing to risk getting worse, and therefore continue to go to the well they know.

What’s the Point? The next time you’re not pushing through those plateaus, or achieving full potential your beliefs just might be limiting your success. How you modify those beliefs will spell the difference between future success and failure.

If you’d like to learn more about our Centered Executive Coaching programs, and how they can help you/your organization achieve results in less time contact us.

The Leadership Challenge: Where to Focus?

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At Tip of the Spear, we’re certified through the Leadership Challenge as Executive Coaches.  If you’re familiar with the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes/Posner, you know that there are five (5) practices of leadership that could be looked upon as “universal truths” when it comes to successful practices as a leader (If you’re not familiar with the Leadership Challenge, here’s where you can find out more information: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/home.aspx).

As Executive Coaches, we’re often asked “Where do you see leaders spending the majority of the time?” In other words, where do leaders focus to maximize their results?  We’re interested in hearing your feedback, so we created the following poll:

CLICK HERE

Please share your perspective with us.  At the end of the study we’ll share the responses gathered to help provide feedback on the Leadership Challenge at hand: Where to Focus?

What’s the Point?

If you don’t focus on a target, odds are you won’t hit it.  Focus is the key to achieving results!

 

The Leadership Challenge: Where to Focus?

The Leadership Challenge

 

 

Why Leaders Should Communicate with Influence?

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We run into a lot of leaders that are looking to hone their leadership skills, and nothing does more to propel their leadership capabilities as much as solid leadership communication skills.  In this post, we’ll take a look at why a leader should look to communicate with influence.

So communication, what’s the deal as a leader?  Well, as one of our clients told us, everything in leadership boils down to your ability to communicate effectively.  The key word there is effectively! With solid communication skills, everything is possible.  Without solid communication skills, everything appears to be a struggle (or is difficult to accomplish).  Here are a few benefits as a leader when it comes to communicating with influence:

  • Raise visibility
  • Increase promotability quotient
  • Leverage yourself as a credible source
  • Raise your self-image
  • Show that you can collaborate/cooperate with others
  • Encourage and foster a team atmosphere

Ever look at yourself from these perspectives?  If you’re honest and on-target, you probably have.  If not, your people (team members, peers, and superiors) do!

What’s the Point? – Effective leadership communication is not an option!  You must bring your A-game so that you can hit your target for each and every communication encounter.

If you’d like to find out more about why leaders should communicate with influence, and more importantly the “How to” in order to implement/execute better communication skills as a leader, register for one of our upcoming Communicate with Influence sessions through the Javelin Institute.

Leadership Development: A New Formula for Developing Committed & Inspired Leaders

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Tip of the Spear’s partnership with The Leadership Challenge’s leading academics Kouzes & Posner, marries the academic rigor of their leadership model with the leadership experiences of Tip of the Spear’s delivery team. This leadership marriage provides an opportunity for leaders at all levels in your organization to receive a consistent set of the most effective leadership practices and behaviors available. The Leadership Challenge is evidence-based, informed by over 30 years of research and feedback from 5+ million global practitioners.

A New Leadership Development Formula

At Tip of the Spear, we have found that leadership development can be derived from the following formula:

Committed Leadership = High Performance

and

High Performance = Inspired Leaders

therefore 

Committed Leadership = Inspired Leaders

When leadership is firmly anchored with the habits identified with the Leadership Challenge methodology, and unconditional leadership commitment is applied, leadership culture is driven throughout the organization. This leadership development methodology also provides a simple and memorable process to bring your organization’s core competencies and values to life.

For more information on how Tip of the Spear can assist your organization with developing leaders, contact us today.