27 Aug Tips for finding the right executive coach for you
Executive coaching can be an incredibly powerful tool for achieving your most important career goals. For the engagement to be successful, you need to know how to find the right kind of executive coaching that will work with your personality and learning style.
The ability to have frank, open, and honest conversations with high levels of trust is essential, and to be able to accept feedback from your coach.
Here are some important qualities of the best coaches, and what you should look for in an effective and successful executive coaching relationship:
Your coach must:
- come from a position of not assuming (That is, they ask you clarifying questions to ensure that they know what you’re thinking/saying).
- be able to ask any questions to help clarify the topic/problem under discussion.
- must remain non-judgemental throughout, yet be able to challenge your thinking.
- have the ability to highlight potentially limiting behaviours or thoughts you may be having, that could impede your efficacy.
- have excellent listening skills, but also be able to formulate meaningful follow up questions, to ensure that you think about your options.
- An executive coach may at times act as your trusted adviser, and at others, as your professional consultant.
- You should feel that you can open up to your executive coach, but they must be very aware of their own boundaries.
- Your coach needs to be able to allow you time to think through provocative questions. This will enable you to think about your process, that you’ve not had the opportunity to do before
- Your coach is there to help you explore your options, to enable you to find the solutions yourself.
A great executive coach can balance making you feel comfortable, with keeping you feeling challenged, and this is largely a matter of the mix of your personalities and styles. Look for someone who makes you feel at ease and safe, but not bored and unchallenged. Don’t be afraid to follow your instincts, if you just feel good about a match, you’re probably right.
What can you expect from a great executive coach?
All good coaches should have certain qualities, including:
- Accountable: Your coach should be responsible for your progress, you should be able to trust your coach to follow up with you, and monitor how well you’ve applied what you’re learning during your sessions.
- A strategic thinker: You and your needs are unique, and your coach should be able to help plot a path that addresses your limiting beliefs, and the outcomes that you seek to achieve.
- Goal oriented: It goes without saying that the point of coaching is to achieve lasting change. The only way to know if this has been achieved is through having measurable outcomes – a good coach will help you define these metrics through establishing relevant goals, and the right metrics for success
- Certain that you can be even more effective. It is important that your coach can recognise that you have greater potential than is currently realized. Your coach is there to guide you towards your maximum potential, so you can lead a flourishing life.
- Challenging: Your coach should always challenge you to change, and to do new and different things to enable you to improve. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep doing it.
Meeting your potential executive coach.
Most coaches offer a free initial meeting which allows for you to consider whether the match will work. The first session is the time for you to learn everything you can about your potential coach.
- Ask them questions, notice how they respond, and how they make you feel.
- During the session/meeting, the coach should be able to explain specifically how they work, what they do, and what methods they employ in their work. If they can’t do that, then perhaps they’re not the coach that will work best for you.
- Your coach should be able to answer your questions in a way you understand, and offer you a clear sense of what kind of progress you can expect over time.
In the end, finding a coach you love takes attention and care, but its worth your investment. The right coach can help you reach and even exceed your biggest dreams and goals. Isn’t finding a coach to help you be your best, the least you can do for yourself?