Why Executive Coaching Is Important in Leadership, Business, and Sports

The benefits of executive coaching don’t just fall in the realm of leaders’ personal development. Although every good leader seeks to better themselves and their skills, most turn to executive coaching because it strengthens their businesses in the long run.

Professional executive coaching has far-reaching benefits that benefit everyone in a company, from leaders to every employee – no matter their rank. When leaders improve and develop, their organizations tend to follow suit.

Developing, refining, and improving leadership skills isn’t just about career growth. It’s about equipping an organization with the leadership it needs to grow in every capacity. We’ve seen what executive coaching can do on big and small levels, and it’s clear that leadership and business success are closely intertwined.

Let’s dive into what makes executive coaching important for leaders and their businesses.

What is Executive Coaching, Exactly?

Before we continue rattling off the benefits of executive coaching in businesses and sports, you need to understand what it is.

Executive or leadership coaching is professional training that helps business leaders foster crucial skills, personality traits, and habits. It challenges people in positions of power to become more effective leaders while also contributing to the foundation of a healthier, happier, and more lucrative company.

Our executive coaching program at Strategy People Culture revolves around deepening self-awareness and learning to lead with confidence and adaptability. We offer one-on-one coaching sessions, as well as group training opportunities.

The personal benefits of coaching are evident – it builds the quintessential leadership traits needed to effectively run a company and earn the respect of others. However, we want to talk about benefits that go beyond personal development.

Here are seven ways that executive coaching can help businesses as much as it helps their individual leaders.

1. Identifies Collective and Individual Strengths/Weaknesses

One of the most crucial elements of executive coaching is understanding what you’re good at – and what you could improve upon. The same goes for businesses as a whole.

That’s why our executive coaching strategies focus heavily on the concept of self-awareness. Both individuals and organizations can only improve if they have a firm understanding of where improvement is necessary.

Executive coaching helps leaders assess their business’s collective and individual strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to challenge themselves and their employees to improve and better support the organization’s weak points.

Personalized coaching services, like ours at Strategy People Culture, are especially beneficial when it comes to challenging weaknesses. An exemplary executive coach will adapt based on your business’s specific needs, pushing leaders and their employees to assess and improve.

2. Helps Companies and Leaders Weather Big Changes

Executive coaching is also an incredibly powerful way to prepare your business for change.

Up to 48% of organizations wind up hiring executive coaches to “develop high potentials or facilitate transitions.” This could be a succession, power transfer, company acquisition, or even a shift to remote work (like what happened to many companies in 2020).

Source: harvard business review

All organizations go through changes, whether it be large expansions, dramatic transitions amongst the C-suite team,  or capital raising and private equity ventures. Leaders can benefit personally from working with a coach, and what they learn can help the entire business weather big changes.

With professional coaching services, leaders become better equipped to make decisions that make change easier. They’ll have the necessary skills to smoothly guide their businesses through periods of vast change and uncertainty, and that’s invaluable.

3. Improves Goal-Setting Capabilities

You might be thinking, “I already have goals – how will a coach help with that?”

Although many business leaders have goals, they aren’t necessarily S.M.A.R.T. goals. An executive coach helps leaders nail down personal and business-related goals that are:

• Specific (clear and well-defined)

• Measurable (quantifiable)

• Achievable (realistic and have an endpoint)

• Relevant (work with other business and personal goals)
• Time-bound (based on a timeline/due date)

In other words, these goals are far from vague and are actually achievable with careful planning.

Research has indicated time and time again that goal-setting can be effective when it’s done with a proper mindset and the right amount of definition. They give a business unified direction, which many startups and small companies lack.

Learning to set S.M.A.R.T. goals isn’t just important for personal growth and the company’s future. It’s also crucial for employee improvement and satisfaction. Leaders and executives can translate this to their conversations with employees by learning to set highly defined goals.

Keep in mind that S.M.A.R.T. goals are specific but also adaptable. A professional executive coach teaches leaders how to create dynamic, ever-evolving objectives that benefit the company – without creating unrealistic expectations.

