All Executive Coaches are not the same.
Choosing the right Executive Coach makes all the difference in your professional and personal life. Some coaches will focus on developing your business savvy, some on sharing insights and information on how to act like a leader, while another will guide you on a transformational journey into being an authentic, conscious, and successful leader.
Regardless of your choice, it’s important to understand that your professional development and leadership training goes hand in hand with your personal development. Over the past fifty years, what leadership research has clearly shown is that higher-level, conscious leaders are not born that way, but have led a life of developing regular mindfulness-oriented practices combined with significant personal transformational experiences that supported their growth.
Executive Coaches can offer Patterns of Development
Look at the best musicians, athletes, spiritual masters, and business professionals and you will see a pattern of ongoing training and development. They’ve found the best teachers, coaches, and mentors who guide them into the personal and professional depths of their field. They’ve been on a path that supports them in exploring the depths of themselves while evolving into the best in their field of interest.
Just as the martial arts have different levels of accomplishments marked with colored belts, so in business, there are well defined levels of leadership, each with its clear characteristics and capabilities. So, if you want to develop your leadership, rise into the C-Suites, be the CEO, make more money, have a greater impact, or discover who and what you’re truly capable of, then find an executive coach who can guide you on that journey of ever-greater self and other awareness.
Invest in Yourself
Just as you’d do in any other field, you’ll want to invest in yourself and choose a life-style that supports you in becoming who you need and want to be, so you’re creating the life you want to be living.
Think in terms of building a structure. The first thing you must build is a strong enough foundation to sustain the size of the building/life you want to create. For us, the strength of our foundation is determined by how fully we’ve explored and healed our past. Basically, the deeper you go within the stronger your foundation becomes.
Seek the Inner Journey with the Right Executive Coach
It’s on that inner journey that you learn to fully accept and love all aspects of who you are. This allows you to step into your true power — shifting your unconscious childhood focus of looking outside of yourself for what you need, to looking within yourself for the strength, solutions, and abilities you need as you continue to evolve. Rather than establishing what feels like a safe, yet limiting comfort zone, you embrace change and are curious and open to whatever comes into your life. Rather than resist and struggle, you open to the ease that comes with trusting your life path.
This path leads you to being more open to the perspectives of others. Your comfort with your own emotions allows you to be comfortable with what others are going through, so you can be more compassionate and empathetic. This creates trust and results in more cooperative and collaborative home and work environments. As others feel more valued, they want to give their all, which results in less turnover as well as a deeper connection and commitment to the family or an organization.
Integrated Lives offer Deep Benefits
So, it’s no wonder that organizations see an increase of at least 40% in their productivity and profits, while at home it translates into enjoying more deeply connected, loving relationships in which everyone thrives.
For those leaders who have risen into the top one percent, they have integrated their professional and personal paths and are capable of leading lasting organizational and societal change. With their focus on empowering others, they find they have more time and the abilities to focus on their highest vision, pet projects, or even enjoy running multiple organizations with ease.
So, If you want to play at a higher level, chose your executive-coach with these ideas in mind. Find a coach who is intimately familiar with the path of higher-leadership and who can support you in becoming a more conscious, confident, and authentic leader.
“If your goals aren’t challenging you, they’re not high enough.”
Journey well.
