subject: Experience Reliable Executive Coaching Services Through Credible Training Programs [print this page] In the past whispers around the office about executive coaches being brought in used to send shivers down executives spines. Executive coaches were often brought into an organization as a sign that there was a problem or lack of production from the executive level. However trends today have changed and being assigned an executive coach is now seen as a sign that someone valued as an asset to the company and ultimately worth developing into a more effective leader.
Many of the concerns and fears associated with being assigned an executive coach may stem from a general lack of understanding of what exactly executive coaching is and it can do for an organization. To help clear up any misconceptions surrounding executive coaching, lets take a look at what executive coaching is.
Unlike consultants, executive coaches are brought in not to provide their client with all the answers but instead to help develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools to improve performance and personal effectiveness by prompting executives and team members to uncover the answers on their own. Executive coaches help develop and maintain a healthy pipeline between the executive level and their employees by providing an outside and nonbiased perspective on this relationship. An executive coach can play the role of supporter, co-developer, political confidant and evaluator.
In John H. Eggers and Doug Clarks, Executive Coaching That Wins, they present The Essence of Great Executive Coaching model which lays out the events and roles both clients and coaches play in an effective executive coaching session.
The Essence of Great Executive Coaches:
Clients Role
Presenting issues
Developing vulnerability/openness
Awareness of real issues
Identification brings responsibility
Developing a global strategic platform
Responsibility creates complete ownership
Experimentation through independent action
Issue resolution and closure
Behaviour change
Ready to explore deeper issues
Repeat the process
Transform change
Relationship completion
Coachs Role
The Dance
Getting to know each other
Building trust, honesty, openness
Staying objective and detached
Establishing direction: Playing off their agenda
Drawing out by asking for clarity
Empathetic questioning and reflecting
Bending the mirror
Asking the right questions to sharpen focus
Identifying the forces in play
Developing linkages between sessions
Promotes action through communication
Creates continuity and the expectation of achievement
Supporting courageous action
Challenging not threatening
Illustrate through storytelling
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When relationships have been formed with the right match of individuals, coaches can help execute current and future business plans, assist in the maximization of coachee potential, introduce guidance, generate ideas, and overall be a resource for this with a need for personal and professional help.
