Personal Development and Leadership Coaching (4)

Unless you walk into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low” (Tom Peters).

My coach, mentor and business partner, Tony Dovale used to tell me that after survival, the next most important need for most human beings is to be recognised and/or acknowledged. Thinking about this viewpoint, it occurred to me that, given the opportunity, virtually every human being wants to feel significant in a way. It is not just about personal ego. It appears to be an innate desire for people to be aware of us, rather than to ignore us. Apparently, few people if they had the choice would choose to be ignored rather than be acknowledged and recognised. This desire is often the driving force behind the quest for self actualisation.

I have often experienced this in the course of coaching individuals, teams and organisations. It is true that the people in an organisation for instance want to be rewarded with the agreed payment or wages for the work done. Equally true is that they also want to be respected, recognised and acknowledged for the contribution of their talents, skills, energy and time in developing the organisation. And, many times, conscious words of appreciation can go a long way to further motivate a worker, just the same way spouses that learn to express their appreciation to one another would survive the trap of taking each other for granted, possibly due to familiarity.

This reminds me of a coaching programme that I facilitated for a company in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2011. In the course of the coaching engagement, it was discovered that a particular junior manager in the company was very bitter against the top management, and this bad feeling had been concealed for more than two years. So, when the manager opened up, a deluge of negative emotions and outbursts became manifested. The painful part is that the people that he was angry against were totally unaware of his bitterness against them, neither were they even given the slightest hint that anything was amiss. So, he was just suffering all by himself.

The problem of this gentleman was that he was grossly overworked. He was the only one so specially trained in his area of duty and the top management very carelessly ignored the fact that the man would from time to time need some relief from his work. They did not even provide him with an assistant or understudy. It was so bad that even when he is physically ill, they still expected him to show up at work, simply because no one else can do his work. Meanwhile all that this man wanted was for the management team to simply acknowledge him and show more appreciation, not by increased wages but by verbal thank you and commendations here and there, once in a while.

The above example may be a bit extreme, but there are similar situations in some other organisations. The challenge is that such situations create opportunities for the growth and the spreading of toxic workplace viruses, due to display of bad attitudes and actions, which eventually show up in the organisation’s bottom line. Good leadership, which manifests in good rapport, better communication, increased empathy and better interpersonal relationships, is what is required in such situations.

It is the responsibility of the leader(s) to create the best environment for people to operate and perform to the best of their potentials. The best leaders in this regard are those that embrace the concept of coach-leadership. As a coach-leader, the major motivation is always to create personal and corporate energy with winning attitudes to surmount challenges and continuously get more out of people. In other words, the coach-leader is a facilitator of personal development, personal empowerment and professional development.

There is no doubt that the extent to which individuals are able to keep up with personal development depends on their personal awareness, perceptions, self-drive, as well as peculiar needs, desires and goals. However, the kind of leadership and possibly coaching and mentoring that they are exposed to also plays a huge part in their development. There is therefore the need for more leaders in the corporate environment for instance to learn more about the benefits and practice of coaching in facilitating the process of continuous self actualisation.

Leaders that show and support their people to become everything that they are capable of becoming will soon find that they are surrounded with people with good self-esteem and self-worth. These are the kind of people that every good and inspirational leader dreams of leading. Such peoples’ drive for self development and self empowerment will always make them to seek as many avenues as possible for expression of personal competence. In this way, they not only build capacity, but they also create limitless room for growth. You can read more about the transformational power of coaching at www.ceedcoaching.com.

Emmanuel Imevbere