Everybody needs a coach

By Yukthi Gunasekera 

Bill Gates said, "Everyone needs a coach…We all need people that give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” Gates is not alone. Some of the world’s top people have used coaching to improve their game: Steve Jobs (Apple), Eric Schmidt (Google), Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Clinton. 

During his presidency, Clinton sought the guidance of coaching great Tony Robbins to help him make tough decisions that would impact America and the world. 

Former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was so enamored with coaching that he co-authored a book (‘Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell’) to codify the coaching principles of his executive coach Bill Campbell, who was coach to a plethora of Silicon Valley business leaders – hence the title ‘The Trillion Dollar Coach’. 

When asked for the best piece of advice he ever received, Schmidt answered, “One piece of advice that comes to mind is to have a coach. A Google board member in 2002, John Doerr, said ‘you need a coach’, and I said, ‘well, I don’t need a coach! I am an established CEO – why should I need a coach? Is something wrong?’ And, Doerr replied, ‘No, no, everybody needs a coach.’ So, Bill Campbell became my coach, and has served Google very well. Every famous athlete, every famous performer has somebody who is a coach, somebody who can watch what they are doing and say, ‘Is that what you really meant? Did you really do that? Coaches give them perspective. The one thing that people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.”

In a recent TV interview, Kasturi Chellaraja Wilson, Sri Lanka’s first woman to become CEO of a conglomerate, said, “When Hemas prepared me for my first career change in 2010, there was a coach on board, and he still remains on and off my coach, and that journey enriched me…the coach supports you to go dwell inside yourself, takes inputs from people around, and actually helps you understand yourself and your skills better. It’s important you do that. It’s important in life to have a bit of insight into yourself, deciding what you need to be aware of, and what you need to change or not change. It so happens that I love the person I am, but there are certain personality traits of mine which people might not find very appealing. 

“For example, I can be very straight and direct, and everybody is not ready to accept feedback that way, so I have to be aware to whom I am talking. My self-awareness journey came only with my coach – I must be honest. And he actually taught me the skill and importance of being self-aware. It doesn’t help me only in corporate life, it also helps me a lot in my personal life.”

The upshot is that executive coaching helps you to heighten self-awareness, improve self-regulation, develop higher levels of empathy, enhance social skills, increase self-motivation, and improve leadership abilities. So, everybody needs a coach – you need a coach!

(The writer is an executive coach and specialist in CEO Communication at YKG Associates. He can be reached at [email protected])