Five Signals Pointing You Toward Leadership Coaching
“Leadership” is one of those words–like “love” and “literally”–that we overuse, misuse, and misunderstand.
Just because you’re in charge, doesn’t mean you’re the leader. The reality is that very few of us were trained as a leader. And our research suggests that we all grew up seeing mostly poor examples of leadership.
Even me, and I had a dad who emphasized leadership and groomed me to intentionally influence others. Still, when you look at my experience with teachers and coaches, my stats follow the normal trends we’ve found interviewing hundreds of others:
We learned from bad examples
One out of five key influencers in a child’s life was definitively “positive.” We are talking primarily about parents, caretakers, teachers, coaches, and religious leaders.
“Positive” is subjective, but also visceral. We asked people to go back into their formative years and tell us what they remembered about the people in positions of authority. We prompted by asking about parents, other family members, and all the adult influences with whom they spent any considerable amount of time.
It’s in those formative years that our subconscious minds are mostly formed. We are sponges. We see, hear, and absorb everything. Our childlike nature is sensing and feeling everything. And even now, decades later, people can instantly tell you who left a positive, helpful, inspiring impact, and who did not.
Here’s what childhood influencers look like by the numbers…
- 1 is positive – An inspirational influence that the person remembers as empowering
- 2 are neutral – Not positive or negative, just there
- 2 are negative – Mostly discouraging, demotivating, even demoralizing
This means that 80% of the adults who influenced us in our formative years gave us a poor or unhelpful picture of leadership.
In other words, we have not learned how to effectively lead others. Even though we have read some books, listened to podcasts, and seen some leadership quotes on social media, our subconscious minds were shaped with neutral or negative lessons on leadership. And we likely take a “default” approach to leading others.
We need coaching to move from neutral/negative influencers to positive, intentional, and inspirational leaders.
5 Signals Pointing You Toward Leadership Coaching
- You were given poor models for leadership. In your formative years, your models for intentionally influencing others were mainly neutral or negative.
- People drive profit. Leaders drive people. Some owners and executives emphasize profit at the expense of their people, failing to understand that motivated, empowered, creative teams drive profit for companies they love.
- Investing in yourself pays dividends. You expect your financial investments to build and compound with time, but investing in yourself is what truly has exponential potential.
- You don’t have time not to. Leadership Coaching is most essential for the leader who wonders if they have the time. If time is an issue, your lack of delegation and empowerment is the root cause.
- Community moves the needle. Surround yourself with other high-achievers working to become better leaders. Iron sharpens iron. The people currently in your business and life will thank you.
The good news is you can become a better leader. And The Leader Club has developed a proven and popular coaching program to help you do just that, in a mastermind community with other amazing owners and executive-types.
Conclusion
80% of the adults who influenced you in your formative years gave you a poor or unhelpful picture of leadership. It’s time to stop influencing the people around you by default. It’s time to learn how to lead others by design–becoming a positive and intentional influencer.
