What do you do if you're a mid-career professional seeking guidance from an executive coach?

Executive coaching is a powerful way to support executives in a thought provoking and creative process for the executive to maximize their personal and professional potential. This happens ideally but not necessarily by a coach who has experience as an executive him/herself and being familiar with the hidden dynamics of organizations, power structures, performance and leadership him/herself. Executive coaching is different than sports coaching as it is not directive, giving advice, feedback, mentoring or driving the individual or team. In executive coaching the coach does not sit in the driver seat. The client is driving the exploration process, the coach brings the process and tools.

An executive coach is the professional version of a life coach. Executive coaching is not therapy, mentoring, or consulting. While how looks different case by case. There are some similarities across industries and individuals. Executive coaching is a professional service that helps clients achieve their professional goals.

An executive coach is a thinking partner for the client. Through active listening, focussed enquiry and structured discussion, the coach can help the client discover insights that they may not have been able to uncover on their own, even with personal reflection, training or even with coaching questions. Having worked with multiple clients, I see how coaching has acted as an accelerator for their careers/work. Investing in coaching is therefore rather cost effective if you consider the time and opportunity cost of taking longer to develop in the direction that you wanted, achieving the outcomes that you wanted faster, and specially when dealing with difficulties that could end up becoming real problems in the workplace/in the team.

Think leaders are just born? Think again. While this happens for a small percentage of people, everyone else gets executive coaching to develop their growth plan, and define who they are, and how others think of them. I have personally trained over 2000 executives and coached them to create their personal strategy to move forward in their leadership style. As an executive coach, I mix leadership development, strategy, speaking, and body language into the whole package... because a GREAT executive is THE WHOLE PACKAGE. It's not just a thought process, executive coaching should be a myriad of concepts to help the leader really clarify how they want to be known.

Executive coaching is helping the coachee gain focus on their performance and potential. Any goal they are setting out to accomplish are co-created by coach and coachee with the purpose to achieve goals, improve behavior or move through transition periods. Executive coaching would therefore be great for someone who is about to change role or thinking about changing career. In Executive coaching the coach is the one asking most of the questions where some can be thought provoking for the coachee. The intent is to get an outcome of specific and measurable goals and action items that the coachee can take away. Coaching is all about the coachee and their goals

Once an individual is clear about what drives them in life in general it is easier to seek guidance and be coached around the situation you are stuck. With a goal in mind an executive coach helps you to trigger the right questions in order for you to move out of a situation you feel stuck into.

Because figuring it out on your own is expensive and time consuming. An executive coach can help you achieve professionals goals more easily and sometimes faster. Because they have the life experience you can borrow their knowledge to aide in your own life's journey. An executive coach can make introductions that will change the trajectory of your career. I encourage every ambitious career professional to make the investment in an executive coach.

When facing challenges typical of middle management stage, if you are looking to really leap forward in your career, it is always worth investing in an executive coach as opposed to trying to work on your own. When you try to work on your own, you are coming at the situations and challenges from your own values and bias, and therefore it is often difficult to think outside that. An executive coach has specific training and expertise in helping clients look at situations outside the box, from a different perspective or even a blind spot; this allows the client to re-consider and re-frame their approach to situations at work, team challenges, work-life balance or any of the issues that the client wishes to work on.

As a mid-career professional, you have no-doubt developed great skills. You are working hard, and learning along the way. As you consider next steps in your career, you quickly learn that you don't know what you don't know. An executive coach can help you see around corners, can help you anticipate upcoming challenges, and can help you strategize ways to navigate those challenges. They won't tell you what to do, but they can help you build your skillset so that you are prepared to take the next steps with confidence and competence.

Begin with the end in mind. Once you realize you do not know, what you do not know you become open to the support from an Executive Coach. Look for a some one who has already achieved what you are seeking to accomplish. They must have success for themselves or several others. (Preferable both) Have a conversation before you commit. You don't have to be best friends but you should communicate well. Their personality and style are important. Set clear expectations. Do you want some one you can call ay any time? Or maybe a monthly check in. If you are hesitant or still confused I recommend reading "The Trillion Dollar Coach" for insight.

In my opinion the experience in the coachees field has less importance in coaching vs mentoring. A mentor should have more experience than you, but a coach does not need to know how your job or industry operates. When finding the right executive coach I believe chemistry is important to assess. Setup a chemistry or discovery call to evaluate the fit between you and the coach. Obviously you also need to find someone where you believe the ROI is worth it. Coaching fees can vary greatly and there is something for everyone out there. Choose the one that best suits your needs and that you can see you can work with as a coaching relationship is about building trust as well.

There are no obvious right or wrongs here, however lots of clients will value that the coach is familiar with their work environment and that can be useful, although it shouldn't be a must necessarily as coaches are trained to be industry or job "agnostic" for instance. As a potential client you should definitely take some time to do your research. Ask others around you if they have referrals, check the work of the coach. A chemistry session, specially if you are considering contracting a longer coaching process, can also be useful to check if you feel comfortable with a particular coach. After all, you have to feel at ease and in a "safe space" to get the best out of the coaching.

The most important thing you can do to prepare for your coaching sessions is to make a commitment that you will be fully present. That means no phones, texts, messages, or other windows open while you are meeting. The coach is there to help but YOU are the one who needs to do the work. Make a commitment to yourself and engage fully in the process.

Referencing the GROW model here as it is a good starting point and prep before your first coaching session with a professional coach. GROW = Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward. Even if someone gets started with the Goal section, a career coach should be able to coach you around options and a plan forward.

Coaching is fundamentally about helping you be at your best. That means you need to make a commitment to attend sessions with your eyes, heart and mind open. Self-awareness and self-reflection are important as you demonstrate your willingness to be honest about your strengths and opportunities for growth. Coaching sessions are often great strategy sessions for thinking in new ways about how to tackle persistent problems. Having an open mind to brainstorm new ways to address these problems will help you achieve break through ideas for action.

At the beginning of the coaching journey I talk to my clients about this and I also provide some guidance and steps as we go along, however a good summary is to take some time to "disconnect" from anything that is going on and to "connect" with yourself ahead of the coaching session. It shouldn't take a long time, but is more about creating a mental opening for the session. Some clients like to prepare for sessions, again by themselves or with guided exercises from me, others like to journal... it is all quite personal but any of the tools and techniques can assist to enhance even further the coaching experience.

In my executive coaching 100% of the times we will discuss in the first session the overall coaching goal. From there, sessions could end up being more focussed on "transactional" work or we could be looking at more "transformational" work overall that tends to span over a longer period. In any case though, at the beginning of the process there should be a discussion regarding where you are now and when you want to be in the future. If you are contracting "one-off" sessions to deal with more transactional work as opposed to a longer coaching program or package, it is still best practice to discuss with your coach what is your goal/outcome for the session and then assess if you have achieved that by the end of the session.

Firstly, give yourself a massive pat on the back for being open minded enough to seeking support as you embark on a new journey of growth!!! Seriously, this is huge and is going to super charge you on your way. All the points above are helpful, and you may also want to check in with: - How much pain is my current situation causing? - What's the cost of me staying still? - What's the impact of me moving forwards? - What will it mean to be when I'm there? This is a great way of checking in with yourself to see how ready you are to engage in doing more things differently. I'm sure you are and you'll find it hugely rewarding! Often the most impactful coaching comes from coaching experts, not subject matter experts.

Executive Ciaching also entails that the coach may share inputs with no attachment - observations , insights or comments about what the Coachee /client wants to accomplish and how the same can be accomplished in the coach’s view.However, the employee may or may not accept the idea but could likely look at the practical perspectives in order to see how to implement the ideas