VIEWPOINT: How Leadership Coaching Transforms Organizations

What can a skilled leader do for a company? She can turn chaos into order. In turn, this creates the space she needs to build an exciting work environment that provides continuous growth and increased profits. We have seen it happen. Companies with superior products and services and competent employees but stagnant growth turned themselves around. How? Quite simply, owners and managers decided to attain the skills they needed to become quality leaders. People think that quality leadership comes naturally to the charismatic few — those with the ability to move people with just the power of their personalities. The fact is, any owner or manager can learn leadership strategies that can transform their organizations. Before we get into those, let’s start with what quality leadership can do for a business.

A Successful Organization in a Word: Quality Leadership

So, what are the benefits of effective leadership for a business or nonprofit? • ​A leader creates a system by working on her business, not in it (though she can do both as leader and in other roles within the organization). •​  A leader develops the tools that her team needs to get the job done. With the right tools, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. •​  A leader documents operations in manuals so employees are clear about their jobs and the company’s purpose and values. •​  A leader creates consistent, customer-driven product development and service. Quality leadership is transformative. Employees are happier and customers keep coming back.

Taking Charge of Your Company with Leadership-Coaching Strategies

Lack of leadership is the number-one complaint we hear from employees. Resultant poor service is why many customers leave. But we don’t blame owners and managers. Many employees are thrust into management roles because of their good work in other departments within the firm. Thing is, leadership is different from the job that got them into their management role in the first place. But, as we said, quality leadership can be learned. For example, here are some of the skills that a quality leadership-coaching program will help develop: Listening: Effective leaders are good listeners. It’s important to learn how to acquire information that helps you identify and clarify issues, resolve conflict, make decisions, and be creative. Critical Thinking: Critical-thinking skills help you gather information and then analyze, interpret, and understand it. Giving Feedback: Productive feedback is so important for team members to be able to continuously maintain their work at peak performance. Time Management: “I don’t have time,” is not something you’ll often hear from effective leaders. Their time-management systems included goal setting, prioritizing, daily to-do lists, and smart scheduling to efficiently get the most done. Planning: A well thought out plan provides direction for the leader and her team. Organizing and Delegating: Your plan is done, now the rubber hits the road. It’s time to implement the plan within an organized structure. You’ll divide the work into separate jobs, then tasks for each job. Finally, assign the right jobs to the right employees. Motivate People: Good leaders create an environment where people are motivated. They do this by understanding their employees’ needs and rewarding them for doing things right. Mentoring: Not all employees have the same experience. An effective leader recognizes potential and mentors those who can grow within the firm by developing talent, skills, and leadership qualities. Team Building: Everyone must work together to accomplish the goals of the company. Building, organizing, and training the team is crucial to a successful and profitable business.        

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Christina LaPolla is a life & leadership coach at Empower Business Strategies. Contact her at christina@gowithempower.com