Now that you understand the role of coaching in your leadership development journey, you go out and engage the best executive coach you can find and that should help you achieve your goals faster. Right? As much as I would like to say yes, the honest answer is a qualified “Maybe!”
Yes! You got that right. The brightest and most inspiring coach in the world will fail to make any meaningful contribution, unless you are coachable. This is not a clever disclaimer , designed to absolve the coach for any lack of progress; it is a key (perhaps the key) determinant of whether coaching will work for you.
So what does being coachable mean? While there are lots of definitions, as per Marshall Goldsmith, it essentially boils down to Courage, Humility and Discipline
For coaching to work, you as a Leader need to have Courage. The courage to make it about YOU. To ask for feedback, to accept that despite your success there are behaviours that you need to change, to tackle issues that make you feel uncomfortable, to push yourself outside your comfort zone…
You also need to have Humility. The humility to make it NOT about YOU. Leadership is not about you – it is about your team, your business, your organisation’s mission. Coaching is about involving your stakeholders, asking for suggestions, accepting them without defense and implementing changes to make yourself and your team more effective
And you need to have Discipline. Behaviour change requires replacing ineffective habits and processes with new ones that make you more effective. This requires disciplined implementation of your action plan and disciplined follow-up with your stakeholders (accountability partners)
So before you sign up for coaching, take some time to reflect and ask yourself “Am I Coachable?”
