For many, the first image conjured by the word “coach” is a sports coach—someone who stands on the sidelines calling out helpful advice and cheering on an athlete’s wins. In many ways, a leadership coach fills a similar role.

Leadership coaches lead training sessions where they give business leaders practical advice they use to be more successful. Then, they applaud from the sidelines as leaders use those techniques to rack up business wins.

A leadership coach can be a valuable resource for leaders in nearly any type of organization. Here’s a closer look at why organizations might choose to work with a leadership coach and the benefits they offer.

What Do Leadership Coaches Do?

Most business leaders are promoted without any formal training, resulting in inconsistent leadership styles that might confuse and frustrate subordinates. This ineffective leadership, exacerbated by disparities in manager self-confidence and equitable treatment of team members across gender, race, and socio-economic backgrounds, can have far-reaching consequences. A UK study, for example, found that 50 percent of employees under ineffective leaders plan to leave their jobs in the next year, while only 34 percent are motivated to do a good job.

A leadership coach can address these and other cultural issues before a workplace turns toxic, by providing the training leaders need to better connect with and motivate their teams as well as guide company direction. They teach essential leadership skills like communication, decision-making, and emotional intelligence.

In addition, coaches can help individuals cultivate a leadership mindset by showing them how to overcome limiting beliefs, embrace a learning mentality, be open to growth and new challenges, and build resilience and adaptability.

Leadership coaches understand how soft skills and positive mindset shifts help drive business achievements. They combine this understanding with pedagogical expertise to run courses that help leaders master these skills and maximize their potential.

Coaching vs Mentoring: What’s the Difference?

Leadership coaches offer many of the same benefits as professional mentors. However, coaches achieve these benefits with methods unique to them.

A leadership mentor is someone who meets with younger professionals in their industry or company to discuss professional challenges and give advice based on their own experiences. Mentoring relationships are typically informal, last for an unspecified period of time, and primarily involve unstructured conversations.

Leadership coaches, by contrast, connect with leaders for predetermined lengths of time (ranging from a few weeks to several months) and hold structured sessions based on curriculums developed by leadership experts.

These sessions are goals-driven and built around proven strategies for teaching leadership. While mentors often volunteer their time, coaches are paid and trained professionals.

Are Coaches Necessary for Teaching Leadership?

Organizations may choose to make use of a leadership training curriculum without hiring a leadership coach to teach it. This gives leaders access to the material and lets organizations save some money.

However, this approach also removes the individualized attention a coach offers. While curriculum-only programs are often self-directed and independent, coaching is inherently collaborative.

The interpersonal relationships coaches form with clients mean they can explain concepts in ways tailored to each individual’s needs and learning styles. This richer, more interactive experience often results in a deeper understanding of the material.

What’s Involved in a Leadership Coaching Engagement?

Typically, the first thing leadership coaches will do is get to know their clients and the clients’ organization. They may collect data on current approaches, where clients most want to improve, and if there are any organization-wide leadership challenges that need to be addressed.

Then, they’ll choose a training solution or package that makes the most sense for the organization, often making minor tweaks to tailor it to the individuals they’ll be working with. These programs include agendas for each coaching session, complete with actionable goals clients should achieve by the end of the session.

Session goals often scaffold up to the curriculum’s overarching goals. For example, if a curriculum’s goals include better communication skills, one session may have a goal of improving active listening. A typical leadership coaching session may involve presentations, discussions in breakout groups or across the whole team, and even interactive activities like roleplaying.

Toward the end of a course, a leadership coach may reassess their clients’ skills to measure their progress. Dependable coaches will typically use proven, statistically valid assessments to accurately evaluate their clients’ abilities.

What Are the Benefits of a Leadership Coach?

The benefits of a leadership coach are, of course, improved leadership skills, but that simplistic summary hides the nuances of everything a good coach can accomplish.

After working with a leadership coach, expect your executives and managerial teams to exhibit better soft skills, including open communication, more effective collaboration, and more highly developed emotional intelligence. They may also display improved creativity and critical thinking and have a stronger vision of where they want to take their team and company.

More importantly, a great coach will help clients develop a leadership mindset that serves as the foundation for growth. They’ll likely have more positive and productive attitudes, increased confidence, a greater focus on teamwork, better self-esteem, and other attitudes tied to improved professional performance.

The benefits of leadership coaching often extend to subordinate employees, too; one industry survey found that leadership coaching increased employee engagement and satisfaction for 67 percent of respondents and improved employees’ perception of leaders by 60 percent.

Some of these benefits can also be realized through professional mentoring, but comparing the results of coaching vs mentoring often shows coaching to be more impactful. The structured curriculum and expert training coaches bring ensure that their teaching is focused, goals-oriented, and pedagogically sound. Leadership coaches are also better positioned to measure skills before and after training, which helps you guarantee ROI.

Choosing the Right Leadership Coach

Leadership coaches provide these important benefits and more, but as is the case with any profession, not all are of equal quality.

Many lesser coaches focus on outcomes or behaviors only, failing to tackle any of the negative attitudes and beliefs that form the root causes of poor leadership. With an outcomes-focused approach to leadership coaching, gains tend to be short-lived.

That’s why it’s important to partner with a leadership coach who focuses on strengthening the core beliefs and mindsets behind effective leadership. This is the priority of The Pacific Institute, where positive mindset changes are the central focus of the consultants who provide leadership coaching.

Contact us to learn how our consultants can help your senior team members develop a leadership mindset that addresses the root causes of failures in their peer groups.