Every leader needs leadership training. Right? Have you ever had a boss who didn’t? Every player needs a coach. Right? Have you ever met a sports star without?
In fact, leaders are in constant need of leadership training. It’s the nature of the beast. To be truly effective to the best of their abilities, leaders must continuously analyze their behavior, seek feedback from those around them and constantly work on improving their leadership skills.
Leadership training is one way to gain new knowledge and learn new skills. It’s focused and intense. And the usual training getaway from being in the saddle 24/7 is much needed by any and all leaders.
The best types of leadership training include grappling with real-life situations. The latest and greatest theories are important, but they are no substitute for tackling tough, complex leadership challenges as though one’s life depended on it. Because it does.
Top notch leadership training not only teaches critical skills, but also gives participants the opportunity to practice what they’re learning through role plays and other training techniques. People need to “feel” the problem and wrestle with the solution to truly learn.
But leadership training is not enough. As Edwin Friedman wrote in A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, “Mature leadership begins with the leader’s capacity to take responsibility for his or her own emotional being and destiny.” Understanding one’s emotional being and harnessing it for powerful leadership is a process, not a skill.
That’s where leadership coaching enters the scene as the powerful partner of leadership training. Coaching is an ongoing process that helps leaders build on lessons learned in leadership training and apply them in real life situations.
Behavior is driven by emotion. Yet leaders rarely take time and seek assistance to understand their emotional selves that drive their behavioral selves. It is much easier to attend leadership training workshops, read books about leadership skills and commit to implementing what one has learned. But understanding one’s emotional self and emotional intelligence is precisely what one must do to move from being a good leader to great leader. Coaches are worth their weight in gold when they help school leaders understand their emotional selves and take responsibility for changing.
In a coaching relationship, the coach helps the coachee understand his or her emotional self and the ways in which that self drives behavior. One excellent tool that coaches can use to help school leaders understand and improve their emotional selves and intelligence is the EQ-i (Emotional Quotient Inventory). It measures emotional intelligence in the following areas: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Stress Management, Adaptability and General Mood. All are critical to being a great leader.
Leadership training combined with ongoing leadership coaching is a powerful combination that helps school leaders become truly great leaders. Through training, leaders hone skills, but most importantly, through coaching they learn to execute the critical plays under pressure.