You Don’t Need More Skills. You Need a Safe Space.
It's no secret that executives don't need professional development offerings focusing on technical or basic human skills.
By the nature of their role and experience, they're well-equipped to manage complex challenges, changing practices and evolving strategic directions. They're highly capable and proven at facilitating change - otherwise, they wouldn't be in the C-suite.
Yet, what I hear time and time again is that they're professionally isolated, perhaps even lonely. They need a confidant who provides a support mechanism beyond the coaching dynamic.
I've written before about my work as a confidant to leaders. I'm a university-trained leadership coach, and I have been for over a decade. I wholeheartedly believe in the power of coaching and mentoring techniques. I've seen (and experienced firsthand) their positive impact many times.
One of Europe's most prolific and well-known management writers and thinkers, David Clutterbuck, the co-founder of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, says that mature, experienced coaches work with the system, not the client and can pay attention differently.
At its most basic, coaching is about a client with a problem who wants to find a solution.
A confidant? Well, that's exactly what it says on the box. People can confide. They can discuss their professional complexities in confidence. It's where support occurs in a myriad of ways.
It provides a safe space to explore cross-cutting issues that are less tangible and less related to people's work as a leader, yet no less critical.
It's where systemic and structural challenges can be unpacked, and people can talk about themes that shouldn't be problematic in a contemporary workplace but can be.
It might include personal challenges impacting a leader and what they bring to their work—being heard and having the focus to articulate the unsaid, the things that remain under the surface.
Safe is a great word to describe the exchange. As your sounding board, I don't necessarily provide or facilitate answers (because sometimes there isn't a single answer). But if I have expertise in the area of focus, I must bring that for your benefit.
Workplace culture is big business, and rightly so. Leaders are responsible for high-performing environments and have immense responsibilities that would (and do) overwhelm the most capable of humans from time to time.
Playing this role is an honour and a privilege I don't take lightly. Knowing they have my confidence, I'm the person who allows a leader to be vulnerable. It's truly essential work, and my clients tell me it's highly valued, especially those who have worked with me for long periods, even years.
Let's face it: I've been in rooms where my leadership voice has been surrounded by those who make me an outlier, and I know I would have benefited greatly from having a confidant provide me with a safe space to talk openly about these challenges.
My wish for you is that you have someone in your corner, too.
Go gently.
