Coach to Leader - Leadership Certification Program

The search for the traits of leaders has been a constant in all cultures for centuries. Philosophical writings such as Plato’s “The Republic” or Plutarch’s “Lives” have explored a fundamental question: “What qualities distinguish a leader? 

In Western thought, autocratic traditionalists give the role of leadership a similarity to the Roman figure of the “Pater Familia”, other more modern thinkers oppose these patriarchal models and place a higher value on the leader’s empathic and consensual orientation.

Sun Tzu, in his book “The Art of War”, written 2500 years ago, tells us: “Leadership is a matter of intelligence, honesty, humanity, courage and discipline … when one has the five virtues all together, each one corresponding to their role, then one can be a leader”.

Today, organisations need influential leaders to achieve their goals. They are leaders capable of realising their vision and, above all, of influencing their workers to convince them of it.

Coaching is a fundamental tool to achieve this alliance between the leader and the workers.

A leader can be considered to the extent that he has followers, people convinced of his vision, who share it and whose lives and actions are influenced by the leader’s ideas.

Within the organisations, there is a permanent need to maintain this link to achieve the maximum performance of the workers, who are fully convinced of the set objectives and strategies to be implemented and are committed to achieving them. 

In this environment, coaching becomes a fundamental tool for the leader to achieve the necessary level of influence.

What is coaching?

Coaching as a technique involves more than giving instructions. It is at an intermediate point between the boss with control and the worker with responsibilities. That is, it allows both situations to coincide.

It also needs communication skills on the part of the coach, who, through active listening and feedback, should influence the worker, generating responsibility and awareness.

Leadership and coaching

There are four reasons why coaching becomes a central leadership tool:

• A command-based leader belongs to the past. The world today demands that leaders use coaching to the extent that their workers require better, more horizontal, and less taxing treatment. 
• Coaching helps improve staff performance, which in turn is a crucial factor in leadership style.
• Future leadership is strengthened by helping others enhance their awareness and self-esteem, achieved through coaching.
• New leadership qualities are required to meet today’s organisations’ challenges in changing globalised environments. 

In what ways can business coaching help you achieve the best leadership?

In the right environment, coaching can be the best tool for the leader to positively influence other professionals, in other words, to achieve performance and satisfaction increase within the organisation.

Many companies around the world and from very different sectors have found in coaching the key to empowering the most effective type of leadership for the organisation since it is a practical methodology to carry out important actions such as:

• Set clear goals and develop a program to meet them.
• Define the necessary individual and team competencies and responsibilities.
• Achieve the maximum professional and personal development of individuals.
• Help the leader to have the right vision of the company and transmit it effectively to the rest.
• The empowerment of coaching teaches to exercise consensus and participatory leadership, taking advantage of the ideas and talents of all.
• Create a positive work environment, where the sum of ideas, efforts and collaboration is encouraged.
• Neutralise situations in which employees are not allowed to expose their views and ideas and creativity is repressed. 

With coaching, the trust, commitment and co-responsibility of all professionals within your company increases, which translates into positive results.

Another of the most powerful benefits of coaching is teaching leaders to detect opportunities and threats in the markets and find the best possible solutions.

Improve the decision-making capacity of the Leaders of the Organization, their decision-making capacity and provides them with tools for analysis and decision-making in complex situations.

In a certain way, what coaching seeks is to empower the leader to convey his abilities and skills to the benefit of the company using techniques of motivation, persuasion and assertiveness.