From my associate Janice Giannini.

Has anyone ever heard these comments: “Do I have time for one more thing to do?” Or “Coaching helps a little, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.” And, “I’m pretty good at what I do.” The biggie is, “Nobody else understands my business the way I do.”

While the thoughts above are all noteworthy, do any of the following scenarios crop up in your business?

• We are very good at planning and knowing content and delivery dates. Unfortunately, meeting deadlines is not happening to the degree they need to.
• We can’t always know if the feedback tells the complete picture or if critical elements are getting glossed over or left out.
• We make decisions when we need to, but the process is stressful and disorganized at times.
• We love what we do, but I wish I had more time for my family and hobbies. I barely have time to take a walk some days.
• Sometimes, I feel as if I’m talking to a brick wall. I don’t think folks understand what I’m saying and why.
• Are my developmental needs getting in the way of my business growth? Do I fully appreciate my weaknesses?

If any of these thoughts resonate with you, please consider that not everyone has the same worldview. Consequently, leading a team with many different views can be challenging.

Regardless of your priorities, consider insights from McKinsey in a recently published article:

• Only about 43 % of the employees are meaningfully engaged in their work and company.
• That leaves 57% of the employees in some stage of disengagement. Ouch.

Query: If the 57% were more actively engaged, would your company be growing and healthier?  

In many cases, when there is a technical, business, or personal issue, people gravitate to addressing the symptoms versus actually solving the problem.

What if you could accomplish the following?

• Ensuring people have meaningful work.
• Maintaining reasonable flexibility in the workplace so that people were part of the solution and they understood the rationale.
• Encouraging people to develop career goals and suggesting potential steps to get there.
• Creating an environment where people are supportive of each other.
• Maintaining a safe place to work (this is more than safe stairwells).
• Developing inspired leaders so employees can feel it.

The McKinsey report listed the six observations above as higher priorities for the reasons people disengage.

Might there be a connection between the situations above in the first paragraph and the 47%? If there might be a connection, could coaching be a systemic approach to addressing the root cause versus just the symptoms?

More productive outcomes might be:

• A clearer understanding of what the company does and why
• More complete feedback to run the company
• A deeper understanding of the rationale for decisions and their impact on short-term, midterm, and potentially long-term
• More consistent and less stressful delivery of milestones
• Highly effective communication so everybody gets it and is on the same page
• Better work/life balance with time with family and hobbies
• Better understanding of how the leadership team needs to grow for the company to grow into the unknown

If the scenarios in the second paragraph are accurate and the outcomes in the last paragraph are desirable – coaching might be worth the investment!