Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: So you’ve decided (or had decided for you) as a leader you should have an executive coaching engagement. In a previous post, we discussed how you should go about selecting the right coach. In this post, we’ll tackle foundational elements that will allow you to head into your coaching initiative so that you achieve your best results… Enjoy!

Now more than ever, business executives are enrolling in leadership development and executive coaching programs. These programs are no longer seen as signs of trouble (a.k.a. Penalty Box situations). Instead, top executives are somewhat expected and encouraged to take professional mentoring as a part of their leadership development at one point or another. As much as 80% of companies hire executive coaches, mentors, or external consultants. In the following paragraphs, you will get helpful tips on how to get the most out of an executive coaching initiative:

Be Clear on What You Want to Achieve

As the economy fluctuates, technology advances, and employees come and go, business leaders face the pressure of providing immediate results in challenging environments. Hence, executive coaching as a form of leadership development becomes somewhat of a necessity. However, you should be clear on your goals (i.e. What you want to achieve from the coaching sessions).

Of course, executive coaching is a highly customized service since challenges change from organization to organization. Your goals could fall somewhere along the lines of understanding your strengths and weakness, redefining your values and purposes, making you a better planner, broadening your perspectives, and maintaining confidentiality for example.

Find a Goal Oriented Coach

While you need to define your expectations, your coach should be goal-oriented, discussing objectives and goals for the sessions early on, and also guiding you in what kind of approach they will follow. For instance, they should clarify whether the focus will be on personal development or organizational planning. Coaches should also let you know what their role will be during the sessions and describe the degree to which they will challenge and stretch you, and what kind of communication they expect from you.

Determine Duration and Medium

Determine which meeting arrangement works best for you; face-to-face, virtual meeting space, phone, email, etc. You also need to discuss how the sessions are planned and connected, and how much time elapses between them. Your coach may assign some ‘homework’ between sessions. While some coaches only communicate with you during sessions, others leave post-session communication open to help you if an important issue arises. It’s important to identify what works best for you.

Be Willing to Learn

Leadership development and executive coaching works best if you’re open to the experience. That is why you/your company is paying thousands of dollars by the hour to invest in your development. You should be honest about your abilities, be patient while being evaluated, and be open to change. You may be a good learner, but you also need to be enthusiastic about the learning process. Learn from others but do it your own way, and take responsibility for whatever happens.

Summary

Ultimately, since it’s you/your organization that matters most during a coaching initiative. You should leverage the skills, experience, and insights of your chosen coach. However, know that the ultimate success/failure of the initiative is dependent upon yourself. Picking the best results oriented executive coaching requires an assessment of your goals, clear communication with the trainer, and the willingness to change.

The Point: More and more companies are realizing the benefits of executive coaching as a way to challenge and develop their top-level talent and leadership. Unfortunately, most executive coaching fails to garner results that organizations want. The underlying reason that many presume behind this trend is the nature of managers and leaders to resist change. At Tip of the Spear, this is exactly what our executive coaches help you with! In the following post, we’ll take a look at the major factors that contribute to the failure of a non-results-oriented executive coaching initiative so that you can avoid them and get maximum benefits… Enjoy!

Goals Are Not Defined

This cannot be stressed enough. Neither the coach, nor the person getting mentored, sets goals and expectations for the coaching programs. Worse yet, no one from the sponsoring organization (if appropriate) is in sync with the coaching initiative to track/monitor either. Without a clear end in mind, not even the best coaching can produce demonstrable change in executive behavior that ultimately boosts organizational outcomes.

Lesson: Defining goals is imperative for success.

Separating the Leader from the Organization

This is also a major reason why even results-oriented executive coaching fails to develop sound leaders. Your coach ignores the fact that the problem you are facing at the organization can also be due to the people who work with you, or even your social network (Think of these as those non-work variables). It is a simple fact of life that we orient our behavior towards other people.

In similar vein, it is necessary to engage other people in the executive team to help the person being coached. This can be difficult if there is a history of politics at the office, but unless everyone is one the same page, centered executive coaching will not work.

Lesson: Social context has to be taken into account during executive coaching.

