How to spot that you need leadership coaching
Do you know how to spot that you need leadership coaching?
Your business has grown. You’ve had some success. Things seem to be going OK, but you are bogged down with people issues all the time.
You have your senior team in place now – you’ve promoted a few of the long-standing people who have been there from the start. Somehow they suddenly seem very needy.
Whereas before these people were confident and productive they are coming to you to check things. They never used to.
Mistakes are being made. Your best customers are starting to flag up issues which were never a problem before. One step forward – two steps back.
You can’t seem to get on with anything for long enough to make progress, before an issue presents itself, which could easily be solved with some common sense.
You start to feel less love for your business. It’s not what you expected.
You have got customers and are finding new ones. The staff numbers have grown and you have some great people. Your operations are coming together nicely, but people seem down-hearted and get easily overwhelmed.
You never expected this, but it is quite a common aspect of business growth.
In my experience, success can sometimes be the undoing of a business.
The stage at which people begin to manage the work of other people causes a barrier to effectiveness.
Your “stars” in the business who were ace at their roles start to need help. You recruit good people and then look forward to the upward trend in capacity and effectiveness. But No! It all starts to wobble and things slip back. Your costs have gone up but your productivity has gone down!
It is so hard to be good at a role and then to have to manage others. When a person does this, they lose confidence and a sense of achievement. They no longer feel good about their work.
Managing the work of others is not a natural skill.
Professor Damian Hughes writes about this and illustrates the point so eloquently in his book The Winning Mindset.
He gives the example of Glen Hoddle making the transition from player to football manager at Swindon in 1990, having had a superb career as a top-class footballer for his country.
Despite his superb technical skills and his proven track record in his footballing career, he found it incredibly hard to lead the team.
He would show them the drills he expected them to carry out, but could not impart his knowledge and guidance in the way that they needed to hear it. On many occasions, the players said they felt his approach made them feel inadequate. Hoddle never intended for that. He just did not know how to manage. He knew his craft so well, but could not convey the message or inspire the right response from the team.
It took time and guidance from a specialist to help Hoddle learn this new skill set.
And this is what happens in growing businesses.
Good people get promoted, because they have a specific set of skills. Then they have to learn to juggle their commitments between carrying on with the existing skills, whilst suddenly dealing with people who may, or may not know what they are doing! Plus there could be issues of resentment, or jealousy.
It is hard to manage the work other people do if you have never learnt the accompanying skills which go with this.
In addition to this, the business owner, and/or the newly created board may also have never been “leaders”. They could also be feeling a bit lost.
My point is that growth requires investment, sure you know that. Many businesses grow without the necessary investment in new learning around leadership.
What does your senior leadership team need to “be “ like as leaders? They might know what they need to do, but not know who they are in this new identity.
New managers in the chain of communication look for inspiration and guidance from those leading them at a time when everyone could well be feeling at their least comfortable and confident.
This is why leadership and management training and coaching is an investment which must go alongside another aspect of growth investment.
“Work” is a funny old place. It is where humans interact effectively so that stuff happens afterwards.
Get the interaction wrong and everything after that won’t flow properly.
Invest in making sure the interactions, which happen all day, every day, are the best they can be and you stand a much better chance of having successful growth.
Leadership training and coaching are a must and provide a competitive advantage. If you haven’t explored this yet, now is the right time. I’m happy to provide a free taster. Reach out.
Find out more by booking a free session with me.