As a leader, you are surrounded at all times by people who need something from you.

• The Boss and the Board expect you to have the answers to their questions - a well thought out strategy and a finger on the pulse of overall performance .

• Colleagues look to you to create a trusting environment for innovation and collaboration, to provide focus and direction.

• Direct reports and subordinates need you to hold up the vision, champion the values and inspire them to deliver their best, unique contributions.

But from whom do you get what you need?

The answer is so simple, it is surprising how few avail themselves of the solution.  Not surprisingly, those who do rank among the most successful and intelligent leaders in the business world.

Look at Oprah for example.
She has a coach to advise her on what to eat, a trainer on how to exercise.  She relies on professional coaching on how to feel good, experts instruction for how to look good, and gurus guidance on how to be good.  You can bet she also has at least one executive level business advisor she trusts as a sounding board for her business leadership and strategy ideas.

But, divulging your dietary defects, or fitness flaws is just not the same as entrusting someone with your private thoughts and sensitive information about your career.  Who can you trust with your half-formed ideas, your next big business strategy, your struggles with your executive team, and the truth about where you think you may be falling short.

It may seem difficult to imagine finding such a trusted advisor.  You can be sure you won’t find this person inside your organization, not amongst your customers, and probably not even on the golf course.

Consider the benefits of bringing in an outside advisor - an Executive Coach

• Gain confidence in your strategic plans. Run your ideas by someone who has boardroom experience but has no vested interests in anything but seeing you succeed.

• Be completely candid and unguarded.  You don’t have to worry about office politics, your professional image, or damaging the confidence of your team when you confide in someone who is on your side, but on the outside.

• Get to the heart of important issues quickly. Cut through the fog that comes with being engulfed in the day to day work your job requires.

• Get your own personal ’staging’ ground.  Enjoy a private ‘practice’ space where you can test new ideas and develop new skills - where you are free to look bad, sound bad, and fall flat - with no negative ramifications whatever.

• Finally get the leverage to work ‘on’ the business and not just ‘in’ the business

Access expertise beyond your own.
Your trusted advisor, your executive coach, also has something you do not; years of experience in organizational development, leadership development, and a whole set of ‘coaching’ skills giving them the power to draw out of you a level of power, insight and performance you didn’t think was possible.