Coaching is No Longer Optional for Leaders

There was a time where a leader who could coach was simply a nice addition to have. 

Sort of like cars with aux or USB inputs. I remember when I first had an iPod. I LOVED renting a car with a headphone jack—I could listen to my music!

Now you NEED an aux or USB, it’s not really an option. Well, what I’m saying is that as a leader, coaching is no longer optional. 

But I don’t expect you just to take my word for it. Instead, I want to give you 5 simple clear reasons why you should believe me. 

1. Being a crappy leader is expensive, being a good leader is like getting free money

75% of employees report that their boss is the worst part of their job, employees under bad managers are the least productive, 50% of people with a bad boss look for a new job within one year, 65% of employees would take a new boss over a pay raise. 

Bottom line, people leave good jobs with bad bosses and STAY at challenging jobs (cough cough startup jobs) if they have great bosses. 

Just being a better boss will get you outsized talent for less money. 

2. Coaching is more effective than traditional management

Traditionally managing people requires some level of control and manipulation. 

You set deadlines, you cajole, you complain, you boss, you pander. It’s all very inauthentic and actually a HUGE waste of time and energy. 

You will need to convince people that you know what you’re talking about, that you’re right about your opinions, and that you can back up your words with your brilliance. 

Those people are investors, employees, and maybe your customers. 

When it comes to leading your team, coaching saves time, energy, brainpower, and increases effectiveness, because you’re helping them come up with solutions AND figure out how to solve problems on their own. 

3. Coaching will actually make your work more satisfying

30% of founders suffer from depression and 27% suffer from problematic anxiety

65% of startups fail as a result of people-related problems; which is higher than the divorce rate.

For most founders, there’s a breakdown in connection, in purpose, and in pressure. Everything is on us, we are all alone, no one really gets us or who we are. All of this is a great argument for why founders should GET coaching, but it’s also why founders should give coaching. 

Spending time with people understanding their problems and drives, offering new ideas in a gentle collaborative way, being curious, open, grounded. All of these things are the antithesis of isolation, meaninglessness, and pressure. 

Coaching can be like those AMAZING conversations you had in college after 5 beers or a few hits from the bong. All about the meaning of life and your dreams. 

But by not being a coach to your team, you actually rob yourself of who’s working for you and what it feels like to work together. 

4. Coaching will make you better at pitching, selling, and marketing

The skills of a great coach and a great salesperson are actually really similar. Great salespeople don’t just give their pitch, they listen for their customers’ problems and then they highlight the benefits that their product offers that solve those problems. 

Great marketers do the same thing, just at scale. They study the market to understand the problems and then they speak DIRECTLY to those problems in the same language their customers use. 

Great pitchers do the same thing. They take all of their sales and marketing knowledge and craft it to match what they think the investors care most about. 

This ability to listen, understand what people want, and help them see how to get there is the essence of coaching vs managing. So learning how to coach your team gives you a set of skills you can apply to marketing, sales, and pitching. 

You can be practicing ALL THREE while you’re working with your team. 

5. Coaching is the future of leadership

We’ve seen so many great founders fall apart at the height of success. Toxic company cultures, sexual harassment scandals, you name it. 

It all points to an old way of leading. One where power and privilege are protected and guarded carefully. And behind that shield, the worst parts of our humanity are left to run free. 

The world needs leaders who are confident, but also compassionate. Leaders who are bold, but also vulnerable. 

Coaching isn’t a panacea, but it does provide one of the most powerful technologies in the realm of leadership and management. It touches almost everything a leader does, and it’s learnable. 

The key to becoming a great coach as a leader is to practice and to have a practice mindset when it comes to coaching. 

This mindset will not only help you improve as a coach but as a leader as well. 

If you learn to coach your team, you will also learn how to coach yourself. You’ll really get what’s possible when you slow down and pay attention to how people work and how to motivate them to change. 

Being a coach is no longer optional for leaders. If you want to be great, if you want to get more out of your people for less time and money, if you want to build a culture that can really rise to the level of excellence the world is asking for... 

Coaching isn’t optional, it’s a necessity.