Great Leaders are Coached, Not Born!

Are your leadership skills all they could be? Knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are as a manager is the first step toward becoming a better leader - great coaching is the second step! Coaching accelerates growth and contributes to success. Whether you're an executive, a manager or a team leader, the following information will be beneficial to you.

Do you promote a vision, mission, and purpose for your company--yet no one follows you? Do you empower others--yet these same people criticize you? Do you allow ongoing conflicts among managers? Do you avoid admitting a mistake?

If you answered any of these questions "yes", you are among the vast majority of us who could benefit from coaching! A coach can be critical to any leader's success. Listening to theories and concepts will not, by itself, develop leadership. Coaching provides feedback, while projects and people issues are being handled. It will develop and strengthen solid leadership skills. Coaching accelerates growth and contributes to success! A good coach can help you:

Set and achieve goals! If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there? To achieve results, you must set goals and develop a structure to track and ensure progress. Put together action plans and review them frequently!

Be consistent! Maintain your commitment to fulfill your goals, even when "you've hit the wall" and it looks like failure may be imminent. This sends a very clear message to your employees. It says they can trust you in good times and bad. It helps them make better decisions, and keeps them in action.

Work with and through others! This will help ensure that your job will be on time and within budget. Poor communication skills are a major factor in leadership failure. People are too often promoted for their successes, without assessment of their communication skills. Simply put, the higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the more people rely on your communication skills. A leader with poor communication skills must improve, or negotiate another position without people responsibilities. The good news: Good communicators are coached, not born.

Listen to those with different ideas! Most people consider themselves good listeners, but they do not always hear the critical factors that keep customers and co-workers happy and satisfied. Knowing how to get a point across while listening to others, particularly when what you hear is unpleasant, can make or break your career!

Handle conflict promptly: The sooner you're able to resolve conflict, the less likely it will negatively impact your people, projects, and customers. Work will always include disagreements, differing points of view, and concerns that people bring from outside. The key is to resolve issues promptly, effectively and efficiently while empowering the people involved to work them through. Being accountable for ALL the results, including your own growth, is a true mark of a leader. Being accountable entails managing the details, and acknowledging the results' both positive and negative. Let others take credit for a job well done.

As a leader, hiring a coach can accelerate your growth and success. You will see your weaknesses faster and more clearly, and develop your strengths sooner and more fully. The fact that you are open to coaching will inspire confidence in your co-workers and customers. If your goal is to be a good leader, start by hiring a good coach!

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