The term sparring is known from martial arts. Here, athletes train with a partner at eye level who can show them their skills and weaknesses. This is exactly what executive sparring is all about. Sparring partners take on a special meaning in the context of executive training or are used to find solutions for specific problems and tasks. They meet you at eye level and strengthen your ability to act in the company.
One of the biggest challenges for managers is to find people at the top of a company who can provide honest feedback on the way they act, the decisions they make and their own leadership work. It takes an external partner from the outside to provide objective feedback and concrete advice. Various methods are available for this purpose. The most common are coaching, mentorship programs or executive sparring, which we would like to take a closer look at here.
The term sparring comes from the English language and means "to confront a counterpart". In leadership sparring you get a partner at your side with whom you can analyze your personality traits, recognize your own strengths and use them. It serves to improve your abilities by mirroring your talents and weaknesses. Your sparring partner will give you tips on how you can work on your weaknesses and develop yourself further.
The central task of the sparring partner is to make the executive's abilities visible and to work specifically on weaknesses. He or she can also adopt a critical stance in a specific case in order to find out what the best solution for a task is. In this way, certain approaches to a solution can perhaps be discarded before they cause any real damage in practice. The sparring partner provides direct feedback on the manager's characteristics, personality traits and attitudes. This feedback serves the further development of the manager.
The sparring partners are usually external people who work vis-a-vis the executives. They have a professional distance from the company and can contribute their own wealth of experience. External partners in executive sparring are neutral and take the position of a trusted person. They do not represent their own interests.
In everyday life, many managers lack precisely this. They cannot discuss certain topics with team members or colleagues, nor with their own superiors. Particularly for dealing with one's own weaknesses, an outside person is needed with whom executives can speak and discuss openly without this having an impact on their position in the company or their responsibilities. Managers have a role model function in the company. This does not mean that they are not allowed to show weaknesses. However, in order to actively address precisely these weaknesses, the external sparring partner is ultimately needed. Together with this partner, customized solutions can be developed for individual problems.
Particularly at the top of a company, there is a lack of neutral people who hold up a mirror at eye level and give honest, disinterested and open feedback. In companies, there are often - consciously or unconsciously - positions of power. Even if other managers are at eye level, there can be tensions and self-interests at various levels. Friends or the partner are also unsuitable because they cannot be neutral and a personal level always resonates. There is a lack of professional distance and objective perception. One does not want to hurt the other person through criticism. Often, the people in one's own environment do not have sufficient competence to really reflect on decisions and behaviors in a goal-oriented way.
In the first step of the executive sparring process, the sparring partner takes time for a personal meeting. The sparring partner wants to get to know the manager better and obtain important background information for later work in order to better understand the specific task at hand. The sparring partner discovers initial strengths and deficits. In addition to active listening, the sparring partner also likes to use role plays in which the attitudes, personality traits and characteristics of the counterpart become visible.
The sparring partner can now mirror the executive's own strengths, behaviors and weaknesses, provide constructive feedback and concrete advice for improvement. The sparring partner is also at the executive's side during the implementation phase of this advice and can respond to specific questions and challenges in a supportive manner. The client's action competencies and security are thereby decisively increased and improved.
For the cooperation with the external sparring partner, clear goals or questions should be defined. These could include the following formulations:
At first glance, the tasks of a sparring partner come close to those of a coach or trainer or mentor. However, there are important differences here that become apparent on closer inspection.
Coach
The term "coach" or "coaching" is a collective term for different methods of promoting a person's professional and personal potential. There are several forms of coaching in the form of individual, group or project coaching. The coach stands at the client's side and supports them in finding solutions to personal issues by using targeted questioning techniques and methods. He listens actively and gives impulses without suggesting concrete actions and ways. He is neutral and does not evaluate. Through coaching, the client should recognize his or her own abilities and resources and thus develop personally.
Consultant
The consultant usually comes into play in the case of specific challenges and analyzes the situation in all its details in order to find the right solution in the end. In doing so, he is usually in contact not only with one person, but talks to managers, team members and relevant stakeholders. The consultant's work is usually scheduled for a fixed project period. After the analysis phase, the consultant develops a concrete solution proposal
Sparring partner
The sparring partner combines various methods from coaching and consulting. He acts as an active listener and gives targeted feedback or suggests alternative courses of action. The feedback takes place at eye level - so the manager can reflect on the advice and accept it for himself. Solutions result from constant interaction and reflection between sparring partner and executive. Sometimes sparring partners also take on the role of "Advocatus Diaboli" in order to bring possible counter-arguments for an idea to the table.
Executives at the top of the company bear a great deal of responsibility - for themselves, but also for others. Every decision can therefore have far-reaching consequences. This knowledge creates pressure - which makes it all the more important to gain sovereignty of action. Working with a sparring partner can be useful in very different situations.
By working with a sparring partner, managers can grow in their role, gain better reflective competence and sustainably improve their own skills. Through inner clarity, they gain more sovereignty to act.
Instead of making serious mistakes in real situations, you can test certain situations in advance with your sparring partner. Instead of just giving tips and hints, he or she holds a mirror up to you in which you can see which characteristics and competencies you should work on specifically. Internally, companies lack people who give honest feedback to their superiors without being afraid of consequences themselves. Even if hierarchical structures in modern companies have been broken down in the meantime, a manager is still a superior in the end. Putting the finger in the wound and pointing out mistakes from within their own ranks has rarely taken place in practice to date.
However, sparring partners offer decisive advantages above all as advisory support for ongoing projects. Before you make a decision in real situations, you can run through it with your sparring partner. You can test your strategies and change them if necessary before they have real consequences for your project. The practice sessions also give you confidence, which is transferred to your team. The sparring work is individually integrated into your daily routine and your work rhythm, resulting in high process speeds. Especially for top managers it gets increasingly lonely at the top. You benefit from a constructive exchange and honest feedback on your own ways of thinking and acting.
Is there someone in your professional or private environment with whom you can have an honest, open exchange about your personality traits, skills, but also weaknesses? Your decisions have a great influence on the team members, the department and the economic success of the entire company. Your sparring partner will support you, reflect on your actions and decisions, and show you how to keep a cool head even in critical situations.
Good sparring also includes a change of perspective. Through the authentic feedback you get a clear head, increase your options for action and get new impulses. Through constructive exchange alone, you recognize new ideas and approaches to solutions without having to pay the price. Sparring partners often bring executives out of their individual isolation. In the end, self-perception and external perception can differ considerably. Your sparring partner gives you the opportunity for further development through his objective feedback.
Are you still looking for a sparring partner? At the Stage Academy, you will find a suitable with whom you can enter into an intensive exchange and achieve your personal goals. We look forward to hearing from you by e-mail at contact@stageacademy.com or via this link for a free initial consultation.