Do you want to raise the level of your leadership effectiveness? Perhaps you’ve already been vulnerable enough to get feedback through a Leadership 360 Assessment, but you’ve had trouble following through on specific changes to see improvement. If so, you’re not alone. The majority of leaders who receive feedback from a Leadership 360 don’t make measurable improvements in their leadership over time. So, what is the key to seeing breakthrough results? Coaching!
A commitment to leadership coaching can make all the difference between good intentions for growth and actually realizing measurable improvement and success. Leadership growth takes both intention and accountability, just like it does if you’re trying to make progress with your physical health. You may join a gym intending to get in better physical shape, but don’t see improvement. The accountability of a regular appointment with a personal trainer helps you move from intention to action. Even professional athletes who have “arrived” at success in their careers still engage with personal coaching for fitness, nutrition, and other performance-related issues to increase their effectiveness.
Leadership coaching is a relationship and process over time that helps a leader achieve sustained, observed behavioral changes in order to lead more effectively.
Best Christian Workplaces uses a unique and powerful coaching model called Stakeholder Centered Coaching. The core of this approach is the belief that the best people to provide input and ideas about how a leader can grow are the leader’s “stakeholders.” These are the people in the workplace that the leader influences and interacts with frequently. Stakeholders can include the leader’s boss, peers, direct reports, and more. Stakeholder Centered Coaching is a partnership between the leader, the leader’s stakeholders, and the coach—all committed to helping the leader grow.
There are three key components to the Stakeholder Centered Coaching approach:
The concept of providing feedback is familiar to us all. It’s the idea of telling someone what they have done and what impact it had. While feedback is helpful in growth, it can feel critical or judgmental since it is based on the person’s behaviors in the past. Often, people do not feel comfortable providing clear, honest, and complete feedback if they aren’t sure how the person might respond to it.
“Feedforward” is a concept that is empowering because it provides stakeholders with an opportunity to generate future-oriented ideas about actions a leader can take that will help them become even more effective. It is NOT focused on the past, nor does it require a stakeholder to point out what someone has done wrong that has had a negative impact. Instead, feedforward input is a way to give a person practical ideas for the future that can help them achieve their intended goal.
Providing feedforward ideas tends to be fun and can even give the stakeholder a rewarding sense that they have truly helped the person. It is very unlikely to create defensiveness, as it highlights potential ideas for improvement as opposed to pointing out mistakes of the past. The concept of feedforward was popularized by Marshall Goldsmith[i], the originator of the Stakeholder Centered Coaching model.
Leadership coaching is not a quick fix. With Stakeholder Centered Coaching, leaders commit to one year of monthly coaching and action plans to implement. Research shows that ninety-five percent of leaders who commit to this process see measurable improvement in their effectiveness. Many leaders find that after a year of significant growth, they want to keep going with the process and/or offer the coaching to others on their teams.
Believe it or not, the coaching process is quite manageable. It includes:
Monthly Coaching Preparation by the Leader:
Monthly Coaching Sessions:
Coaching Session Follow-Up by the Leader:
To benefit from the investment of time and money necessary for a year of leadership coaching, you need to consider your own willingness to be committed to the process.
Do you have the courage to ask for feedback and feedforward input? Do you have the humility to prayerfully consider the feedback and feedforward input that is offered to you? And do you have the discipline to follow through on monthly action plans? If you can answer “yes” to those three questions, then you are an excellent candidate for Stakeholder Centered Coaching.
Leadership character and competence are key drivers in a Flourishing WorkplaceTM. Best Christian Workplaces has identified eight FLOURISH Factors based on more than 20 years of research. According to the 2025 State of the Christian Workplace Report, Inspirational Leadership has the highest relative weight of all of the drivers of engagement. Organizations with leaders who demonstrate the fruit of the Holy Spirit and who exhibit high levels of leadership competence positively impact the engagement within their teams.
Research clearly shows that a commitment to improving the effectiveness of leaders has a direct impact on organizational culture and organizational performance. Trust grows as employees see leaders take positive steps toward growth. Leaders who are committed to continuous improvement in character and competence fuel the energy and enthusiasm of their staff, who commit wholeheartedly to the vision and mission of the organization.
A leader was being considered as the successor to the current CEO of an organization. The Board wanted to assess his strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, they wanted to know if he was humble and disciplined enough to make positive changes in his own leadership approach to best meet the needs of his staff.
This leader accepted the challenge with a great attitude. He took a Best Christian Workplaces’ Leadership 360 Assessment, and he listened to the feedback without getting defensive. He prayerfully considered the feedback and chose two areas he wanted to improve in—with agreement from his boss.
Every month, he asked for feedback from those he worked most closely with (his boss, peers, and direct reports) to assess the progress he was making. He also asked them monthly for feedforward input about how he could keep getting better.
The first few months were challenging because not all of his stakeholders were convinced that he would commit to real change. However, by the end of the year, even his most skeptical stakeholders expressed that they noticed and appreciated significant positive changes in the leader. The Board eventually decided he was the right person to serve as the next CEO.
What next steps do you want to take to enhance your effectiveness as a leader?
Your effectiveness as a leader impacts the health of your whole organization. Your commitment to ongoing growth and listening can increase the level of trust, unity, and engagement of your team. Best Christian Workplaces strongly recommends considering the following two resources to help you and your fellow leaders keep growing:
[i] Jay Bransford is a Certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coach.
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