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I am often referred to CEOs by executives or others who know that CEO and think, “this CEO could benefit by having a coach.” During discussions with the CEO, topics typically revolve around several subjects and sometimes objections or rationalizations for not getting a coach. Here are some of the rationalizations and objections I hear:

“I am already a good CEO and doing just fine.” According to John C Maxwell, the preeminent author on leadership, the #1 law of leadership is the Law of the Lid, and leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. No organization can go any higher than the leader’s ability to lead.   After an engagement, we find that many CEOs who think they are doing “just fine” later understand they were setting the bar too low. They were holding their organizations back from the growth that was truly possible. These CEOs found out they were not always asking the right questions they should have been asking. Others have acknowledged that it was enlightening and beneficial for their thinking to be challenged. And we hear they could raise the bar on their leadership after engaging a coach.

You may ask yourself: What key factors about my presence in meetings matter, or what might I be doing that intimidates people? How often do people challenge me, or how do I react when things get tough, or someone pushes my buttons somehow?

Another thing I hear is, “Getting a coach is a sign of weakness, and I don’t want to look weak.”  But to be GREAT in anything, whether it be in sports (the highest paid, most winning golfers on the PGA tour all have a coach, many of the top musicians have a coach, and even some surgeons have a coach). Atul Gawande, a leading U.S. surgeon, pondered about getting a coach and, after hiring a coach, found “a coach provides extra eyes and ears and a more accurate picture of your reality. The coach recognized critical fundamentals and helped you build a better you.” Dr. Atul Gawande recommends coach because “it is not how good you are now; it is how good you are going to be that really matters.”

Liz Wiseman, the author of the book Multipliers, discovered after working with hundreds of CEOs and executives that many of these leaders thought they were MULTIPLIERS, only to discover they were DIMINISHERS with their leadership.

XOSphere Coaching is about bottom-line results. And we know that everything rises and falls on leadership. We work to make fearless CEOs better, thereby achieving higher growth, more profit, and cash to fund their growth – the bottom line results.