About Coaching
I have had the good fortune during my career to experience all forms of executive coaching – some have been effective, some haven’t. Through those experiences, I have compiled information about various types of executive coaching; hopefully this answers many of the questions you may have.
The first question is often: “why would I need a coach”? The primary value of coaching is to have a partner you can use as a sounding board – someone who has very deep and diverse leadership experience (also see Traits of an Effective Executive Coach below). What makes coaching valuable is the combination of knowledge and experience, coupled with the objectivity that comes from being outside your organization.
The following sections provide an overview of executive coaching.
The Purpose of Executive Coaching
If any of the following describes you, the right coach can help:
- A strong desire to grow personally and professionally
- A strong desire to build a team to achieve their full potential
- Facing major challenge(s) – opportunities and/or obstacles
- Experiencing stress, long hours or lack of progress
- Issues remaining unresolved; repeating mistakes
- High staff turnover
- Inconsistent results in sales, revenue, profit, quality, etc.
- Poor work-life balance
Types of Executive Coaching
The two primary types of executive coaching are:
- One-on-one: 100% focused on you and your team
- Peer group: a small portion of the time focused directly on you and your needs
Executive coaching may also have these distinguishing characteristics:
- Holistic: whole person and whole organization
- Program-specific, for example: sales coaching, management coaching, team coaching, etc.
- Industry-specific
- Fixed program and products serving thousands
- Adaptable program tailored to each client
Traits of an Effective Executive Coach
- Does more listening than talking
- Asks open-ended, thought-activating questions, tailored to your current situation and priorities
- Grasps what she’s/he’s hearing, and guide the conversation accordingly
- Has the ability to put issues into context, connecting individual issues into the big picture
- Has adaptable tools for all situations and topics
- Has experience leading and managing in several types of organizations
- Ties your growth to that of your leadership team and organization
- Takes a proactive, scenario-planning approach
- Knows when to advise, when to support, when to challenge, etc.
Executive Coaching Return-on-Investment Metrics
- Executive growth
- Leadership team growth
- Staff growth
- Process improvement
- Client base growth
- Revenue growth
- Profit improvement
