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executive coaching

How Executive Coaching Benefits the C-Suite

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The Point: As the job of a CEO becomes ever more demanding (is that even possible? Yes!), more and more chief executives are willing to receive professional advice and coaching. Executive coaching is no longer considered as a punishment given to incompetent CEOs. Rather, it has now become a trusted form of leadership development (even a sort of status symbol). In the following post, we discuss the benefits that executive coaching offers to C-suite executives (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CTOs, CHROs, etc.)… Enjoy!

How Executive Coaching Benefits the C-Suite

Why a C-Suite Leader May Need Coaching?

On the surface, it doesn’t make sense for a person that has escalated to the C-Suite to go for a coaching session. Don’t they already know everything? Well in actuality, they don’t. Our research at Tip of the Spear reveals that as many as 78% of C-Suite leaders are expressing a willingness to be coached.

This is also the call of modern times. Previously, C-Suite leaders could manage on their own, and executive coaching was considered some sort of remedial action. However, today’s leaders work under so much pressure that they may need essential assistance from time to time. They have everything riding on their shoulders, but at the end of the day, they are just human beings too!

Too much responsibility can easily cause burn out leaders, further complicated by poor decision making. Is it then any wonder that C-Suite leaders are now lasting 7.6 years on a global average down from 9.5 years less than 2 decades ago?

The Cost of Not Being Coached

People who earn themselves the C-suite executive spot have the ability to make sound judgments on a consistent basis. However, all it takes is one wrong decision to lose all of that. That is why, they need someone who keeps the executive on their “toes” so to speak, and in a corporate world marred by office politics, you can’t expect this role to be fulfilled by stakeholders.

And even if stakeholders are asked to give honest feedback about how well the C-Suite leader is running their portion of the company, chances are that communication will not be honest and will withhold negative feedback.

Think this isn’t you? Think of the last decision you made in the C-Suite that didn’t exactly go as planned (Come on, be honest, there had to have been one if not more decisions you made in the last 12-months that just went wrong!) Now take the costs (actual as well as opportunity) associated with that mistake, as well as the revenue (lost or potential not realized). We’re guessing that it’s at least six digits (+$100,000) if you’re honest!

Bottom line: A C-Suite leader needs an unbiased, yet talented and experienced coach to help stay at the top of their game.

Summary

To sum up, while C-Suite leaders hold the highest positions in their organization, they are also the ones that need to hear the truth more often. This “truth” delivering role is seldom fulfilled by team members and employees (i.e., Stakeholders). Hence, executive coaching finds its greatest relevance in the upper echelons of the organizational hierarchy.

If you’d like more information on Tip of the Spear’s Centered Executive Coaching offerings, please use the CONTACT US page of this website.

Who Needs Executive Coaching Anyway?

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The Point: The job description of executives is changing all the time (just ask those that compile leadership development material!) It is no longer enough to take credit for past success. You constantly need to stay ahead in the game through leadership development in order to realize your full potential. In this post, we’ll take a look at who exactly needs executive coaching… Enjoy!

Who Needs Executive Coach Anyway?

#3 Identify the Problem at Hand

To start off, you need to ascertain the reason why you are calling in a coach. For the most part, executive coaching is a great option when organizations needs behavioral change in its top-tier leadership. For instance, the CIO (Chief Information Officer) might need help with asserting his authority during board meetings.

But do note that an executive coach by the end of the day is just a person that works with an executive how to solve their own problems. The coach doesn’t solve the problems for them. If the leaders in place aren’t effectively leading the organization, then not even the best executive coaching program can ‘fix’ him.

#2 The Willingness to Learn and Change

The best leadership development programs easily run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But all this money will be wasted if the organization and individual leader seek a coach/mentor for a person that is unwilling to learn. For example, if an executive has been pressured by the board of directors to undergo training, then chances are that the necessary behavioral change will not materialize (and even if it does, it will not be long-lasting!)

#1 Organizational Support

Finally and most importantly, no executive coaching program can reap positive results if it doesn’t have organizational support. Behavioral change is not easy, but it can be accomplished if the leader has people around them for support. Likewise, if other executives on the leadership team are simply indifferent to progress (if not downright hostile), a leader will find it hard to achieve results.

A common feature of Tip of the Spear Centered Executive Coaching is getting feedback from the team to ascertain how they view their leader. This forms the basis of what targets will be set for the coaching session (which lasts for 6-12 months), and which areas of the leader’s behavior need immediate changes.

Summary

The higher a person is on the organizational hierarchy, the more they need a coach/mentor to help guide and reflect on leadership blind spots that mostly go unnoticed.

