How to help your clients become better women leaders.

Women create excellent situations for those to follow them when they are in their creative space. It is therefore important for a coach to support a leader who is looking to become a more proficient and powerful leader in terms of learning how to be more creative in this space.

Creativity is the process of being in tune with the flow of energy that represents an alignment with their own inner truth. It is this alignment that we as coaches are working towards gaining a true representation around. The challenge for creative people is presenting their ideas to those who are not open to listening to their ideas.  

​When this happens we need to prepare the creative leader to communicate their ideas in a way that is useful for those that are listening to carry out. This means that we will have to be ready for challenging certain beliefs and particular patterns of behaviour. So let’s look at what we can do to change the behaviours of those who are not yet ready to hear new ideas that could potentially improve performance, resilience and attention to detail.

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As we focus on the issues to be prepared we can take a step back and realise how often we have misunderstood the needs of others when it comes to hearing what we need to say. In terms of business leadership we are essentially speaking to the crowd that understands how to make money by offering services products and projects. We are therefore listening for those who understand how it is that money is made through the process of offering a service to those who need the solution to a problem.

​It is within the solutions that we can begin to create an awareness of how our products and services will make a difference to their lives in terms of the problem being expressed.

It is therefore the understanding that we have a message to bring to those who need to understand it and as we create a reality that indoctrinates a feasible solution to the problems clients are having we therefore create a realistic outcome that will bear the brunt of any objections to the ideas being expressed. ​

The business woman who is in a position of leadership should then realise how to manage the communication process between and towards those who are stakeholders in her enterprise and achievements. By doing this, we are creating a reality that is commensurate with the outcome needing to be achieved.

First we need to understand the position of the stakeholders. There are staff, clients, suppliers and all manner of other people with a vested interest in the outcome of the business. The position of the stakeholders is as follows.

They want to achieve something that is in their best interest and that will gain traction on what it is they want to achieve therefore your product must be seen as a solution to their problem in a way that helps them achieve their own outcomes. So when your product performs to achieve the desires of your stakeholders then you have the ability to make a case for how important it is to realize the benefits and the perks of doing business with you as a business woman. ​

As a leadership coach you are in an excellent position to support women who are in positions of leadership as they will be looking to you for solutions to help them become more effective leaders. Your job is to create an environment where they have the tools and techniques to apply them in any situation that arises within their position as a leader.

How you help them support their leadership depends on what you are trying to achieve in terms of what they have created as an outcome for themselves. If for example they have created a need for a more transparent culture they will be wanting to see evidence of how that is working. Michael Breen a prominent business coach and NLP Master Trainer often describes the difference between overall outcomes and outputs.

​These are very important distinctions because the outputs are the work product needed to be generated in order to achieve the overall outcome. The outputs represent what needs to be seen and heard as if you were watching these on videotape. In other words these are actual behaviours that need to be seen happening in actuality.

In my work with autism students I was tasked with leading a team of autistic mentors who intern were supporting autistic students on accredited trainings to achieve desired learning outcomes that needed to be evidenced by actual work outputs as well as soft skills behavioural outputs.

​This required very clear communication with all stakeholders involved during training sessions from one-to-one coaching sessions with students to guidance sessions with mentors. The autism condition required that I be very clear and very concise with instructions so that we both knew what was expected and everybody was happy with the role they were to be given as well as understanding the associated tasks.

People enjoy having a very clear instructions because it leaves little room for ambiguity but it does require thinking from each of those person's perspectives i.e. the stakeholders involved in the group effort were the students, the mentors and ultimately senior management who could then report to the funding bodies that were investing in the projects. During this time, I learnt that leadership skills were not about being powerful and autocratic, it was more about allowing others to be the leader in their own creative process with guidelines about the outcomes to be expected.

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Micromanagement is the total opposite to becoming a leader. In fact it stifles creativity and prevents stakeholders from being imaginative and coming up with original and exciting solutions. Every day I was amazed by my student's creativity and this made me feel I could trust them to do what was needed. They in turn felt they were given a sense of autonomy over their own work process.

​Therefore leadership was centred around the client i.e. stakeholder and what was going to help them come up with creative ways to produce the outcomes that were agreed at the beginning of the task. This type of leadership nurtures creativity and fulfils organisational outcomes by looking at outputs rather than KPIs. We are automatically incorporating the best of what the stakeholder, staff member or mentor has to offer because autonomy and owning a solution is the best way to help others become a more productive member of the team. ​

In short being a woman leader requires allowing others to be leaders in their own creative process. How you do that depends on your ability to trust, step back and provide guidance when needed without criticism judgement or retribution. ​