Unlocking your potential: how to get the best out of a management coach
By: Henry Philipson
Tags: Beringea Insights, Leadership Training, Venture Capital, Scaleup, Management Coaching

Michael Jordan said of his successes on the basketball court: “you must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” For anyone who has watched The Last Dance during lockdown, it is clear that Jordan constantly worked with his coaches and teammates to prepare mentally, to set expectations and to define success.

At Beringea, we work with exceptional talent throughout our portfolio. However, as Jordan points out, talent alone does not guarantee success — mental preparation is vital to achieving your goals. This is particularly true when contending with the strains of leading a rapidly scaling business, and a desire to unlock the potential of entrepreneurial talent often leads us to management coaches.

These coaches can have a transformative impact, enabling entrepreneurs to take a step back and consider how they might adapt and define success for themselves as well as the team around them. In our experience, however, coaches can only unlock this potential when they are part of a process that considers the rationale and objectives for choosing to undertake management coaching.

To unpack this process, we gathered insights from three founders in our portfolio who have thrived through coaching as well as tips and perspectives from three of our trusted coaches, Scott Malcolm of Mobius Executive Leadership, Jake Bornstein of Talentism, and Mica Vaipan of new baseline.

This article shares these insights and perspectives by asking three key questions we feel underpin a successful relationship with management coaches. We hope that you find it useful as you consider embarking on your own coaching journey!

Question 1: Why do I need a coach?

A good coach is there to continually help you make sense of what’s not working, so it can transform into the learning needed to win — Jake Bornstein

In your first couple of years as a founder, you will often feel an urgent need to roll up your sleeves and pitch in. When the team is scrappy and evolving, this can work well. However, there comes a point when you will realise the need to take a step back and understand the bigger picture.

Mica Vaipan argues that coaching provides an ideal forum for reflection, providing clarity of mind and enabling leaders to make sound decisions: “Firstly, coaching encourages founders to set aside time to reflect on themselves and process concerns. Secondly, a coach will help hold a mirror to them, allowing the founder to see themselves from top to toe from every angle.”

Scott Malcolm highlights the concept of the ‘balcony and the dance floor’ created by Ronald Heifetz of Harvard. “Imagine a crowded dance floor. And this dance floor has a balcony that gives you a perfect view of where everyone is dancing, who is hanging out with who, and what moves people are trying out. In this analogy, the dance floor is the day-to-day, all-consuming action of your business. It is easy and natural to think you have to be on the dance floor to solve problems and lead. And yet, leaders must be able to go to the balcony and see how you are doing what you are doing as an organisation. Ultimately, it is about reflection in the midst of action.”

Coaching enables founders and CEOs to enter the ‘balcony’ and reflect on the interactions and processes that underpin the day-to-day management and operations of the business. In this way, it can become a simple and powerful process for helping teams and leaders take themselves to the next level.

Kieran O’Neill, co-founder and CEO of Thread, the AI-driven personal styling service for men, decided to turn to a coach for exactly this reason: “I wasn’t in a place where I had huge issues to address. It was more about finesse and ensuring that I was the best at what I do. Any Olympian looking to win a gold medal would seek out an exceptional coach — I felt the same way about my leadership training.”

Kieran O’Neill, co-founder and CEO of Thread

Chris Edson, co-founder and CEO of Second Nature, the digital ‘habit change’ programme for weight loss and diabetes management, similarly commented that, “it can be challenging to grow and upskill as a CEO as relatively few people have that experience — my sole focus with coaching is to become a world-class CEO.” And, as Jake Bornstein adds, “a good coach is there to continually help you make sense of what’s not working, so it can transform into the learning needed to win.”

Question 2: How do I find the right coach?

The coach is not there to solve problems for them or offer them solutions, but rather help the founder identify the solution that fits them — Mica Vaipan

Finding the right coach is critical to success. As with any talent, different coaches suit different people. In our experience, the best coaches are highly oversubscribed and hard to win over. Kieran O’Neill succinctly compared the process of finding a coach to recruiting for an executive hire.

As with any recruitment process, finding the right person begins with defining the job description. To put it more simply, what sort of coach do you need? For some people, an emotional connection and an ability to show vulnerability may be the critical characteristic that you are looking for. As Scott comments, “good coaches will help you see your habits and patterns — both the parts you are happy to look at, and the parts that are less comfortable to consider.”

