Executive Coaching in Newcastle: What Leaders Actually Need Under Pressure
Written by Mitchell Masarik
Business consultant and founder of Empowered Growth Solutions, with many years of hands-on experience in business improvement, implementation, sales, operations and leadership.
Leadership pressure rarely presents itself as a neat, clearly defined problem.
A business owner may say that a manager is struggling, staff are not accountable, decisions keep being escalated, meetings are unproductive or the owner is being pulled into matters that should be handled elsewhere.
These may appear to be leadership problems. Sometimes they are. But often, the real issue is a combination of unclear roles, insufficient authority, outdated systems, poor communication, unsuitable reporting structures or people being promoted without the support required to lead effectively.
Practical executive coaching should help identify what is really happening and improve how the leader operates within the actual business—not simply provide generic leadership theory.
Not every leadership problem is a leadership problem
When a business owner says, “We have a leadership problem,” it often means the business is not operating the way they expect it to.
However, the business may be operating exactly as it has been structured to operate.
The owner’s expectations may have changed as the business has grown, but responsibilities, systems, procedures and decision-making authority may not have changed with them.
When roles are poorly defined, grey areas develop. Tasks are completed because dedicated staff notice what has been missed and quietly fill the gaps.
This can hide the underlying problem for months or even years.
The weakness only becomes obvious when that staff member is away, overworked, occupied with other priorities or leaves the business. The unallocated work stops being completed and the wheels begin to fall off.
This is not necessarily a failure of leadership by one person. It may be a failure to update the structure of the business as it grew.
A system that worked for a man-and-a-van business will rarely continue to work properly when the business has 50 or 100 staff. Each stage of growth requires responsibilities, procedures, communication and authority to be reconsidered.
What executive coaching helps with day to day
Executive and leadership coaching should be connected to the leader’s actual responsibilities and daily pressures.
This may include helping a leader:
prioritise competing tasks
delegate work appropriately
communicate expectations clearly
manage difficult conversations
work with different personalities
develop staff rather than continually doing the work for them
decide which matters require their involvement
reduce unnecessary escalation
improve accountability
structure meetings more effectively
make commercially sensible decisions under pressure
integrate into an existing team or business culture
The requirements will differ between businesses.
A manager leading delivery drivers faces different challenges from a chef leading a kitchen, a construction manager coordinating trades or an executive overseeing several departments.
The coaching therefore needs to start with the individual, the team, the business structure and the commercial outcomes they are responsible for.
Being good at the work does not automatically make someone a good manager
One of the most common leadership problems occurs when a highly capable employee is promoted into management.
A strong delivery driver may understand routes, customers and operational requirements extremely well. A talented chef may be able to prepare an exceptional dish. An experienced tradesperson may complete a technical job faster than anyone else in the team.
That does not automatically mean they know how to teach, delegate, manage conflict, develop staff or lead a team.
Management is a different role.
A person who was previously working beside their colleagues must now set expectations, review performance and sometimes have uncomfortable conversations with people who were formerly their peers.
Many promoted managers receive little meaningful training for this transition.
They may also feel embarrassed about asking questions because they believe their promotion means they should already know how to perform the role. As a result, they may struggle silently, avoid difficult situations or escalate decisions they should be capable of making.
The solution is not always to remove the person from the role. In many cases, the manager needs clear expectations, personalised training, constructive feedback and practical support.
However, there are also situations where someone is exceptionally capable in their former position but is simply not suited to management. There should be no shame in recognising that different roles require different strengths.
Delegation is not simply handing work to someone else
Many leaders become overwhelmed because they continue doing work that should now be performed by the people they manage.
They may believe they can complete a task faster or to a higher standard themselves. That may be true, but it does not mean they are the right person to perform it.
A head plumber may be able to replace a hot-water system in half the time of a less experienced plumber. But while the head plumber is doing that work, the more complex tasks that only the experienced person can handle may remain untouched.
The apparent saving can therefore create a larger cost elsewhere in the business.
Effective delegation considers:
the value of the task
the capability of the staff member
the training they need
what only the leader can do
the broader impact of the leader’s time
how completion will be tracked
when the matter should be escalated
The goal is not to keep work away from the leader at all costs. It is to ensure that work is completed at the appropriate level.
Too many businesses turn senior people into traffic directors
When every question, email, task or decision flows through one senior person, that person becomes a traffic director rather than a leader.
They spend their time receiving information, deciding who should handle it and redirecting work that should never have required their attention.
