COACHING
If you happen to know you don’ t know or perhaps you don’ t know you don’ t know, then working with an executive coach can allow you to get clarity and build your leadership skills and style. Research suggests that the coaching leadership style delivers the highest performance in an organization. A personal coach can work with you on a one to one basis to allow a leader to learn delegation, performance reviews, time management, work life balance, great communication and so much more.
As you build coaching as a leadership style, it may also be useful to undertake formal training that helps one learn coaching skills and coaching models. These can assist in a deeper understanding of the coaching process. There are several institutions that train coaches. Be sure to pick an accredited program, so that you are sure of the quality and the recognition of the qualification.
As a marketing leader, you may be the one leading the entire marketing department. You could be a supervisor of a sales team. You could be a team leader at a call centre. You could be a brand manager in a team of
“ Leadership styles may be diverse and have different impacts on teams within an organization. In order to drive change or transformation, a leader may need to adopt a coaching style of leadership that will allow the leader to bring out the best in each team member.”
brand managers. You could be an account executive in a marketing agency. The level of seniority should not be a deterrent for you to explore getting a coach. Anyone at any level can benefit from working with a coach.
When looking at output, it is not the seniority that counts but rather each person at every single level who pulls their weight in the right direction. It also does not mean you must have a team reporting to you to be able to use a coaching style.
This goes back to the definition of a leader. Who is a leader? My all time favorite quote is by John Quincy Adams who said,“ If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are a leader.”
You do not need authority or power to be a leader. You can lead from whichever part of the organization you are. Ask yourself, are you a leader? Are you someone who inspires others and brings out the best in others?
In the words of John Maxwell, who also embraces the power of coaching,“ Leadership is not about titles, positions and flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.“! ■
Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia is a seasoned marketing professional and a personal development coach. You can commune with her on this or related matters via mail: Info @ thrityengineer. org.
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Telephone: + 254- 746- 308 377 E: Info @ marketingafrica. co. ke