This is the opening line from author Scott Osman in the book Becoming Coachable. And so true for myself. And yet, so many of the finest moments of my life have resulted when I did not try to progress alone. Whether in business, sport or family life, my highest performance moments emerge with the help of a coach.
What is your hunger for higher performance?
In the highest levels of sports, music, entertainment and increasingly business, the highest performers ALWAYS work with a coach. Roger Federer, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, even Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Based on an admittedly German-fluency-biased sample of mostly DACH leaders, engaging a business coach is often seen as a badge of shame and not a badge of honor. On a positive note, mentoring, a highly valuable and less formal approach to developing leadership seems strongly on the rise.
Does your perspective match mine, based on work in over 100 companies, that the vast majority of leaders, perhaps even you, have not yet experienced the benefits they deserve from coaching and/or mentoring? If yes, read on!
The just released bestseller Becoming Coachable reveals the why, how and what to look for in a mentor or coach. Useful for both those who already have a coach, as well as those who have not yet experienced collaborating with a mentor or coach. As one of a few handful of Master level Stakeholder Centered Coaches globally, this research based book provided dozens of useful insights, tips and immediately applicable techniques building on my experience coaching over 150 successful leaders.
The most important input for coaching or mentoring success is the readiness of the leader to do the work. How to measure the readiness of a leader to harvest maximum value from collaborating with a coach is revealed by my 100Coaches colleagues Scott Osman, Jacquelyn Lane and Marshall Goldsmith who surveyed, distilled and share the collective wisdom of specific coaching moments from dozens of our 100 Coaches colleagues.
To test drive if Becoming Coachable belongs on the top of your reading list, check out the forward by Mark Thompson, (available in the preview) with coachability observations of leadership of the legendary Sir Richard Branson.
How to measure if a leader has become coachable?
An innovative openness framework distills the answer to this question for internal and external coaches and mentors into 4 simple measures.
The 4 measure are:
- Open to Change
- Open to Feedback
- Open to Action
- Open to Accountability
Working with a mentor or coach can help in all 4 areas. Let’s focus here on Open to Accountability, which is often the most challenging, at least for myself. When I promise my coach an action (and with 2 coaches meeting regularly with me currently, this keeps me promising often) the human bond between us is just the “nudge” I need to step into action.
A coach can often hold a firmer grasp on holding a leader to be open to accountability than a mentor. Take one of the leaders I am blessed to accompany/coach who share a detailed journal entry with me each week listing progress/setbacks week after week. Fascinating for both of us is to experience the positive impact of his empowerment weekly accountability practice.
In addition to this highly valuable framework, the greatest value of the book for leaders, mentors and coaches is the plethora of examples and insider stories shared through the 400+ coach rich 100Coaches community with the authors. How a coach helped leaders navigate countless challenges: the hardest decisions, screaming in the boardroom, arrogance, self-care, and even coaching when and how leaders to leave. No topic is too sacred to be covered from how to avoid a “bad” coach and choose the right one, how many discovery “test drives” are ideal, even the boundaries between coaching and therapy. Building on stories like Harvard Business School lecturer Hubert Joly’s use of “heartcount” as compared with headcount, or Alan Mulally’s turnaround at Ford, this book is filled with examples of business drama as well as a clear framework for strengthening your leadership muscle.
Curious about the Stakeholder Centered Coaching process described in the book? Message me on LinkedIn and I will share with you an excerpt from the book describing this process.
Do you have a business you wish to grow? As 100Coaches colleague Mark Thompson likes to say, “You cannot scale an organization any faster than you can scale yourself.”
The good news? Scaling our leadership has never been so well understood and robustly possible. A simple process. Not easy.
Bill Zeeb and the infinitas team help successful leaders and teams to be recognized and acknowledged by their coworkers as measurably more effective in 12 months or less. Guaranteed. Bill’s passion is to find and share a better way to leadership growth leveraging the scientific method and a highly structured and highly time efficient process proven with hundreds of CEO’s. A US citizen, who has lived and worked in Europe since 1990, Bill loves skiing 100+ days in one season, competing in extreme triathlons (first ever podium Alpes d’Huez 2019) and working with leaders who are ready to do the hard work to achieve extreme leadership and business growth, to better serve their teams and become better ancestors.
