Why leaders throughout the organization need coaches to maximize success and prevent failure

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Why great leaders have a coach behind them
RAY WILLIAMS | May 23, 2014 2:01 PM ET
More from Ray Williams
Being a leader today is challenging and the failure rate high. Leaders can maximize their probability of success and job satisfaction by
having a personal or executive coach.
Political, business and community leaders are failing in increasing numbers. And by that I mean, they are fired or resign because of
issues of competence and behaviour.
Two of every five new chief executives fail in their first 18 months on the job, an article in the Harvard Business Review, reports. And
it appears the main reason has nothing to do with competence, knowledge, or experience, but rather with hubris, ego and an out-of-
touch leadership style.
That is backed up by research done by Sydney Finkelstein, author of Why Smart Executives Fail, who followed several spectacular
failures during a six-year period. He concluded these chief executives had similar deadly habits chiefly related to unchecked egos.
Call it overconfidence or ego, but powerful and successful leaders often distrust, or feel they don’t need, advice. Consider a study by
Kelly See, Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, and Naomi Rothman, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision, which
concluded one characteristic of powerful and successful leaders is high levels of self-confidence. Unfortunately, they say, the higher
the self-confidence, the less likely these leaders are open to advice and feedback.
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Fotoliaeaders can have no greater task than developing others, and this requires coaching and mentoring skills.

2. Yet, in a recent survey of 200 CEOs, board directors and other senior executives about how they receive and view leadership advice,
Stanford’s Graduate School of Business found two-thirds of CEOs do not receive coaching or leadership advice from outside sources.
In an article the Harvard Business Review, Gretchen Gavett attributes this to some residual stigma that coaching is somehow
“remedial” as opposed to something that enhances high performance, similar to how an elite athlete uses a coach. Part of the stigma
comes from boards themselves.
The other interesting dichotomy emerging from the survey is what CEOs are looking to be coached on versus what the research says
they need to be coached on. CEOs rated conflict management skills the highest, whereas board directors say CEOs need to work on
mentoring skills and sharing leadership. Much of the research shows leaders often lack the so called “soft skills”— empathy,
compassion, serving others, and humility.
Here are the areas I recommend for greatest growth, which translates into improved performance and job satisfaction:
Self-awareness Leadership development needs to be an inside-out process that focuses less on competencies and skill acquisition
and more on increasing your self-awareness and understanding your values, life purpose and desired legacy;
Emotional self-mastery Again, a superficial program of increasing emotional intelligence through techniques and tips such as
simple listening skills or facilitation skills avoids or neglects the more important requirement to understand, manage and master
your emotions; and understand and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. This also means developing humility, and
demonstrating the positive emotions of compassion, empathy, kindness and gratitude;
Developing influence and persuasion, rather than power and control behaviours Mastering these competencies starts
from a place of using them for the greater good and not some self-serving or manipulative place;
Empowering others to be independent with encouragement to grow personally and professionally Leaders can have
no greater task than developing others, and this requires coaching and mentoring skills;
Developing your positive interpersonal skills This includes your capacity to establish rapport with others; motivate inspire
others; and master conflict resolution skills as well as how to have difficult conversations.
Committing yourself to something bigger. This includes a commitment to help make your community and the world a better
place in which to live.
It is unlikely or at best very difficult for someone who has a vested interest in the organization — your boss, a board director, or a
human resources manager — to assist a leader or aspiring leader in developing and mastering these areas. It is difficult for a leader to
feel comfortable being totally vulnerable to someone inside the organization.
An outside coach can establish an oasis of safety, while providing honest feedback with the objective of aiding significant changes in a
leader’s behaviour. For the aspiring or new leaders, having a coach to guide them through the often stressful initial stages of being a
leader also becomes critical.
Ray Williams is president of Ray Williams Associates, a Vancouver-based company that provides leadership and executive
coaching services. He is the author of The Leadership Edge, and Breaking Bad Habits, and a co-author of the best seller, Ready,
Aim, Influence. He can be reached at http://raywilliams.ca or ray@raywilliamsassociates.com
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