In business leadership coaching you need to help your client strike a balance between stepping away from the day to day to have time to formulate a vision for the future, and staying involved enough to remain credible and aware in day to day events. This requirement to help your client to take a giant step into the future while keeping the other foot firmly in the present is the greatest challenge in this important area of coaching.

Why Business Leaders Must Walk This Tightrope?

Clearly visionary business leaders need to spend a lot of time in the future or they won’t be able to create the compelling vision that is critical to effective leadership. Yet without expertise in the present situation, the business leader won’t have the credibility necessary to deal with two issues. First, without this credibility they will not be able to get their followers to leave behind the current situation and help make the future vision a reality. Second they will not be able to deal with game players who will test the leader’s authority on the basis of their operational knowledge.

Coaching Business Leaders Who Don’t Have Expertise in the Current Situation

In doing business leadership coaching for experienced leaders, it is important to emphasize the need for credibility with the followers. Therefore, some minimum level of expertise is needed and a plan to get it needs to be created and followed. Beyond this you should coach your client to form alliances with well respected and highly competent followers.

Business Leadership Coaching for the Current Expert Looking to Become the Visionary Leader

In doing business leadership coaching for the current expert looking to become a leader, the coach must help the expert let go. The client must realize that they cannot hold on too tightly to their old role if they are to succeed in the new one. The client must learn that letting someone else do a job well enough, is good enough. This is a great challenge and one that must get enough attention from the business leadership coach.

Special Bonus – Learn 3 simple ways to become a life coach with the “30-Days to Become a Coach” video toolkit when you fill in the form at the top right and click the “Watch The Videos Now” button. You’ll learn how to change your client’s life in 45 minutes.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach