Google has done the research. Coaching is the top leadership skill…
You know, I meet many high-level executives who want to create the next stage of their career – after one or two decades in the corporate world. They are sometimes exhausted, or burnt out. They are sometimes simply looking for what’s next…
I also meet many entrepreneurs who have exited their company or who are looking for a way to support other entrepreneurs…
Coaching and consulting are two great career paths for successful executives and entrepreneurs – but here’s what often happens:
You leave a successful career where you’ve been earning $150K-$500K+. You are excited at the thought of coaching. You can teach the skills you learned on your journey and also make a great living. Right?
But at your coach training you are surrounded by people who have never been successful in business. Most have never had a senior leadership role. If you’re honest, you’re often the most interesting person in the room. And that’s a real turn off.
On top of that, people seem to smirk when you tell them you’re a coach. You’ve got years of success behind you but your old colleagues say, “You’re a life coach?” They don’t mean it as a compliment.
On top of that, you’ve got no idea how to stand out in an overcrowded coaching market. You end up making posts on Facebook that get three ‘likes’ and you wonder where all these “high-paying clients” are ever going to come from…
Plus, for the first time in your life, you’re watching your bank account go down, month after month. And secretly you’re scared whether you’ll make it.
You’re a leader by training and experience, so you know you already have great coaching skills. You don’t need or want another coach training. You just want to know how will you ever learn to get clients?
In 2019, I created Project Kairos – a community of coaches and consultants, focused on one thing alone… The high level skills you need to enroll high-performing, high-fee clients.
The members of Project Kairos are former leaders, executives and entrepreneurs. One is a physician with a PhD from Cambridge. A number of them worked at a high level in investment banking or in finance. Other members include an attorney, a former director of talent acquisition, a former leader at Singularity University & The XPRIZE Foundation. Also, several business owners – from construction to restaurant chains. Plus a Senior Vice President at a top movie studio and several executives with a career that spanned 20 or more years in the corporate world.
Month after month, I’ve coached them and challenged them. No theory. Just real issues that they bring…
“I met an amazing leader at a conference. How do I get her as a client? One of my clients is about to complete. How do I get him to renew? I’ve put up my fees. I’m about to meet my old boss. How do I tell her what I do? Where do I meet successful clients? How do I use LinkedIn to get clients?”
I love coaching leaders because for most of human history it wasn’t actually called coaching. It was called leadership. And great leaders are great coaches.
In 2002, Google believed that managers were a waste of time, and they unleashed a radical experiment – called Project Oxygen. They let go of all their managers…
But the experiment was a disaster! They actually found that employees crave direction, support and guidance.
So they turned the project into a comprehensive study of the opposite question: What are the common behaviors of the very best managers? And they came up with a list of 10 verifiable attributes.
You know what’s the number one characteristic that Google’s research says makes the very best managers? It’s that they know how to … be a good coach.
Love. Rich