How Coaching Improves Performance & How to Get the Most From a Coaching Engagement
No matter your background, industry, or where in the world you live, stepping into a leadership role brings challenges. The skills and knowledge that got you there may not be the same ones you need to thrive in your role.
Sometimes you simply want to perform better. Or your role requires a new mindset, skillset, or approach.
And sometimes, you’re facing a crisis or major transition and need support while preparing yourself for the future.
How Does Leadership Coaching for Performance Work?
Coaching for performance is a proven way to address these challenges and enhance skills that directly impact your effectiveness as a leader, elevating your performance and accelerating your growth.
It’s highly personalized, one-on-one professional development that gives you timely feedback on the issues most important to you.
Below, we’ll outline how coaching can improve your performance and how to get the most value from your relationship with a leadership coach.
How Coaching Improves Performance: 5 Indicators of Impact
Coaching for performance is often used to address specific performance gaps or to support the development of key skills needed for role success. A coach can provide clarity and help you work through current questions, decisions, or challenges you’re facing.
From our research with leaders who experienced coaching within a broader leadership development engagement, when evaluating the impact of coaching, particularly coaching for performance, look for these signs of improvement:
- Greater self-awareness: You see challenges in new ways and understand yourself better. You gain new insights into yourself as a leader within your organization.
- Increased perspective: You understand others more fully, including why they might think and act the way they do, as well as the larger context. You thoughtfully adjust your approach when necessary.
- Improved communication: You find ways to convey what’s important to you, to the business, and to others, and notice and leverage opportunities to have open, candid conversations with your team.
- Enhanced wellbeing: You feel able to grow from experiences and adversity and energized to persevere through challenges you’re facing.
- Action planning: You maximize value with your limited time and focus your efforts and energy where it matters most.
Tips for Getting Started With a Leadership Coach
What to Expect
A coaching engagement typically begins by pairing you with the right coach. Online platforms make connecting with a coach today more accessible than ever, so you can connect with someone who understands your industry, challenges, language, or focus area — no matter where you’re located.
You may gather feedback by taking assessments, like 360-degree assessments, conflict style inventories, or change-readiness profiles, to get insights into your strengths, tendencies, and blind spots. These tools can help guide your conversations with your coach and provide personalized direction.
Even without assessments, you’ll benefit from having a coach as a sounding board, helping you navigate current challenges while preparing for what’s next.
Together, you and your coach will define your goals, agree on how to measure success, and set expectations around confidentiality and communication. Then, over the course of several months, your coach will help you apply what you already know, discover new perspectives, and increase your self-awareness and resilience.
The goal: use coaching to improve your performance, help you face challenges more effectively, and grow your leadership effectiveness.
Common topics that come up in coaching for performance often include how to handle crises, resolve interpersonal conflicts, manage work-life balance and integration, and gain clarity on complex issues.
Your coach won’t hand you ready-made solutions. Instead, they’ll help you uncover assumptions, ask better questions, and reveal new leadership strategies through self-discovery.
Often, a coaching engagement wraps up with a reflection session where you and your coach review your progress, identify remaining challenges, and outline next steps to support your continued growth.
What to Consider
Finding the right coach isn’t just about credentials; it’s about fit. Coaching works best when there’s a strong match between you and your coach. A coach who was a great fit for someone else may not be the best choice for you.
Here’s what to keep in mind when starting a relationship with a coach to begin coaching to improve performance:
- Consider whether the coach has the experience and skills to support the goals and challenges you’re facing. Do they understand your industry or situation?
- Once you’re matched, you’ll likely begin with an in-person or virtual session to get to know one another and start building trust.
- From the beginning, work together to make your goals and expectations clear, so the partnership has a strong foundation.
4 Questions to Help You Get the Most From Your Coaching Engagement
A good coaching outcome requires a good coaching relationship. Asking the right questions in the beginning sets the tone for a strong coaching partnership.
To maximize the experience and set yourself up for success in coaching to improve performance, ask these 4 questions:
1. How will coaching sessions take place?
Consider whether you’d prefer in-person sessions, virtual coaching, or a combination of communication methods.
2. What kind of schedule will work best?
Think about session frequency, and whether your coach will be available between sessions to acknowledge progress or troubleshoot barriers.
3. How is confidentiality handled?
Coaching requires openness. It only works if you know confidentiality is protected.
4. How are fees and payments handled?
Clarify details like additional costs, cancellation policies, or what happens if you need to end the coaching relationship early.
Leverage Coaching to Enhance Your Performance
Remember, coaching is a 2-way relationship. While your coach will provide you with challenge and support, your role is to engage actively, be open to new perspectives, and try new approaches.
When you fully engage in the process, coaching helps you grow, both personally and professionally. It equips you to adapt, lead effectively, and contribute at your highest potential — no matter your role or context. It can help you prepare mentally, emotionally, and professionally to lead through challenges and navigate new opportunities. Leadership coaching improves performance and is a sound investment in yourself and your organization’s success.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Whether you want to continue your post-program coaching experience or start a new one, personalized coaching to improve performance can equip you to lead more effectively through your leadership challenges. Learn more about our high-impact leadership coaching services.
