FEATURE


GROWING YOUR BUSINESS


Leading from the


front


Capability and capacity of the leadership team is the second biggest barrier to business growth according to a UK Gov survey of high-growth businesses. David Williams (pictured),


Director of 3w Growth, which provides executive coaching to businesses and organisations, looks at what makes an effective leader.


People move into senior management and board positions for a number of reasons, perhaps they are a family member or they have been technically very strong at what they do. This is a critical point where leaders need to start delivering through others rather than themselves and also learn to influence people. It is really hard to see yourself


clearly in the work environment - many new leaders will score their own leadership skills high, however their employees score the very same skills low. Research has shown that the most profitable companies have leaders that see themselves very much as their employees do. Good executive coaching


increases this self-awareness, identifies any other skills gaps and puts a clear development plan in place. This builds confidence of the leader and unlocks real potential.


Companies can often hit a


growth glass ceiling when their managers have not transitioned to leaders. I see quite often businesses that are being run by a visionary founder, however they have not developed the team around them to be able to take on more work and grow the business or even for the owner to be able to step back and have a holiday. I helped start and grow a


multimillion turnover company in the 90s but looking back, I was a manger, not a leader. I worked hard but didn’t know how to get the best from others or myself. It was only when I started using a coach that I really started to have a big impact on business transformation. I immediately put these new


skills to use – as MD I led a business turnaround and then tripled a food manufacturing business before setting up my own company, 3w Growth, in 2016.


I now work coaching clients


across a variety of sectors and am the Government’s Scale Up champion for the region, representing those critical high- growth businesses that generate 50% of all new jobs. So what does the future of


executive coaching hold? My biggest growth area is in team coaching. Teams are at the core of how all things get done in business, so working to make a team more effective has a high impact in making change quickly. We run a series of team


workshops called Scale Up workshops. It is all too easy for the leadership team to get absorbed in the day-to-day running of a business and our workshops help the team focus on working “on” rather than “in” the business. Usually project-based, the team


workshops focus on the challenge the business and team is facing,


whether that is lack of business growth, organisational structure or simply running an effective business. We also complement the team coaching with one-to-one individual coaching to focus on development areas. What tips would I give on finding


an executive coach? Check they offer a free “chemistry” session to make sure you get on and check they are qualified. Having a sounding board and someone who is on your side can be moderately useful, but great coaches will help you grow and offer you improved awareness, skills and knowledge. I speak to far too many


businesses that are “coached” but don’t really know what benefit they are getting, bar a different set of questions each month. I will leave the last tip to Bill Gates of Microsoft and Eric Schmidt, ex CEO of Google – “everyone needs a coach.”


58 business network May 2018


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