By Kim Sawyer (USA)
I am an executive and enterprise coach. I do what I do with executives, business people and their organisations as an external service provider coming in to help them raise their game. In the programs I deliver, I do this in part by coaching the leaders. But coaching is not just something for a professional coach to do with an executive. Coaching is one of the most powerful – and sorely underutilised – tools of leadership. The other thing I do, with much greater positive impact on my clients’ success, is to get their leaders to coach their people – in structured, ongoing formal coaching sessions. This is the key to having a “coaching culture”.
Let’s talk first about coaching as a leadership competency, because coaching is a key component of true leadership. And what, at the very root, is “true leader”?
A true leader is someone who has followers. Period. End of definition. Every other characteristic, skill and behaviour we attribute to leadership either stems from or supports this one fact.
That may seem ridiculously obvious at first glance, but it implies an entire framework of thinking and activities – a paradigm I call Leadership by Attraction.
Source: iCN Issue 11 (Executive Coaching); pages 32-34
About Kim Sawyer
With over twenty years of diverse business experience; Kim Sawyer have started businesses, led companies, and been involved in almost every aspect of a business enterprise. With expertise in the area of leadership, professional and business effectiveness and entrepreneurship, today he coach and facilitate key business people and teams to create greater wealth for their organizations and themselves.
