Do leaders need coaches?

Let’s Talk – Justin Carlson

Coaching can have a profound impact on leadership skills. Most leaders today are doing pretty well managing what I would call the "inside-out," and by that, I mean, navigating your own organizational pressures, understanding your own organizational dynamics, your internal environment, but what's often missing is what I would call the "outside-in," or understanding that external perspective, and that's really where coaching can come in.

A broader perspective: Different industries, different roles.

Having a coach can really fill in that gap by providing a broader perspective, one that spans a lot of different industries, a lot of different roles, and can help you, as a leader, really see what you can't otherwise see from your culture. How has your culture influenced your thinking, the water that you swim in? How is it influencing you in ways that you may not be aware of?

The coach can provide that balance and external perspective.

The coach can provide that balance and external perspective so that you have a much clearer view of reality and of the potential options that you have at your disposal. Leadership can be a pretty lonely path at times, especially as you become more senior in an organization, and it can be very difficult to find colleagues or bosses that don't have their own agendas, or that aren't pushing their own points of view, but a good coach can provide that objective perspective and really help you think through a complex issue so that you can make a better decision for any given situation without some of those agendas, without some of those biases.