Developing Leadership Potential Through Coaching

Statistics show that many coaching relationships fail to achieve lasting results. To be truly successful in the long term, a coaching relationship should focus less on trying to change people and more on developing their potential.

One of the most difficult challenges for new leaders is to let go of the past.

After all, it’s their past that led to their promotion. Their approach to managing others and completing projects helped them to succeed and become recognized. It is what made them who they are. So it’s only natural for them to assume that now is the time to do more of the same — just a little faster and a little harder. They tell themselves that they just have to play to their strengths and step on the accelerator to thrive in their new role.

And that’s where most new leaders trip up. They get in their own way by not recognizing that, while their past accomplishments may be the reason they were tapped to lead, their past has little to do with how they will lead. Their future success is about their potential. The way they achieved goals in the past may actually get in the way of their success as new leaders. And this can be a difficult concept for them to grasp.

A Real Connection
To coach new leaders through this transition requires a real connection between the leader and the coach. That is a very complicated formula.

Both need to have seven things going on simultaneously. They need to be open, flexible, intrigued by solving problems, self-aware, willing to listen and reflect and, most importantly, both need to be convinced that the change they want is worth everything it will take to bring it about.

Change is very hard. We often do everything we can to avoid changing. It means work and leaving our comfort zones. The real motivation to change has to come from within. Otherwise, nothing will change, at least not for very long.

The best advice in the world will fall on deaf ears if one of two people is not ready: the coach or the person being coached. That accounts for a very complicated formula, times two.

Before we delve into the most effective ways to coach, let’s spend a moment addressing a fundamental question: Does anyone really change? We can all change in huge ways if we really want to. But it is not the leader’s job to try to change people. Rather, the leader’s job is to help people realize their potential. Those are two very different things.