Leadership Development – Commitments and Results

Oct 252008

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

Leadership coaching is all about bringing out the potential in clients – whether they are executives or managers – entrepreneurs or consultants – at all levels. I have worked with all of these and more as a leadership coach. I help them change – develop leadership skills – by providing them essential space to reflect and grow. Leadership coaching is not only my favorite type of coaching – it can be the most powerful approach for developing a client’s capacity to be very good leaders.

I begin most of my leadership coaching engagements with a challenge to the client’s understanding of their own leadership style. It is important that they understand their strengths, weaknesses, room for growth, commitment and aspirations. My leadership coaching encourages clients to challenge their mindset – a mindset that is often self-limiting – and reach for various possibilities that may have seemed out of reach before we started.

Leadership coaching has grown very rapidly in the past few years. Many of my clients have opened doors to a brighter and richer future. I have helped many become very successful leaders. One thing that is important to understand is that good leadership coaching is a very subtle process that does not involve reliance on a single perspective or process. Each coaching engagement is different – they occur in relation to a particular person at a specific point in her or his career. A second thing to understand is that leadership coaching occurs within the context of an organization and career. Any event becomes useful. A business challenge could well be a leadership coaching opportunity for a particular executive. I have used personal experiences for the same purpose. The results are what matters/

Leadership coaching aims at

Building on client’s success and overcoming their weaknesses
Working on the finer details – details that can sharpen skills and improve leadership skills
Strategically planning and tactical implementation
Helping the client realize their potential – unlock the hidden gold

My approach to leadership coaching emphasizes personal awareness that helps in transformation. I share the experiences of my clients and help them cultivate leadership competencies. Coaching involves the personal as well as the professional. It is holistic and takes the ‘long view’ towards development and growth.

Leadership coaching is best when it is a mix of creativity and interpersonal competence aimed at creating an impact. Managers are engaged in a coaching relationship while contending with their business goals and individual drives. Coaching can harness the passions and convictions that can pave way to a powerful leadership style.

Leadership coaching translates capabilities into doing and doing translates into affecting the business. My leadership coaching engagements generally run six to twelve months. I have found that it takes that long to translate the intellectual understandings that occur into habits and reflexes that endure. Irrespective of the nature of orientation and content, all the coaching programs follow a standard assessment procedure.

The success of the leadership coaching depends on many factors like

The commitment of the client to change
The metrics agreed upon at the beginning of the engagement
The intensity of the work being done
Structure of the process
Frequency of the regularly scheduled meetings
Duration and intensity of the meetings
The ability of the client to take hard lessons and turn them into personal growth

My own experience is that the client that determines most of the outcome of the engagement. There are always tough lessons and sometimes the client does not have the courage to push through them the first time. Sometimes we need to circle around one or more times before a breakout can occur. The main goal of my leadership coaching is to develop authentic leadership. If the leadership style needs to be effective then managers must be very authentic. Sometimes a client will feign growth to avoid passing through the challenge. Again, we circle around and take another run at it. The important thing is real change and growth.

My approach to leadership coaching aims to draw out individual qualities of the client and help them focus their talents productively towards personal and organizational goals. A good leader will be able to adapt to new roles very quickly and thereby increase the team effectiveness and overall productivity. Flexibility and the ability to respond confidently are both components of this skill.

Many managers do not possess the kind of self-awareness that is a prime requisite to be an authentic leader. Fortunately or unfortunately, their leadership style is shaped by personal preferences, their mindset and their automatic reactions. Experiences directly influence the mindset of the managers. Leadership coaching deals with these ‘habits of the mind’ – habits that need to change before leadership skills can be developed. Overcoming habits is the toughest part of leadership coaching.

I have often said that leadership coaching is my favorite activity. One of the reasons is that it is so difficult to get right and to generate significant progress. Leadership coaching deals with some of the most central parts of a client’s self-image. Moreover, some of those parts are counterproductive. That does not make them easy to change. Successful leadership coaching engagements are particularly satisfying because those hard challenges have been met and overcome. Coach and client celebrate a hard fought battle and an important victory. If you want to learn more about my leadership coaching, send me an e-mail and we will arrange a time to talk.

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