Top Challenges CXOs Face & How to Counter Them with Executive Coaching
I interacted with some top CEOs from India and abroad on my trip to Mumbai to conduct Regal Unlimited’s Leader As Coach (LAC) program. Some leaders were there for the program, and some were friends. All of them had the same questions on their minds – What does leadership mean in these VUCA times? What is the way ahead?
Common Challenges CXOs face
The CEOs and CXOs I met had common challenges.
- Leadership is very lonely at the top for CXOs.
- There is immense pressure to perform.
- Training and leadership development programs are not in sync with reality.
- Leaders constantly face a conflict of values, which is scary, for they can have a wide-ranging impact on employees, organizations, and societies at large. Also, this conflict leaves leaders drained of the energy required for quick performance. The energy at this level is more mental than physical.
Countering CXO challenges with Executive Coaching
- Executive coaching can equip leaders with the right mindset and self-help tools to overcome these challenges. All coaching, including executive coaching, is about self-transformation, both for the leader and the coach.
- Executive coaching can help leaders look beyond performance parameters to potential, both for their employees and themselves.
- Executive coaching enhances curiosity by encouraging leaders to let go of the mindset that they know everything.
- Leaders can learn to tap into intuition with the aid of executive coaching. Intuition would be a differentiating factor and make leaders stand out in an AI-dominated world.
- Coaching enables leaders to be more effective communicators. This is possible when leaders can flip the talking-to-listening ratio from 80-20 to the other way around. Every leadership conversation with an employee must leave the employee more inspired and resourceful. Leaders exposed to executive coaching are better able to lead such conversations.
- Executive coaching is highly empowering because it is an adult-to-adult relationship and works on the belief that all answers lie within the leader.
- Leaders invariably tap into their spiritual quotient with coaching. This opens them to displaying unconditional positive regard for employees and practicing empathy in action.
The right time for executive coaching
Many of the CEOs I interacted with asked me when is the right time to access coaching. “Yesterday..and if that hasn’t happened, then today,” is what I told them. Coaching comes to us when we are ready at a particular level of consciousness.
Do you resonate with these challenges CEOs face? Are you considering coaching to tackle them? It means you are ready to embrace the transformative power of executive coaching.
The above are excerpts from my podcast, All About Coaching on Mentza. Tune in for more insights.
