Executive coaching is one of the most effective talent management tools. By consulting with leaders about their needs and crafting a clear plan of action, tangible results are achieved. The integration of executive coaching into your talent management strategy will help you retain your best talent, groom high potentials, and turn your top performers into influential leaders.
As an executive coach, with a background working for Anderson Consulting and Ernst & Young, I learned the impact talent management has in developing future leaders. Supporting them in transition, new roles, increased responsibility, and high profile projects.
Executive coaching can become a true differentiator in talent management.
By consulting with leaders, about their approach, a coach can help them implement real change in your organization. Executive coaching helps you develop a team of leaders who coach their own people and think strategically about how to cultivate their skills. In return, leaders get a team of motivated and advancement-ready star employees.
What executive coaching and consulting teaches leaders about talent management?
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Ask employees about their aspirations.
They need to understand what drives their people in order to motivate them to reach the next level. Are they ready and wanting to take their career to the next level.
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Assess skill gaps across their workforce.
Some aspects of organizational functions will be phased out in the coming years, while others will be phased in. Many positions will progressively focus more on strategic thinking rather than on performing repetitive tasks, meaning teams need to skill up accordingly. An executive coach can help leaders assess the abilities their people need to develop across different roles and organizational functions.
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Encourage innovation.
Leaders should inspire and empower their employees to engage in outside-of-the-box thinking. They can do this by instilling a culture of collaborative brainstorming and voicing innovative ideas, even those that seem implausible. In group strategy sessions, these ideas are often refined into game-changing action plans.
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Provide the appropriate incentives for growth.
Incentives don’t need to be expensive or time-consuming. Sharing praise and recognizing leaders in thoughtful ways, like affirming someone’s strengths or specific contributions in front of others, will show employees that their leaders truly respect and value them. In the long-term, talking with employees about career pathways will incentivize them to continue growing with their company.
In these ways, executive leadership development cultivates strong, capable employees who understand how their personal vision for their career fits into their organizational vision.
Of course, an executive coach also helps leaders build and fine-tune their own executive presence skillset as well, which will help them achieve better results with their team.
How an executive coach strengthens leaders’ personal skillset:
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Encouraging agile thinking.
In today’s fast-changing world, change leaders need to be flexible, agile, and ready to adapt. Asking for ideas from all corners of the organization will give them a wealth of insights for course-correcting when needed.
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Promoting strategic risks.
Trying new ideas means taking calculated risks. In a changing climate, this is especially essential. Leaders must learn to evaluate which risks are worth taking, which requires belief in their intuition and the ability to wisely assess the pros and cons of a potential decision.
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Building confidence and decisiveness.
When people see their leaders making decisions with conviction in challenging times, it gives them confidence in their organization. Leaders should work to show their strong belief not just in themselves, but in their whole team, which will encourage everyone to rally behind them.
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Improving eloquence.
Well-spoken leaders command attention. They get right to the point and use authoritative language, emphasizing key ideas without burying them in rambling speech. Whenever they present an idea, they make a strong positive impression. A high competency of executive presence is what’s needed.
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Showing compassion and consideration.
Great leaders aren’t distant and aloof from the people they manage. Rather, they show a deep level of interest in each individual and concern for their wellbeing. They work to find solutions for the problems each person faces, and they demonstrate compassion for the broader world as well.
When leaders develop these qualities, they’ll grow their charisma in turn. Senior leaders, direct reports, and peers alike will gravitate toward them and want to hear their opinions, implicitly trusting their judgment.
By honing these skills, they can develop future leaders and navigate transitions adeptly. An executive coach can add substantial value to your business by growing your talent at all levels of the organization. As a result, you can easily plan for succession and increase your competitiveness even during challenging times.
Executive coaching, as a talent management tool, becomes a vital competitive advantage for the company. While consulting and working closely with leaders, an executive coach maximizes the true talent of a leader.
