by Sai Blackbyrn (Germany)

‘A coach is likely to be every leader’s secret weapon to COVID-19 recovery’

You don’t have to look very far to see that it’s anything but business as usual right now.

Organisations across a host of sectors are battling to redesign and restructure their operations to navigate through the uncertainty of a world in which COVID-19 remains. IT systems capable of connecting hundreds, even thousands, of employees at the same time are now a necessity, as are finding ways to keep communications channels flowing, whilst maximising work at home productivity. These are some of the issues which are keeping our nation’s business leaders awake at night.

For some leaders, it will be easy to seek out help from external coaches to address these challenges. There are a number of skills gaps that have been exposed by the corona virus pandemic, which realistically, leaders are not going to be able to fill themselves, or through their existing teams. Calling in the experts in areas such as digital adoption, change management and developing remote teams are likely to be par for the course in an environment where speed is of the essence and there is little margin for error. Naturally, those coaches who have already developed and implemented online coaching programmes or courses are likely to be the first port of call, as the vast majority of organisations are going to need to deploy solutions which can be delivered digitally to teams working from home. In fact, at Sai.Coach, we found that many for our coaches had been able to grow their businesses exponentially during the pandemic, simply because they had already taken the time to digitalise their coaching offerings prior to the lockdown.

For others, however, the path to gaining assistance will be slightly more complex. There will be leaders for whom calling in external help is neither welcomed nor budgeted for, with the Board fully expecting the leader to tackle the challenges head on with their own bare hands and the resources they have available. These leaders may find that their very reputation is now on the line and how they tackle these next few months could influence the direction of their future career. The pressure facing these leaders will be immense and they’ll be the ones who need to seek out the help of an executive coach who can work with them on a one to one basis. With their support delivered ‘in secret’, leaders will willingly pay for their coaching from their own pockets, if it means they will be able to wow the Board with their troubleshooting abilities and newfound focus to guide the organisation through a period of immense uncertainty.

Source: iCN Issue 31  (Life Coaching: Personal & Professional Empowerment); pages 32-33

About Sai Blackbyrn

Sai Blackbyrn – Best Selling Author, Coach and Trainer at .Coach

Sai Blackbyrn is a multiple-time #1 bestselling author. Over time he has amassed an impressive following in the personal development space – close to 6 million followers on Facebook, co-owning the 3rd largest business meetup group and managing LinkedIn pages with over 200,000 members consisting of coaches, authors and speakers. He is the CEO of .Coach, which specialises in establishing coaches online. He regularly writes in-depth posts on the Sai.Coach blog, one of the top blogs in the coaching space.