Kieran also makes a helpful distinction between advice and coaching: “advice tells you how to approach a problem, whereas coaching helping you to discover the right approach.” Mica adds: “The coach is not there to solve problems for them or offer them solutions, but rather help the founder identify the solution that fits them.” Be clear on the difference between the two and which you are looking for. If you are seeking advice, find a mentor; if you are looking to change the way that you approach a problem, seek out a coach.

Once you have set your goals, ask around in your network for recommendations. As Mica comments, “a referral from fellow founders is always a much more effective approach for the coach and the founder alike.” At Beringea, we also have a trusted list of coaches that we provide to our portfolio.

However, it is vital to remember that one person’s ideal coach may not be the same as someone else’s, so contact a number of different coaches and interview each other — it is, after all, crucial to have a dialogue. Jake highlights this: “while it can be helpful to go to your network or investors for recommendations, focus on the goal of finding the right coach for you, rather than assuming someone who was a good coach for someone else will automatically be a match.”

As Ed Rogers, co-founder of Been There Done That, the global community of creative and strategic leaders, recommended, “Spend real time with them before you commit. Do a trial session. Reference them. It is crucial that you respect and connect with the coach.” Jake similarly argues “a good coach combines psychological safety with a willingness to push to your edges, and, like every relationship, some coaches will be a good fit for one part of that equation, but not the other.”

Often, coaches will be more than happy to take the time to understand whether you can build a connection. Mica mentions that she prefers “to offer a free ‘discovery session’ to allow both myself and the client to start forming that unspoken connection which explores the foundation for a future coaching relationship.”

Sometimes, however, you will need to roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work to convince the coach that you are worth it. As Chris commented, “my coach told me at first that we wouldn’t be the right fit, so I proceeded to refuse to take no for an answer.”

Chris Edson (R), co-founder and CEO, of Second Nature

Good preparation will also help here, as a clear rationale and set of objectives will convince a good coach that you could be worth their time. As Kieran noted, “The coach that I chose initially said that he was full, but when I spelt out the process and thinking, he made the time to speak with me. The forethought and clarity really helped.”

Question 3: How do I get the most out of our sessions?

Coaching will enable you to treat the future with a lot of curiosity and a lot of respect — Scott Malcolm

Once you have found your ideal coach, the advice from our founders is clear: “go all in,” as Ed comments, “open up and be prepared to be uncomfortable.” Similarly, Chris recommends that you “let yourself be vulnerable and having an intense degree of introspection.”

It is also essential that you consistently invest substantial time and energy in your sessions. For Chris, he feels it is vital to “carve out a large portion of your time for coaching — I have two hours every fortnight, which I originally felt was ludicrously high, but it is the highest value part of my working routine.” Ed also argues that regularity is key: “momentum enables them to add value — with ‘real time’ views of the business and your challenges, the sessions can get deeper and more specific.”

Jake builds on these themes in his views on successful sessions, which place importance on: “hunger for excellence” through stepping beyond the status quo; a “willingness to experiment” by implementing meaningful actions arising from the sessions and tracking results; and “humility and self-scepticism” through embracing the desire to acknowledge blind spots and weaknesses, as well as talents you may undervalue!

Kieran stresses the importance of preparation: “It is important not to simply show up. Do a bit of work in advance and think about the most valuable thing that you can get out of the experience. The strength of the sessions is correlated to the work that you put in.” Similarly, Mica urges founders to “respects the coaching time by turning up and being fully present during the session — switching off notifications, setting aside various devices and making a conscious effort to ‘be there’.”

Through this preparation and the practice of periodically and consistently taking yourself up to the ‘balcony’, you will begin to perceive the road ahead and how you will react to it. As Scott concludes, “coaching will enable you to treat the future with a lot of curiosity and a lot of respect. Listening and noticing to what you are reacting to, and how you are reacting to it, is the name of the game. The good news is that this is absolutely a skill that can be consciously developed.”

At Beringea, we believe that building a business is a journey. While there may be lumps and bumps along the way, we hope that a few of these tips will help you to reach out to a management coach who might be able to help you find the route to success.

With special thanks to Scott Malcolm, Jake Bornstein, Mica Vaipan, Kieran O’Neill, Chris Edson and Ed Rogers, whose thoughts have helped shape our thinking throughout this article.