Dear CEO, COO, CFO, CHRO & other C-Suite members,
Odds are, you’re making a big mistake. You’re missing out on a valuable opportunity.
If you’re like most executives, you consider executive coaching as something that applies only to problematic people. “Get him a coach so that he learns to play nice in the sandbox!”
Leadership Blindspots
Years ago, Atul Gawande wrote a seminal article for The New Yorker in which he made a compelling case that no matter how successful you’ve been, anyone in a position of importance can improve through coaching. The article’s gist: All of us have blindspots. (I’d argue that the higher up you are on the leadership scale, the bigger your blindspot.)
A good coach will help you correct your blindspots. As a result, you will get better at what you care most about. You can read Gawande’s article here. Here also is his TED Talk on the topic.
I’ll cite examples of two superstar executives who greatly benefited from having a coach.
Doug Conant
In 2001, Doug Conant took over a very troubled Campbell Soup Company. Financial returns were dismal, and a Gallup survey revealed a toxic workplace culture. The engaged-to-disengaged employee ratio was a nightmarish 1.67-to-1, the worst Gallup had ever measured in a Fortune 500 company.
With a relentless focus on workplace culture, Conant turned things around dramatically. In a Gallup survey 10 years later, Campbell Soup’s employee engagement scores outshone those of the other companies surveyed, and included a spectacular 17-to-1 engaged-to-disengaged employee ratio.
Over this time, shareholder economic returns went from a negative to exceeding industry and stock market benchmarks by multiples.
Conant cited having an executive coach as one of the factors that helped him turn things around. This included a simple behavior change that helped him, an introvert, connect more effectively with Campbell Soup employees on a personal basis.
“Every leader has blindspots,” he says. “In cultivating high-trust relationships, competent personal advisors and coaches have enabled me to minimize my missteps. I can’t imagine operating any other way.”
Alan Mulally
Alan Mulally is the former CEO of Ford Motor Company and former CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
In 2001, Boeing Co. shares plummeted due to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Due to the attack, half of the orders on new planes were either canceled or delayed.
However, over the next five years, Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes Group sales soared under his leadership. Mulally led the development of the Boeing 777, the company’s most profitable aircraft ever.
In 2006, Mulally left Boeing to serve as CEO of Ford Motor Company. Due to the Great Recession, Ford was at the brink of bankruptcy. However, under Mulally’s leadership, Ford experienced a top-to-bottom transformation. The company’s stock price was up, the board and the employees were happy, and in 2013, Mulally was named #3 on Fortune’s “World’s Greatest Leaders” list.
For many years, Alan Mulally was coached by Marshall Goldsmith himself, cofounder of Stakeholder Centered Coaching.
Brandon Mergard, MGSCC CEO, observes: “The stories of Conant and Mulally are what MGSCC is all about. We strive to make good leaders great.”
A Resource for You
If interested, here you can find a useful resource on leadership development coaching and its impact.
Coaching is not a cost. It’s an investment in wellbeing and success – yours, your organization’s, and in all other things that are important to you.
Jathan Janove, MGSCC Chief Learning Officer, is the author, most recently, of The HR Renaissance: From Legal Guard to Growth Partner.
