We work with executives, directors and the C-Suite, who are already incredibly busy with their work, probably feeling like they’re spinning lots of plates. So for these senior leaders, taking time out for coaching is a very unwelcome notion. Even if they are bought into the benefits, finding the time for something else can seem as if it’s going to bring with it a whole new level of stress.
But leadership development is very important, and the reported results usually highlight significant benefits, making the time spent incredibly worthwhile. Knowing this, organisations should be actively encouraging their leaders to invest in themselves more. But how can you do that when your leaders are telling you that they just don’t have time? We offer some advice that might help.
When it comes to looking at how people find time for coaching, this often starts with the organisation culture. If there is a learning and development culture, which the best organisations do have, then it's about really reiterating that to the leaders and portraying how important it is for them.
This is also not only for their own development. Because they are role models in the business, being seen to take time out to develop their own leadership skills has a multi-layer effect.
This is where it’s important to consider systemic impact.
Systemic Impact
A systemic impact is the interconnection of what's happening in the business and how it goes through all the different systems and touch points within the business. If leaders are role modelling, it's good to have coaching or developments that then become the default culture within the business.
Culture is developed by what people see in the business. If you want to create a really good learning culture, you need to make sure that leaders spend time on development. Then they make time for their team for development, and then the individuals in those teams make time for the development, and so on. By doing this, you create a learning culture.
If we explore this a little bit more, learning cultural organisations tend to have a higher fail rate. But actually that's a good thing because they learn through failure.
In the book by Amy Edmondson called “The Fearless Organization”, she discusses how important this is.
A thriving organisation does not fear making mistakes, but that only happens when you have a thriving learning culture where people say it's great to learn around here and it's okay if we make mistakes because that's how we learn.
This is quite a detailed topic, and we cover more about this in our previous blog about psychological safety at work.
Ultimately, however, when it comes to personal development, taking the time out and investing in yourself as a leader shows those who follow you that it's important to take time out and develop yourself as a leader, manager or individual contributor. This then benefits everyone, and the business.
By letting this become the cultural norm rather than something else that needs to be done on top of the day job, people are more accepting of building in the time to do it.
Is It Worth The Time?
Typically, leadership courses are one to three weeks, and most leaders find that really intense to take out of a business because they're still running the business. For that reason, executive coaching is far more ideal because it's bespoke to them.
Executive coaching is timely, so it tends to have a ‘just in time’ approach. It only takes between 60 and 90 minutes per session. Generally, a coach and coachee will meet once per month so that they've got time to embed the learning in between.
The International Coaching Federation shares that there can be up to a 788% return on investment for executive coaching. In our own data at The Leadership Coaches, we find there’s an average of 445% return on investment.
If you consider this from a company perspective, spending 60 to 90 minutes a month on anything that provides such a great return on investment is surely worth it.
We have seen long term sustainable results from just spending one hour a month on personal developments. Therefore, from the business perspective, framing it on how they can do it is really important here.
If you’re having trouble encouraging your leaders to find the time for executive coaching, then we’d love to explore with you how we can support you. We all know what the benefits are. But allowing yourself the time to do it is often the biggest roadblock.
However, by working together to knock that block down, businesses will thrive far more. Let us know how we can help.
