Every Olympic athlete has a performance coach. Same for star performers in nearly every sport and competitive endeavor. More than 50 percent of the CEOs in Fortune 500 companies work with a trusted advisor or executive coach. That number rises to more than 80 percent of start-up and new business CEOs.
Is this just a trend or is there a good reason that the most talented performers and leaders seek out and work with an advisor or coach?
Top performers want an edge, and the most important advantage is to know the truth about their performance and what to do to improve it. The more accomplished and successful a leader or performer becomes, the harder it is to attain candid feedback and advice from those who benefit from their success. Truth becomes filtered. Advice is tailored not to offend.
Finding a confidential resource with deep experience that is willing to carry the unvarnished truth is of tremendous value to leaders and performers vulnerable enough to admit they need to get better. Trusted advisors and coaches provide a sounding board to talk about and think through issues of consequence. The best advisors hold up a mirror and allow leaders to see themselves with all of their strengths and blemishes. As the saying goes, no matter how talented the surgeon, they can’t operate on themselves.
The best advisors and coaches are also a source of practical solutions and sound advice grounded in the experience of seeing many others encounter the same problems and opportunities. Who wouldn’t want to know how other top performers confronted similar challenges and what worked and didn’t?
Having access to an advisor or coach who is committed to raising your game and has the tools to improve your performance is a difference-maker for those who want to reach their highest potential. The key is to find someone who you can trust completely, who will tell you the candid truth about you and your team, and never assimilate by becoming an insider or colleague.
In the words of legendary coach Tom Landry, “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” Find a good coach if you can. The best ones unlock a leader’s talents and play a role that no one else can. They offer leaders and performers a very rare gift. They carry the unbridled truth in a perfectly approachable way.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
