COACHING
Marketing , Coaching and Leadership
By Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
The link between coaching and marketing is something I have always found to be fascinating . I see elements of similarity in both professions , and of course , one can use coaching skills in any profession , be it business , education , sports and possibly even politics .
Now the term coaching is usually synonymous with sports . A visual picture of a fellow standing on the sidelines of a football pitch , waving his hands in the air and seemingly yelling instructions to the players .
But ask anyone who has played a sport before , and they will tell you a coach does not always tell you what to do . He may point out things to you , to show you your strengths or your areas for development . He may align you in a particular direction and help bring out the best in you . Professional coaching is based on the same parameters , where a professional coach helps you find the right answers for yourself , unique to your circumstances .
A professional coach uses the power of questions and deep listening to hear what is being said and what is not being said . Sir John Whitmore who is often regarded as one of the pioneers in the field of executive coaching defines coaching as “ a process of unlocking someone ’ s potential to maximize their performance .”
Any business loves the word performance especially when great people performance translates into great organizational performance . All stakeholders are thrilled to see a business succeed , but just as marketers know , strategy without execution is pretty useless and one key component for success is people .
As a marketing professional , having practiced marketing for close to 25 years , the area of leadership fascinates me . Lots of theories of leadership exist , are leaders born or are they made . What makes a good leader . What is the connection between leadership and power . When organizations succeed , is it really about the leaders ?
Sir John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance depicts a strong connection between leadership and coaching . He puts coaching in the centre of organizational performance and
“ Any business loves the word performance especially when great people performance translates into great organizational performance . All stakeholders are thrilled to see a business succeed , but just as marketers know , strategy without execution is pretty useless and one key component for success is people ” he calls his approach “ The Living System ”. In this system leadership is surrounded by elements like People , Structure , Systems and Processes with a good dose of culture in the mix .
If you happen to be a student of Corporate Reputation and Communication , these elements will sound very familiar to you . And if you are a student of leadership , then you would want to know how these will impact the leadership of an organization and allow it to perform optimally . Change is probably one of the most difficult things an organization may have to go through yet as the saying goes , “ the only thing that is constant , is change .”
Now , leadership is meant to address the People side of things . 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 . The leader would then be at the forefront of equipping his team to do the same for their teams .
There are two aspects here that are important to highlight . A leader may use a coaching style of leadership . A leader may also need a coach to help him find his own feet , to find his voice and to find his style . Self-awareness and emotional intelligence comes into play here . Sometimes the leader doesn ’ t know that he doesn ’ t know . He may need help from a coach who can help bring out the best in him . A lot of moving parts here , that need to come together to drive overall transformation .
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MAL 45 / 21 ISSUE