Executive coaches ensure that their managers' desires for growth and fulfillment are met, keeping them satisfied and engaged at work. It is an investment of time and effort that will manifest itself through their greater responsibilities, helping them to grow and evolve from their own deep capacity. Importantly, effective executive coaches don't tell you what to do or how you're supposed to lead your team or organization. Rather, they help you identify your available options, weigh the benefits and risks, and create a path forward.
In other words, an executive coach empowers you to be the best possible leader. Clients often report that this self-reliance leads to greater confidence in their leadership skills and decision-making capacity in the future. Obviously, this is not a description of what most coaches are doing today, as demonstrated by the results of the survey. What we consider coaching is generally a service to middle managers provided by entrepreneurs with experience in consulting, psychology or human resources.
This type of coaching became popular over the past five years because companies faced a shortage of talent and were concerned about the turnover of key employees. Companies wanted to demonstrate their commitment to developing their high-potential executives, so they hired trainers. At the same time, entrepreneurs needed to develop not only quantitative skills, but also people-oriented skills, and many trainers are useful for this. As coaching has become more common, any stigma associated with receiving it at the individual level has disappeared.
Now, it's often considered a badge of honor. Like professional artists, musicians and sports figures, super successful executives work with a variety of coaches to become the best they can be. A good executive coach will guide you through the process; from defining your main challenges, your starting point, the things you need to do and where you need to go. Many leaders turn to executive coaching when they want to improve their leadership skills and keep up with an ever-changing workplace.
Executive coaching aims to generate personal awareness and encourage action to help others learn and grow. They mentor senior leaders and work one-on-one with high-profile executives to help them improve their skills, cultivate talent, increase productivity, and most importantly, improve leadership effectiveness. An executive coach will challenge you to think deeply about your business strategy and help you consider how to create new opportunities for your business and how you could capitalize on them. I am not aware of any research that has followed trained executives for extended periods; most of the evidence surrounding effectiveness remains anecdotal.
Whether you're the company's vice president or the mailroom manager, anyone with high potential and a desire to improve can consider joining an executive coaching program. Executive coaches develop leaders in the context of their work, position and workplace, while maintaining their daily job responsibilities. They have conversations with the coach that they should have with other senior management executives or with their teams. But we all know people who can't make a decision without first talking to their psychotherapists, and some executives refer to their coaches in the same way.
Because some executives will have mental health problems, companies should require trainers to have some training in mental health issues (for example, to know when to refer clients to professional therapists for help). The survey doesn't contain data on the mechanics of how those commitments change, but in my 35 years of working in the field, I've observed that it's usually about coaches rehiring executives. If you're undecided about getting a coach, know that I've only mentioned some of the hidden benefits of partnering with an executive coach. Nearly half of the coaches surveyed in this study reported that they are hired primarily to work with executives, which has the positive side of coaching, developing high-potential talent and facilitating an internal or higher transition.
Maybe they think that executive coaches are for people with problems, people who don't perform, or for people who are tough and need a little polishing. .
