Successful Global Leaders Value Coaches

As anyone ever advised you to get a coach? What was your immediate response? Did you bristle at the idea that you needed a coach? Did you wonder what you must be doing wrong for someone to recommend a coach? Eric Schmidt, former chairman and CEO of Google, had these same thoughts when John Doerr recommended a coach. We immediately assume something must be wrong if we need a coach. That isn’t true. Coaches don’t fix us. Coaches help us become better and greater leaders or athletes. As Bill Gates believes, “Everyone needs a coach.”

There is a traditional view that professionals do not need coaches. Professionals (businesspeople, doctors and teachers) are responsible for managing their own improvement. Yet, we expect all athletes to have coaches. The greatest athletes in the world all do. Some great athletes have many coaches. They work with the team’s coaches during the season. During offseason they pay private coaches to help them continue to develop. Famous quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Drew Brees work with a throwing coach or “quarterback guru” each offseason.

American football has great examples of the importance of coaching. Going back to the very beginnings of the sport, Harvard and Yale played the first football game in 1875. Yale had a coach but not Harvard. Over the next three decades Harvard only won four times. Then they hired a coach! Today fans would be infuriated if their favorite sports team decided to play without a coach. Yet, we are ok with a CEO of a billion dollar company leading without a coach. Stanford’s Graduate School of Business conducted a survey of 200 CEOs and other executives. They discovered two thirds of CEOs do not receive coaching from outside sources. Why?

Atul Gawande, surgeon and public health professor, states that great coaches are your external eyes and ears. They provide a more accurate picture of your reality. Coaches allow you to see truths about yourself that are not visible to you. They ask the right questions helping you to analyze and process difficult decisions. Gawande has a great TED talk about the necessity of coaches. I encourage you to watch it.

Coaches are not the experts. Eric Schmidt’s coach didn’t know more about Google or the internet. That wasn’t his job. His job was to help Schmidt be the greatest leader he could be and make the best decisions possible.

Coaches are guides. They help you grow as a leader, and it doesn’t necessarily happen through teaching. Often, one of the best services they offer is to be a sounding board and your accountability partner. Coaches listen as you process decisions. Remind you of goals you have set. Remind you to focus on the most important tasks. Remind you that it is ok to say no to opportunities that distract you from your goals.

If you do not have a coach, now is the time to find a coach who will guide you to being a better leader. Remember, you are not admitting that you are a bad leader by hiring a coach. You are admitting that you are humble enough to realize you can be better. You realize you have weaknesses that if improved will help your team do even greater things.

I have lived the lie that a leader doesn’t need a coach. I reached a point in my journey where I had assembled a large team made up of excellent people. The team had all the skills we needed to accomplish our goals and objectives. Each team member was motivated and bought into the vision. Most of the team had moved from their home country into another country and culture. Each person had to learn a difficult language on top of their work responsibilities.

The team was thriving and exceeding all our objectives. I was receiving praise for recruiting the team and leading them to work well together in another language and culture. I would speak to superiors at least once a month. I also connected with a mentor about once a month. They would always ask how things are going. I always answered with the positive results we were seeing. I liked the praise. I was afraid of losing it. I thought I could solve the problems that arose.

Living and working cross culturally is hard. Culture stress is a real thing. At some point every person working internationally confronts it. I knew each team member was going to struggle. I knew they would struggle at different times. I also knew that it could destroy our momentum. Yet, I wasn’t ready to handle it well.

I was not prepared for people to deal with their stress by becoming frustrated with me. I was not prepared for them to begin gossiping about my leadership. I was not prepared to ask for help. I tried to fix the problem the way I thought was best. I called out gossip. I challenged people to bring their concerns to me. Nothing wrong with that. But, I wasn’t listening. I wasn’t empathezing. People were struggling. They were not sure why. They were looking for a reason. Calling out their mistakes didn’t help. It pushed them away.

Over two years half the team decided to leave, or I had to ask them to leave. If I had been more humble, some people still would have left. Working in another culture and language is hard. But, more people would have stayed. If at the time I had a coach helping me process the decisions, my responses would have been different. At times I was too emotional, too hurt to be objective. At times, I was too quick to make a decision.

When people are struggling with cultural stress, the answer isn’t focusing on the task. Sometimes, the answer is listening. I needed to listen as my team members tried to express their struggles. I didn’t need to then solve the problem. They wanted to be heard. I needed to listen and ask questions to help them process. I needed to encourage them to get enough sleep and take their vacation days.

Looking back years later, it is easy to see what I should have done. Hard to do in the moment. That is why coaches are important. Coaches listen to leaders. Coaches ask leaders questions to help us process. Coaches encourage leaders to take care of themselves so they can care for their teams.

Conclusion

I challenge you to find a coach. He or she will help you become a better leader. Help you lead your team well. Think about what you are looking for? How can a coach best help you? Leaders often focus on a specific skill to learn like conflict management. A coach can help with that, but that might not be the best use of a coach. Feedback is helpful for determining the right priorities.

Ask a coach to come in and receive feedback from your team and superiors. Let your team know that the coach is here to help you lead well. Encourage them to share with your coach any suggestions they have that will help you be a better leader. Great coaching does not focus on the past but the future. The coach isn’t coming in to hear grudges and show you that you have been a poor leader. The coach with help from you and your team guides you to identify a couple of key areas for focus.

Over time as you meet with the coach, there is a consistent focus on a few key things. Other things do come up. The coach will listen. The coach will serve as a sounding board. He will guide you back to your values and goals. You will find that getting a coach might turn out to be the best leadership decision of your career!

Originally published at chrismoore.global.