Why Top Managemt Coaching is a must for every manager...
What distinguishes very successful top managers from less successful ones and what does top management coaching have to do with it?
Direction-giver, decision-maker, leader.
It is powerful to be a top manager or entrepreneur. They bear great responsibility for the company, the employees, the figures and themselves. They often do superhuman things. They are people who have courage, take risks and are constantly confronted with new challenges.
The world is changing at breakneck speed in many areas. And the people in our world are changing as well. We are at the beginning of a whole new age. The future starts tomorrow. Anyone who has no vision for the future and thinks ahead will find it difficult to compete.
The differences among the top managers are great. I would like to discuss two groups today and explain why top management coaching is particularly relevant for one of these groups. The one group that has great responsibility for its employees in the company and the other group that is not aware of the great responsibility or does not care.
A group of top managers says: “I have reached the top. I’m somebody. I don’t need to get help. I can do it all myself.”
The other group says exactly the opposite. You realize that a person can’t know and see everything. This group says: “The world is too complex and dynamic. I have responsibilities. Exactly because I’m at the top, I regularly need someone who reflects on me, who sees the world from the outside. Who sets new impulses and gives me absolutely honest feedback. Who develops me.”
The second group sees how big the responsibility is for all the people they work with. This group does everything in its power not to leave a sinking ship behind and to leave its own employees in the dark.
You're aware of where the pitfalls lie.
As a top manager, you’re always under observation. One is evaluated by one’s environment and often also secretly criticized. You have to function. For the most part one reacts to problems that come up to one and tries to solve them. Unfortunately, many top managers in general day-to-day business hardly get around to dealing with the future. Time for strategy discussions and change models is often not given enough room.
Questions that many entrepreneurs and top managers ask themselves.
- What do the rapid changes in the world mean for me and my company?
- How do I align my company for the future?
- How do I approach this concretely?
- I have problems with my own management team.
- What is my leadership culture like?
- How do I develop and promote my managers and employees?
- How can we improve our internal and external communication?
- Do I have a vision and is it transparent for everyone?
- Why are things not working as they used to?
- What is my own leadership role? Who’s a friend, who’s an enemy?
- Is anyone else telling me the truth?
- I need a change of direction.
- I need more clarity.
What can't I see?
But now a top manager is also a person with an individual personality and has a private life. He feels torn. Business won’t let him go, even in his private life. He sees that the time with people who are important to him becomes less and less. Time for one’s own wishes and needs also regularly falls by the wayside.
That leads to pain. Pain like:
- Loneliness. There’s nobody left to talk to about anything.
- Fear of failure. Can I do it?
- The feeling of being hunted is getting stronger and stronger.
- Fear to show vulnerability.
- Constant tension and stress symptoms. Stress leads to burn-out, heart attack, stroke, hearing loss, chronic back pain or other symptoms.
- The short-term solution is often medication of all kinds, such as sleeping pills, stimulants, painkillers, etc. It’s a vicious circle, and it’s a strain on the body.
What do very successful top managers do that others don't?
They always get help and support, even if they are already successful. They do this with concrete problems or also because they always want to develop themselves further, e.g. in communication, self-presentation or other topics. Or because they want more balance in life and therefore more liveliness.
- They learn about new types of leadership and how to inspire and motivate employees to perform well.
- They have social skills and empathy. They’re not moody.
- They regularly receive feedback and are able to identify blind spots. They learn to recognize how they tick, especially in problems and crises.
- They don’t punish themselves for making mistakes, they learn from them.
- They dare to be authentic. That means they’re not acting like superheroes. They show themselves with their weaknesses and strengths and are honest with themselves and others.
- Successful top managers have a vision and make it transparent for all employees. That’s the vision they always have in mind. That’s the guideline they follow.
- They see themselves as a holistic personality and live all areas of life: Business, Personal, Relationships, Sense.
- They don’t just derive their success from work.
Where do these top performers get this support?
They allow themselves the privilege of working together with an EXECUTIVE COACH, which accompanies them with confidence. Who challenges and encourages them as sparring partners. Through this cooperation a new strength is created, and pain can be reduced.
Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google until 2015 and Bill Gates have put it very aptly:
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When does top management coaching make sense?
An executive coach can be life-changing when it comes to these questions:
- I need more clarity in the goals, or the choices.
- There’s a change of direction coming up. What can this look like in concrete terms?
- I want to unleash new potential.
- I need someone to reflect on me and give me absolutely honest feedback.
- I want to know how I affect other people.
- I see that I need to develop my leadership skills.
- How can I deal differently with conflicts or crises?
- I want a trusted person I can talk to about anything.
- Where and how can I relax?
- How do I get more balance and harmony into my life?
- How can I break out of these constantly recurring patterns.
- And last but not least, where am I really going. What’s the point of what I’m doing?
There are different approaches among the executive coaches.
My personal mission as an Executive and Leadership Coach is the holistic development of the executive. At the levels of leadership. Personality. Relationships. I help managers to release new potential.
It is also possible to feel alive as a leader and to feel the joy of life. This has an enormous impact on the company and on private life.
I think that the world should become more livable and easier for the people bearing a lot of responsibility.
As an Executive Coach I help executives in top management:
- To shed pressure, fear and doubt.
- I show them what’s in their way or what they don’t see.
- To recognize how they are and how they act and perceive, what the effects are in their environment.
- To become aware of their self-limiting beliefs, inner critics and saboteurs.
- To grow from challenges and setbacks and to move powerfully into the future.
- To move from survival mode to a new quality of life.
- To pay attention to what emerges in each situation and to react to what is necessary for the best result.
- How they deal with stressful situations so that they can retain their strength.
- To develop new forms of communication.
- To experience the power of real listening to build and maintain safe and trustworthy relationships in business and private life.
- To take innovation and practical measures that will fit in with the future.
- To lead with courage and clarity to bring the breakthroughs in their system.
How do I define myself:
- as challenger, inspirer, confidante
- as very flexible, humorous and change bringing
- as an experienced woman who has lived through a lot herself
- as someone who stimulates the challenge
- as a very trusting and discreet person
- as someone who values people and is always happy to see them change
What do my clients bring?
Where does the coaching take place?
In person at different locations, online via Zoom/Skype and by phone.
You want to change your own story? - request a non-binding consultation
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Also interesting for top management coaching:
https://hbr.org/2009/01/what-can-coaches-do-for-you
About the author
Burga Neckermann has already helped numerous decision-makers to reach new levels of success and effectively transform their lives through executive coaching. For 12 years she has built up and managed her own company and after the sale in 2010 she dedicated herself fully to her work as an Executive Coach.
