Unlocking Growth Potential in Entrepreneurs Through CEO Coaching

One of the major mistakes that CEOs make is to think of their business as a solitary pursuit. Yes, you own the business and are always involved in its performance and growth. But if you want to be a visionary CEO and scale your company, you're going to need help. Whether you're having a hard time finding qualified leads or are constantly overwhelmed because of wearing too many hats, CEO coaching is the solution to your problems.

It is possible for you to strike the perfect balance between your business and your personal life. You can grow your company even with a limited number of resources. The only thing missing is a reliable mentor. 

What is the Importance of Having a Coach and an Advisor as a CEO? 

There are plenty of resources online on how you can grow your business. This is why most CEOs turn to ebooks and Youtube videos. While they are enough to get you fired up, they aren't a long-term solution. Every company is unique, and the generic advice they give can never be a suitable alternative to personalized guidance. Thankfully, there's a way for you to get all the answers you need to turn your business into a success; CEO coaching. 

Here are the top benefits of CEO coaching.

• Increased Self-Awareness

What motivates you to run your business? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Things preventing you from achieving your highest potential? Self-awareness is more than knowing what you want to achieve. It is about recognizing all the different aspects of your life, including toxic traits, hidden biases, and emotional triggers. Think of it as an accurate appraisal of who you are as a business owner. 

The first step to business growth is understanding yourself. You need to know the things you're doing blindly every day that are preventing your business from growing. An executive coach will help you remain true to yourself and your business by helping you become aware of your emotions. This will, in turn, help you regulate your feelings and be objective when it comes to running your business. 

• Heightened Levels of Empathy

Great leaders are empathetic. 

Contrary to popular belief, CEOs shouldn't be indifferent. The only way you can interact with your employees and other executives on a deeper level is by understanding their emotions. For example, if one of your employees loses one of their parents, your first thought shouldn't be about the resources you'll need to cover their days off. Put yourself in their shoes, understand their emotions, and let them know that you share in their grief. Once you're able to interact with your employees on a profound level, they will start to seek your counsel. 

An executive coach will show you that empathy doesn't make you weak. It is a commercial tool that turns your employees from paid workers into a family. And once this happens, they will remain loyal to your business. Keep in mind that your employees are your most valuable business asset. Your company will only grow if they believe in your vision and stop seeing you as a business owner but as a leader. 

• Enhanced Leadership Abilities

Owning a company doesn't make you a leader; it only means you're entrepreneurial. To be a great leader, you need high emotional intelligence and empathy. There are hundreds of published books on what makes a good leader. And even though the philosophies of each are different, one thing remains the same; the ability to adapt to your surroundings. 

As a CEO, you have to make a lot of tough decisions, some of which your employees will not agree with. You, however, have to find a way to implement such decisions and still retain their respect. Start by asking yourself what kind of leader your employees need. It's the only way you'll be able to motivate and empower them to do more.

As John Maxwell's Law of the Lid states, your level of effectiveness is highly determined by your leadership ability. If your ability to lead your employees is low, then your growth potential will also be diminished. A CEO coach will help you refine your leadership abilities so that they are fit for your organization. They'll help you have faith in your ideas, teach you to be a good communicator, and show you how you can push people to do their best. 

• Helps You Identify Your Blind Spots

All leaders have blind spots. The only way you can identify yours is if someone pointed them out to you. Unfortunately, your employees aren't going to do it, either because they don't see them or they are afraid of giving you unbiased feedback.  

Executive coaches conducting CEO coaching are trained to critically analyze your business and leadership styles to identify what you're missing. This way, you'll be able to make more informed decisions. For example, maybe your blindspot is that you don't actively listen to your subordinate's ideas. When this becomes a normal occurrence, they eventually stop speaking up at meetings. 

You may not think you're missing out on anything. However, if you pay attention to these ideas, you'll be surprised at how effective they are. This will open you up to a world of new possibilities and solutions you would have never come up with. 

• Better Social Skills

A good leader is defined by how well they can communicate their ideas. If you come off as domineering, employee morale will reduce, and they will eventually withdraw emotionally from your company. This shared loss of enthusiasm will then make it difficult for them to work towards your business goals. If, on the other hand, you don't sound confident when you're communicating with your team, they will lose trust in your leadership abilities. 

A CEO coach understands that social skills are the foundation of successful workplace relationships. They will help you hone your communication skills and ability to interact with other people, ultimately creating a culture of openness in your organization. 

• Improved Self-Regulation

Running a business is an extreme sport! It's so difficult to balance your emotions and logic when making important decisions, not unless you've mastered the art of self-awareness. For instance, think of a scenario where you've hired a new employee who seems more qualified than you. Every time you interact with them, feelings of inferiority start creeping up, but you don't recognize them for what they are. All you know is that you feel uneasy, edgy, and irritable around them. 

A CEO coach will help you become more self-aware of your emotions and help you regulate them. This will help you gain control in your entrepreneurial life, and it will start manifesting in the form of better organization, efficient time management, and a work-life balance. Your decision-making skills will also improve, and you'll be able to deal with uncomfortable situations with ease. 

• Flexible Mindset

Great leaders can bend without breaking. When you have a flexible mindset, you can easily overcome challenges and deal with obstacles without feeling overwhelmed. The entrepreneurial journey is not easy, and once in a while, life will try to knock you down: suppliers will disappoint you, employees will quit, and action plans will fail to work. How you get back up from such situations is highly dependent on your mindset. 

A rigid mindset is one of the key obstacles to business growth. You need to acknowledge and embrace your imperfections so that you can develop a growth mindset. CEO coaching will help you adapt swiftly and effectively when you face such changes. This will, in turn, make you more aware of the opportunities surrounding you and improve your performance levels.

