Coaches & Peer Groups: Do CEO’s need them?

As stimulating and fulfilling as the role of a CEO is, the privileges, compensation, and status it brings, it is a lonely one. 

Being the CEO, you have the added responsibility of defining the way forward for yourself, your company & the team. Good leaders facilitate the success of others around them. Successful leaders are devoted, passionate, sincere, courageous, honest, and dependable. However, in today’s high-pressure environment, with highly dynamic markets of changing technology, workforces and heightened financial and legal scrutiny, leaders need a confidante or mentor to speak to and discuss matters candidly.  

No matter how skilled the company leaders, employees, or board members are, they cannot be relied on for an objective, unbiased and 30,000 ft high viewpoint.

While board members can be supportive, most CEOs are reluctant to address their most profound uncertainties with them. Soliciting feedback from those who report to you can get awkward. Furthermore, your subordinates are unlikely to directly disclose the harsh realities or criticise your actions. Other CEOs can lend a helping hand, but there are impediments to absolute transparency and trust. 

It’s time to get an Executive Coach.

Wouldn’t it be ideal to seek advice from an impartial third party who has walked in your shoes, isn’t caught up in office politics, and is a genuine intellectual with years of relevant experience?

An executive coach is a seasoned leader with decades of success as a CEO, senior executive, or business owner. An excellent executive coach also referred to as an “executive mentor,” “CEO coach,” or “Chair,” is one with proper training in counselling others and follows a systematic framework for success. 

Never will an executive coach tell you what to do or how to do it. Instead, they will provide a perspective and share expertise and resources to help you make better and more informed decisions. They bring objectivity with insights and analysis of your situation’s most relevant and essential aspects. More importantly, a great coach is not one who provides the answers but asks the right questions.

It is usually the ability to consistently make the quality decisions that enable an executive to rise up to be a C-Suite executive. 

Most successful CEOs engage heavily in developing their skill sets, knowledge base, and subject matter expertise early in their careers, only to make limited commitments to their professional growth after they reach the C-suite. However, at the C-suite level, an executive must be at the peak of their game since they have an extensive area of influence, the most power to affect a corporation, and are also the most susceptible.

The reality is that today’s world is highly competitive, and it takes just one wrong decision to dethrone a C-suite executive from his coveted post. So, irrespective of your track record, you are as good as your last decision in today’s world. 

To meet the demands of today’s dynamic market, every business leader and CEO should have an executive coach by their side.

Click Here to learn the reasons to seek coaching