Working with an executive coach is about working on you—your mindset, knowledge, skills, performance, goals and life as a leader.

The idea of executive coaching is pretty simple. Just as an athletic coach uses his or her extensive knowledge and experience to help players learn and refine their sports skills, an executive coach does the same in a leadership context.

Your coach will help you understand key leadership principles and techniques and how to apply them. You’ll focus on building a leader’s mindset and using various processes and communication tools to help guide your actions and make you a more impactful, effective leader.

Building leadership muscle

The goal is to build your leadership acumen and ability to lead different types of people in different situations. Of course, just as in sports, there will be practice involved. And accountability. But because everything will be built around your needs and your day-to-day responsibilities and objectives at work, the coaching will be highly relevant. You’ll be able to see and track the results you gain and the progress you make, and so will your organization.

Here’s a brief look at what makes our executive coaching experience work

• Setting the baseline
  Before you can get where you want to go, you have to know where you’re starting from. We set that baseline in a couple of ways:
  • A psychology-based assessment gives insight into who you are, your strengths, and areas that might be holding you back. We use the Birkman Method assessment—our preference because it not only helps you become self-aware of your own motivations but also aware of how you are perceived and received by others.
  • A competency evaluation lets you and your manager evaluate your proficiency in a range of leadership skills. You’ll both complete the evaluation again at the end of the coaching process as a way to assess and measure your progress over time.

• Charting the destination

Next you’ll tell us where you want to go with the coaching. You’ll tell us what leadership traits you want to enhance and what business objectives you want to achieve, being specific about measurable results, current progress toward achieving your objectives, and problems you need to solve along the road to success.

• Measuring progress

During each coaching session, you and your coach will work toward the leadership and business objectives you outlined, and track your progress ongoing. Your coach will help you understand and apply proven leadership principles and communication tactics in the context of your objectives.

Before each session, you’ll revisit and update your initial leadership and business objectives. After each session, your coach will provide a summary of the session, including specific action items for you to work on.

What makes this executive coaching so effective?

• For one, the structure. People appreciate the consistency and the way the process clearly shows progress and results. Continuously confirming objectives and recalibrating as objectives are achieved ensures the coaching is having a meaningful impact on you, and your organization.
• For another, the convenience of virtual sessions. We have been doing Zoom-based coaching for years because it’s far more practical, efficient and flexible than face-to-face sessions, with no downside in terms of quality or the personal nature of the coaching. It also opens up coaching to a much broader set of individuals and organizations.

How long does coaching last?

The number of sessions varies based on the individual’s and organization’s needs and objectives, but we’ve found that people benefit most from 10 one-hour coaching sessions.

What kinds of things will you work on?

We’ll share some specifics from various individual coaching sessions in our next post. But here’s some food for thought…

• What do you believe are your top 3 leadership traits?
• What leadership traits do you want to enhance and why?
• What business objectives do you have for this year?
• What problems do you need to solve to meet those objectives?

Want to learn more about the benefits of Executive Coaching? Check-out our blog, Why executive coaching is a win-win investment – First: A win for organizations