In today’s current global business quagmire, we need leaders that are thoughtful risk-takers, people that are worth investing in. Having a team that can see through the clutter and work together to devise and follow the best business strategy will only equal success.
Now, most of us know that part of investing in your organization’s people is enrolling them in leadership development programs. Two phrases that get tossed around in this space are leadership coaching and leadership training. Are they the same thing? And if not, how do they differ? Below we take a closer look at each of these and discover how they support your business. Let’s start at the basics:
- Leadership training is about transferring knowledge
- Leadership coaching is about enhancing knowledge or skills
Leadership Training
Transferring knowledge is key when it comes to the art of leadership training. So, how do you do that? Well, it’s about having a highly experiential process that inspires leaders and helps shift mindset to think and align differently. It gives leaders a vision of how they can show up differently and more effective.
Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching takes things to the next level: it’s then about applying knowledge. This involves adopting a more sustainable, long-term, one-on-one approach – which ultimately has been proven to yield better results. The value of personalized feedback that encourages the leader in your business down a highly personalized path of success (that then benefits all) is paramount in ensuring that the principles your staff learn in leadership training are practically applied.
Which is Better?
The challenge of applying leadership training is often at the crossroads of knowing what to do, but then rather doing what one knows. People often have an aversion to learning in a classroom environment, and valuable knowledge simply goes out the window when the leadership training is over and your staff goes back to the whirlwind of their daily job. This is where the value of feeling ‘held’ in leadership coaching comes to the fore.
The important principles of visioning, having the right mindset and fostering an attitude of personal self-belief underpin the more immersive dynamic of leadership coaching. This is a formula of learning plus change. Shifts in thinking and behavior are the result. But this takes time and care. Changing someone’s perceptions and habits simply doesn’t happen overnight. Leadership coaching is action-oriented, taking you from where you are to where you need, and want, to go.
Leadership coaching has been shown to increase confidence and reduce stress in the workplace. Employee confidence soars when they learn how to feel confident in expressing their own ideas and dealing with the challenges of day-to-day business head-on in a direct and non-confrontational way.
While there are definite benefits of leadership training, coaching is more one-on-one and has a far more customized approach. Coaches can help each leader individually focus on building new habits, providing them with personalized feedback, listening to them, and having tough conversations with them.
Build Better Leaders Today
Leadership coaching at all levels of organizational hierarchy is important if you wish to achieve the results that matter most to you. Our team at HPWP is here, with you, for the real-life business scenarios that your staff will encounter.
Whether you are starting up, scaling up, or even just trying to survive in this new Covid-19 world, HPWP has the experience to offer your company just what it needs to develop new leaders and engender the business principles you wish to espouse in the workplace. To see how we’ve embraced technology to help engagement, and motivate your team, start your Leadership Coaching and Development today.