By Mike Touhey, DLCC Coach
In my leadership coaching, I frequently focus on the key behaviors that my clients feel are most important to them at that point in their career. These are critical to their success in their current role, and also prepare them for future opportunities that could be greater in scope and complexity.
I would define successful coaching as the growth and development of these leadership behaviors during the coaching partnership with my clients. This development allows the leader to have greater influence and impact on their organization, their team and their peers. These same behaviors can also have a significant impact on their families and the communities that they serve.
There are three leadership behaviors that are commonly focused on in many of my coaching engagements:
- Effective Communication. This includes creating a vision and strategy for your team or organization, aligning business plans to the strategy, and creating a connection for individuals to the company mission, strategy, business plans and individual roles and responsibilities.
- Adaptability. In today’s dynamic world, an organization’s ability to identify change and react accordingly will determine the long-term success of the organization. These changes can include many areas including competition, technology, regulations, customer buying behaviors and employee’s changing attitudes. A leader’s ability to effectively lead an organization through change will be crucial to their success.
- Building Trusted Relationships. The relationships a leader has with their manager, their team and their peers is a fundamental building block of being an effective leader. Building and maintaining these relationships will be critical to a leader’s ability to be highly effective.
Experience has shown me that these three skills are vital for leaders at any level. Through the coaching process, I work with my clients to continue to develop, stretch and grow these leadership behaviors. A successful coaching relationship helps them build up these skills and feel comfortable using them in the workplace, allowing them to have the greatest impact on their organization.