If you’d like more information on Tip of the Spear’s Centered Executive Coaching offerings, use the CONTACT US section of this website.

Results from Stakeholder Centered Coaching

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The Point: The demand for leadership training is growing by the day, and there are dozens, if not thousands of training programs out there attempting to meet this demand. But which one should you choose for your organization? In the end, it all boils to one thing: RESULTS! In this article, we are going to discuss Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC) and identify real results you can expect if you engage in an initiative with Tip of the Spear… Enjoy!

Results_from_Stakeholder_Centered_Coaching

Stakeholder Centered Coaching: The Basics

SCC works as follows: Under the guidance of a coach, a leader asks stakeholders of the organization to assess his strengths and weaknesses (A 360-degree review). Once results are tabulated/analysis is done, one (1) or at most two (2) areas of “opportunity” are selected to improve upon.

As the leader works towards their goals through executive coaching sessions. Additionally, they ask for regular feedback from the stakeholders on their progress. This helps the leader work towards/accomplish behavioral change. After the coaching engagement ends (the typical executive coaching engagement lasts a year), the same stakeholders assess whether the leadership development goals have been achieved or not.

The program design is simple and it is highly effective. You may be thinking that such centered executive coaching would already be doing rounds in the corporate world, but that is not the case. That is why Dr Marshall Goldsmith’s SCC is truly revolutionary in its offerings.

Purported Results

SCC brings improvements in various leadership development areas, such as:

  •        Communication

You learn to be more articulate, and also more assertive of your opinions. You also learn to become a better listener. Conflict management is also a goal that SCC can help you with. All of this helps in timely decision making that is typically welcomed whole-heartedly by your team.

  •        Mentoring and Disciplinarian

This follows from becoming a better communicator. You learn to manage teams, nurture talent, and use disciplinary measures when needed.

  •        Leadership

SCC ultimately helps you become a better leader as you learn how to delegate effectively, take calculated risks, hold others accountable for results, and deal with performance issues on a timely basis.

Real People | Real Results

But while all these benefits look great on paper, are there any success stories?

As per Marshall Goldsmith’s SCC website, 95% of leaders who pay heed to what their stakeholders have to say experience measurable improvements. The conclusion was based on a survey that involved more than 10,000 leaders from around the world, some of whom have gone on record to testify to the effectiveness of Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching. Our own results at Tip of the Spear regarding our Centered Executive Coaching mirror such successes.

Summary

The results are in! SCC really helps leaders lead better, provided that it’s done by a certified coach. So, if you want to bring measurable improvements into your leadership behavior (and hence your organizational goals), you need to hire a certified coach right away.

For more information on Centered Executive Coaching, the other Tip of the Spear Business Advisory Services, and/or information on leadership development through our affiliation with The Javelin Institute, use the Contact Us page.

5 Benefits from Stakeholder Centered Coaching and Centered Executive Coaching

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The Point: Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC) is the brainchild of Marshall Goldsmith, a UCLA PhD, and one of the most well-respected leadership executive coaches in the world. His SCC method is considered highly effective and efficient by diverse voices in the business world. Even we at Tip of the Spear hold on to the SCC principles (It formed the foundation for our Centered Executive Coaching, consisting of Leader Centered Coaching, Stakeholder Centered Coaching, and Business Centered Coaching). Here we outline the top 5 benefits of this centered executive coaching methodology so you know a little more about why it can work for you/your company as well… Enjoy!

5 Benefits from Stakeholder Centered Coaching

It is Simple…

Goldsmith is often quoted saying ‘Coaching is simple, but not easy!’ But SCC is easy to understand and highly practical as well. Not to mention, Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching also differs from popular leadership training programs. Most leadership coaches teach that success owes itself largely to inherent traits. While Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching doesn’t deny this, but it explains how sometimes these inherent traits can actually stand in way of you/your organization’s success.

On the Job Development

SCC is both cost and time effective, and you are able to accelerate leadership growth on the job. By integrating stakeholder feedback as part of the training, the coach is able to bring about sustainable behavioral change without exhausting company resources.

A Change of Attitude

A recurring theme of SCC is helping leaders understand that the mindset that helped them achieve success in the past may now actually be disastrous for the growth of the company in the face of present complexities. Marshall describes these as ‘belief barriers’ to a leader’s success.

Measurable Impact

Most leadership development and executive coaching programs focus assessing leadership effectiveness and action planning so that the leader comes to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. But while this is a critical step to initiate the coaching process, it can result in a list of areas of improvement areas that is so long that it hinders any action from being taken.

