“Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.”

                                                                  - Germany Kent

We all live in a world that’s becoming more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA), and the bar keeps rising higher and higher. E.g. when the Covid situation occurred and shut the world literally for a time many executives struggled to stay afloat. If executives are open, they will readily acknowledge that they are facing unprecedented issues many times, some will admit today's complexity is outpacing their learning thus creating gaps - they don’t know exactly what is causing them to not get the intended or projected results. You see, leadership is not about wielding authority but rather empowering people! I have seen that leaders usually get caught up in the titles, and the position entitlements, and get disconnected from the team then when things start falling apart they tend to be stressed, pressured, and wondering why despite having capacity they are struggling to get results. As a result and being blind to the root cause of their problems, executive leaders start compensating for that by micromanaging, spending more hours on the same tasks, and not delegating enough which leads to burn-outs and overall is costly. This is where executive coaching comes in to empower the leaders. I have observed and seen what happens when clients open up to engage with a coach they can gain some of the following benefits;

Deep-Dive Awareness

Executive coaching is a means by which you can be helped to obtain what I call a deep dive awareness- see yourself and others more clearly. This is simple but super effective! Self-Awareness is critical for every leader. Self-Aware leaders are shown to be highly correlated with organizational effectiveness and profitability. 

What I find that leaders need to do is to get a precise check into the underlying issue causing the ineffectiveness For example if you are a strong visionary however you lack an effective interaction style with your team causing you not to achieve desired results. A great strategy would be pinpointing accurately that the issue stems from your mode of interaction; this will help you rectify the situation immediately and wholly and scale up your leadership faster rather than planning for new training on how to sell more or do the task that’s not being done effectively, and you will save time and of course money. 

Executive coaching helps you gather input about how others view and perceive you, helps you identify areas of growth and enhancement, and helps you ultimately learn how to see yourself fairly. As a leader, you don't want to run into problems due to inaccurate assessments of people around you! Executive coaching helps you to gain insight on how to get accurate perceptions of those around you and helps you utilize new mental skills to assess others better. A deep dive into self-awareness can be achieved well by leadership tools like a 360- Degree Leadership Assessment. 

Stock take your leadership strengths and build capacity

This is for you if you are overwhelmed by the demands of your role leading to feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt if you are not connected to your team or sense they are trying to sabotage you if your habitual ways and mindset are set to playing safe rather than taking calculated risks as a leader if the fear of failure binds you if you are too stressed and lacking balance and know it’s now time to create a sense of stability and pave a courageous path to achieve the success you want. 

Marshall Goldsmith, an executive coach in the U.S., wrote a book called "What Got You Here Won't Get You There". This simply means to advance we must keep learning, updating our capabilities, and getting new leadership tool kits and an Executive Coach can explore various options with you that will bring these solutions to the fore in your life. 

Maximizing Performance 

The biggest challenge I see with leaders, especially newly promoted ones, is many times they are struggling to break out from places of safety and identity; what I mean is you see a leader who wants to belong to the pack, doesn’t want to rock the boat or sets goals to please others or for the sake of appearances; Cautiously managing what they do to stay in the good graces of others or simply lacks the confidence to stand up and be counted as a leader when called upon. The challenge here is as the leader you get resistant to change and innovation, you often delay actions while waiting for approvals and validation and you will simply be deemed to be indecisive and a procrastinator. What I find that leaders need to do is you need to learn how to build confidence like we say feel the fear but do it anyway, you will need to get affirmation that you don’t need to limit yourself to conform to group norms as a leader, you need to know that your sense of self comes from within and not through membership to a group. Executive Coaching enables you to delve into strategies that affirm your strength as a leader so you can confidently lead the pack and not stay in their shadows. Executive Coaching empowers you to do exceptional work! Improve performance and enhance your psychological well-being.

Impact and Legacy Strategy

The biggest problem I see in my experience with leaders is focusing too narrowly and too short-term, while this may be very necessary at times to ensure immediate survival and to solve a crisis, perhaps it has become too ingrained. Are you someone who is just focused on getting through the day or do you only have a plan for a week at a time as everything is too hectic and you are always struggling to put out fires? 

The challenge here is the leader is not able to take into account a broader network of views that can change short-term crises into long-term solutions or simply a leader is constricted to always dealing with urgent and non-important issues instead of dealing with long-term strategic items for growth or networking and building relationships that extend beyond the bounds of the organisation. 

What I propose is that your leadership can be taken to the next level by stepping back from the urgency to fix the current crisis and asking questions like, how can you break free from the prison of logic i.e. always doing the routine tasks that have created a comfort zone and be that unforgettable leader? How can you manage change? How can you manage stakeholders, that is relationships and politics; how can you get buy in’s from other departments, groups, or individuals?

Can you imagine the benefit of having the tactics to manage all this? It will remove your fear of crisis, help you to manage performance challenges, help you know exactly how to network, and get those key people who can speak on your behalf behind closed boardrooms so you can achieve solid impact as a leader and be remembered long after 

Executive coaching helps you to be clear about your concerns, your priorities and helps goal setting to be seamless and on target, and sets you up to be an achiever who can look clearly into the future. Goal setting should be a straightforward and precise exercise for any leader. You may be feeling ...Like there's a forest between you and your dreams. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way when you have a coach to walk with YOU!

In conclusion, think about that leader that you highly respect what is it that he /she does that garners your respect? Maybe he/she creates a positive culture, is accessible to his team, etc. but be careful here don’t compare an orange to an apple - as a leader find out accurately what’s not working in your leadership style and environment then implement it!  

Learn how to develop an outcome–creating mindset. In their book Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes That Matter Most; the authors Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams delve into a discussion on research that reveals why exploring all your options would make you focus only on leadership competencies that will yield outcomes that matter and impact your success as a leader is the game changer in your leadership growth path.

Lastly, develop a personalized leadership development path with an executive coach. I believe there’s a new Executive, “The Empowered Executive”, and an Executive that has a crystal clear focus that feels in control has mastered the art of courageous conversations, that manages skillfully team dynamics and is a confident decision maker and that achieves outstanding results as a leader who can be made manifest by executive coaching.

Teresa Walekhwa-Akuka: Executive Leadership coach

I help you as an executive discover how to become the effective leader your team needs, by scaling your leadership capacity and finally be that leader who creates impact & leaves a lasting legacy

Check out my website or some of my other work here.