At Strategy People Culture, we work with our clients to create goals that work for them, then serve as accountability partners. Any worthwhile executive coach will really get to know a leader, their team, and their business to help create objectives that fuel future success.

4. Boosts Leadership Confidence

Confidence is undoubtedly one of the most important qualities any leader can possess. When leaders feel empowered and self-assured, they make better decisions and encourage their employees to trust in their guidance.

Just like a patient wants to trust their surgeon wholeheartedly, employees want to feel secure under the leadership of a confident, poised leader.

Although the “fake it ‘til you make it” mindset works for some, employees benefit more under the leadership of an executive that actively works to self-assess and grow. True confidence commands respect, while forced overconfidence can do just the opposite.

When leaders take the time to participate in leadership challenges and coaching, they don’t just empower themselves but also their employees.

Maybe a leader struggles with public speaking or second-guesses their decisions in front of others. The best way to work through anxieties and doubts is to practice – preferably with expert techniques and the guidance of a professional leadership coach.

Our method at Strategy People Culture is to foster confidence through self-assessment and character-building challenges. Anyone can develop a confident executive presence – it just takes time, dedication, and purpose.

5. Uncovers Blind Spots

Another huge benefit of executive coaching: it reveals blind spots leaders may otherwise never think to examine.

As much as executives might like to think they know their businesses, it is difficult for people in positions of power to truly understand what employees go through. In fact, Microsoft’s recent Work Trends Report found that many “leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call.”

This is especially true in businesses where employees work remotely, either fully or partially. It takes extra effort from leaders to check in with employees, discover hidden problems, and truly get a feel for their company’s current standing.

Executive coaching pushes leaders to better assess and understand their organizations. Coaching programs often even include measures such as conducting employee surveys, scheduling one-on-one meetings with managers, and company-wide discussions.

At Strategy People Culture, we believe that businesses are only as good as their people. If people are unhappy and the leaders are out of touch, the company will struggle to thrive in different circumstances.

6. Fosters a Better Company Culture

Speaking of people, let’s talk about culture. Although executive coaching might seem like an individualized service, it can quickly translate into a better company-wide environment.

According to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the overall turnover rate in corporate America is 57.3%. Roughly 29% of employees turnover voluntarily, meaning they quit or resign from their place of employment. That’s almost a third of all employees leaving by choice.

Employee retention is a huge problem for many companies – especially in recent years. One of the biggest ways organizations can minimize turnover and retain valuable employees is to cultivate a better workplace culture,  and leadership plays a huge role in that.

It’s thought that only about 28% of executives really understand their company cultures, and yet they are viewed as the most influential part of company culture formation and evolution.

That’s where executive coaching makes a big difference. By fostering self-awareness, as well as awareness of the company’s strengths and weaknesses as a whole, coaching helps leaders directly improve and grow their company culture and therefore retain happy, productive employees.

7. Promotes More Diversity

We also need to talk about executive coaching’s effect on corporate diversity.

Professional executive coaching helps leaders identify and refine the challenges within their organizations, including concerns about diversity and inclusivity.

About 76% of job seekers and employees report that a diverse workforce is important when evaluating companies and job offers. It’s the responsibility of leaders to cultivate an executive team and company culture that promotes safe environments and equal opportunities for all, and coaching can help them do that.

For example, at Strategy People Culture, we pair our coaching services with diversity training and anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training. The goal is to give leaders and their teams every tool possible to create a lucrative workplace where everyone feels valued and safe, no matter their background.

In Conclusion

Leadership training and coaching services aren’t just for personal benefit – even if some might think they are. When leaders grow in strength and effectiveness, their businesses thrive as a result. After all, business is about relationships and people, no matter how much technology might evolve.

Whether you’re looking into executive coaching for yourself or for others in your company, it’s an investment in the overall well-being of your organization.

To learn more about our coaching opportunities or the benefits of executive coaching, call 833-762-5772. You can also set up a free consultation with our team online. We’ll discuss your specific needs and work to customize your coaching sessions to your exact requests.