Coachability: Getting Serious About Your Own Development

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Sep 28, 2023, 10:38 ET

The Miles Group's new C-Suite Intelligence podcast features COO Taylor Griffin and Managing Director Samantha Smith on owning your leadership development

"Coachability is about your openness to feedback and new ways of doing things, and then following through with those changes as part of an iterative, ongoing process."
– Samantha Smith

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- "People think everything is about natural talent, and it really isn't. Usually it is about practice, and a real commitment to further development," says Taylor Griffin, COO of The Miles Group/TMG.

As coaches to some of the most successful and high-performing executives in the world, Griffin and Managing Director Samantha Smith explore the concept of coachability on this week's new C-Suite Intelligence podcast episode, "Coachability: Getting Serious About Your Own Development."

"Coachability is about your openness to feedback and new ways of doing things, and then following through with those changes as part of an iterative, ongoing process," says Smith.

"When we ask if someone is coachable," says Griffin, we mean "are they willing to take a piece of feedback and do something different on the other end with it? It doesn't have to be huge. It can be something very small, but it is something that makes the difference and adds to their effectiveness. We call that 'demonstrating range' to their leadership style. We're looking for them to make adaptations and to show that they have agility in how they lead, so that they can line up to the situation, the person, the external conditions, whatever it might be."

TMG advises clients that the best way to show up to a coaching engagement is to be honest and open. "It is meant to be a confidential relationship. You've got to really trust in the coaching relationship; you need to trust in your coach," says Griffin.

Smith recommends making coaching more effective by bringing up tangible situations: "Here's a situation I'm in the middle of right now. How should I be thinking about this? Do I have any blind spots? What are some of the longer-term implications for this? And how can we use this as a real working session to roll up our sleeves and dive in."

"Even when you have a coach, your coach is not a crutch. Your coach is not a couch," says Griffin. "Your coach is somebody who's pushing you and giving you advice as it relates to how you can enhance your own effectiveness. But it's you who does all the work."

"It has to be your own curiosity and personal drive to get better. And it's not discretionary. It's actually pretty vital. It's how you show up to those opportunities, how you really commit yourself to those opportunities, and how you make yourself a little bit vulnerable to those opportunities that helps to make you exceptional, stand out, and demonstrate coachability."

"Coachability: Getting Serious About Your Own Development" is out now on Apple, Google, Spotify, TMG's website, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information, please contact executive producers Davia Temin or Trang Mar of Temin and Company at 212.588.8788 or [email protected].

About the C-Suite Intelligence podcast
CEOs running the world's top companies don't start out that way – they pull ahead of their peers with behaviors and practices that make them the "best of the best." Stephen Miles and the team at TMG coach some of the world's most successful executives, helping them continuously up their game even as business conditions grow more complex every day. Learn the secrets of the highest performers and use this intelligence to power your career. New episodes are released bi-weekly on Apple, Google, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

About The Miles Group/TMG
TMG develops talent strategies for organizations, teams, and individuals – focusing on high-performance, world-class leadership. Through assessments and development, coaching, leadership transition planning, and organizational design, TMG helps clients cultivate exceptional talent from the C-suite to the next generation of leaders throughout the organization. Clients include many of the Fortune 100 as well as VC portfolio companies, firms in transition, and organizations around the globe and across industries. TMG has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, C-Suite, Entrepreneur, and Chief Executive. The firm is headquartered in New York City and operates globally. For more information, visit https://miles-group.com. Follow TMG on LinkedIn and X, and Stephen Miles on Forbes.