Your Secret Weapon: The Importance of Coaching Executives to the Business

On why executive coaching so often fails.

“There are so many ways to fail at executive coaching,” I assume, is not how one would expect an executive coaching white paper to begin.

And yet, here we are!

To be honest, I haven’t always seen the value in the level of coaching that I offer through Silver Thread.

I’ve had executive coaches in the past–never proactively pursued, but provided by various companies as some form of “status” or recognition. These coaches have all been lovely people who I very much enjoyed spending time with, and who gave me a safe space to explore what was holding me back and where I could be stronger.

It was helpful, and a very appealing way to spend an hour of my workday every other week. Plus, I saw improvements, tweaks in the ways I handled difficult conversations or unsettling situations.

But was it life-altering, re-mapping my journey to allow me to fulfill my ultimate goals?

I think you have guessed by now that it was not.

So often, leaders are leading, managers are managing, and employees are employing–all in a vacuum. This can lead to fractional success, yes, but it also erodes the ability to create radical alchemy when it comes to your highest level goals.

When you thread executive coaching directly to business strategy and outcomes–that’s where the spark of alchemy begins, unlocking measurable performance gains and business results.

What if executive coaching was designed not just to develop leaders, but also to drive the business forward?

Oftentimes, executive coaches get involved when a leader’s seesaw leans too heavily into their technical prowess, without an ounce of weight in soft skills. Time, energy, and resources go into helping someone brilliant play nicely with others.

An abrasive leader can learn new skills, sure. But what could be some of the positive outcomes of focusing on the system instead of the person? How can you blend improving soft skills with system effectiveness?

Business-aligned executive coaching, of course.

According to the Leadership at Scale survey done by McKinsey in 2018, 45% of executives surveyed believe their leadership development efforts do not meet and/or sustain their desired objectives. Another study showed that three-quarters of the nearly 1,500 senior managers at 50 organizations interviewed were dissatisfied with their exposure to learning and development, and only 7% of senior managers polled by a business school in the UK thought their companies develop leaders well.

Unfortunately, leaders tend to overestimate their own effectiveness, leading to a pretty jarring discrepancy when it comes to employee experience, and explaining some of the backstory to these dismal metrics.

According to McKinsey, one of the major reasons leadership development programs fail is because they are focused on improving the effectiveness of individual leaders rather than the team at large. And, while I wrote in my last white paper about the “umbrella effect” on a team when you invest in developing their leaders, it would be remiss not to note that the proverbial umbrella only covers the team when it’s well-functioning.

Anyone who has ever lived in a big city knows that a broken umbrella leaves you unkempt and disappointed. Much like a broken leadership system.

We all know AI is here to stay, and we lament the fact that it is “taking over jobs.”

But what if we flip that? In reality, we have an opportunity to delegate the grunt work (leaders often fail at this!) and focus on what matters.

And what matters?

As a CEO recently said to me, “The only thing we care about is results.”

So let the robots do your busy work, and you, Leader, you focus on your holy grail.

But who does the actual work that gets you said grail?

Your people.

Not one person, but people.

A team.

You have a choice–you can spend your time mediating interpersonal dynamics and conflict, or you can focus on your actual business, because you’ve built your team to work together, to sustain, to last through the challenges.

A team that’s been developed specifically for said challenges–because you coached them intentionally to align with your business.

Ok Rachel, I’m convinced! I want to coach to the business! How do I do that?

I’m so glad you asked! And, you are likely already doing most of the work.

If your business has an aligned corporate strategy, an individual goal-setting process, and regular feedback touchpoints, you are more than halfway there. Great job!

Like many complex recipes, however, the key to success is in the specific way you combine ingredients.

If you don’t have these things–well, let’s talk. And also if you do have them, let’s talk! Either way, this work gets me excited (if you can’t tell), and I’d love to help.

I am an excellent chef.

The process of building a leadership team in alignment with business goals is, like most of life, cyclical and, at a high level, quite simple:

Business Aligned Leadership Impact Model

The secret sauce–where you need a coach, or some kind of unbiased third party–is in the complex execution of this seemingly simple process.

I’ll be blunt: initiating this work can be grueling. But the longer a company puts it off, the more grueling it becomes. Alternatively, once you implement an ongoing coaching system like this, the machine runs with semi-regular maintenance.

High Level Guide: Coaching Executives to the Business

Secret sauce sold separately

This sounds difficult and expensive…

I won’t lie to you–it is difficult and expensive.

But significantly less difficult and expensive than the alternative.

Specifically, a case study done by Bravanti on a large health insurance subsidiary demonstrated that supporting a leadership team to business goals can be a game changer for organizations going through transformations.

In this specific study, a team of executive coaches focused on:

• Working with executives both individually and as a team on self-awareness and effective communication strategies

• Developing a greater sense of partnership and collaboration in an attempt to mitigate silos and bring goals to alignment more quickly

• Identifying healthy conflict and challenging the status quo

• Building trust by breaking down personal barriers and learning how to connect with each other authentically

• Honing in on strategic goals at the individual, team, and organizational levels

The results of this engagement speak for themselves–

• $14.2 million estimated value in terms of benefits from coaching

• $7 million cost-reallocation as a result of coaching effectiveness

• 90% of participants reported improved dynamics, classifying them as “great” or “very great”

• Documented intangible benefits like greater alignment, more effective communication, improved productivity, better collaboration, and more scalability of characteristics across the organization

• Team commitment to ongoing team coaching, recognizing the benefits it provided

At the end of the (business) day, you get what you pay for. If you invest in your people with intentional alignment to the business, you will unlock the ability to identify and fill meaningful gaps, focus your leaders and employees on the work that matters, and scale your business.

At Silver Thread, we weave humanism, authenticity, and integrity into everything we do to help you achieve your holy grail–in whatever form it takes.

So tell me again about your focus on results?