Once you master all the above qualities, you'll start noticing increased success in your professional life. This will ultimately result in high levels of motivation. 

Top Examples of Successful Business Owners and CEOs Who Had a Coach

It may surprise you to learn that even the most successful entrepreneurs have had CEO coaching at some point in their careers. They include;

• Steve Jobs, Co-founder, and CEO of Apple

Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the most visionary leaders of the 21st century. He believed in his idea and grew it into a multibillion company. However, despite being passionate about his business, having a clear vision, and being able to inspire trust, Jobs had a reputation for being a difficult leader; arrogant, condescending, and dismissive. 

One day, in a moment of self-reflection, he decided to take an MLEI assessment by John Mattone. He became curious about improving himself and learning more about his leadership style and set 2 subsequent coaching sessions with Mattone. This resulted in him becoming more self-aware and a lot more people-focused. 

• Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google

Schmidt once stated in a Fortune Magazine interview that everyone needs a coach. He admitted that at first, he was opposed to the idea as he was already the CEO of a company that was rapidly growing. A board member, however, convinced him to get an executive coach, he later highlighted that it was the best decision he's ever made for his professional life. 

• Roger Enrico, CEO of Pepsi 

Roger Enrico was Pepsi's CEO from 1983 to 2001, and during that time, he received CEO coaching from John Mattone. He loved the concept of executive coaching so much that he also started a mentorship program at Pepsi. This is where he took on a group of 9 people, who he coached for 18 months. 

• Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com

Marc Benioff has benefited from the CEO coaching of Tony Robbins and has constantly stated that he views Robbins as a critical partner to his success.  Benioff has integrated the core teachings of his coaching into his company culture from the very start and highlights that they have been invaluable in its growth. 

Here's Why CEO Coaching Works

One of the main reasons why CEO coaching is gaining popularity is that it gets positive results. By committing time off your busy schedule to meet with the coach, you're demonstrating your willingness to address the challenges that are holding you back from exploiting your full potential. It's so easy to get caught up in the hassles of the day-to-day grind that you forget to take a step back and evaluate your methods. A CEO coach is the exact outside perspective that you need to get you on the right track.

Some of the other reasons why CEO coaching works include;

It turns you into an efficient decision-maker: 

CEOs often feel isolated, especially when they have to make critical decisions. Few people understand the complexities of running a business, so you may start experiencing "lonely-at-the-top syndrome." A CEO coach will help you increase your self-awareness, ultimately enhancing your decision-making abilities. 

It keeps you accountable to your vision:

Even though you have to answer to a board of directors, as a CEO, you're mostly accountable to yourself. Once you connect with a CEO coach, they become invested in your success and company mission. They want to see you succeed just as much as you do, and they'll stop at nothing to see you get there. This kind of firepower will ensure that you stay true to your goals. 

It fosters openness in your business:

Few business ideas see the light of day but encouraging your advisors and employees to share their thoughts opens you up to a world of limitless possibilities. 

It helps you navigate operational roadblocks:

Business owners often get so caught up in the daily operations of a business that they forget to set aside time for high-level strategies. Some of the time you spend with a CEO coach will focus on strategic business growth. 

Quick Tips on How to Choose the Right CEO Coach for You

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work when it comes to picking executive coaches. Do you prefer a coach who will give you ideas and provide feedback on how you can solve your challenges or one that pushes you to find the answers yourself? Which specific areas do you need coaching in? The success of your CEO coaching will highly depend on whether they are the right fit for you! 

Here are the criteria you should use to find a good CEO coach.

• Professional Experience

Go for a coach that will add value to your professional life. What kind of certifications do they have? How many years have they been coaching? How many clients have they handled? Treat them as you would any other investment! Make the decision not solely based on their qualifications but mainly the depth of their experience. For instance, if your options boil down to 2 coaches; one with 5 years of experience in life coaching and the other with 3 years of executive coaching, go with number 2. You'll have more to gain from them as they have interacted with other people in your position and understand what you're going through. 

• Past Results

Choose a CEO coach that has helped their previous clients achieve results. Ask them about their success stories, and then use that as their resume. Also, don't be afraid to highlight the areas in which you feel challenged, just to see how they would handle it. Go for someone that will transform your professional life. 

• Industry Relevance

Treat executive coaches the same way you do doctors; you wouldn't go to a dentist for a medical emergency, would you? So why are you willing to go for other coaches when all you need is a CEO coach? Choose a professional that has years of industry experience, one that has mentored multiple CEOs and helped them actualize their visions. 

Make sure you also go through their online profiles to identify their thought leadership.

• Personality

This is one of the most underrated aspects of choosing a CEO coach. You need to have chemistry! Every coach has a specific approach they use to get results, so have a sit down with them to get a sense of their energy. This will help you identify whether they are the right fit for you. Your worldview shouldn't be so different that you're constantly disagreeing, and it shouldn't feel as though they're too agreeable. You need someone that will challenge you!

Unlock the Benefits of CEO Coaching

Hiring a CEO coach is a worthwhile investment. Every business owner needs to have a powerful coach who is going to push them towards their goals and give them a perspective they can not have on their own. Even the most successful entrepreneurs have worked with coaches, so what's stopping you from unlocking your growth potential?

If you're having a hard time finding the right coach for you, there are 2 main options you should pursue. You could join a program designed to help CEOs and business owners scale their companies through sales like the Deal Flow Accelerator program. You can apply here to see if it's a good fit. 

If you, however, want to get the best of CEO coaching, you should hire a seasoned professional who has worked with Fortune 500 executives, celebrities, and startups like Brian Cristiano. You'll have an interactive experience that will drive your business to greater heights. 

Be part of the success stories. Contact Brian's team today!