If you are reading this, chances are that you have not had leadership coaching before and are curious about what it is and what it entails. Put simply, leadership coaching is time for you. When we are in a leadership role, we spend a lot of time serving others—whether it’s those above us if we are in a corporate structure, our team, our clients, or, if we own a business, serving our business needs, our teams, and our clients. When you then factor in our commitments in our personal life, like family and caring responsibilities, there is often very little time for ourselves.
Having this space and time is crucial for female leaders. Those whom I work with are often juggling an enormous amount, and their own career aspirations are overshadowed. There is little space to explore what next steps or career goals might look like. In addition to this, who do you turn to? Who is your sounding board, and are they impartial or have your best interests at heart?
What Are the Core Components of Leadership Coaching?
When I work with female leaders, we don’t follow a set structure, blueprint, or program. It is not a cookie-cutter approach. Our sessions are tailored to you. We will start with an exploration of what you want to achieve and what you want out of the time we will work together.
The areas we explore aren’t limited—they can be anything that supports you in reaching your potential, but could include:
Creating a Clear Career Path
Keeping your eye on your own career is essential, but often we rarely have time to connect with what feels right for us and consider what that looks like and the steps to take us there. Leadership coaching helps female leaders set and achieve clear career goals, ensuring their personal aspirations are met.
Having Someone to Hold Us Accountable
Accountability is crucial if we want to ‘make something happen’—not because we are made to do something we don’t want to do, but life gets busy, and it’s easy for something to fall off the radar, even when it’s important to us. My style of coaching is not the hold-your-feet-over-the-fire type at all but more actively curious as to why something may not have been a priority or why something wasn’t achieved. This gives you the opportunity to grow and deepen your understanding.
Increasing Your Confidence and Resilience
To be an effective leader, we have to operate from a place of confidence and resilience rather than fear and worry. When I work with female leaders, we often explore self-doubt, imposter syndrome, fear, worry, and stress—psychological barriers that can get in the way. Understanding their own psychology can free them from these constraints.
Creating Stronger Relationships with Those Around You
The easiest way to get the most out of your team is by creating a strong relationship with them. This is also true for all relationships that we have. Understanding the psychology of your team members and how to get the best out of them is essential. This is a key aspect I explore with clients, helping female leaders build strong, supportive networks.
Having a Go-To Safe Space
The chances are that at the moment, you feel like you don’t have a neutral person to turn to and feel trapped in the middle of many competing interests and people. Having someone to share your fears, worries, work challenges, or ideas with is transformative. It gives you the opportunity to identify your own common sense and find the way forward.
Helping You with Difficult Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking
As a leader, it’s often down to you to make the call and decide what to do next. This can be enormously rewarding but also a challenge. How do you know what you are doing is right? What about the consequences? What if you get it wrong? Leadership coaching can support you in exploring your decision-making process and enable you to find clarity on next steps and the future path.
Achieving Life Balance and Managing Stress
A lot of my clients juggle an enormous amount, and often, finding that life balance can seem elusive. It’s important to ensure that you don’t find yourself heading for burnout and are able to understand and manage your stress. Working together, we explore the psychological aspects of balance and stress, as well as considering the more practical side.
Conclusion: Start Developing Your Leadership Coaching Journey Today
Whether you are a senior leader, manager, director, or business owner, leadership coaching offers a unique opportunity to develop your leadership style, create a positive coaching culture, and realise your potential.
If you are ready to start your leadership journey, book a call today.