The Brain Trust

Leadership Coaching

Thomas W. Cramer,
Founder, Co-Chairman, The Brain Trust

12 Signs Of A Great Leadership Coach
 
Here are 12 signs of a great leadership coach:

1) A great leadership coach displays humility. The coach’s attitude says, “Your success says everything about you and nothing about me.”

2) A great leadership coach values joy. The coach recognizes that you have to do more than work your hardest, you have to work your happiest. If you are not enjoying your work you are not doing your best.

3) A great leadership coach demonstrates real compassion. The coach gets to know you by asking meaningful questions and by consciously observing. You have the clear sense that the coach truly knows and truly cares about you as a human being, not just as a client.

4) A great leadership coach focuses on, and emphasizes the crucial importance of your ongoing growth or self-development. The coach will help you to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and help you to fulfill your higher potential.

5) A great leadership coach helps you to be totally accountable for the results you achieve. The coach’s approach to accountability is empowerment. By helping you to see your part in what happens, you will feel empowered to change what you do for different results.

6) A great leadership coach vision will help you to understand the power of vision and to make the best possible use of it. The coach may guide you in creating clear and specific visions of the outcomes you want.

7) A great leadership coach will help you to remain basically positive and optimistic. The coach will help you to remain attuned to your enthusiasm and your confidence.

8) A great leadership coach proactive will help you stay PRO-active rather than RE-Active. To be proactive means that you study what is happening to anticipate what is likely, and then align your efforts with the outcomes you intend. To be re-active means repeating the patterns that have taken you where you are, but which cannot take you farther.

9) A great leadership coach models the integrity, reliability, authenticity, accountability, and positivity that the coach seeks to support in you.

10) A great leadership coach will help you to formulate your own strategies by asking poignant questions, helping you to question your assumptions, and helping you to align your strategies with your intended outcomes. The coach will not create strategies for you.

11) A great leadership coach communicates on your level, makes you feel heard and understood, and helps you to sharpen your way of communicating your own messages. The coach will NOT communicate in a “one-size-fits-all” manner, but in a way that really fits for you. The communication of the coach will be focused and pertinent rather than wandering off the purpose of your relationship.

12) A great leadership coach will make you feel that YOU are the leader in the coach-client relationship. The coach may help you to define the direction you want the relationship to go in, but you will be clear that it is the direction that YOU are choosing.
 
A great leadership coach is as rare as great leaders, but it is even rarer to find a great leader without a great leadership coach.
 
Summary: A great leadership coach is as rare as great leaders, but it is even rarer to find a great leader without a great leadership coach.