Our content is usually focused on strategic marketing and communications, yet professional and personal growth is always a valuable topic. Guest author Nikkole Liesse—once a client at UNLV’s Executive MBA program and now an entrepreneur and executive coach—shares her insights on how working with a coach can help one’s ongoing development to reach future goals.
As an executive coach, I get asked this question often. Although a profession that has grown significantly since the mid-90s, many businesspeople are still a little confused by coaches, what they do, and if engaging a coach is right for them.
An executive coach is someone who works one-on-one with high-potential and/or high-performance business leaders to support their growth and development.
Coaches can help clients identify potential gaps or blind spots in their career paths. They help set goals and create accountable action steps. Coaches can also provide insights on client competencies, as well as how others in an organization perceive them.
Coaching is extremely personalized and is most effective when a client is open to self-reflection and has a desire to grow personally and professionally. Sometimes organizations hire coaches to work with their team, while individuals can also utilize a coach outside of their organization’s formal support.
Not Ready for a Coach, But Curious About the Process?
Even if you’re not ready to engage with a coach directly, you can certainly do some of the reflective work yourself. Oftentimes, a client comes to me when they are in a state of transition or discontent with their current situation. No matter the scenario, the conversation inevitably turns to one about values. What is important to you? And what’s important to one not just as a businessperson, but in all aspects of life?
I have a client who is clearly on a C-Suite trajectory. He checks all the boxes: strategic thinker, empathetic leader, willing to roll up his sleeves and get the work done, and significant experience in both public and private organizations. However, one of the very first things he shared about himself had nothing to do with his professional accomplishments, but rather his wife and children, their names, ages, and interests. I could see immediately that his family was a central part of his life.
Soon thereafter, he shared that he thought “work-life balance was a myth” and was clearly in conflict with his role as a Senior VP and role as husband and father. My question (because executive coaches ask lots of questions) was “what’s your definition of work-life balance?”
That elusive work-life balance is different for all professionals, and until this particular client spent time defining it for himself, he was going to continue to be in conflict and potentially neglect his family or pass up on the next opportunity that was undoubtedly coming his way.
When we next met, he had created his definition of work-life balance and we brainstormed some ideas on how to start implementing it. I call this beta-testing: I encourage my clients to try things out, in small ways and see how it works. Making sweeping change is uncomfortable and rarely works, but small “tests” are much more palatable and lead to more permanent changes. Maybe it’s a great change, maybe it didn’t work, but there’s always a learning opportunity.
How Can I Use This Example to Make Small Steps in My Life?
Since those initial conversations, my client has set intentional date nights with his wife and scheduled every other Friday afternoon out of the office to be present with his children. It’s still a work in progress, but after we were able to set goals and action steps around his clear value of family, we were able to move on to the conversation regarding the next steps in his career.
If you are in a place of transition or just feel a general malaise about work, I encourage you to revisit your values. Write down what is important to you professionally: title, money, new challenges, a flexible work schedule, leaving a legacy.
And what about at home: hobbies, passions, family, travel, volunteering?
Next, look at your list of values and your current environment —is there alignment? Or, is something taking your further away from what you identified as important?
Finally, create your own beta tests to see if you can get your professional or personal life closer to your identified value(s). It may not happen on the first try, but there will certainly be learning.
When our work and personal lives are aligned with our values, other aspects like job opportunities, how we spend our precious personal time, and who we associate with become much clearer. When all else fails, always start with what’s most important to you and work from there.
If you’d like to discuss values, transitions, or other development opportunities, feel free to contact me at nikkole@nikkoleliesse.com.
Nikkole Liesse is an executive coach, business consultant, and educator who has spent over 20 years working with large corporations, small businesses, and individual executives. Her goal is to improve bottom-line performance, strengthen organizational culture, and most importantly, support leaders through times of change, growth, and opportunity.
Prior to establishing Nikkole Liesse LLC, Nikkole spent over a decade in higher education leading UNLV’s prestigious Executive MBA program followed by serving as the executive director for Lee Business School’s Office of Online and Executive Education, where she developed strategies to deliver online programming to the Las Vegas valley. Nikkole began her career in marketing where she worked for home builders and real estate developers, including The Howard Hughes Corporation and the award-winning, master-planned community of Summerlin.
Nikkole has an MBA from UNLV’s Executive MBA program, a bachelor’s degree in Corporate Communications from UNLV, and has received several awards including a “Woman Inspiring Nevada” from Greenspun Media; 40-under-40 from Las Vegas Business Inc., and Rising Star in Business from Las Vegas Business Press. She is also a graduate of the Vegas Chamber’s Leadership Las Vegas.