Leadership Coaching

Grow Your Leadership Coaching Business

By Jeff Pasquale

Leadership coaching is of critical importance in this age of speed and instant results.10 years ago, coaching a leader on the basic elements of leadership was viewed as unnecessary. After all, everyone knows this stuff, right? But we now live in a time where even the Wall Street Journal carries a regular column entitled Executives on Trial. Poor leadership is so prevalent in our society that we are less likely to blindly trust a leader anymore.

This leadership void didn’t happen overnight. It’s been occurring for quite a while. Like anything else in our culture, it has gone through various stages of acceptance. It’s very much like comparing an R rated movie of 20 years ago to an R rated movie today. The older movie seems tame in comparison. The standards haven’t changed that much but our perceptions sure have. We tolerate much more than we did back then. The same holds true for our leaders’ behaviors.

Virtually everywhere you look today there are concrete signs of eroding leadership. It’s frustrating to see, and it’s easy to feel that all we can do is complain. But there is something we can do. We’re coaches!

We are like teachers – we influence the future by doing what we do best – coach. And in the world of leadership coaching there are many opportunities to help.

Before you begin carving your niche to coach leaders, here are a few things you will want to consider:

1) Are you in full integrity? Do your actions match your words? Do you keep the promises that you make to yourself? Integrity is a funny thing. You can’t measure it exactly but you sure know when it’s not there. So before you begin advising and coaching on the merits of integrity, be sure that you have your own house in order. In other words, be honest and truthful with yourself. Be a model of integrity for you first. When you model integrity, life gets a lot easier and your leadership coaching is more authentic.

2) Do you have a clear and focused program to follow? You don’t need to create a workbook or write a business plan, but you do need a path for your clients to follow; something that guides them through a process. It could be identifying 3 basic steps that you verbally guide your clients through. Whatever that process is, define it, map it out, and then communicate it to your clients. A well defined process will keep you on track with your clients and will also provide them with something they can stay focused on.

3) What’s your message? What do you stand for in the area of leadership? This is not your opportunity to get on a soapbox and preach, but you still have to have a clear overriding purpose. Something that defines your brand of leadership coaching that markets you and what you stand for. To coach leaders well – very, very well – you need to have a strong view of what a leader should be. A generic message won’t do; it’s got to have an edge to it. Now here’s the challenge – have an opinion but keep your judgments out of it. The leader isn’t seeking your approval. He or she will focus on your message and act on it, if it resonates with them or inspires them. So what’s your message?

These are 3 easy-to-implement leadership coaching strategies to help you improve your leadership coaching. Work on them and change the world – one client at a time. There is no magic formula here, only tried and true actions that have consistently produced results.

Leverage your leadership coaching strengths and talents, and grow and prosper along with your clients.

There are additional ways to develop your leadership coaching business. Visit our web site to learn more.

Jeff Pasquale is a Leadership Coach. He is the founder of CoachLeadersNow.com, a training and development company for coaches who coach leaders--leaders of companies, leaders of departments, leaders of teams, and leaders of families. An early graduate of CoachU, Jeff has emerged as a pioneer in de-mystifying the essential components of being an effective leader. He is also author of the books Coaching LEADERSHIP and Get Aligned! (How To Close Organizational Gaps). You can discover more about Jeff at http://www.CoachLeadersNow.com or at http://www.JeffPasquale.com

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