Strategic Coaching

Strategy is great. In fact, it is one of the most often used and most effective tools available to executives today. One of the biggest obstacles in maximizing the value of strategy is getting executives and the people they lead to focus on executing those strategic objectives on a day to day basis. That is where strategic coaching can make the difference between a strategy that sits on the shelf gathering dust and one that gets executed, maximizing the value for the organization.

Coaching is an investment that must be measured against results. In particular, the success of a coaching relationships is seen in the results achieved by the executive being coached. The senior executive’s primary job is to get the organization from where it is today to where it should be and can be tomorrow. Since this is the measure of the executive’s effectiveness, it will also be the measure of the coach’s effectiveness.

But the coach can’t execute strategy! I know. Nobody expects the coach to execute strategy, nor to have any control over the multitude of environmental factors that can get in the way of strategy execution. What the coach can do is help the leader systematically address the steps to strategy execution each every day.

What is the biggest obstacle for strategy execution? Distraction, the whirlwind, the tornado – whatever you like to call it. It is the storm of distraction that overpowers executives at every level as soon as they step in the door or turn on their electronic devices each day.

How can a coach help a leader execute strategy?

  1. Step Back – A coaching session is a scheduled opportunity for an executive to remove himself from the tornado of distraction and focus on her and the organizations most important goals. This brief reprieve can dramatically increase the effectiveness of the leader in executing the most important goals of the organization.
  2. Focus – Every leader has a multitude of goals to achieve each quarter and every year, but only 1 or 2 goals are the “wildly important” goals that will drive real value to the organization. Coaches help their clients re-focus on these wildly important goals and give the leaders permission to pass on the multitude of other pressing issues that are screaming for their attention. Strategy execution is all about saying no and most of us have an incredibly hard time doing that. Coaches give us permission and encourage us to say no to the less important so leaders can focus on, and execute, the most important.
  3. Align – Once the leader has stepped back and refocused on the most important goals of the organization, he or she must make sure that the people they lead are similarly focused. Coaches can help the leader align all the organizational systems behind achieving the wildly important goals. Coaches will spend time with the people the executive leads to make sure they are aligned behind the most important goals of the organization. Being from outside the organization, coaches are uniquely equipped to see where there are gaps in alignment.

Execution of business strategy is the #1 most difficult goal for executives today. The right coaches, who understand the organization and its strategy can make execution possible despite the storm of distraction that executives work in today. To learn more about how we coach, check out our recent blog on Coaching for Results.

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Image courtesy of www.bain.com.

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