Being in the C-suite, or a top level leader, requires a new level of you today if you want to be part of the forward thinking corporate crowd. You may have skills, tangible and specific skills, that got you to that position but a new version of you is required when you take on a leadership role, and specifically if you want to ride the wave.You have to develop into a leader, and continue leveling up on the growth journey. It never ends, there is no pause button! The skills that become the most important are the soft skills. How you present yourself, how you make yourself available to others, the way you engage and communicate, how you motivate and inspire action all become the most important aspects about you and determine your success in your role, and ultimately your professional success. You need to know how to remain relevant.
This is difficult for those who excelled with hard skills before or are not used to challenging the connectivity of their white matter brain cells, hence allowing their emotional intelligence to lead their career. It is a huge shift for many who assume leadership positions, or must renew what they know of leadership. But those executives who make improving the soft skills, gaining emotional intelligence, and leading with deep authenticity priority in their careers are the ones who differentiate themselves from average leadership and create the extraordinary impact top leaders are remembered for at the head of companies or countries.
Think about the exceptional leaders who come to mind? Do you know what their specific skills were or do you think of their words and actions? We remember how people make us feel, far less what they say. Very few people think about Elon Musk’s coding ability in his early days but plenty have reshared his internal emails and communication style as a leader. These are the aspects of you as a leader that must be developed and mastered.
How do leaders develop these skills? Emotional intelligence, the ability to make emotions work for you instead of against you, is an essential quality of effective leaders. Because the past norm in business has been to condition the workforce to favor left brain thinking and behavior, many have to learn or re-discover the attributes and benefits of EQ performance. So what if you want to become more EQ performant? Many opt for an executive coach.
Which executive coach is best suited for you?
An executive coach is a trained coach whose goal is to help their client’s improve their leadership skills, performance and mastery. There are different styles of executive coaching and different preferences by clients. Some executive coaches come from a more conceptual and scholastic place of guidance due to their training. Others are trained and have personally experienced the resilience, grit and growth mindset that CEO leadership stamina demands.
Why have an executive coach in your back pocket?
Why would you have a French dictionary traveling to France, or keep an extra tire in your trunk? Because being prepared is everything in leadership success. Hiring an executive coach doesn’t mean you’re a bad leader or don’t have the capacity to expand. On the contrary, it demonstrates your propensity for evolution – the very fabric top-tier elite leaders are made of – and your awareness that “you don’t know what you don’t know” Does having a therapist make you sick? No! You are there to work out the kinks and improve how you move through your daily life with less friction and stress. You are there to know you better. It’s the same with executive coaching. You are not there because you are bad at what you do, your coach guides you towards discovering more of you and how you can better apply all of who you are for higher performance. Your coach will help you identify what internal blocks you have, what dark spots you are not seeing, and help bring it all to light for a more authentic, present and powerful You as a leader.
How do you want to be coached?
Of course, different coaches have different approaches. My approach is unique in that I am first your core advisor then your executive coach. In fact, I am a Core Advisor in Coaching mode. Meaning, I counsel from experience, then I layer in my coaching acumen that holds a space for self inquiry through powerful questions. I don’t tell you what to do, I also don’t just let you talk at nauseam in therapy style. Rather, I ask vital questions that guide you to self discovery and bring out that authentic you to the light so you can lead and perform with better results and less friction. We all function from our subconscious, which means that it is like operating without a full deck of cards, until we choose to use a flashlight to look for the missing cards that are also called “shadows”. For your leadership’s ascension to its pinnacle, your deck must be full. That is the rule in playing the CEO style leadership game consciously and intentionally. The flashlight casts light on the cards that represent your unique power and strengths. The discovery and transformation process is yours, I bring the light!
What results do you seek?
Be clear about your outcome when you hire a professional consultant, or coach. Be intentional in the way you want to feel after you complete your time. Be ready to face fears that must be unmasked in order for you to rise higher. Be committed to yourself first and foremost, this is why you are seeking support. Be delusional about your ambition, after all it’s your rise to your peak. Be open to learn more about you and who you are really under all of the layers and bricks of your wall protecting your vulnerability. Be unstoppable about how resolved you are to expand your horizons, growth is addictive. Be unapologetic for your unique strengths and quirks, there is only one of you and the world needs your genius!
How do you create sustainable, forever fruitful growth?
The answer is simple: do the work to become more each day. It pays off huge dividends in your personal and professional life. Have a consistent and committed intention for your personal discovery. When you are digesting tools and insights, the next step is an intrinsic shift towards your genuine, unmasked powerful self; it is not a short lived pseudo success. Have you ever been to a conference, heard a speaker or received training and felt motivated and pumped… but it fades away? Being coached, or trained, without doing the work has the same effect. You are just putting on another mask that you will eventually take off. It’s not sustainable.
Furthermore, this work teaches you to flex your learning muscles. It may not be easy at first but you develop a muscle that will last a lifetime. Training your mindset and embracing inner transformation is just like upleveling your body at the gym: a good coach doesn’t yell the facts at you, a good coach helps you fall in love with the process.
And this process, being yours forever, shaped you to know how to use the flashlight by yourself to continue remaining curious about the missing cards in your deck! Many companies are now hiring coaches to train individuals to be self sufficient with this process. Maybe you now undertake coaching yourself…
Are you ready to start the journey, experience the process, and reveal the inner genius leader in you?
Get in touch with me for a free consultation.