Stakeholder Centered Coaching on the other hand ‘takes the action’ right into the leader’s work environment with the stakeholders. The stakeholders then provide important and insightful suggestions for behavioral change to help the leader become more effective for the organization.

And this valuable feedback is not brushed aside for future deliberation, instead it is implemented and followed through to achieve sustainable behavioral change, thus creating more effective leadership behaviors and habits. If the change implemented is not sustained, recognized, and acknowledged by stakeholders in the workplace, then the coaching program has failed. Simple as that.

From Trainee to Trainer

Finally, once leaders themselves have been coached for about a year, they themselves become equipped to coach their own subordinates. Hence, the behavioral changes further become sustainable to the point they become engrained in the company culture.

Summary

For all these leadership development reasons, SCC is a ‘must have’ leadership development skill for effective leaders. For more information on Centered Executive Coaching, the other Tip of the Spear Business Advisory Services, and/or information on leadership development through our affiliation with The Javelin Institute, use the Contact Us page.

 

What Marshall Goldsmith Doesn’t Want You To Know About Stakeholder Centered Coaching

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The Point: Warren Buffet tells us to keep shareholders happy. However, if you go just one step further and link your business aims (and business results) to your stakeholders, you will create both a mindset and a company culture that not only drives you towards success, but helps you achieves goals faster as well. Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC) trains leaders on making behavioral changes that have a long-term impact on an organization’s success. In this post, we discuss what this Centered Executive Coaching offering is all about, and what Marshall Goldsmith (the developer of this method) doesn’t want you to know… Enjoy!

What Marshall Goldsmith Doesn’t Want You To Know About Stakeholder Centered Coaching

Defining Terms

Have you ever heard of SCC? Most business leaders reply that they have not! If you’re in that camp, then you’re not alone… Basically, Stakeholder Centered Executive Coaching focuses on leadership traits (sometimes highlighting only aspects of a leader’s behavior) to elicit notable results for all stakeholders of a department/company. The hallmark of the Goldsmith coaching system is change based on constant feedback.

Who is Marshall Goldsmith?

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is one of the most well respected executive coaches in world, the proof of which is:

  • He was listed as one of 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years by the American Management Association.
  • He was ranked among the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development by Business Week
  • The Times (UK) considers him one of the 50 greatest living business thinkers
  • Forbes named him among the five most-respected executive coaches

The fact that his training has helped several Fortune 100 companies achieve tremendous results is testimony to the effects of SCC. At Tip of the Spear, our Executive Coaches practice this same discipline in order to provide lifelong client value to the leaders who employ our services in the form of Centered Executive Coaching (consisting of Leader Centered Coaching, Stakeholder Centered Coaching, and Business Centered Coaching).

What Dr. Marshall Doesn’t Want You to Know

While an entire post can be dedicated to the intricacies of the SCC (See our post titled ‘5 Benefits from Stakeholder Centered Coaching‘), here we will zero in on one central concept: Leadership coaches at large teach you that in order to become successful, you need to be self-confident. And they are not entirely wrong when they say that!

But what Marshall Goldsmith doesn’t want you to know is that success can often lead to arrogance. When you are on a roll and your stakeholders are happy, you will ironically become resistant to change, and hence treat any feedback or suggestion from your team as insignificant (think of it as the brush-off effect!) The problem is that success doesn’t always last forever, and as the business world becomes more complex with changing technology and global outlook, the last thing you need is an attitude that is resistant to change.

Why So Arrogant?

The SCC process starts with the coach assessing the leader’s personality and determining 1-2 key areas that need change (This can be accomplished typically through a 360* Review). This is followed by taking feedback from stakeholders on behavioral progress examples and future growth opportunities. Based on this, the executive coach works with the leader and sponsoring committee at the organization to develop a plan of action, and throughout the duration of the coaching, progress is reviewed with all parties to assess progress/areas of improvement opportunity.

So What Can You Learn?

If all goes well, you will learn:

  • Placing focus on the people you work with is important
  • Instead of delving on past successes, a leader should always look towards the future
  • Instead of unfounded optimism, a leader has to keep monitoring feedback and adapting to changing business circumstances

Summary

Any organization and its stakeholders want to see continuous improvement in all leaders in the results they achieve for themselves/the business. SCC proves highly useful in this regard. For more information on Centered Executive Coaching, the other Tip of the Spear Business Advisory Services, and/or information on leadership development through our affiliation with The Javelin Institute, use the Contact Us page.