Leadership Coaching

Developing the capabilities of leaders to their fullest potential is essential in any organization. Therefore, leadership development is a very common type of coaching..

Contents

• Leadership styles
  • Charisma and leadership
• Goals of leadership coaching
• Executive tutors competencies
  • 1. Understanding the organizational imperative
  • 2. Senior management
  • 3. Political acumen
  • 4. Focus on the customer
• How can I know if the coach is the right one?

Leadership styles

There are many works on leadership, its styles and techniques. It is important to analyze the charisma of each executive, defined as the ability of a leader to exert a broad and intense influence on the beliefs, values, behavior and performance of others.

Charisma and leadership

In general, it is considered that charisma depends in part on the personality of the leader and that it is the result of the need for power. There is evidence showing that charismatic individuals obtain high scores in intelligence, dominant character, self-confidence and knowledge of activities and tasks. However, for leadership to be successful it is essential that these properties are expressed through the behavior of the person, and be aware that different types of tasks require different characteristics of leadership and behavior.

Although not all experts agree on the existence of a clear distinction between managers and leaders, the truth is that there are still certain differences between the traditional manager and the manager or executive as leader.

Leadership coaching focuses on enabling leaders to recognize their strengths and weaknesses in all fields, and to develop new leadership techniques, while enabling them to take effective action. Leadership capabilities only have a true impact on individuals and organizations when translated into action.

Regarding the types of leadership, we can consider three:

• Transactional leadership is based on rewarding employees only if they do their job properly or try hard enough.
• Non-transactional leadership tends to avoid controversy on issues, is non-interventionist, and is often reluctant to take a position on important issues. It is the least effective form of leadership.
• Transformative leadership is related to the charisma it transmits. The transformative leader inspires freedom and creative thinking, and always treats the individual on his own merits, and tries to develop the skills and abilities of the person.

Goals of leadership coaching

The goal of coaching is to develop and enhance transformative leadership techniques. The qualities of a transformative leader are as follows:

• Flexibility or ability to adapt the management style to a situation or individual.
• Ability to inspire commitment.
• Ability to deal with conflicts effectively, without suppressing, ignoring or denying their manifestations.
• Good leaders encourage responsibility.
• Ability to create structures and mechanisms that inspire and promote desired actions and results, which can range from hiring the right person for a certain job to restructuring a department or business unit.
• Charisma and power to influence and persuade others, it is special regarding change.
• Interpersonal techniques. Self-awareness or ability to establish mutually productive interactions.
• Ability to help an organization develop techniques and knowledge that allow it to introduce and adapt to changes.

Executive tutors competencies

We go on to analyze some executive coach competencies that are necessary to guide those who work in this field:

1. Understanding the organizational imperative

Regardless of whether executive tutors work with an individual or a group of individuals in an organization, they need to be integrated within the organization, and to achieve this they must understand the culture, philosophy and organizational requirements for success.

It is quite useful for the coach to have knowledge of the business world and its demands. This knowledge includes:

• The challenges facing the organization and the division for which the executive is responsible.
• The stage of development of the organization.
• Performance techniques.
• The techniques and behaviors necessary for the success of the executive.

2. Senior management

Executives are successful and ambitious individuals who are often not used to challenge and criticism. In reality, your success can be an obstacle to change. In this sense, the tutor must feel confident enough to face the defensive attitude or resistance to change on the part of the executive..

3. Political acumen

In companies there are always policies that the tutor has to face. An effective tutor is a politically uninfluenced individual, although aware of the inevitable political maneuvers in any organization.

The coaching process can suffer if there is a disagreement or conflict between management over its introduction. Hence, it is the responsibility of the tutor to educate all members of the management regarding the processes and benefits of coaching. Coaching works best within a culture of coaching when incorporated into other development programs.

4. Focus on the customer

An effective coach is aware of clients' needs, both inside and outside the organization. The mentor acts as an active resource exploring, building and maximizing the full potential of the individual. To achieve this, it is essential to understand the relationships of the mentees with their clients, as well as their demands and expectations. The competencies required to create and maintain customer focus include the following:

• Have a good customer management technique.
• Ability to interact with individuals at all levels, both inside and outside the company.
• Be aware of the expectations of internal and external customers.

How can I know if the coach is the right one?

As in sports, where there are coaches specialized in teams, there are also coaches specialized in executives.

In all disciplines of life there are specialized people, and the same happens in coaching. For each type of coaching, there is a coach with specific skills and experience, capable of providing the necessary guidance to help each individual and the organization as a whole to achieve its objectives and mission..

Once a source of potential mentors has been located, it is important to remember that coaching is a relationship, a two-way interaction whose success depends largely on the adaptation between the mentor and the mentee. Also, with the growing popularity that coaching is experiencing year after year, countless self-taught coaches are attracted to this profession, although, unfortunately, they lack the necessary training and experience. A potential client should also research the coach's experience at the executive level. Therefore we must ask ourselves:

• What is the experience of the coach in his specific sector?.
• What is the experience of the coach at the level of intervention required?.
• What is the coach's experience in different types of coaching?.

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