Why is leadership coaching more important than ever during and after Corona?
Coaching can take on many faces. It can be the opportunity to get help with a new task, to feel more confident and to learn from experience. Coaching can help you to become aware of what you want from life and work and to find your way. And coaching can be the support to serve as a sparring partner and solution developer in difficult situations. A sparring partner who listens to you, thinks about and discusses things with you. Thoughts and problems that you do not (yet) want to discuss in the leadership team. Ideas whose usefulness you first want to check. A coach helps you to recognise and become aware of your potential and to use your personal resources in a meaningful and sustainable way. As a solution developer, a coach brings in previously unavailable experience, expands networks and supports with methodological experience. I call this type of leadership coaching change coaching. The situation I am in is changing – but I also have to change in order to show leadership in this situation. Especially in difficult times like Corona, many things have to be thought through and changed. At the same time, there is a lot of uncertainty among the staff – including the management – about how to proceed. This situation requires a great deal of motivational work – and self-motivation sometimes falls by the wayside. In addition to listening and joint counselling, it is also one of the tasks of a coach to stand by in a motivating way in difficult moments. Sometimes a phone call is enough to recharge the batteries. What enables a coach to be a good sparring partner?
- He is at home in the business world and understands this environment – especially the economic challenges.
- He brings the experience of similar situations and knows approaches to solutions.
- He has no inhibitions about addressing even critical issues.
- He is flexibly available according to your needs.
- He coaches online and also after business hours.
- He does not stop at hierarchical levels, contacts all stakeholders and does not give up.
I worked with a coach myself in my professional life in a permanent position and can still remember my initial scepticism. What can a coach tell me about a situation in my company that he knows much less than I do? But I have found that sometimes it was only the formulation of my questions to a third party that suddenly led me to a clearer view and to possible solutions. I would like to see as many leaders as possible make use of this opportunity right now. It is not easy to say and do the right things at the right time in this period – it is easy to get experienced support to bring the company and its employees through the change in a motivated way and to emerge from it with a strengthened company.
