“Coaching can be an expensive addition to leadership development. What if they leave?
What if you don’t invest in them and they stay….?”
Over the course of 15 years of coaching, I have been interested to document what my clients have considered to be the sustainable outcomes of the coaching experience for them and their organisations.
This is a summary of some of their comments, which I have synthesised into five main categories:
Self-awareness, relationship, tactical outcomes, organisational results and unintended outcomes.
On a personal level, clients have reported
self awareness outcomes such as:
- A deeper understanding of self, leading to more emotionally intelligent behaviour
- A calmness, more focused leadership
- A better understanding and some compassion around my development areas
- Flexibility, improved resilience, deeper thinking about self and others
- My locus of control has moved inwards
- Learned to think in different ways, with new perspectives
- Multidimensional approach to learning and leading
- An acceptance of my strengths and how to maximise them
- Openness to continue learning about myself
- New perspectives on what leadership is and what kind of leader I want to be
- Clarity regarding one’s strengths and more applying of those at work and at home
- Improved confidence and presence, more centered
- Showing up in a more authentic way
When it comes to the impact on
relationships, some of the themes reported are:
- Improved relationships at work and home
- A change in way of being when it comes to human relationships
- More empathy for others now that I understand how differently they see the world
- Much improved, clearer communication with others
- Different way of listening to others leading to such different conversations
- More time invested in the relationship bank balance has changed my leadership style
Tactically, clients have reported the following additions to their way of working:
- More effective requests leading to more successful meetings and delegation
- More clarity in conversations leading to less mistakes by subordinates
- More regular team and individual meetings and conversations
- More strategic thinking and measured action
- Efficient action plans in place
- Better time management
- Diary management that is more efficient
- Closer involvement in team reviews, team management
- More regular team and individual meetings with colleagues
On an
organisational level, some typical outcomes that have been
mentioned by the sponsors after either individual or team interventions:
- More conscious leadership
- Improved business and team cohesiveness
- Deeper clarity around joint goals
- Better business unit results
- Improved team performance
- Revenue growth
- Improved profits
Unintended outcomes mentioned:
- Higher attainment of personal goals around fitness and wellness
- More energy and regained passion for work and life
- A new direction and a plan for a new career
- Better perception of balance in life
- Different ways of handling my children
- Learned to stop adding so much value so that others can shine
- Better communication with partner leading to a more satisfying marriage
- General joy of life improved