Coaching for Leadership is popular this year. This generation of dreamers are taking action and stepping into their role as a leader. Have you noticed the trend? Is everyone around you starting their own business or getting creative with extra ways to generate income? Coaches are busier than ever with clients seeking coaching for leadership skills.

Why Your Clients Need Coaching For Leadership

Every leader has to start somewhere. Some are born with natural leadership capabilities, others hire coaches for improvement on the leadership skills they lack. You have an idea, a message, a mission and you might need the coaching for leadership skills to give you the confidence to go find and lead your tribe. Seth Godin writes a good book about this very topic titled “Tribes”, a MUST read!! Coaching for leadership is important because there are groups of people out there waiting to join a community and be lead.

10 Qualities to Focus on When Coaching for Leadership:

1. Integrity – Aligning inner values with outer actions so they are one and the same. This creates trust with your followers as they recognize you can be counted on. As a leader your followers must trust you. This allows you honest interactions and ease in relationships and approachability.
2. Dedication– Doing whatever it takes to accomplish your goals. A leader must inspire dedication in their followers by leading from example and doing whatever it takes to complete the task at hand.
3. Magnanimity Spread the fame and take the blame. The ability to acknowledge credit where it is due and take the blame when you are at fault.
4. Humility – You are not a god. Coaching for leadership allows you to be one and the same with your followers.
5. Openness – No judgement, no conclusion! Open to new ideas.
6. Creativity – The ability to look outside of the box and ask “What if…”
7. Fairness –  A leader must check all the facts and hear everyone out before passing judgment.
8. Assertiveness –  A fine balance of asking for what you need with clarity.
9. Sense of humor – is in my opinion the most important way of energizing your followers!
10. Affirmation– Leaders must know the 3 fundamental ways to affirm their tribe.

Three Fundamental Ways to Affirm a Person

My favorite tool in coaching for leadership sessions is teaching my client to get better at affirming others.

There are three ways to affirm a person you are leading:

1. Celebrating Progress- Affirm what the person has done or accomplished
2. Expressing Belief- Share your confidence in what the person will do in their future
3. Naming Identity- Positively articulating who this person is in their core being

Celebrating progress allows a leader to focus on what the person has done. Expressing Belief allows you to share what the person is capable of doing. Naming Identity allows you to bring forth the true inner self and affirm the character of your followers. This is perhaps the most valuable lesson in coaching for leadership.

Leaders bring out the best in others and create an impact in the world. We need more of them. Is there a stronger leader in you waiting to have permission to be unleashed? I invite you right here, right now to come out and play. Go out and practice affirming others, unleash your inner leader! If you aren’t sure how, want badly to lead, know you are ready, then go our and get a coach for leadership silly!

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Master Coach Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your master coach blueprint videos.

Jeannine Yoder
Life Coach
Writing team, Coaches Training Blog Community