The point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, and use yourself completely – all your gifts and skills and energies – to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing.
– Warren Bennis
Executives, managers, and CEOs often feel like they have no purpose in their work. They go home from a day of feeling unfulfilled at the end of the day after coming up with nothing new to try out. The lack of meaning in their work leads them to be unhappy in general life too. This can lead to a whole host of mental health problems that can affect the quality of life as well as productivity on the job.
Most people have worked a job they hated at some point in their life. They feel like their efforts are going unnoticed regardless of hard work and dedication. Where is the meaning? What does it matter if anyone notices? These are common feelings for people with dead-end jobs that make them dread going to work each day. This is what leads to people either throwing in the towel and looking for a new job or slacking off enough that they get fired.
How Do We Fix It?
Executive coaching can help people find meaning and purpose in their lives, especially if it’s something they are lacking at work. While executive coaching is used to improve performance, it has other benefits that make it a reliable solution for finding more meaning in life. It’s important for people at any level of leadership to feel like they are making a difference in the world. They want to know their efforts are helping other people and that there is someone out there who appreciates what they do.
Here are seven ways executive coaching can help people find new meaning in their work, as well as their life overall:
1. Create focus in their work and life.
Executive coaching helps a person to identify the important things they need to be focusing on in their lives. When people have clear goals for their work, it becomes easier for them to find meaning in the work. When they are able to narrow down what is truly important and figure out how that fits into their lives, they can find meaning and purpose in whatever it is that they do for work. This helps to give them a clear focus that provides deeper meaning in everything from working towards goals at work to the things they are doing outside of working hours.
2. Create better problem-solving skills.
An executive coach can help clients to become better at solving problems. This can be especially helpful when they are going through a difficult time in their work or their lives. Clients who have learned how to identify and solve problems effectively as well as avoid getting stuck on certain things will feel more confident about what they do for work and life overall. When they can’t figure out a problem, they will also be able to move on more easily. Moving past what seems like an unsolvable problem gives people a new sense of energy and strength in their lives.
3. Learn how to respond well under pressure.
Many professional athletes have executive coaches that help them to learn how to respond well when they are under pressure. This is because there is so much at stake with a single move on the field. With an executive coach, people will be able to better handle whatever sort of pressure comes up in their work or personal lives. They can learn how to deal with stressful situations and keep calm no matter what happens. This helps to create a feeling of confidence that people can carry with them throughout their whole day. When they feel confident in their ability to deal with whatever comes up, it will be easier for them to find meaning and purpose in what they do. They won’t feel like they have no idea how to react when things don’t go as planned.
4. Develop to be more present at the moment.
Being fully present in whatever activity they are doing is important for finding meaning and purpose in what they do. When people can focus on just what they are doing at that very moment, it makes their experience into a deeper one. This helps create a stronger sense of meaning and purpose that can carry over into other parts of their lives too.
5. Gain self-confidence through positive feedback.
When people get regular coaching sessions from an executive coach, they will become aware of things they are doing well in their work and life in general. This helps them to find meaning in their work and life by helping them to feel confident about what they are doing. When people feel like they have good things going for them, it will be easier for them to find pleasure in everything that they do.
6. Become better leaders through learning new skills.
The best executive coaches can give clients a variety of tools and skills that they can use in their work-life, as well as personal life. These skills often include specific ways to respond to situations at work and also how to come up with better ideas for whatever projects they are working on.
Leading is all about creating a vision, being able to motivate others to follow along, and then creating a plan to get the vision implemented effectively. The executive coach helps introduce new skills that will help people become better at these things so they can find meaning in their work more easily.
7. Gain a greater sense of control over what happens next.
Often, people who feel like they are stuck in a job or in a personal relationship will feel like they have no control over what happens next. An executive coach can help to show clients ways that they can take control of the direction of their lives and work. They will be able to find meaning in their work by doing things that are important to them and that also makes them happy in life.
If you’re looking for more meaning and purpose in your life, then executive coaching may be the answer. Coaching provides a safe space to explore who you are as an individual and what it is that makes you happy. It also encourages self-reflection so that we can better understand our strengths and weaknesses, which allows us to find a balance between work/life needs. If you are ready to find more meaning and purpose in your life, contact us for more information.