Leadership Coaching is a form of management development in which the client works with a specialist coach to develop their own leadership impact. It differs from normal coaching in that the leadership coach must have significant leadership knowledge and experience. A leadership coaching session is a blend of teaching and conventional coaching; the teaching aspect is necessary to allow the client the necessary theory to ground the session, and then the coaching element of the session explores that theory with the coach supporting the client in establishing how that theory applies to the client’s situation.
The theory should not be complicated, in most respects leadership is common sense, but it is useful for the client to understand some key leadership and team theory such as Tuckman’s Model of Team Development, Gallwey’s ‘Performance Equation’ and Neil Jurd’s Definition of Leadership. It is helpful for the leadership to have personal experience as a leader, this gives them credibility with the client and gives them experience to draw on.
Leadership coaching can be highly structured, with a series of sessions based on syllabus with each session focusing on a different leadership model of concept, or it can be more emergent with the client defining their current situation and the coach offering the relevant theory to apply in that situation.
If you are interested in leadership coaching Leader-Connect’s coaches are very experienced in this field and all have significant leadership experience. To contact Leader-Connect email: Leadership Coaching Contact.
How to choose a coach?
To choose a coach it is worth doing some research and finding a coach who is experienced in your field. If for instance you are looking to develop your leadership skills or impact you are likely to need a leadership coach who is experienced in leadership and in developing leaders.
An experienced leadership coach is Neil Jurd, author of The Leadership Book. There are various other coaching specialisations, ranging from general coaches who can guide you through work or domestic situations, through to more specialist coaches including nutrition and divorce coaches.
When engaging a coach it is worth asking them for references to confirm the effect they have had on others, and just committing to one session initially so you can withdraw from the arrangement if the chemistry isn’t there.
Find Leadership Speaker
There are various directories of professional speakers available for corporate events and the use of a speaker can be like a “group” coaching session. A well-regarded leadership expert speaker is our very own Neil Jurd OBE, a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel and Sandhurst instructor who has worked in leadership development since 2009 and who wrote the bestselling ‘The Leadership Book’. He led Gurkha soldiers in Iraq, has founded two charities and in 2020 was awarded the OBE for leadership development work with cadet force officers.
He gives and excellent talk based around the key lessons in his book, in which the audience are given simple crib-cards to take away. This talk is very effective for initiating a leadership culture in an organisation and in recent months he has delivered this talk to several educational trusts and businesses. Other excellent leadership speakers include Tim Colins, another former soldier, and the astronaut Tim Peake.
