Why is Leadership Coaching Important?

It is known that leaders are at the core of organizations. However, shocking leadership development statistics show that 71% of companies do not feel their current leaders are able to carry their organization into the future. In order to combat these statistics, organizations are implementing a coaching program to increase leader effectiveness.

Coaching leaders may sound strange, but in a study done of Fortune 1000 companies, 48% of leaders that underwent coaching exhibited an increase in work quality. This led to higher engagement and productivity, improving their effectiveness in leadership roles. Coaching also provides the outlet leaders need to motivate and inspire their team.

Why is leadership coaching important? The 5 key benefits:

1. Empowerment

Coaching empowers leaders to do exceptional work. Coaches establish an advantageous relationship that uncovers hidden strengths and weaknesses within the leader. Goals will be created to enable leaders to pinpoint their weaknesses and track their progress. Reflective sessions with a coach empower a leader to fully recognize their improvements and appreciate the work they have done to meet those goals.

2. New Insight

Leaders gain new perspective on everyday responsibilities from their coach. The coach pushes them to step back and reflect when a leader is having a bad day or week, often uncovering a deeper problem. Together, they discover new insights into the leader’s reaction by analyzing the problem and creating a plan for similar situations in the future.

3. Free Thinking

Coaching reduces narrow-minded thinking in leaders. Coaches encourage the leader to open their thought patterns and consider other points of view by asking questions. This benefits the leader by provoking free thoughts and encouraging flexible leadership. The Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness calls flexible leadership a “business necessity” as it allows for quick, creative, and precise decision making under pressure.

4. Enhanced Performance

Targeting coaching to a leader’s problem area makes a huge difference in attitude and abilities. Coaching allows the leader to learn and implement new leadership techniques tailored to the leader’s weaknesses. Techniques include the leader avoiding the terms “but,” “no,” or “however” as they accidentally discourage ideas or answering questions with questions as they tend to supply all the ideas for their team. Individuals that were difficult to reach before will respond better to their leader’s new approaches.

5. Improved Communication

Coaching enables leaders to realize that their communication isn’t always as clear as they think. Coaches will highlight areas of communication that need improvement and practice those areas with the leader.

Coaches can also teach leaders how to communicate with individuals of different personality types, cultures, or ages using their past experiences as examples. Good communication skills allow people to connect with one another. A coach who can guide an individual to communicate effectively will improve their credibility and overall leadership abilities. 

Insala's coaching solutions provide support where you need it. Our experts can help you plan a coaching program that will help your participants and organization achieve the results you're looking for and our coaching software enables program administrators to manage coaching engagements and the overall program effectively.