The Best Time to Hire an Executive Coach

The best time to hire an executive coach is when you don't need one.

Yep! Let me explain.

I had a conversation yesterday with a gentleman who is competing for a C-suite position with several well-qualified internal candidates, and most likely, a slew of external candidates. He's got less than a month to position himself as the obvious choice for the job. That's not a lot of runway time.

Had he called me even three months ago, I have no doubt I could have helped him lock in this position. Now he has no choice but to compete in a process that closely resembles a beauty pageant, with the hopes he'll be crowned the winner.

Others have sought my help after receiving a less than favorable performance review. Self-improvement is great. However, it's a lot easier to work from a position of strength. Trying to change negative perceptions in the organization is hard work and for most, not a lot of fun.

Working on improving your strengths is way more fun and productive than fixing your weaknesses.

Say you think you're a decent communicator. But you know you could be better. Or you believe you've got this executive presence thing nailed down. Yet, you've been passed over for C-suite positions more than once.

You start to think, "Hmmm...I'm good. But if I were great at this, I'd be the obvious choice."

Look, I never advise people to do something I'm not willing to do myself, so I'll let you in on a secret. I've worked on and off with a coach for years. Our time together has been most productive when I'm looking to kick my practice up a notch. Here's an example.

You can imagine how excited I was when I landed my first book contract. I thought, "Damn! I'm hot stuff." And I was. The book, Suddenly in Charge is still selling like hotcakes.

I immediately wrote to my coach and shared how excited I was to become an author.

After congratulating me, my coach said, "You're not an author until you've published three books."

Some of you may be thinking that was mean spirited. Not me. I took his challenge seriously, persevered, and the results speak for themselves.

Upon receiving the news of my third book contract (The Magnetic Leader), I wrote to my coach and said, "Today, I became an author!"

I'm sure if my coach had simply patted me on the back when I shared the news of my first contract, I'd be in the same category as a one-hit wonder. Earlier this month, my fifth book, Evergreen Talent was published, and as we speak, I've got a sixth book proposal under consideration.

I wasn't broken when I engaged the services of my coach. I was someone with huge potential and in need of guidance in terms of how to exploit my talent. Having five commercially published books under my belt has been instrumental in growing my consulting practice.

Consider the following questions:

• What's something that you'd like to accomplish in the next 90 days?
• What can you double down on that will make a massive difference in how successful you are both professionally and personally?
• What's the quickest and most effective path forward?
• What's stopping you from taking action today?

? Matuson Consulting, 2020.

Email me at [email protected] if you're interested in engaging an executive coach. Note: I don't coach for free.