Timothy S. Lucas, CPC, MBA
Certified Life and Business Coach
About Life, Leadership and Spiritual
At its heart, coaching is about helping people solve their own problems, not telling them what to do. It's about asking questions, instead of giving advice. When you start with the heart of a coach, the coaching skills take on a greater significance. They are not practiced as stand-alone techniques, but as the disciplines of believing in people. A coach listens because to listen is to believe in you. Listening is one of the most powerful, compeling ways to say, "You are a great person--I have confidence in you!"
Coaches are change agents who help people take responsibility for their lives and act to maximize their own potential. A coach is a true friend and a close confidant on the path of life, someone who often hears, "I've never told this to anyone before, but..."A coach is someone that tells you the truth about who you really are. A coach pushes you to think, to stretch yourself, to take responsibility for your life and get done what you know you need to do. A coach is also someone who will hold you accountable, challenge you to live out your values and get you out of your comfort zone.
Business Coaching has a profound impact on leadership. Leadership is an identifiable set of skills and practices that are available to all of us. Research shows us that leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.
According to leadership expert John C. Maxwell, "leadership truly develops from the inside out."You and I were created to lead and to rule, to have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26,28)." But as sinful beings, we tend to go our own way instead of following God's leadership.
Maxwell says, "If you can become the leader you ought to be on the inside, you will be able to become the leader you want to be on the outside. People will want to follow you. And when that happens, with God's help you'll be able to tackle anything in this world."
In short, success in leadership, success in business and success in life has been, is now and will continue to be a function of how well people work and play together. Success in leading will be wholly dependant upon the capacity to build and sustain those human relationships that enable people to get extraordinary things done on a regular basis.