How leadership coaching helps leaders get (and keep) an edge

You probably couldn’t imagine a professional athlete without a coach. Even at their peaks, athletes use coaches to improve their games and work more effectively with their teammates. Leaders in all types of organizations need leadership coaching for the same reasons. 

The modern leader needs an adaptable set of skills, goals, and strategies to inspire others to work more collaboratively and productively. They also need to do it all in a way that is sustainable over time. Finding a coaching leadership style that works for you can help refine your strengths, build effective interpersonal skills, and navigate challenges.

What is leadership coaching?

Leadership coaching is a process used to develop the leadership characteristics needed to meet professional goals alongside a team. It typically focuses on talents like increasing self-awareness, improving communication skills, and developing a leadership style that aligns with organizational goals through one-on-one guidance or formalized programs. Different coaching leadership styles tackle different subjects, such as professional leadership development, feedback, or mentorship.

Though leadership coaching is sometimes referred to as executive coaching, the two are different in that leadership coaching isn’t only for those in a formal position of authority, whereas executive coaching is. 

Leadership coaching is a type of leadership training professionals at all levels can use to inspire others and impact a team’s performance. A given coaching leadership style could focus on different aspects of leadership, but the benefits of each type include the following:

• Building resilience to adapt during rapid change
• Strengthening decision-making
• Enhancing team collaboration
• Unlocking personal potential for long-term success

One of the best things about one-on-one leadership coaching is that it’s completely personalized to suit your needs. For example, if you’re focused on long-term goals and growth, you might choose someone who has a future-minded coaching leadership style. 

If you struggle with goal setting, you might choose a coaching leadership style focusing on goals. Although you’ll want a coach who can adapt to your situation, most leadership coaching tends to follow the same basic process.

The typical leadership coaching process

Both leadership coaching and executive coaching work best when each step in the process builds momentum toward a measurable talent or change in your workplace skills. Collaborating with a coach who uses a focused leadership style can help you concentrate on developing one skill at a time.

The leadership coaching process provides a framework for developing core leadership principles and is founded on the following:

• Goal alignment: Helping you get in sync with your organizational goals
• Self-awareness: Developing interpersonal skills to spot strengths, weaknesses, and core leadership values
• Emotional intelligence (EQ): Using intrapersonal skills to regulate emotions and relieve stress
• Communication: Improving clarity, active listening, and adaptability in conversations
• Empathy: Understanding and relating to the emotions of others
• Accountability: Owning actions and decisions to reinforce responsibility and integrity
• Adaptability: Navigating change, solving problems, and being flexible

With the help of a leadership coaching model, mentor, or program, you can assess your current skill set, set goals, and work to achieve improved outcomes.

1. Initial assessment

In leadership coaching, your coach will first want to understand your current management skills, self-awareness, mindset, behaviors, and challenges. Depending on their coaching leadership style, they might use tools like 360-degree feedback, self-assessments, or workplace personality tests.

One of the most widely used tools in this phase is the 360 assessment. It collects different types of feedback from relevant individuals, including peers, subordinates, supervisors, and yourself. Its goal is to help you comprehensively understand how you’re perceived on different levels through qualitative and quantitative feedback.

Self-assessments, personality assessments, and EQ assessments are also popular tools. They empower you to understand how your traits, tendencies, and ability to recognize others’ emotions impact your ability to lead. Some popular assessments include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (DISC) assessment, and the EQ-i 2.0.

2. Goal setting and measurement

Once you know your preferred coaching leadership style and who you are as a leader, you’ll work with your coach to plan exactly how you want to improve. Your coach might also recommend setting SMART goals, which are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

The work goals you set should consider organizational goals as well as your personal career aspirations. Your coach will help you outline clear, actionable, and measurable growth strategies, such as reading materials, workshops, or training sessions. 

An important part of goal setting is defining how you’ll measure your progress. For example, you could reconduct your 360 assessment, survey your team, or ask for feedback from a supervisor again next year and compare each set of scores.

3. Coaching sessions

After setting your goals, you’ll use your regular one-on-one leadership coaching meetings to check your progress, discuss any leadership challenges you face, and reinforce new behaviors. These are interactive, focused discussions where your coach will encourage you to practice self-reflection and challenge yourself.

Your coach will actively listen and ask open-ended questions to help you explore your progress. You may also do scenario-based role-plays so your coach can provide constructive feedback that can help you improve work performance in certain situations.

4. Real-world application

Your coach will assign you tasks or projects to help you cultivate your new skills in the real world. They could be something like the following:

• Conducting a meeting to practice leadership communication skills like active listening and speaking with clarity
• Owning up to a mistake to a superior or subordinate
• Leading a brainstorming session to address a recent challenge with your team
• Using daily journal prompts to reflect on which situations went well and which could be improved
• Practicing parasympathetic breathing exercises before a big meeting

These tasks will directly relate to your preferred coaching leadership style, your organization, and the plan you’ve set with your coach. They can help remind you to incorporate your new leadership skills into your everyday routine.

