CEO Coach: 7 Steps to Providing Powerful Perspective
CEO’s are primary users of Executive Coaches.
Given global competition and the fact that your competitors will eventually be able to replicate any competitive advantage you once enjoyed, in order for a company to grow, expand, develop and thrive, it’s essential that its top leaders lead the way, continuing their own development.
A CEO’s main skill is not that they are the best at making the “widgets” of their company. Clearly, those on the front lines of the organization are better at that. The CEO’s job is unique: spearheading the vision for the company and aligning the company’s resources to fulfill on that vision. Being able to create that vision requires skill, and one not necessarily acquired from doing more work within the ranks of the company. If you ask many of our clients what skill they’d most like their VP’s to improve on, many would say Strategic Vision.
How do you know when you have it?
A CEO Coach is there to provide outside, objective eyes. A Coach will assist the CEO in the following things:
- Determining through what “lens” s/he is seeing the company. This is an incredibly powerful assessment. For instance, if you’re a CEO who sees your company as “the little guy succeeding against the odds”, then you will likely have a different vision for your company that than the CEO who sees her company as “just holding on in terrible conditions.” The lens through which you see the world influences the path you take in the world, so becoming aware of what your automatic lens is is one of the most powerful tools an Executive Coach can provide.
- Shifting that lens if the automatic one is not one that serves the company.
- Creating a clear vision of a possible future for the company.
- Determining if this vision aligned with the Values of the company – is it a match?
- Addressing the communication tools the CEO needs in order to influence the necessary parties to align with her/his vision. Do people listen to her/him in the necessary way? If not, what is there to address?
- Creating a plan to move the company toward the vision.
- Inspiring the CEO to think in new ways and consider things outside their “box” – they may not choose these other things, but having options provides more power to whatever is chosen. (If you choose chocolate ice cream from 31 flavors, you feel like you examined the options – rather than having only one flavor and wondering what else there might be.)
You don’t know what you don’t know. A coach provides the CEO with more awareness and vision than s/he could have on their own. When your job is to lead a huge ship, it’s good to know you’ve examined all the options and that the course you’ve plotted is one you believe in and can get everyone else on board behind.
To arrange for a private CEO consultation, please contact us.