A better structure may involve a central person or team responsible for receiving and allocating certain categories of work.
This allows skilled managers and executives to focus on matters requiring their experience rather than constantly sorting through irrelevant information.
The same principle applies to meetings.
Not every person needs to attend every meeting. Involving unnecessary staff wastes time, but failing to involve the right people can lead to poor decisions.
The business needs a clear method for deciding who should be informed, who should be consulted and who is responsible for the final decision.
Staff need authority as well as responsibility
A common reason managers continually escalate decisions is that they have never been given clear authority to make them.
Consider a staff member who regularly handles contracts worth $100,000. Requiring that person to seek approval for every small commercial adjustment can waste significant time and slow the business down.
That does not mean staff should be permitted to make uncontrolled decisions.
They need:
suitable training
clear financial or operational limits
an understanding of the commercial objective
accountability for their decisions
support when acting within the agreed boundaries
Different roles should have different levels of authority.
When people understand the decisions they are permitted to make, minor issues stop travelling unnecessarily up the management chain.
The owner and senior executives can then focus on decisions that genuinely require their involvement.
Accountability begins with clear communication
Poor staff accountability is not always a staff problem.
It can be caused by unclear instructions, changing priorities, insufficient training, inconsistent standards or a lack of any practical method for reporting that work has been completed.
A staff member should not need to interrupt their manager after every task simply to announce that it has been done. That would be inefficient for both people.
Instead, the business needs an appropriate system for allocating, monitoring and completing work.
Before blaming a staff member, a manager should consider:
Was the responsibility clearly assigned?
Were the expected outcome and timeframe explained?
Did the person have the authority, information and resources required?
Was there a method for reporting progress or completion?
Were competing priorities managed?
Was the person properly trained?
Was the standard applied consistently?
If responsibility cannot be traced back to a clearly identified person or team, it becomes difficult to understand what failed or prevent it from happening again.
Good leaders also need to hear from the people doing the work
Business structures should not only operate from the top down.
Staff performing the work every day often identify inefficiencies, customer problems and practical obstacles before senior management sees them.
They need a structured way to raise those issues and suggest improvements.
This does not mean every suggestion should be adopted. Some ideas may work from one employee’s perspective but create problems elsewhere in the business.
The purpose is to create a process where good ideas can be considered without allowing unproductive discussions to consume excessive time.
Leaders who have never personally performed the roles they manage should be particularly willing to ask questions and learn from the people doing the work.
Admitting that you do not fully understand a task is not a sign of weak leadership. Pretending to understand it can be far more damaging.
When coaching alone is not enough
Leadership coaching can improve prioritisation, communication, delegation, decision-making and the ability to manage people.
But coaching cannot solve every business problem.
The issue may also require:
clearer roles and reporting structures
new systems or procedures
operational changes
consulting and implementation support
additional training
performance management
professional human-resources or legal advice
changes to the personnel involved
There are also situations where the apparent leadership problem exists somewhere completely different.
In one business, recurring customer and installation issues appeared to be a management failure. After examining the broader situation, the problem was traced to marketing that was attracting unsuitable customers.
Those customers created disproportionate complaints, stress and unproductive work throughout the business.
Changing the source and type of enquiries improved the experience for the staff and allowed the business to focus on more suitable, higher-value customers.
The visible symptom was leadership pressure. The underlying cause was the type of work entering the business.
That is why diagnosis must come before prescribing a solution.
Practical coaching should build capability, not dependence
The purpose of executive coaching should not be to keep a consultant involved indefinitely.
Some businesses need intensive support for a period, particularly when dealing with major change, growth, restructuring or sensitive commercial matters.
However, the goal should be to give the leader the judgement, systems and practical capability needed to operate more effectively without constant external involvement.
The right support should identify what matters, make the necessary changes and help the leader become more capable and independent.
It should not create unnecessary meetings, vague plans or a permanent dependency on the coach.
Where the issue involves managers, delegation, accountability or decisions continually returning to the owner, Executive & Leadership Coaching may help identify whether the problem sits with the leader, the structure around them or a combination of both.
Executive and leadership coaching in Newcastle
Empowered Growth Solutions provides practical executive and leadership coaching for business owners, executives, managers and key staff across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter, Central Coast, Port Stephens and the MidCoast.
Support may address leadership capability, accountability, decision-making, delegation, team communication, owner dependence, promoted managers, operational structures and commercially sensitive situations.
The first step is a free confidential call to understand what is happening, what needs to improve and whether Empowered Growth Solutions is likely to be the right fit.
