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COACHING FOR ISKCON LEADERS

 

It is not just individual ISKCON leaders who can benefit from on-to-one

coaching - their zones, projects and temples can gain immensely, too.

 

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As ISKCON had grown over the past thirty years, a need for training

first-class spiritual leaders has become more than obvious. Apart from a

spiritual training through sadhana, personal study and senior guidance,

there is a need for subtler service skills commonly known as people skills,

such as: the communication and relationship skills required to motivate and

energize devotees, adaptability to rapid change, and respect for devotees

from diverse backgrounds.

 

Today, we expect ISKCON leaders on all levels to have these qualities.

Although some leaders take time to upgrade their skills by self-study and by

attanding leadership training courses, this doesn't seem to be enough to

make our leaders both more happy and more effective.

 

Some ISKCON centers (like ISKCON London), have found new ways to structure

mutually satisfactory relationships with their most responsible devotees and

foster their development in line with centers' missionary goals. ISKCON

centres still groping for solutions need something our present management

seem to lack: a systematic means of engaging with leaders as individuals.

Enter leaderships coaching.

 

Why Leadership Coaching Works?

 

Leadership coaching engages with devotees in customized ways that

acknowledge and honor their individuality, while at the same time

considering their service and contribution to ISKCON. It helps devotees know

themselves better, live more consciously (one who is Krsna conscious becomes

conscious of everything), and contribute more richly.

 

Leadership coaching is distinct from other types of coaching. The broader

field of coaching includes life planning, career counseling, health and

nutritional advice, and training in skills like conflict resolution and

public speaking. Leadership coaching may enter into these areas to some

extent, but its main purpose is to help leaders being coached to achieve

results for ISKCON's preaching mission. At the most basic level, coaches

serve as suppliers of candor, providing individual leaders with the

objective feedback needed to nourish their growth.

 

It is remarkable how many smart, highly motivated, and apparently

responsible ISKCON leaders and managers rarely pause to contemplate their

own behavior. Often more inclined to move on than to contemplate deeply,

like an introspective sage, leaders may reach top positions in ISKCON

without ever addressing their limitations. Coaching gets them to slow down,

gain awareness, and notice the effects of their words and actions. That

enables leaders to perceive choices rather than simply react to events.

Ultimately, coaching can help leaders to assume greater responsibility for

their impact on other devotees, ISKCON in general, and the world.

 

Coaching doesn't end wiht self-awareness. It is a form of active learning

that transfers essential self-discipline, communication and relationship

skills. Leadership coaching integrates leader's spiritual development and

ISKCON mission's needs. This approach can help ISKCON leaders adapt to new

responsibilities, reduce destructive and self-destructive behaviors, enhance

teamwork, align individuals to collective goals, facilitate succession, and

support ISKCON's ongoing improvement.

 

Systematic coaching programs, reaching ISKCON leaders at all levels, can

provide a disciplined way for ISKCON to deepen relationships with its most

responsible members while increasing its effectiveness. The most valuable

coaching fosters cultural change for the benefit of the entire ISKCON and

thus the entire world.

 

I believe that coaching ISKCON leaders will help them succeed long-term and

will help fulfil Srila Prabhupada's desire to have first-class leaders, who

will lead the global community to a bright Krishna conscious future.