Executive Coaching for Technical Managers and Leaders: Why Having a Coach is a Good Idea

What do Eric Schmidt, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, Serena Williams, Bill Gates and an ever-growing list of senior business leaders and A-list celebrities have in common? 

They all invest in a coach. 

Many people do, including yours truly! Any human being who wants to evolve will be faced with constant challenges and changes. 

The good news is we are more than capable of handling what life throws at us, provided, of course, we manage our minds and get some perspective. 

This is where a coach can help us separate fact from fiction when it comes to our thoughts and, consequently, our actions. 

 

Our Tricky Mind Needs Handling 

 

 

Here is something to consider. 

Even though our brains have developed to invent the latest app to switch on our heating or play Virgin Smooth radio, it is also quite primitive and locked into the past. 

Two parts of our brain govern us.  

  • Our primitive brain is responsible for many of the automatic responses of our body, like breathing and keeping blood flowing and ensuring we stay ‘safe’. 
  • We also have our decision-making brain that assesses data and enables us to make informed choices. 

The challenge is that our primitive brain wants to keep us safe and out of harm’s way all the time, which is OK; however, it tends to see anything new as a challenge and threat to our survival. 

Unfortunately, its initial development aimed to protect us from being eaten or banished from the tribe. Yet for 95% of the population, this is no longer an issue, and still, this part of the brain continues to bombard us with over sixty thousand thoughts a day, the majority of which are negative to keep us safe. 

The trouble is many people have either forgotten this fact or weren’t aware of it in the first place. 

This is where utilising the power of a coach can help. 

 

How a Coach Can Help 

A coach is an ‘outsider’ in the most positive sense of the word and gets to hear our thoughts and assess what we think is going on. 

They can then take a questioning role to allow us to see our brains and thinking patterns. 

An executive coach works with you step-by-step, bringing you to a greater understanding of yourself and what you are thinking and the results you are experiencing in your life. 

Executive coaching is growing exponentially for one fact alone; it works.  

Executive coaching has grown into an industry with an estimated annual revenue of over 11 billion dollars. So, taking this data into account, and in an environment of increasing awareness about health and wellbeing at work, these figures will rise even higher in the coming years. 

So, what are the key areas coaches can help you and your team improve? 

 

See Our Thoughts for What They Are 

 

 

In a nutshell, to develop self-awareness of our thoughts. Accurate self-awareness in leaders is highly correlated with organisational effectiveness and profitability, and employees prefer to follow leaders who see themselves clearly. 

Your coach will help you build the capability to see yourself more clearly: question your assumptions about yourself, get curious about where you’re strong and where you need to grow and learn to see your thoughts and naturally results as something you can change. 

 

Understand and See Others 

As your coach works with you, you will start to master this ability to understand your thinking and gain a deeper understanding of others. 

Over the years, many managers and leaders have run into problems with their inaccurate assessments of those around them because of their lack of self-awareness.  

Often losing good employees because they don’t recognise and support their capabilities or keeping poor performers too long because they had overestimated how good they were. 

 

Learn New Ways to Think New Thoughts and Respond 

 

 

As human beings, we will only grow if we continually step outside our comfort zone and think differently. 

Though this Einstein quote is often shared, it is as relevant today as when it first crossed his lips. 

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” 

Similarly, Marshall Goldsmith, the respected American leadership coach, said something similar in his New York Times bestseller – what got you here won’t get you there. 

Managers and leaders with no outside perspective often get stuck in a rut—continuing to do the same thing yet expecting a different result. 

Hiring a coach will allow you to view life through a different lens. It’s then your choice what you do with this information. 

 

Until next time, 

Julia Carter  

 

How Can We Help Your Personal Performance?    

At Zestfor we offer a range of custom-built personalised coaching and development programmes to suit the particular needs of a leader, individual or team that can be delivered face-to-face, or virtually to work flexibly with geographically dispersed team members, and their workloads. 

Click here for a full programme description or call one of our team on 0845 548 0833.    

 

About Zestfor       

Zestfor specialises in developing leadership Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, I.T., and Life Sciences.          

Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. So, to have a brief chat, call us on 0845 548 0833