Coaching for Profitability

Does coaching ultimately increase profits for the organization? Research on that question is tricky. There are many, many factors that determine whether a company makes a profit. Some are under the company’s control, and others are not. That said, research cited in Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee) presents some compelling information that suggests that coaching can have a major impact on profit. The authors reported that an organization’s emotional climate determines 20 to 30% of its profitability, i.e., companies with emotionally unpleasant climates make less money than companies with emotionally positive climates. That’s huge, given that many factors which influence profitability are outside of a company’s control. Such factors include macro-economic conditions, the actions of competitors, supply chain issues, pandemics, and so forth. But company leaders can directly impact their organization’s climate. In fact, Goleman et al found that leadership…

“What Is the Right Way to . . . ?”

A coaching client asked me one of those “right way” questions the other day. (I get them often.) In this case, he wanted to know the right way to lead his team. He worried that he would do it “wrong” and mess things up. Experienced coaches know that there are many right ways to lead a team. There are many right ways to do most of the complex tasks that are given to high performers. They don’t give jobs with simple answers to senior people.   Of course, as we talked, my client recognized that there were many good ways he could approach his leadership task. Factors we considered in deciding which ways might work best included his personality, the personalities of his direct reports, the mission of his team, the culture of his organization, and the interests of the various stakeholders, among others. He developed a well-reasoned approach, which included…