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C-suite

How Executive Coaching Benefits the C-Suite

October 16, 2014 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

The Point: As the job of a CEO becomes ever more demanding (is that even possible? Yes!), more and more chief executives are willing to receive professional advice and coaching. Executive coaching is no longer considered as a punishment given to incompetent CEOs. Rather, it has now become a trusted form of leadership development (even a sort of status symbol). In the following post, we discuss the benefits that executive coaching offers to C-suite executives (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CTOs, CHROs, etc.)… Enjoy!

How Executive Coaching Benefits the C-Suite

Why a C-Suite Leader May Need Coaching?

On the surface, it doesn’t make sense for a person that has escalated to the C-Suite to go for a coaching session. Don’t they already know everything? Well in actuality, they don’t. Our research at Tip of the Spear reveals that as many as 78% of C-Suite leaders are expressing a willingness to be coached.

This is also the call of modern times. Previously, C-Suite leaders could manage on their own, and executive coaching was considered some sort of remedial action. However, today’s leaders work under so much pressure that they may need essential assistance from time to time. They have everything riding on their shoulders, but at the end of the day, they are just human beings too!

Too much responsibility can easily cause burn out leaders, further complicated by poor decision making. Is it then any wonder that C-Suite leaders are now lasting 7.6 years on a global average down from 9.5 years less than 2 decades ago?

The Cost of Not Being Coached

People who earn themselves the C-suite executive spot have the ability to make sound judgments on a consistent basis. However, all it takes is one wrong decision to lose all of that. That is why, they need someone who keeps the executive on their “toes” so to speak, and in a corporate world marred by office politics, you can’t expect this role to be fulfilled by stakeholders.

And even if stakeholders are asked to give honest feedback about how well the C-Suite leader is running their portion of the company, chances are that communication will not be honest and will withhold negative feedback.

Think this isn’t you? Think of the last decision you made in the C-Suite that didn’t exactly go as planned (Come on, be honest, there had to have been one if not more decisions you made in the last 12-months that just went wrong!) Now take the costs (actual as well as opportunity) associated with that mistake, as well as the revenue (lost or potential not realized). We’re guessing that it’s at least six digits (+$100,000) if you’re honest!

Bottom line: A C-Suite leader needs an unbiased, yet talented and experienced coach to help stay at the top of their game.

Summary

To sum up, while C-Suite leaders hold the highest positions in their organization, they are also the ones that need to hear the truth more often. This “truth” delivering role is seldom fulfilled by team members and employees (i.e., Stakeholders). Hence, executive coaching finds its greatest relevance in the upper echelons of the organizational hierarchy.

If you’d like more information on Tip of the Spear’s Centered Executive Coaching offerings, please use the CONTACT US page of this website.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: C-suite, executive coaching

Why You Need an Executive Coach

September 16, 2013 By Sam Palazzolo, Managing Director

Col. Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.

Col. Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I want the truth!

Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!

This scene from A Few Good Men staring the iconic Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson represents why you need an executive coach to effectively run your business.  As a leader, we’ve seen time and again a search for answers.  A search that often times comes about when problems arise, or a change is needed.  Unfortunately, the truth is often times difficult to find.  It’s not that truth is elusive; it’s just that no one on your leadership team wants to tell you!

We recently conducted a poll of the executive coaches within our network on the topic of telling the truth. Roughly two-thirds of the coaches responding reported that their leadership engagements involved being a trusted advisor able to provide much needed objectivity to the C-Suite.

Trust is the primary reason that executives approach an executive coach.  Think of it as acting as a sounding board.  Leaders typically are under the false impression that there already exist sounding boards within the organization that they run and lead.  However, it’s this falsity that brings on strong negative reactions from leaders.

The common perception that friends and sounding boards exist can easily be debunked when you consider that as a leader, you have the power and authority to hire, reward, and fire.

May CEOs that we work with would agree with the statement; “It’s lonely at the top.”  While the view can be fantastic (think executive pay packages and perks), they also know that having the ability to open/close facilities, make difficult succession decisions, and deciding which business pursuits to attempt has tremendous impact on the lives of others.

With such territory, comes much stress… Enter the executive coach. The role of the executive coach is to enable the leader to make their best decisions, get their best results, and become the best leader possible (No short order).  In order to do so, the executive coach delivers the truth that the leader is missing;  The truth about what is happening currently.   The truth about what impact their future vision will have.  The truth about what the executive doesn’t want to hear, but must hear in order to move forward successfully.

You CAN handle the truth (You just don’t like it!)

As the leader of the organization, you must enable yourself to receive the truth.  That is not easy.  No leader likes to receive push-back, especially when we are working so hard to advance the organization in the right direction. But it is exactly this message, that of truth, that needs to be heard.

We worked with one leader that used to make all of the decisions himself all the time.  He had no sounding board to bounce ideas off of, nor would he accept one.  This worked well, until the economy turned and the water table surrounding him/his business lowered revealing the many tree stumps and boulders.  It would take careful navigation moving forward to not only keep his company afloat, but his role as the CEO.  He came to us with the goal of getting the proper direction, one that he knew could not be attained from his staff.  In the end, we provided the proper navigation and through his strategic execution moved the organization forward successfully with him at the helm.

Will you/your organization have such a happy ending?

What’s the Point: Leaders need objective/unbiased perspective in order to successfully lead.  Perspective provided by executive coaching leads to better decisions, better results, and better leadership.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: a few good men, better decisions, better leadership, better results, C-suite, CEO, executive coach, executive coaching, jack Nicholson, leader, leadership, perspective, sounding board, strategic execution, tom cruise, trusted advisory, you can handle the truth, you can’t handle the truth

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