Are You A Creative or Reactive Leader?

By: ActionCOACH Team

Date: 01 / 11 / 2024

Good leaders are creative rather than reactive. In other words, they anticipate future demands and trends and make new products or tailor the ones they already have to suit that future.

It’s more important than ever to be able to understand how those changes will affect your business and establish ways to take full advantage of those changes.

Are you a creative or reactive leader?

Here’s how you can test your potential.

Creative business leaders are always asking themselves the following questions:

•    What do potential customers really need, now?
•    What worries them?
•    What causes them pain?
•    What would they be eager to buy?
•    How can I make our current customers happier?
•    How can we make the products we sell them better?
•    More useful?
•    More valuable?”

Do you ask yourself these questions? Regularly? And if you do, do you come up with not just good, rather great answers, answers that can advance your business? Test your creative skills against the following checklist Are you:

•    internally driven
•    focused on the work, not politics
•    goal-oriented around, rather than crisis-centered
•    good relationship builder

• make full use of your strongest talents
• set aggressive long-term goals

The following are traits of “reactive” leaders who generally:

•    are motivated by external factors like money and power
•    are focused on corporate politics, not the work
•    allow their time to be dictated by what’s in their inbox
•    sometimes ignore their strongest talents in favor of “good management”
•    plan in one- to five-year increments
•    they believe nothing is sacred and relationships are expendable

How many of those reactive characteristics apply to you?

How would you grade yourself?

The best leaders are long-term oriented, people-friendly, loyal, eager to provide better products and services, and unconcerned about where they stand in just about any pecking order. And that’s something to think about.

Reason #1: Different styles and methods of business coaching don't work for everyone

It's important to be honest with yourself and conduct a realistic assessment when it comes to business coaching. Though business coaching can have many benefits, it might not work for everyone.

Every individual brings their own experiences and values to the coaching dynamic, so results will vary. Additionally, some individuals might need more than just a coach. They might also need specialised knowledge or communication strategies specific to their industry or target audience. Below are a few key factors to consider:

Reason #2: There is no clear focus or vision (talk about time dedication here too)

cIt's important to be honest with yourself and conduct a realistic assessment when it comes to business coaching. Though business coaching can have many benefits, it might not work for everyone.

Business coaching is an effective tool for developing a clearer focus and vision for growing your business. A good coach will help you to take a comprehensive look at your strengths, weaknesses, and available resources that can be used to reach those goals. They will also help you draw up action plans with step-by-step instructions to get there.

By providing honest feedback and being patient throughout the process, a business coach can make sure that you’re on the right track. This will enable you to set realistic milestones and tasks.

These tasks may need dedicated time outside of coaching sessions. For example, a coach might help a client develop a marketing strategy or implement new systems for managing employees. However, if the client does not have enough time to devote to these tasks outside of coaching sessions, progress will likely stall.

Both the coach and the client must have enough time available to reflect on past experiences, brainstorm new solutions, and test out different strategies. If either party is rushed or distracted during coaching sessions due to other commitments or obligations, they may struggle to fully engage in this process.

Effective business coaching also requires a commitment to regular meetings and ongoing communication. If either the coach or the client does not have enough time to dedicate to these meetings, progress may be slow or nonexistent.

It's important to recognise that business coaching is an ongoing process that takes time to yield results. While some clients may see improvements after just a few sessions with their coach. Others may need months or even years of consistent effort before they begin seeing real changes in their businesses.

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