Jan 27 Coaching to Aggressively Mine Top Leadership Value
If you want to be viewed as an exceptionally gifted leader, here’s a tip. Just focus on ways to take what you’ve been handed and make it more valuable. Take what looks like a chunk of dull stone and expose the right characteristics while polishing the various facets. Voila! You can transform a diamond in the rough into a dazzling, multimillion-dollar masterpiece.
What can coaching do for you?
I am a coach, yet I also hire private coaches to coach me all year long and ensure that I am always at the top of my own game. Some people are surprised to hear that, which I find fascinating. Why? Because they are not at all surprised to hear that women in other professions – like singers, athletes and actors – have their own coaches.
You may know that I am a natural-born introvert. So how do you explain that now I routinely speak on stages illuminated by spotlights, to audiences that are comprised of thousands of powerfully influential leaders? If you don’t think that kind of experience can be excruciatingly intimidating, let me tell you – it can scare the daylights of you, even if you are an extrovert who likes to dance on the table at every party.
But thanks to wonderful help and support from my coaches I overcame my shyness. Early in life I realized the incredible value of having someone who is an expert help you identify and remove the barriers to success – including self-erected roadblocks. Yes, coaching totally changed my life and can change yours too!
What Does the Coach Mindset Require?
I’ve learned from the coaches I admire – and from decades of in-the-trenches experience as a coach, that the most effective coaches are those who become invested in you as a trusted, nonjudgmental, supportive partner.
I hold a high vision for my private clients, for example, regardless of their shortcomings, failures, or setbacks. Maybe they lack awareness, social skills, formal education, or have a negative outlook.
I still hold them to the highest standard and I create a safe, nurturing, encouraging space within which to remind them of who they are, what their tremendous potential is, and what their burning desires and lifelong goals are.
I make sure they understand that with the right vision and a commitment to hard work they can have whatever they want out of life – both personally and professionally.
What do you have to lose? Everything that you could gain!
Most of them will tell you that I see value in them that sometimes they themselves do not acknowledge. Then I fan that spark into a roaring bonfire and remain beside them as their biggest cheerleader and encouraging, unconditional fan.
What I have learned from coaching is that it is invaluable, no matter who you are, because of one simple truth. The highest return on investment you can achieve is when you invest in yourself, and your own future.
Haven’t you found that, too, whenever you have had a memorable coach who brought out your best?
As a pioneering and visionary innovator, Sarah is a certified professional image consultant and brand strategist, speaker, trainer and author. Her company, Illustra Consulting, provides leading-edge image and brand management strategies for top leaders and high achievers who wish to take their career to the next level. She also delivers innovative and inspiring corporate workshops to assist large organizations in strengthening their corporate brand.
Illustra Consulting
Copyright © 2015, Sarah Hathorn, AICI CIP, CPBS 1-800-267-3245, [email protected]
This article may be reproduced only in it’s entirety, including the above bio.
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Sarah Hathorn, CEO of Hathorn Consulting Group, is the go-to-expert in working with leaders and companies to create successful corporate DNA. As an executive coach, consultant and speaker she collaborates globally with clients and brands such as Deloitte, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot and other leading organizations.
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