Leaders Need Professional Coaching Now More Than Ever
- by Magdalena Nowicka Mook
Harvard Business Review — The pandemic brought unforeseen disruption at breathtaking speed, taking a toll on the physical and emotional well-being of employees. The stakes are even higher for leaders reexamining strategic direction and vision while managing ambiguity. With employees concerned about an evolving workplace, it is imperative that leaders be better equipped to address real anxieties. Professional coaching provides a long-term solution to lessening increasing pressures and growing uncertainty.
Business leaders need the agility to create vision and to support a company’s greatest asset: its people.
Five workforce priorities are emerging for business leaders, according to PwC. All five have a people component:
- Protect people
- Communicate effectively
- Maintain continuity of work
- Assess workforce costs
- Prepare for recovery
In a traditional workplace, priorities like protecting people and communicating effectively were part of everyday leadership. When the workplace culture moved into the home, remote working altered the status quo. A leader’s approach to intention, trust, and inclusiveness in relationships changed. Making intentional choices about work and team became difficult for anyone simultaneously homeschooling children and running a business. Without a water cooler, physical isolation inhibited building trust. Ensuring all team members had a voice and felt like part of a team was difficult without finely tuned soft skills of empathy and vulnerability.