Five Benefits A Professional Coach Can Bring To You (And Your Organization) While you may not be able to figure out the details on your own, a professional coach empowers, engages and aligns your top team towards achieving strategic goals, asking questions that you may not have even thought of.
By Mike Hoff
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
If you're at the helm of an established organization, you probably feel your business is in a good space. Operations in place, decent profit margins, a well-functioning management team– it's a reassuring place to be.
But when it comes to business, there is always more to achieve- for your organization, for your team and for yourself. But how do you identify what this actually entails? Well, in the words of Bill Gates: "Everyone needs a coach." While you may not be able to figure out the details on your own, a professional coach empowers, engages and aligns your top team towards achieving strategic goals, asking questions that you may not have even thought of.
Here are five ways leadership coaches can make a difference in your organization:
1. Providing support and advice
Apart from helping with the more traditional tools of leadership development, conflict management, communications skills and the rest, your coach will be your right hand in many ways. This could be in the form of providing support with making bold, smart business moves, helping you see things more objectively or providing a third-party moderation when it comes to strategic planning and goals, employee reviews, conflicts and much more.
2. Developing leadership style
70% of employees who lack confidence in senior management are not fully engaged. Effective leadership is important, and your coach will provide you with a one-on-one learning experience combining everything you know with everything you need to know. With a business program designed especially for you, you will learn to gauge your business from a distance, identifying gaps and addressing them to ensure maximum efficiency. A coach will also be instrumental in helping build on your own strengths and demonstrating how best to interact with your employees.
3. Fostering a culture of creativity
In the day-to-day functioning of a business, it's easy to forget about doing things differently when everything seems to be relatively smooth sailing. A fresh perspective is important and exactly what a coach provides. Irrespective of the kind of organization, innovation is key and must be actively encouraged, supported and implemented. As a professional coach, I advocate the importance of a value-driven workplace that encourages individualism and teamwork. Give your team the right resources along with a generous dose of confidence and watch things change.
4. Building team efficiency
Often a sounding board for CEOs, a coach helps managers gauge and assess situations and teams from a more objective viewpoint. In doing so, the team's strengths and weaknesses can be determined, addressed and improved upon. This not only builds trust amongst employees but also allows the business to make optimum use of its available resources, boosting morale, promoting efficiency and productivity and allowing for the creation of employee growth plans as well.
5. Navigating towards the future
In an ever-evolving business landscape, it's important for leaders to embrace change as and when required. Understandably, this does not always come easily as it is more comfortable for companies to follow the tried and tested business paths they're well versed with. A coach helps steer organizations through these phases of change and complexity, maximizing employee potential at all times and helping identify opportunities that may otherwise be missed.
