The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets

THELEADER ASCOACH 235

were learned by the sons on other teams whose fathers stepped beyond their
coaching role and built the cars themselves.

The Leader as Coach

A leader ’s primary function is to set the strategy and direction for the orga-
nization, and align the resources necessary to be successful. Of course, re-
sults and success are very important for any organization. If an organization
is to have a future, the leader must produce results and develop the organi-
zation’s assets—the most important of which is the performance capability
of its people.
Great leaders (and great organizations) view continued people development
as a high priority. Great organizations focus not just on results, but also on sus-
tainable success through people development. Recent research indicates that
people-centric firms have significantly higher financial returns when com-
pared with less people-oriented companies in the same industry.^1
As outlined in Figure 10.1, effective leaders contribute to a people-centric
culture and thus inf luence employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees tend to
stay with an organization longer, and to work harder and more effectively. The
end result is better operational performance, higher levels of customer satis-
faction, and, ultimately, business success.
How do organizations develop people? That’s the role of the training de-
partment, right? Not really—training departments train,leaders develop.
One model of individual development (Figure 10.2 on page 236) shows that
structured learning experiences (e.g., organized training and education ef-
forts) are but one aspect of development. In fact, for most people, structured

FIGURE10.1 The People Development Value Chain

Effective

leadership

People-centric

culture

Employee

satisfaction

Customer

satisfaction

and retention

Employee

retention

Operational

performance

Business

success and

financial returns