What you likely experience as a leader in your business
Leadership is lonely
As a leader, do you sometimes feel alone, or have moments of loneliness? This is quite normal and happens to most effective leaders at various times in their career.
There are several aspects to these feelings of loneliness:
- Often there are occasions where you simply want to vent, have someone to bounce off, someone to confide in when you're having moments of self-doubt, or simply someone to challenge you when it comes to yourself or your extended team. In addition, you do not want to burden your spouse/partner or friends, so are left frustrated.
- You were promoted and now you are the leader of a family business. As a result, you lead family members and former peers and colleagues and the transition is challenging. You are obviously close to them but now the relationship has changed, as it needs to, and things that were normal now feel very different and in many aspects the friendship and relationships have changed.
- You are in your office and your team is working separately from you and you hear the banter and the laughter. You long for that inclusion and now feel like an outsider.
- People in the office meet socially and for whatever reason you are never invited. It seems like, from their perspective, it will be awkward to have 'our leader with us'.
- You are friendly with your team and staff, but understand the importance of not being their friend. However, in some respects you would like to have the friendship.
This probably all sounds quite familiar.
We provide a safe space for leaders. It is where you can be completely vulnerable about your dreams, challenges, doubts, aspirations, plans, conflicts, developmental needs, fears, and your vision for the company which you lead.
We are there to support and facilitate you so that you can get clarity and resolve these issues. Vulnerability is possible because we protect your confidentiality. Nothing leaves our safe, non judgmental, coaching sessions.
Resources are scarce
Business leaders will be familiar with the term the ‘war for talent’. Its impact is well known but it is increasingly prevalent and relevant since Covid, across all industries. In addition, employees are experiencing the benefits of less commuting, and flexibility in their working hours. This situation puts additional pressure on owners and leaders, requiring them to respond accordingly.
Ageing population is another well known term, highlighting the 1970’s position of 15 workers to every retiree, to a future of 5 workers for every retiree by 2050.
As coaches, we have all worked across multiple industries and understand these resource issues, and their impact on growth and stability. We help you grapple with these concerns and address them with the practical solutions you need.
You know there are things you don't know
Leaders who are self aware will acknowledge (at least to themselves) that there are numerous aspects of business, skills or leadership, or a deeper understanding of themselves and their company which require further work and development.
This well-known model below refers to the traditional steps of learning. Consider, for example, step 2 in which a person is consciously incompetent, or they know what they don’t know – a positive way of viewing the scenario is that awareness is half the solution. Partnering with a business coach will help you explore the areas you want to know about. This applies specifically to stage 5 – a recent contribution to the model – Coaching assists and allows you the opportunity to reflect on what you know and do and start dissecting how you can educate those who work for you. This is the educator’s stage. It requires a return to consciousness so you get to know and understand ‘how you do and what you do’. It is an opportunity to reflect on how you manage ‘do’ (certain) things so well, then unpick your strategies so you can teach them to others.
The 5 Levels of Learning
| Stage | Level of learning | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unconscious incompetence | "I don't know that I don't know" |
| 2 | Conscious incompetence | "I know that I do don't know" (and want to improve) |
| 3 | Conscious competence | "I know how to do it, but I have to concentrate on my task" |
| 4 | Unconscious competence | "I can do it with ease and habitually" |
| 5 | Conscious unconscious competence | "I can explain how I do it with ease to others" |
Problems are infinite
As a leader of a business, you recognise that problems and ongoing challenges are synonymous with running a business. You probably agree that without these challenges you would most likely not be experiencing growth.
A business coach acts as a partner and guide so that you do not have to solve these issues on your own. The coach’s role is not to offer you the solutions but rather to ask precise and articulate questions. This facilitates your thinking and helps you find ways to resolve your situations in a manner that is appropriate to you and the context in which you find yourself. By applying the process of asking and exploring, which will likely push you outside your comfort zone, you will develop personal and leadership growth. This will equip you to work through current and future issues.
In an unregulated (coaching) industry, choosing a qualified professional is challenging
In the current unregulated Australian coaching profession, anyone can buy a coaching franchise, enrol on weekend or ‘several months’ coaching programs, or acquire some level of accreditation from one of numerous coaching organisations. They then have the right to call themselves qualified business coaches.
At Business Coaching Sydney every coach is highly qualified and uses a coaching methodology which is evidence-based and has been rigorously used and tested with leaders across Australia and the globe, in multiple industry sectors.
The inability to continuously work 'on' the business
The adage is that we need to work ‘on’ our business instead of ‘in’ our business. Simply stated, working on the business is strategic in nature and typically focuses on visualising, strategising, planning and reviewing. Working in the business is generally operational and\or tactical in nature and tends to refer to execution and implementation.
