Executive Coaching is a strategic asset that extends beyond individual growth, benefiting teams, organisations, and society.
Sridhar Laxman, Executive Coach and Founder, Lucid Minds Coaching
SRIDHAR LAXMAN, Founder & Executive Coach at Lucid Minds Coaching explains Executive Coaching is the art and science of supporting business leaders to enhance their leadership capabilities and optimise performance. It is enabled by building greater self-awareness and clarity to help the Leader think better, explore mindful choices, make effective decisions, lead with empathy, and deliver exceptional outcomes for self and the organisation.
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The International Coach Federation (ICF) describes Coaching as: "Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential."
Globally renowned and respected (late) Coach Sir John Whitmore had said: "Having or working with a coach helps you to remove the internal obstacles so that you can perform much better than you currently are. Coaching is helping you to learn rather than teaching you; it focuses on bringing out your inherent, natural learning capability."
The Coaching Process
Executive Coaching begins with gathering requirements from within the organisation to identify the desired goals and expectations from the coaching journey and understand current roadblocks to growth and success.
Conversations with managers, feedback interviews with peers, clients, and the reporting team add rich data to understanding the Leader, their current behaviours, and what's working and not. Assessment tools also add objective data to the mix, enhancing and providing a holistic view.
After this, the Coach and the Leader start regular, confidential, one-to-one coaching sessions to explore leadership skills, strategic thinking, executive presence, stakeholder management, people skills, effective delegation, team building, and empathetic communication.
Coach as a Confidential Sounding Board
The Leader uses the Coach as a confidential sounding board to express openly and clarify their thinking. The Coach, in turn, challenges the Leader's thinking to support them in developing new, broader perspectives, generating insights, and gaining a greater understanding of bringing out the best in themselves and those they lead.
The power of Executive Coaching lies in its philosophy and framework of Socratic Dialogue, i.e., the reflective, confidential, and challenging style of conversations held at frequent intervals. The Leader uses the sessions to express their thoughts and feelings and, in the process, develops a deeper understanding of their behaviours, derailers, motivations and the way forward. Using the Coach as an accountability partner, the Leader also takes consistent action on their new learnings, thereby experiencing newer, better outcomes in the desired areas.
Empirical studies validate the effectiveness of Executive Coaching, linking it to enhancements in performance, self-efficacy, communication skills, and leadership capabilities. Research highlights the positive influence of Coaching on executives ' personal and professional lives, leading to greater job satisfaction and productivity.
Numerous Benefits for the Leader
Coaching has the power to impact both individuals and organisations in a transformational manner. Below are the benefits that leaders experience via
Executive Coaching: Increased self-awareness, Clarity, Ability to make better choices.
Effective decision-making, Greater levels of confidence and courage, Enhanced creativity, Development of empowering habits and behaviours, improved self-discipline, Increased energy and motivation, Assertiveness, fulfilling relationships, Improved performance at the workplace, Clear goal-setting, Bias for action, Learning to be proactive
Greater sense of ownership, responsibility for self, Greater resilience to challenging times, Improved ability to cope with demands of life.
An optimistic, positive attitude to life and its challenges, the ability to overcome and replace limiting beliefs, the Ability to Manage and address fears effectively, More peace of mind, and Sustained growth and success.
Benefits for the Team and the Organisation
Aware and empathetic leaders, Increased inspiration and recognition
Improved listening skills, Better people management, More engaged teams, Open and honest conversations, Better sense of belonging, More appreciation, acknowledgement, Focus on bringing out the best in others, Reduced fear and more inclusiveness, Improved problem-solving. Higher levels of productivity, Impactful communication, Effective strategy making, Higher retention of talent, Timely grooming of next level of leaders, Better planning and faster execution and Overall increase in individual and team contribution
Benefits for Society at Large
Effective leadership transcends organisational boundaries, influencing community and industry standards through ethical practices and corporate social responsibility. Over time, these leaders can shape industry norms and contribute positively to societal well-being.
Conclusion
Executive Coaching is a strategic asset that extends beyond individual growth, benefiting teams, organisations, and society. As a pillar for developing empowered and influential leaders, the executive brings a future of sustainable success and transformative leadership.
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