Amplifying Strengths While Improving Gaps
Leaders often initially enter an executive coaching engagement with a combination of apprehension and hope. After taking assessments and getting stakeholder feedback, too often their instincts are to tackle everything that represents potential gap areas at once. But the leaders who grow the fastest, and sustain that growth, do something very different: They narrow their focus.
The most effective coaching engagements concentrate on two or three high‑impact goals. These goals are chosen by the leaders, with the coach’s help, through a deliberate process that blends assessment insights and stakeholder perspectives with the leader’s strengths and aspirations. When these elements come together, they create a roadmap that is both targeted and transformative.
Start With the Data: Assessments Reveal Patterns, Not Judgments
Assessments — whether psychometric or personality instruments, 360s, or stakeholder interviews — give leaders a structured way to understand how their behaviors show up across situations. The value isn’t in the scores or comments themselves; it’s in the patterns. Assessments highlight tendencies that help or hinder performance. Often, they reveal strengths leaders underestimate, as well as potential blind spots or derailers that can get in their way.
When leaders are coached to use assessment data well, they stop treating feedback as a verdict and start treating it as information. They begin to see which behaviors create friction, which accelerate results, and which align with the leader they want to become. This clarity makes it easier to identify the few goals that matter most.
Listen to Stakeholders: They Regularly Experience the Leader’s Behavior
Stakeholder perspectives add a crucial dimension. Direct reports, peers, indirect reports, and managers see the leader’s behavior in real time — in meetings, decisions, conflicts, and moments of pressure. Their feedback helps leaders understand not just what they do, but how it affects others.
When leaders receive stakeholder input with openness rather than defensiveness, they gain insight into the behaviors that will create the biggest positive ripple effect. Often, stakeholders point to two or three shifts that would dramatically improve collaboration, trust, or execution. These insights help ensure coaching goals are not only personally meaningful, but organizationally relevant.
Anchor to Strengths: Growth Works Best When Built on What’s Already Strong
A common misconception is that coaching is about fixing weaknesses. In reality, the best coaching amplifies strengths. Leaders succeed when they understand what they naturally do well and use those strengths intentionally.
Strengths act as leverage. A leader who excels at strategic thinking can use that strength to improve communication by framing messages more clearly. A leader who builds strong relationships can use that skill to navigate conflict more effectively. When coaching goals align with strengths, change feels more natural and sustainable.
Choose the Goals That Create the Greatest Future Impact
The intersection of assessments, stakeholder perspectives, and strengths reveals the coaching priorities that matter most. These are often goals that:
- Improve relationships and trust
- Strengthen decision‑making
- Enhance communication and influence
- Increase alignment with organizational priorities
- Expand leadership presence and credibility
Leaders who work with their coaches to focus on the two or three development areas make faster progress because they’re not spreading their energy thin. They’re investing deeply in the behaviors that will elevate their performance now and in the future. By doing this, while keeping or amplifying existing strengths, they gain credibility and respect from their stakeholders while improving their leadership.
What It Takes for Leaders to Succeed Once They Have This Information
Having the right goals is only half the equation. The leaders who thrive in coaching share several attributes that accelerate their growth:
- Humility — They acknowledge that others’ perceptions matter and are willing to learn from them.
- Curiosity — They ask questions, seek input, and explore new ways of working.
- Consistency — They practice new behaviors repeatedly until they become habits.
- Transparency — They share their goals with stakeholders and invite ongoing feedback.
- Resilience — They stay committed even when change feels uncomfortable.
- Accountability — They track progress and take ownership of their development.
These attributes turn insight into action. They help leaders transform feedback into forward momentum and ensure that the two or three chosen goals lead to meaningful, measurable improvement that can last.
The Bottom Line
Executive coaching isn’t about helping leaders do more — it’s about helping them do what matters most so they can achieve better results faster. When leaders use assessment information, stakeholder perspectives, and their own strengths to identify two or three high‑impact goals, they create a focused path toward greater effectiveness. And when they bring humility, curiosity, consistency, transparency, resilience, and accountability to the process, they unlock the kind of growth that shapes careers, teams, and organizations.
How can executive coaching help you or your organization achieve better results faster?
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Lance Hazzard, PCC, CPCC, is a Master Certified Executive Coach and Executive Team Coach helping people and organizations achieve success. Lance and Eric T. Hicks, Ph.D., co-authored Accelerating Leadership, published in June 2019. Lance is Executive Coach and President at Oppnå® Executive & Achievement Coaching. More information on the book, Lance and Oppnå® Coaching can be found at the links below: