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Everything You Need to Know About Executive Coaching

Executive coaching has become quite popular over the past decade, considering the number of benefits it provides for clients. However, there are still some misconceptions about this type of high-level coaching, so here’ everything you need to know about it.

What Is Executive Coaching?

It is an extremely individualized strategy that focuses on helping and inspiring people to maximize their professional and personal potential to get from where they are now to where they want to be, The International Coach Federation explains.

The purpose of this coaching is to develop top talent that would benefit both people and their companies. It helps managers, top executives, and other leaders to learn, perform, stay balanced and healthy, and successfully guide their teams to reach their goals and exceed corporate and individual expectations.

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Executive coaching allows leaders to find and unleash their full potential that will help improve their own performance, as well as the performance of the organizations they serve, thus achieving greater value and abundance.

So, if an executive or the board of directors decide they want you to take an executive coach, it means they believe in your abilities and potential and want you to stay with them for a long time.

What Do Executive Coaches Do?

These qualified professionals assist executives and other high-potential employees in clarifying goals, gaining self-awareness, unlocking their full potential, achieving their objectives, and acting as a sounding board.

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Executive coaches aren’t therapists or consultants, so they don’t usually offer advice to their clients, or solve their problems. What they do is asking questions to help people discover and solve their own problems.

These professionals provide a supportive and confidential sounding board for their clients. Executive coaches ask questions, help achieve clarity, challenge assumptions, provide resources, and sometimes even give a piece of advice if they have permission, according to Balance Careers.

They establish a close relationship with their client, providing a safe, trustworthy, and structured environment. Once they help their clients discover and clarify their goals, they help them take the right steps to achieve those goals.

Is Executive Coaching Worth It?

Executive coaching helps leaders and organizations achieve incredible results. The number of executive coaching companies increases every day, which implies that coaching can really make a difference.

Investing in a professional executive coach will improve the performance of organizations and executives.Forbes explains the 6 main benefits of executive coaching, and they are the following:

  • It helps you see yourself more clearly
  • It helps you see others more clearly
  • It helps you learn new ways to respond
  • It helps you to leverage your current strengths
  • It helps you to build stronger and more productive relationships
  • It helps you to achieve your goals

All this implies that executive coaching is well worth it.

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How Much Do Executive Coaches Charge?

The price of executive coaches depends on several factors, including the experience and services offered by the coach, and the level of the coachee within the organization.

So, you can find a new executive coach immediately out of training for $200 an hour, a professional executive 6-month coaching program for $20,000 to $100,000, or a celebrity or large organization coach for $50,000- $100,000 for 6 months.

How to Become an Executive Coach?

First, you need to find out if executive coaching is really what you want to do. If yes, find an accredited training program to get the appropriate coach training, although this is not mandatory for anyone to become an executive coach.

If you decide to do that, the next step would be to achieve the necessary number of coaching experience hours and then find a mentor coach to partner with. The last step is to show that you understand and master coaching ethics, techniques, and core competencies.

ICF or the International Coaching Federation is the world’s leading organization that provides the only independent credential program for coaches that’s globally recognized. An executive coach that achieves credentials through ICF means they are professional coaches, dedicated to clients, understand and master coaching skills, and are committed to integrity.

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What Makes a Great Executive Coach?

When it comes to the qualities of good coaches, they should be skillful, experienced, assertive, communicative, resilient, clear about the entire process and ready to answer all of your questions.

They should help you understand and learn leadership skills through real-life examples of how they have helped previous clients.

They should listen to your challenges and concerns while gathering feedback from managers and team members to get the whole picture and help you find any blind spots. Great executive coaches are trustworthy, honest, flexible, and ethical.

What Should You Ask an Executive Coach?

If you plan to hire an executive coach or work with one, make sure you ask them the following questions so that you can choose the one with the right kind of qualifications you need:

  • “What’s your experience, and what clients have you served?”

Experience is crucial for executive coaching, and contacting past clients can help you find out the coaching process of that particular coach or coaching firm.

  • “What type of coaching methodology do you employ?”

An experienced and skillful coach should be able to explain their approach and the results you should expect.

  • “How do you define and measure success in the coach-client relationship?”

You need to know if both parties are focused on the same key to success so that you can expect the same results as coaches, measured in a specific, pre-determined way.

  • “Do you have relevant business experience and accredited certification?”

As we mentioned, accredited certification is not mandatory for someone to become a coach, but having one does offer you more confidence that they have undergone the right training. This, along with experience in the field, offers even greater reassurance that you have picked the right coach.

  • “What kind of activities will you do in between meetings with the coach?”

At first, you may spend a few days together with the coach to gather information, do certain assessments, and make a plan. But then, you may need to make progress and check in constantly with your coach by phone, in person, or by video conference.

Why Do Companies Hire Executive Coaches?

In the past, companies hired coaches to fix broken executives. Today, however, they hire executive coaches to invest in their high-potential employees and top executives.

Even though business owners or CEOs can hire their own coaches, it’s usually the HR department of a company that recommends one to an executive as part of the executive development program.

What Is the Grow Coaching Model?

It is a proven coaching model that structures coaching sessions. It consists of four steps which lead to a precisely determined end goal. The coach is involved in recognizing problems and coming up with ideas for solutions.

This coaching model is about learning through experience. The four steps are Goal (where are you going,) Reality (what is your current position,) Options (the various routes and ways of transportation,) and Will (the choice of only one option.) In other words, it consists of everything you need to plan a journey.

Types of Coaching

There are more types of coaching than just executive coaching, and that depends on the client’s needs.

According to the Institute of Organization Development, they include executive coaching, business coaching, life coaching, career coaching, performance coaching, group coaching, relationship coaching, developmental coaching, target behavioral coaching, leadership coaching, etc.

Here are a few words about some of the most common ones besides executive coaching.

What Is Life Coaching?

While executive coaches help people gain self-confidence to make bolder business moves and achieve professional goals, life coaches help clients to improve relationships, find happiness, and achieve goals in their personal lives, according to the Lewis University.

Life coaches help people find out what is holding them back and make the necessary changes to live the lives they want. These coaches can specialize in a certain field, such as marriage, parent, or working moms.

What Is Leadership Coaching?

Executive leadership coaching helps managers, individuals, or senior managers to grow and develop leadership skills.

It helps them learn how to be effective leaders, gain a competitive advantage in their team or industry, gain self-confidence, improve self-effectiveness, learn to trust their teams, and work purposefully towards a promotion.

Resilient Leadership – a Key Trait of Effective Leadership

Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties, or adjust to them. It helps leaders identify what has worked in the past that can be applied in the future, and what hasn’t. They can assess situations to reach their present goals and build on the past to achieve future goals.

In other words, if something didn’t work in the past, they know it may work under new conditions. Resilient leaders teach how important it is to learn and grow from failures and mistakes.

What Is Business Coaching?

This type of coaching supports business owners and entrepreneurs in setting clear goals, creating a plan to achieve those goals, and improving the organization’s overall performance.

Often, professional business coaches are experienced entrepreneurs and business owners who use their skills and talents to help other business owners grow their businesses and achieve their goals.

Need executive coaching assistance? Call The Resiliency Solution at 919-525-4559. Dr. Patrick Jeffs has helped many organizations and their member reach their goals.