Benefits of leadership coaching

Why is coaching important in leadership? The simplest answer is that it causes a positive ripple effect. Coaching creates more effective leaders who build better companies and have happier direct reports. As you grow, you inspire teamwork and build trust and a shared purpose among your team. 

More effective leaders

Working with a coach creates dedicated time and space for growth, which often gets overlooked in the busyness of daily responsibilities. With clear goals, a specific coaching leadership style, and a structured measurement strategy, you can move toward becoming a more effective leader. 

Imagine a new department head struggling with delegation. Through coaching and regular check-ins, a coach can help them recognize their tendency to be overly involved. That coach can aid them in finding tools to stop micromanaging employees and direct reports to help them motivate their team and encourage independence.

Better companies

When leaders are more effective, they create a positive workplace environment where employees are happier and more engaged. Content and proactive teams are better equipped to make better decisions on behalf of the organization and themselves and even positively impact the wider world.

Consider an organization where interdepartmental workplace miscommunication causes frequent project delays. Senior leaders undergo coaching to improve their cross-functional collaboration. As a result, projects start to get done faster, and employees feel more motivated to innovate.

Happier employees

When you become a better listener and a more adaptive or empathetic leader, your direct reports will likely feel more valued and motivated to do good work. 

A team might start out with low morale because their manager is disengaged. After their leader is coached in techniques that improve emotional intelligence, they start to encourage team members to offer meaningful feedback and recognize their individual contributions. Over time, employees become more engaged and productive.

Stronger decision-making

When you understand your biases, you make better decisions. Coaching can help leaders make more balanced and thoughtful choices because you have the talent and skills to consider different perspectives and outcomes.

An executive facing a challenge like organizational supply chain disruptions might be feeling overwhelmed by competing priorities. Through leadership coaching, they learn to break down the problem, weigh trade-offs, and implement a clear action plan. As a result, they build stronger relationships with suppliers.

More collaborative teams

Effective leaders build better relationships with employees and cross-functional stakeholders, which makes teams more collaborative. When leaders have the skills to mitigate tension properly, it’s easier to handle workplace conflicts quickly and keep teams working together better.

Say a marketing team leader knows there’s tension between the creative and analytics departments. Through coaching, the manager could learn strategies to help team members address their misunderstandings. This might allow more creative decisions to be backed by data.  

Why is leadership coaching so impactful? 

Research published in New Directions for Student Leadership showed that leadership coaching is impactful because it improves your metacognitive ability (MCA), or understanding of your thought processes. Those with strong MCA are typically self-aware, make confident decisions, and solve problems well. 

MCA is an important factor in leader developmental readiness (LDR), which is your preparedness and willingness to develop your leadership abilities. Coaching uses your MCA to deepen self-reflection and integrate new leadership skills into your day-to-day. 

How do you choose the right leadership coaching program?

One of the most important parts of a coaching program is the coach. Here are some ways to evaluate whether a program or person is right for you.

1. Provides a safe and supportive environment: If the chemistry with a coach isn’t right after a few sessions, it’s perfectly acceptable to explore other options. Building rapport and comfort is essential for a successful coaching relationship.
2. Provides support for your agenda: If a coach prioritizes their own agenda or focuses solely on the type of coaching they’re most comfortable with, it might not be the best fit for your development needs. Look for someone who takes a personalized or collaborative approach.
3. Provides targeted and specific feedback: Look for someone whose coaching style helps you see your blind spots rather than one who will just let you vent without moving forward. 
4. Provides a length of engagement: While most coaching programs last anywhere from 3 to 12 months, BetterUp’s data shows that significant and sustained growth typically requires a minimum of around 6 months. Look for a coach who’s willing to work with you long term.
5. Provides consistency: Whether you’re doing in-person or online coaching, look for a coach and program that will work with you weekly or biweekly. Without consistency, your chances of achieving your desired outcome are significantly lower.
6. Provides tracking tools: Many programs use measurement or tracking tools to support their process. Look for a coach who will follow up with how you use those tools so you’re always in a growth mindset.

By finding the right mentor, you set yourself up for much more than just short-term professional growth. You cultivate the skills and growth mindset needed to navigate future challenges confidently and effectively.

Of those who have participated in BetterUp’s coaching programs, 66% report feeling prepared for their next career level, and 77% feel more effective. Additionally, 77% of members want everyone on their team to have access.

Use leadership coaching to prepare you for the future

Coaching equips leaders to inspire their teams and drive adaptation and innovation, no matter what unexpected organizational challenges the future holds. Leadership coaching isn’t just about learning new skills you could pick up from TED talks or leadership podcasts, either. It's about transforming you into a flexible thinker with a mindset to motivate and empower others to use their talent in the most effective way possible. 

Start your journey with a BetterUp Coach to become a more effective leader, navigate uncertainty, foster talent in others, and encourage growth.