EXECUTIVE COACHING FAQ
If you are wondering if working with an executive coach can help you or not, we put together this FAQ list to try and answer the most common questions and concerns that people may have about working with an executive coach.
Why Should I Work With An Executive Coach?
Your career is the source of your livelihood and the place you spend the vast majority of your time. An executive coach can help ensure that you thrive in this critical aspect of life. The majority of clients work with me for one of three reasons:
- You want more – You are professionally successful but don’t enjoy what you are doing and feel like you are wasting your time and talents in something that doesn’t provide you with real meaning. We work together to explore opportunities and create a plan for developing a more fulfilling career.
- You need to take action – You have just been let go by your current employer (or quit) and need to quickly develop a plan of action for getting back into the workforce.
- You are frustrated – Your career has been going well but you feel like you have hit some sort of wall. Whether due to organizational politics, burn out from excessive demands, or the need to develop new skills to handle a new role, you are looking to ensure your career gets back on the fast track.
In each case, by working with an executive coach, we work together to create a customized plan to get the results you are seeking. –And naturally, some clients fit in the “none of the above” category.
What Do You Actually Do? What Process Do You Follow?
Executive Coaches follow different approaches depending on where and how they were trained. In my case, I will follow a 3 step process: work with you to identify what matters, set a clear goal, and work with you on the action steps required to make that goal reality. In each of these steps I use tools and techniques from positive psychology to ensure that we are following a process that has been proven to get results.
Depending On The Client, the Tools/Techniques I Use For Executive Coaching Include:
- Character strengths assessment
- Sentence completion
- Writing a letter from the future
- Reflective best self exercise
- Energy audit
- Benefits/costs of fears
- Optimism training
- SMART goals
- The GROW model
In each session I will use my knowledge, experience and perspective to ask you questions that help you come up with the solutions that are right for you. You own the way forward, and of course, you are responsible for acting on the goals we discuss together and turning them into reality.
How Should I Select An Executive Coach?
In selecting an executive coach you want a combination of experience, knowledge and style/fit.
Experience: An amazing number of executive coaches claim to have “executive experience.” You need to ask what this specifically means: How many people have they had report to them? What size budgets have they managed? What size and type of companies have they worked in? What sort of hiring decisions have they made? Not all experience is created equal, and you want to ensure you are working with someone who has enough experience to provide you with unique insights into your particular situation.
Frequently, executive coaches tend to have a background in human resources, which is great but generally not pertinent to really understanding the demands on an executive. I am surprised at how many executive coaches don’t have a significant track record of success in business but instead make vague claims around being an executive. Insist on working with someone who has had been rapidly promoted and successful in a variety of businesses.
Knowledge: You aren’t hiring an executive coach for their knowledge specifically (that would be consulting), but it is helpful to work with someone who truly understands business and preferably someone with training in positive psychology as well. Positive psychology coaching is based on positive psychology which is a research discipline that looks at what makes the most successful people thrive and is based on empirical research.
The ideal combination is someone with an MBA who gets the business challenges you are facing and with a background in positive psychology that can help you set goals that are truly meaningful. Said differently, an MBA will tend to unconsciously push you towards opportunities that will bring you financial success and prestige, while a positive psychology trained individual will tend to focus more on your happiness. There are a lot of very successful people who are miserable and happy people with limited success in the world. What you want is a career coach who can provide both perspectives. What does this mean practically? It means that despite the demands on an executive, which I understand well, there are actions you can take which will make you happier and feel more in control within the context of your career as it exists today.
Style/Fit: The relationship between an executive coach and you is personal. The coach will be your confidant, your advocate, and the person who pushes you to make your goals happen. Look for someone with a high degree of empathy who you truly enjoy spending time with. Your time and money are precious, so ensure you are spending them wisely. A free session should give you a good feel as to whether or not you are a good fit.