Open-ended Goals

This follows from the first point. Sometimes executive coaching fails because both the coach and the executive are trying to change all problem areas during a single consultation. This is folly, and rarely successful. When we try to change too much, we end up losing motivation to change at all.

Lesson: Be realistic. Find key areas to be changed, prioritize, and tackle them one by one. That is the only way to make sustainable behavioral changes.

Cult of Personality

Finally and most importantly, executive coaching fails because a “cult of personality” that develops around the coach. The coach is revered as the expert who has a “magic lamp” to solve all organizational problems. The danger of this behavior is that coach will forget that they eventually have to leave and that it is the executive or leader that needs to exhibit these superb problem-solving skills.  It has often been seen that once a coaching program ends, the executive is left “without a paddle” as they have been accustomed to learn passively from a ‘guru’.

Lesson: The coach should teach the executive to take matters into her own hands instead of running the show himself.

Summary

To sum up, to successfully launch an executive coaching initiative, you need to have the end goals in mind, integrate social aspects during sessions, and get other members on board as well. You should also look to a coach that will help transfer knowledge of how to mentor/coach future associates as a leader.

To find out more about Tip of the Spear Centered Executive Coaching, CLICK HERE.

The Point: Some “leaders” head off to leadership development programs dreading the experience before they even get there… A terrible attitude to possess! The situation gets even worse when they’re forced to participate by organizational higher-ups. However, we encourage our leadership development participants to instead take on our programs aggressively! Why? Our research at Tip of the Spear tells us that those that participate in executive coaching (Centered Executive Coaching to be precise) climb the corporate ladder faster than those that do not! You do want to climb the corporate ladder, right?

We’ve listed 7 ways in which executive coaching can help you climb the corporate ladder faster as follows (Think of them as benefits that you/your organization will receive):

#1: The Culture of the Individual/Organization Improves

Sometimes, all you need to tackle problems in your company is a fresh and impartial set of eyes that are viewing the situation from a different perspective/vantage point. When an expert does an honest evaluation of where you need help as an executive, and offers results-oriented solutions, the culture of the organization significantly improves. This includes both behavioral and policy changes.

#2: Leverage your Strengths

Along with identifying your weaknesses, results-oriented executive coaching also helps you to identify your strengths and help you leverage them to take your company to the next level. Some people are skilled in a particular discipline, such as marketing, finance, or engineering, but they consider themselves incapable of handling administrative and managerial tasks. Effective Executive Coaching shows leaders how they can leverage their strengths to become better executives.

#3: Manage your Time and Resources

In this cutthroat competitive business environment, executives are expected to get results… Fast! This calls for an efficient management of time and resources. Successful executive coaching programs are those that help you prioritize and best utilize your time.

#4: Develop Vision

This follows from point #1 (The Culture of the Organization Improves). Not only does an executive coach offer you an unbiased viewpoint, but also shares with you how to evaluate your business through impartial lenses. This means down the road, your vision is broadened to encompass the entire business enterprise.

#5: Personal Development

While sound, results-oriented executive coaching also takes into account how other people in the organization hinder your abilities as an executive, emphasis is also given to personal leadership development. Specifically, a coach will assess your skills and highlight areas where you can improve as a leader.

#6: Providing a Sounding Board

No leader can work without support of his/her team. But more importantly, executives need a sounding board that understands those things that affect them personally and take a toll on their professional life. Moreover, the sounding board lends you an ear to listen to your ideas, no matter how scattered they might be, and then refocus them appropriately to keep you on track.

#7: Stress Relief

Finally, executives often come under stress (understatement of the post), especially when they have to meet goals on tight budgets and deadlines. This can sometimes cloud their thinking process. By having someone to help process information, they can achieve greater clarity of thought and make better/informed decisions (This will in turn help drive company success).

Summary

Once again, there several benefits a leader can receive from working with an executive coach. By keeping your mind open and receptive to new ideas, you can achieve success as an executive with the help of an expert that identifies problems and motivates you to execute solutions.

For more information on Centered Executive Coaching programs at Tip of the Spear, CLICK HERE.