Deciding Its Time to Hire a Coach

Times of Rapid Growth and Expansion

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Times of rapid growth and expansion are commonly accompanied by rising expectations to perform, increased attention to operational inefficiencies and challenges adjusting to a faster pace of work.  Leaders may navigate self-defeating attitudes and counterproductive stress postures as they attempt to elevate their leadership skills to meet increasing demands.   A coaching partnership can provide leaders with the valuable ally they need to embrace adaptive strategies for times of expansion, manage the impact of increasing expectations and develop strategies to support future growth within the organizations they lead.   

 

Managing Ongoing Conflict

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Leaders feel compelled to explore coaching partnerships when they lead organizations where conflict is unsuccessfully managed.   While healthy conflict and respectful professional friction can be a benefit to organizations with solid foundations of trust, many leaders are at a loss for the best methods to transition from the negative experiences of conflict to those that serve as a powerful motivation for change.   Executive coaching provides the platform for leaders to understand intrinsic responses to conflict, develop effective conflict-mitigation skills and facilitate opportunities for healthy conflict to positively impact organizational culture.          

Mergers, Acquisitions and New Partnerships

 

Mergers, acquisitions and new additions to key leadership positions allow collaborating leaders to examine their approach and consider adaptive strategies to produce mutually beneficial outcomes. Coaches are in a unique position to work with all parties involved to objectively evaluate individual strengths, explore methods to fully leverage those strengths and negotiate new responsibility expectations to the advantage of the organization. 

 

Times of Uncertainty and Change 

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As organizations undergo times of uncertainty, the stage is set for challenging professional environments as stress levels rise.  Navigating leadership through challenging times involves not only managing increasing performance expectations, but also finding alternative ways to manage the stress that elevated expectation places on our teams.  Moments of professional uncertainty create ideal opportunities for leaders to work with a coach to gain improved insight and explore the best methods to adapt their approach to meet the evolving demands of their organization.    

 

Recent Disappointments, Declining Results and Negative Feedback

 

Often, leaders explore a coaching partnership when organizational conditions represent a symptom of a larger problem.  From unanticipated employee departures to disappointing performance indicators, unfavorable conditions can serve as the impetus for exploration and recognition of the larger problem these issues reveal.  A coaching partnership can provide a valuable opportunity for leaders to conduct root cause analysis and collaborate on the design of strategies to ensure long-term organizational health.   

 

Prevailing of Overwhelming Stress and Burnout

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Unmanaged stress produces strong reactions and behaviors that can often run counter to our professional objectives and produce a dichotomy between how we see ourselves and how others experience our leadership.  Coaching partnerships help leaders identify stress postures, replace maladaptive behaviors with more adaptive strategies and explore innovative solutions to address ongoing sources of stress within organizations.         

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When Things Get Too Comfortable

 

Leadership development is a consistent process of growth and expansion where we embrace the learning that comes from the challenges we face.  Some leaders may find themselves in a place where they are no longer growing because they have asked all the questions, faced all the challenges and embraced all the lessons their professional environments can produce.  In these situations, leaders benefit from working with a coach to answer questions about what comes next in their professional careers.  Coaches are perfect partners to facilitate a process of professional goal setting where leaders are challenged to explore the possibilities and develop strategies to achieve higher levels of leadership effectiveness.     

 

Regardless of the favorable or unfavorable professional circumstances that motivate leaders to explore the benefits of a coaching partnership, the impulse to gain insight, grow skills and adapt to the changing needs of an organization should never be ignored.  When presented with powerful opportunities to expand professional performance, strong leaders respond with the desire to learn from those who are experts at facilitating a process of self-discovery.  Coaches are uniquely trained to support leaders through times of transition and serve as effective partners to design the strategies that lead to positive outcomes.      

 

If you have questions about the benefits of a coaching partnership in your professional life or if you recognize yourself in any aspect of this description, please click here to connect.