The Secret to Success

Leadership. It can be a strange, if somewhat intangible, concept for many people. And, let’s be honest – as a society, we’re not very good at it. The term leader seems to be thrown around with reckless abandon in many organizations. What most people don’t understand, however, is that being a leader is not synonymous with a managerial or executive title.

In practicality, leadership is a behavioral manifestation of a learned set of skills. Yet, many managers, supervisors, and executives seem to think that leadership is automatically bestowed upon them in conjunction with their seniority, position, or pay scale. Conversely, those who do understand the basics of leadership are intrinsically aware that a leader can be found at any level within an organization.

Some individuals are taught that leadership is an art and/or a science. That’s a good theoretical start. Others focus on the requirement of leaders to positively influence their followers to achieve a specific team goal. That’s also a good practical start. But the caveat to that is fully understanding how influence is perceived within a specific group. Is the influence based on real or perceived power? Where does authority fit in? How about direction through fear or intimidation? Where does employee selection, on-boarding, and initial/recurrent training fit in? How about company culture and organizational ethics and values?

It’s no secret that toxic executives and managers, blissfully unaware of their personal lack of leadership skills, are all too common in the workplace. What they perceive as leadership may actually be a dark, destructive mixture of misplaced authoritarianism, poor communication skills, or simply bad behavior, all based on a lack of self-awareness.

So, if these types of executives and managers are lacking in leadership skills, they may not realize why they and their teams are not performing up to the lofty performance levels they envision. They don’t understand why their employees eagerly jump ship to their competitors, leading to revolving door hiring processes that cost even more time and money than to fix the leadership problem in the first place.

Alternatively, those disaffected followers may unwittingly bring their organization to a grinding halt through poor productivity or unnecessary conflict. Does any of this sound familiar? It doesn’t matter if you work in the corporate world, healthcare, finance, insurance, information technology, law, transport, education, government, or even the military – the insidious effects of poor leadership can be profoundly disappointing at best, and absolutely devastating at its worst.

Leadership coaching is an individualized learning and development process to help leaders improve their skills and capabilities to enhance their effectiveness and maximize their personal and professional potential in their organizations.

Here’s where leadership coaching plays a key role in maximizing individual and group performance. Ask any championship team their secret to success, and they will point to their developed skills and capabilities, group cohesion, confidence, and inspired coaching. As a manager or executive, if you learn and diligently practice the basics of good leadership you can expect to see an all-round improvement in performance in your followers at both the individual and group level.

It’s not rocket science. But it is a learned skill requiring a consistently practiced behavior. So, how do you improve as a leader? Learn to understand what motivates your followers. Learn how to inspire them. Learn how to understand their unique values and organizational culture. Learn how to understand the true value of trust. Learn how to communicate effectively. And, as a good leader, you must also learn when and how to follow. Before leaders begin to follow, they first need to learn how to speak truth to power, even when it might be uncomfortable.

Sounds simple, right? Nope. Not at all. These skills might take a lifetime to perfect. Very few might master some of them in a short time through trial and error, while the majority of others need consistent help to fully understand, practice, and perfect these leadership concepts. It can be through a combination of coaching, mentorship, training, education – it doesn’t necessarily matter what you call it or how it’s packaged – learning how to lead comes in all shapes, sizes, formats, and opportunities. It’s a continuous process of lifelong learning.

It’s being able to see the big picture, identifying unique circumstances of the goal at hand and the stakeholders in play, and influencing followers to take appropriate and timely action to achieve those short-, mid-, and long-term goals, all without breaking the individuals or teams. Need help in navigating this complex maze of social skills? That’s what a leadership coach does. They help others to perfect their core leadership skills to improve individual and group performance toward achieving their highest goals.

Now, you might ask yourself, is this problem of poor or non-existent leadership not self-evident? Surely, can’t we see that most people need help with their communication skills? Public speaking skills? Writing skills? Emotional and social intelligence? How about general confidence in their own abilities? Our society has emphasized technical skills over social skills for a long time, and somewhere along the way, we’ve lost our ability to effectively lead others.

Look around, and observe just how many executives and managers lack the basics of leadership. Despite being paid a premium salary, they command teams without considering how much better they and their followers could perform if only they improved their leadership skills.

Beginning to see the connection between leadership coaching and improved performance and greater success? The return on investment in leadership coaching is irrefutable. As the old saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far in life, go together. This means leading a team.

Therefore, you’d better be an effective leader if you want to go far. Want to be a better leader? Hire a leadership coach. Invest your time. Learn. Practice. Repeat. Now, that’s a formula for improved performance and success.

Dr. David Ballinger
The Leadership Coach

References

https://hbr.org/2004/01/understanding-leadership
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9760724/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/02/25/ineffective-leadership-and-the-devastating-individual-and-organizational-consequences/
Nicolau A, Candel OS, Constantin T, Kleingeld A. The effects of executive coaching on behaviors, attitudes, and personal characteristics: a meta-analysis of randomized control trial studies. Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 2;14:1089797. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1089797. PMID: 37333584; PMCID: PMC10272735 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10272735/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/02/24/the-roi-of-executive-coaching-a-comprehensive-guide/