8 Tips for Coaching Executive Women - Part Four

Part Four

In Part One we covered the importance of business, strategic and financial acumen and why I call them The Missing 33% of the career success equation for women. I also used my definition of leadership to lay out the 3 critical components of leadership excellence:

• P - using Personal greatness
• O - leading for Outcomes: business, strategic and financial acumen
• E - Engaging the greatness in others

In Part Two we covered the three major sources of feedback used by executive coaches to identify client strengths and development areas. And discussed why these sources are often insufficient to ferret out whether The Missing 33% is an issue for your client.

In Part Three we examined the final key insight for executive coaches working with women. It's a substantially different reason that manager feedback might not be a reliable guide to a woman’s strengths and development areas. And why, although perception is reality in the eyes of the perceiver, it is not always reality. Sometimes it’s the manager who needs coaching, not your client!

Now, in Part Four we finally answer the question, "What's an executive coach to do?"

What’s an Executive Coach To Do?

As several coaches who reviewed drafts of this article have said, often executive coaches are weak in financial acumen and/or haven’t been high level executives. They and many coaches, of both genders, are unaware of the 6 crucial factors (covered in parts 1 - 3) that impact women on their leadership and career success journeys. As a coach, the more you understand these 6 things, the more profound will be your capabilities as a coach.

Finally, here are 8 tips to start you on your journey of being a more effective coach when working with executive women (and those who aspire to become one).

1.????Dig Deeper. Analyze the distribution of feedback across P, O and E that your sources are providing and look more deeply to ensure that your client is receiving feedback about her O capabilities. Ask managers pointed questions about your client’s perceived business, strategic and financial acumen and the evidence behind their perceptions.

2.????Get Better. Deepen your own business, strategic and financial acumen in order to ask the right coaching questions and offer guidance in these areas as appropriate. “Do you know what your boss means when he says you “aren’t strategic?” “Have you gone over the quarterly earnings statement and discussed with your manager the implications for upcoming business decisions?”

3.???Believe Her. If she can talk about them, believe that she faces gender dynamics (which can range from microaggressions to sexual assault) and help her strategize how to not introject others’ biases while acting overtly and/or subtly to change them. “That’s their inner reality, I can deal with it by sharing disconfirming evidence.” “How will you stop his unwanted advances?”

4.????Challenge Sources. If you are hearing her manager (of any gender) give feedback about “sharp elbows” and other criticisms that could be gender-based, ask about the underlying behaviors and whether the same behavior in a man would get the same criticism. Advancement decisions rest with managers and you can help by shifting the environment within which she works. “It’s very common for women who present ideas to be labeled negatively while men benefit from the same behavior. Could that be happening here?”

5.????Don’t Polish the Diamond. Even if it challenges the initially stated desired outcomes of the coaching engagement, for most women spending time getting better at what they’re already “good enough” at is not helpful. If she’s good enough at engaging others and you discover that she has gaps on the business, financial strategic front, renegotiate the engagement to give her what she needs to truly improve her career potential. Don't polish the diamond, secure the prongs! “How will you weave the business’ strategic goals into your upcoming all hands meeting?”

6.????Help Her Manage Up. One important way that women can get better at and demonstrate business acumen while being more effective in managing up is to communicate using what I call the Language of Power - the language of the business – key outcomes related cash, business growth, return and customer/consumer related goals. As one colleague mentioned in his feedback on a draft of this article, “The importance of managing up can’t be overemphasized. If done well, managing up can make one’s career a success.” You could ask questions such as, “How are you going to make the business case for your idea when you present it to your manager?”

7.????Seek Better Assessments. Leading Women (with which I am no longer affiliated) has leadership assessments that appropriately gather feedback across P, O and E. You can learn more here: https://www.leadingnow.biz/leadership-assessments

8.???Use Better Manager Interview Questions. When you are interviewing your client’s manager I’ve developed a list of questions that will help you get beyond conventional feedback and figure out if The Missing 33% and/or gender dynamics are at play in your client’s situation. Look for these in upcoming issues of this newsletter

It can be a challenge for coaches to strike the proper balance between enabling their clients to capitalize on their core strengths and working on development areas that might include The Missing 33%. While it’s important for clients to play fully to their strengths, it’s also true that what gets women into middle or senior positions often isn’t what will get them to senior or executive positions. I’ve written this article to help you be a stronger catalyst for these moves.

Once again, I am indebted to @Lou Chrostowski, @Wendy Hanson, @Elizabeth Olson and @Bernadine Willis for their editorial review and comments.

For related information read No Ceiling, No Walls.