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Leadership coaching has recently experienced a transition. What was once thought of as a desperate tactic to save a business has now become a fundamental piece of maintaining a business’ success. Organizations and their leaders have started to understand the varying advantages business consulting can have on the organization at the individual level – and not solely for the C-suite. Business consulting has been found to improve leadership performance for future leaders in addition to current leadership.

According to a survey done by the American Management Association (AMA), coaching was used in half of 2008 companies and, among respondents who reported not to have coaching programs, 56% reported that they planned to implement these programs in the near future. Especially for organizations where a majority of their labor includes frontline employees, effective leadership coaching has the capabilities to revitalize your business and re-engage your teams. We outline just how it works, below.

A business coach focuses on improving performance at the individual level.

It’s known that small, incremental improvements amount to larger, long-term successes. The same can be said for small improvements at the individual level. Leadership coaching is aimed at enhancing individual performance at each level within the organization and measuring these small incremental improvements to lead to a sustainable and successful organization.

Though business consulting begins with the C-suite, consultants will eventually meet with each member of the organization individually to help each employee determine their path to success and develop their leadership abilities. This requires posing thought-provoking questions to get the employee’s thinking outside of the box and learning to understand themselves, rather than a coach giving them specific directions to follow.

Business consulting provides each employee with the tools they need to coach themselves, with the hopes that, as they develop into leaders, they will have the tools to nurture that insight out of others as well.

Leadership coaching forces employees to alter how they think, redefining how they approach work.

Leadership coaching is not a step-by-step, cookie-cutter manual presented by a coach to each organization it works with. To put it simply, coaches listen and guide. As coaches pose open-ended questions, they will guide employees through hypothetical scenarios, which encourage them to take risks and forces them to come up with alternative solutions to certain problems. This primary method of leadership coaching allows your employees to gain self-awareness and insight into their own leadership abilities.

Based on the employee’s responses, coaches will help them reflect on their goals, values, and management styles. Then, pulling from the answers, the business consultant can help develop specific goals for the outcome of these sessions. These “closed-door” meetings allow employees free range to reflect on their career thus far and get a better idea of where they want to go and grow.

This provides a safe place for the organization, both at the individual-level and collectively as a team, to understand why the employees think the way they do and create a culture that can harness that energy for the good of the organization.

The main advantage of leadership coaching is to improve retention.

Another key finding from the AMA survey was that 38% of respondents said that incorporating coaching frequently into their organization improved retention rates. This finding can be attributed to the fact that employees acknowledge the value of training and development and consider it an added benefit of working for their company.

Leaders who bring in outside business consultants to help analyze and grow their employees show that they are devoted to the individual growth of their team members. This not only helps people remain loyal to the organization but it also can be a key benefit as to why someone would accept a job offer with your company.

Successful leadership coaching requires time and buy-in from all levels of the organization.

A common barrier when an organization is considering hiring a leadership coach is that they see it as something that will require a significant time commitment. There is no denying that, for leadership coaching to be successful, it requires dedicating time to the process, to executing on the outcomes of the coaching sessions, and analyzing the results.

But this time investment in your managers and frontline employees will ultimately benefit your bottom line if done properly. As your coaching processes and goals become more consistent, the higher levels of management will develop their own ways to motivate their direct reports. Individuals and teams will feel empowered to develop their skills and achieve their goals, and the coaching will naturally become something ingrained within employees at every level of the organization without upper management having to force them to set time aside.

For business consulting to be effective, you must choose the right coach.

As coaching becomes increasingly more important to the sustainable growth of an organization, finding the right leadership coach to execute these strategies becomes more essential. Successes change as people change, and it’s the job of the coach to pose the right questions, pull the honest responses out of the employees, and ultimately develop a plan to drive business growth.

It takes the right, honest, and thorough coach to help executives get the most out of these coaching sessions, and the right coach can be found at AHA! Business Consulting. We are devoted to helping teach employees how to change to benefit the organization, and we have developed a wide range of tools and services to meet your organization’s needs, schedule, and goals. Contact us today to find out how we can help your business grow.