Inspire Your Team with Leadership Coaching

From books to podcasts to workshops and more, resources aimed at increasing leadership skills are everywhere. But there’s a crucial element of leadership that many of these ignore: self-awareness. 

What does self-awareness have to do with leadership? More than you might realize. Leaders can’t know what they don’t know. The leader might have limiting beliefs that affect their management style, or not realize that specific behaviors or thoughts are impacting their effectiveness. 

Susan Spritz Myers is a Master Certified Coach and Kolbe Master Team Consultant with 25 years of experience helping executives and their teams fulfill their highest potential. As she explains in this interview, developing a greater understanding of yourself and those around you is one of the most important things you can do to become a stronger leader. 

What is coaching? The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” 

Life Working: Let’s start with the basics. What is leadership coaching — and who typically hires a leadership coach?

Susan Spritz Myers: For me, the main goal of leadership coaching is to help individuals and teams at different levels in the organization increase their performance. Leadership coaching is customized to fit each client’s unique challenges. The internal and external factors impacting each client’s leadership abilities are as diverse as the clients themselves. Figuring that out is one of the things I love about coaching.  

I am naturally curious and enjoy learning about people and their experiences. In a safe and supportive environment, I guide clients through the exploration process to help them identify and leverage their strengths to improve their performance. As a coach I partner with clients to design answers, solutions and strategies that are right for them. 

Leadership coaching can benefit individuals as well as their organizations. Many people hire coaches privately and pay for the coaching sessions themselves. Companies also invest significant time and resources on leadership development, which can include coaching.  

Depending on the relationship, goals for the coaching engagement can provide a roadmap for our work together.

When the company hires the coach, the sponsor, (often the boss and/or HR) will be included in the process. In this situation, we often meet with the boss at the beginning, halfway through, and at the end of the coaching engagement, to share what the person being coached has learned, and develop a plan based on the coaching work. This plan is shared with the person’s boss for use as documentation in upcoming reviews and in development work to help the client stay focused on the areas they defined.  

Life Working: You take a strengths-based approach to coaching. How do you help clients recognize their strengths, identify blind spots, and get out of their own way? 

Susan Spritz Myers: I use a variety of assessments, along with my observations, to support clients in understanding their strengths. 

THE KOLBE SYSTEM™

The Kolbe System™ measures how people take action (“conation”).  The Kolbe assessment is useful on many levels, from crafting the coaching to fit clients’ needs to supporting their coaching agenda. Clients gain a deeper understanding of their talents which enables them to move forward with greater ease and less mental exhaustion. 

STRENGTHS PROFILE

I use Strengths Profile, a self-assessment that measures and provides feedback on a) what the client does well; b) what they do often; and c) what energizes them. We weave this feedback into their coaching work and agenda. 

INFORMAL INTERVIEWS

I do informal interviews with confidential feedback for clients. This is often the first time people are receiving feedback from their stakeholders. 

360-REVIEW TOOLS

I use several 360-review tools that focus on leadership skills; emotional and social competency; and executive presence — particularly in corporate-sponsored coaching engagements — depending on the client’s needs. 

While my coaching philosophy is based on identifying strengths, it’s also important to explore clients’ blind spots and situations where they might be getting in their own way. Blind spots can be revealed in several ways:

• A 360-review process can provide leaders with crisp feedback on blind spots by showing how they are perceived by others.  A blind spot is a disconnect between what the client thinks and how the client is viewed by others. 

• Blind spots often emerge during conversations in coaching sessions. I recently worked with a client who discovered through our work together that he was actually very polarizing in his leadership style. Not surprisingly, this blind spot was causing a variety of issues that we were then able to focus on resolving. 

• Interestingly, an overused strength can become a challenge or blind spot. We all love our strengths; they’re fun and usually serve us well. But when used to an extreme, they can work against us. As an example, two of my strengths are curiosity and time optimization. If I’m working with a client who’s more contemplative or moves at a slower speed than I do, I need to be careful not to interrupt or rush her. Being aware of how my strengths may impact clients allows me to manage them.

Life Working: Do emerging leaders face different challenges than seasoned leaders? 

Susan Spritz Myers: Yes. While many issues overlap both emerging and seasoned leaders, each typically faces a distinct set of challenges:

Emerging leaders are often focused on fulfilling their functional roles and ensuring they do a good job. They need to learn how to become less tactical and more strategic, perhaps trusting others to do the work and delegating more effectively. For many emerging leaders, that doesn’t come easily! 

Today’s leaders need to be more agile than ever before, which can be a challenge for seasoned leaders, who’ve been in management and leadership roles for many years — or even decades. They often find that the leadership strategies that once worked for them are no longer effective. And, if they’ve been doing the same thing for a long time, with little or no change, leaders can find themselves bored — even exhausted.

In addition, many leaders find that being “at the top of the house” can feel lonely; there’s no one at their level to bounce around ideas or strategize. Sometimes coaching can fill that gap, especially because coaches can offer an external, objective perspective.

Developing emotional intelligence can help leaders at all levels gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. As a result, leaders can focus on what motivates and inspires others, improve the quality of their interactions, and build stronger connections.

Life Working: What does it mean to be in the “leadership zone?” How do you help leaders find and maximize their zone?

Susan Spritz Myers: Think of professional athletes whose performance on the field or court looks fluid and almost effortless — even though they’re giving it their all. They’re in their zone. When they describe it, they’ll often say that, in those moments, they aren’t focusing on their physical movements; “it just comes naturally.” 

The same is true for leaders who naturally solve problems and inspire others. Through leadership coaching, my clients and I explore and identify the variables that get them into the zone, so they can experience peak performance more frequently and with greater intention. 

Life Working: How would you describe a successful leadership coaching engagement?

Susan Spritz Myers: Coaching is an exploration, requiring an openness to look in the mirror without becoming defensive. After going through a 360-review process, one client said, “This is fun! I've never gotten feedback like this — both the good and the bad. Nobody's ever told me these things before.” Taking it all in, she used this information to enhance her leadership abilities. 

I’m working with a senior leader of a billion-dollar pharmaceutical company who was experiencing a challenging working relationship with another senior level executive. As a result of coaching, they’ve developed the skills needed to improve their communications and work more effectively together, allowing my client to transform the functionality of his department. It didn’t happen quickly or by accident, though. Throughout the coaching process, he remained open and curious, significantly contributing to the success of our work together.

The goal of leadership coaching is to walk with a client for a period of time. I meet clients in a safe and supportive relationship and provide them with tools and strategies they can use to influence and inspire the team to support each other and reach their goals.  

SUCCESS

I love it when clients ask themselves, “What would Susan say?” when facing a challenge. Then I’m thrilled when they come up with the solution on their own based on a new, more productive way of thinking, performing, and thriving in a dynamic and changing business environment. 

Are you ready to move up to your next level of leadership? Visit Susan Spritz Myers.com to learn more about leadership coaching — and how it can help take your leadership to the next level.