Executive Coaching
There are many definitions of executive coaching; I’ve chosen this one for its simplicity: “Executive coaching is a partnership that focuses on developing high-performance leadership and management to achieve organizational goals.” Coaching is used to improve performance by identifying and enhancing strengths and modifying behaviors that impede success.
As your Executive Coach, I listen, observe, reflect and customize to your individual needs. I seek solutions and strategies from you because I believe you are naturally creative and resourceful. My job is to provide support and offer challenges that will ignite your personal resources of energy, wisdom, and skills. These abilities are within you and are just waiting to be set in motion.
Just as there are many definitions of coaching, there are also many diverse ways to approach a coaching engagement. I have a myriad of tools, techniques, and resources at my disposal that I will use throughout the coaching process, however, I generally begin to build the foundation between the client and myself by examining three specific areas of interest:
- Organizational or situational context — the culture, system, structure, organization, and stakeholder relationships in which the leader performs and manages.
- Personal Strengths — talents, desires, resources, challenges and development opportunities.
- Life Harmony — a holistic look at the leader’s life situation that impacts their family, community, spirituality, finances, and quality of life.
- After careful review, I proceed to the following steps:
- Explore: Define the situation and discuss the intended results — What is the outcome you would like to see? What are the changes that need to happen? What will occur if this doesn’t happen? What will occur if it does happen? How will you know when you’ve met your goals?
- Discover: Assess the situation by gathering data — Who are you? What are your desires, aspirations, likes, dislikes, strengths, development opportunities from your own, your supervisor’s, and your stakeholders’ perspectives? What is your personality like? How do you interact with others? How do you communicate when in conflict? Who are you as a leader? How do you compare yourself with other successful leaders?
- Transform: Plan the coaching engagement and act upon it — Coaching follows an inside–out approach, that is, as a person obtains clarity on the inside, the outside begins to move in the desired direction. This is the bulk of the coaching process and it takes shape in several different ways: two to three full days of observational coaching, discussion of assessment results, one hour coaching sessions one or two times per month (face-to-face or over the phone), and occasional emails or spot coaching. The approach will be customized to suit your individual and⁄or organizational situation.
- Create: Review the results — Are you where you want to be? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? What has shifted for you? What changes have you embraced? What still needs work? What does your supervisor think? What do your stakeholders think?
It’s important to note that coaching is not a linear process. Many of these target areas will be visited and revisited throughout the coaching engagement as needed to produce the desired changes and identify results. Sometimes, the intended outcome evolves during the engagement. When that happens, all areas must be revisited to ensure we’re on track to achieve the best results.