The Best Coaching Session You’ll Ever Have [Part 2]

Have you ever sunk a few extra days into a project, because as you got deeper into it, you realized the incredible transformation it might create in someone’s life?

This is how I feel right now.

I’ve been working over time to craft a vision for how your organization can build a stronger foundation for growth.  I am beyond eager to share it with you.

So….hang with me for the next few minutes as I unpack what I believe could lead to you creating a new kind of growth-centered approach for your organization and people.

This is part 2 of a two-part mini series (check out Part 1 HERE) on how to re-think your organization’s approach to coaching for people growth and performance.  The ultimate end state are engaging coaching sessions that trigger big growth events in your people. The primary obstacle for most organizations is that they simply do not possess the right system to foster these powerful sessions.

The very best coaching sessions occur around and inside cultures that possess the right coaching systems.  Coaching systems at strong organizations share the following 3 attributes:

1. Coaching is inextricably linked to a growth strategy.  (this is rare)
2. Leadership believes its purpose is to create more leaders.  (this is very rare)
3. Coaching is a hardwired habit, as opposed to a dreaded chore.  (this is extremely rare)

So, how do you begin to think about a better coaching system for your organization?

Here’s how these 3 attributes can make a difference:

Coaching is Inextricably Linked to a Growth Strategy

A growth strategy is the ultimate starting point for your organization and it must be visited over and over again.  Think of your growth strategy as an outward looking development plan for your organization where you’re continually surfacing new opportunity to create value for markets and customers.  Consequently, these value creation opportunities often require organizations to build new capabilities.  New capabilities require new organizational structures, as well as developing and choosing people to activate the new strategy.

When an organization decides that it’s going to grow in new and different ways, it has an amazing ripple effect on how people need to be developed ahead of the changes in order to support the strategy.  If you and I were going to add floors on top of an existing house, we would most likely be faced with critical adjustments to the foundation to support the taller house.

I can’t begin to tell you how many business owners and executives I come across who want to create growth for the business, but are grossly limited by the current people or culture (whether lack of talent or lack of development), thus, they are forced to align their strategy choices to the capabilities of their people.

If done properly, a growth strategy will resolve this trap, once and for all.

Growth-centered organizations are constantly shaping and forming their businesses to not only get in position to be the best versions of themselves, but are also in a perpetual state of ‘becoming’.  Subsequently, the same is true of their leaders and teams.

In these kinds of organizations, leaders spend an inordinate level of time reinforcing the unique talent, skills and gifts of individual performers, why they have been chosen for a certain role, and the confidence they have in them to drive the business forward.  They continue to revisit the ‘why’ aspect of their roles, tying it back to broader growth strategy choices, including markets served, their target customers, and the value they deliver.

Leadership Believes Its Purpose is to Create More Leaders

Naturally, for the reasons mentioned above, leaders in growth centered organizations are focused on building more leaders.  They believe that their efforts to build people, customers and value is what leads to growth in revenue and profit, not the reverse.  Easy to say – extremely difficult to act on  – especially if you commonly find your organization in a series of reaction-oriented cycles of fierce, mad-dashes to chase short-term numbers.

When organizations are intentional about creating a culture that builds future leaders, you can’t help not to create awesome coaching experiences.  Typically, the coaching conversations in growth-centered businesses will get underneath the metrics to surface areas that might be impacting performance or abilities to lead.  Possible examples include: blind-spot personality traits that contribute to effectiveness, areas of personal growth, office-home balance challenges, opportunities to collaborate horizontally or vertically, etc.

These are the kinds of conversations that trigger big growth events in your people, but they only happen on the watches of leaders who see their legacy in the people they leave behind.

Coaching is a Hardwired Habit, Not A Dreaded Chore

If organizations look remotely similar to what I’ve described thus far, it would be almost unfathomable to think that the drive to coach and develop others would not be automatic.

While leaders are creating the right kinds of conversations with people in their organizations, they’re building a relationship where a commitment to the follow-up process is taken seriously.  In the form of real-time, mini-coaching sessions that feel as if they’re integrated into the operating rhythm of the business, leaders are consistently partnering with their people to drive the development forward.  Almost like a college basketball coach stepping a player aside to provide ‘in-the-moment’ counsel after an emotional outburst that resulted in a technical foul.

In Summary

Creating this kind of fairy-tale organization is much easier than you think.  And it all starts with the right growth strategy and leadership DNA at the top of the business.

Decide where and how you desire or need to grow your business (because most of us don’t have a choice), and then, match your people development efforts to the strategy.

And, it will be in that kind of organization where you’ll experience the best coaching sessions of your life.

Should you need help developing a better coaching and growth system for your business, let’s spend 15 minutes on call together.  Sign-up for a FREE Growth Strategy Audit.

If you have interest in building a growth-centered approach for your organization and would like to go deeper as to how to make it happen, we would love to have you join us for a free, 60 minute webinar on March 25th, where we will share our Growth Strategy Wheel™, comprising over 20 different tools you can start using in your business right away.