Leadership Coaching Reflections

 

Leadership Coaching Reflections #1:

As I now engage with senior leaders as an executive coach,  it often makes me reflect upon when I could have used an executive coach to guide me thru at crucial stages of my career…

In this series, I will be sharing some of the key milestones where a coach would have made a great partner…

Instance 1: First direction change in career! 

About 20 years back, I had to make a hard choice to move from line management to a support function due to personal constraints. I was a program manager, leading complex projects in the high tech field of Telecom and I chose to join the newly formed Quality team in one of the best companies.

Every family member, friend and colleague advised me against it but I really had no choice. 

The decision having been made, from being responsible for ONE team’s outcome to driving change that would impact almost everyone in the delivery center meant I had to change my thinking, approach, dealing with people – something I did not expect and was not prepared for.

The technical aspects were never a problem but it was my first opportunity to demonstrate real leadership, without the hierarchical power structure to help – and, it did not come easy or smooth! For almost a year, I was fumbling around – making relationship mistakes, pi**ing off people, treading on innumerable toes – learning some hard lessons, while trying to fight the constant doubt that maybe I did make a wrong choice…..

That was an ideal situation for an objective coach from outside the organization to have as a partner!!!

PS: It also turned out to be one of the best decisions, opening up possibilities that were unimaginable at the time of making the decision 🙂

Senior leaders often come across similar situations where they are under enormous stress, and pressure because of changes in roles, new assignments, new teams, etc. That is the ideal time to look for an experienced executive coach from outside the organization who can partner with you and help you handle the situation. Executive Coaching is based on the trusted, supportive and confidential relationship between a coach and the leader being coached, to generate tangible business and personal results.

This was first published on LinkedIn

About Author

Executive Coach | Gowri S Ramani

Gowri S Ramani

Gowri S Ramani is one of the few Master Coaches with both ICF-MCC and EMCC-MP credentials.

She is an Executive coach & leadership coach for C-Suite members and senior leaders in corporates/not-for-profit organizations.

Gowri currently serves on ICF Global Credentials & Standards Board as a Director. She is also a Mentor Coach to other coaches (and aspirants) on their coaching journeys.

As an Executive Coach and a leadership coach, she has coached several 200+ senior leaders from 20+ countries.

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