Unlock Your Leadership Potential with Executive Coaching: Proven Strategies for Increasing Effectiveness

To Be Coached and To Coach

When your hair gets greyer, you will inevitably be faced with the choice to transition from a professional role toward a management or leadership role. Some may embrace this opportunity, while others will see it as a curse to avoid at all costs. You may have had to struggle hard to obtain a leadership position, or you may be thrown into these types of roles without any type of previous preparation. In both cases, you need mostly to dare to begin and have the confidence that during the journey you can learn what is required.

In the transition towards an executive role, a coach can provide a valuable helping hand, can accelerate your learning, and can assure you acquire the necessary competences, including all relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes and behaviors. By contrast, a counselor is usually a psychologist who helps you deal with past issues, while a mentor is somebody with a long track record of success in your industry. A coach covers the middle ground of personal competencies as well as behavioral change.

My Personal Journey

As to my personal journey, I was offered managerial roles and quickly found that my general education in the humanities left me largely unprepared in terms of practical competences: I did not have sufficient time-management or project-management skills, limited knowledge of human resource management and legal aspects, and few financial skills (Schram, 2020 ).

In the beginning, I learned a lot from my mistakes, but later I was lucky to receive specific training, executive training and coaching. After having successfully exercised executive roles for the last 15 years and continually received coaching and training, I decided to share my experience and to coach other mid-career professionals. Based on what I found most useful of all the training and coaching I received over the years, here is the approach I developed.

Coaching in the Digital Age

The transition to executive roles is not compulsory, but let's see what it requires. The importance of executive coaching has increased, because of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and the full impact of mobile internet, globalization and global disruptions such as the COVID-19 crisis.

The goalposts have moved, and different type of competences are now required for any career. Coaching is now mostly about bridging the competency gap, but at the same time extending existing competences. Below is a table showing competencies most demanded in 2020 have shifted since 2015, based on interviews with HR executives of leading organizations.

It is clear that so-called "soft skills" - or essential skills as I like to call them - like creativity and negotiation are going up, while hard, technical skills are on their way down due to further digitalization.

Although it is logically impossible to train for jobs which do not yet exist, it is however well known how to train specific competencies that will be more in demand in the future. You can not learn creative problem-solving in theory only by listening to lectures. Any training program should include "learning by doing" and require you to solve a problem in practice. You can not develop critical thinking competencies if you have not learned to evaluate information, expand your horizons, get out of your comfort zone, and be a self-directed learner. Team leadership has become another important competence, and you must be able to perform as inclusive leaders, and lead multicultural teams.

An Effective Coaching Program

We know that what holds people back psychologically are often behaviors that were effective in an early stage of life, but are no longer effective. Realizing this can lead to change by simply stopping certain behaviors or train of thought. This is where group coaching and psychologists can really be most helpful.

In our approach, in addition to a personality assessment, a competence assessment must be done to determine more precisely the coaching objectives. In this manner, existing deficiencies can be quickly and effectively addressed. I found out that people do not learn new behaviors, not because they do not want to, but because they do not how to acquire, consolidate and integrate them into their behavior. We developed some specific tools which allow a coachee to do a self-assessment as to professional work style, and wider dominant values and behaviour.

A good coach will provide useful templates in order to produce concrete outputs, such as, for example a professional self-management and development plan. Before looking at competences and personal effectiveness, however, Peter Drucker's famous questions in Managing Oneself (2008, first edition 1999) need to be answered:

1. What are my personal strengths?
2. In what circumstances do I perform? How do you learn?
3. What are my core values?
4. How should I contribute and add value?
5. Do I take responsibilities for communication with others?
6. What are my long-term goals? What does the second half of your career look like?

At least a tentative answer to these important questions must be found before attempting to acquire new competences, or to become more productive. Any professional moving in a management or leadership position should, however, quickly find out his/her missing competencies. These usually fall into two categories:

• Basic leadership competencies, and,
• Extended competencies for the digital age.

Sometimes, people have failed to develop basic communication skills, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, presentation or time management skills. Since it is assumed professionals can give presentations, are able to use email and an agenda efficiently and effectively, there is an element of shame when these competences are lacking. One-on-one training is therefore the best approach for bridging the gap concerning basic competencies.

It is necessary to train and develop these basic competencies quickly. After all, as a leader or manager, you can't achieve anything if you can't communicate or present your thoughts verbally or in writing. You can't manage anything if you can't manage your own time. When you find these basic skills are missing, a structured training program can quickly be put in place. For time management, for example, I discuss and apply principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done (2015). Motivating people to master this method and apply it consistently, has amazing positive effects.

Training for competencies for the digital age is a bit more challenging since it requires reflection on what exactly those are, and what tools and methods are most effective. We are all bombarded by an increasing flow of information and messages, and we need to develop a successful approach in dealing with this.

First, it is necessary to realize that basic principles of the use of language or rhetoric, or management of time will not change. Secondly, up-to-date digital tools must be used so that those time-honored principles can be applied more consistently and more rigorously. With my clients, for example, I revise their digital toolbox. When we call a carpenter, we expect him or her to show up with an electric drill, not a hand drill. Professionals still using Lotus Notes for email and scheduling or Excel for project planning, for example, should upgrade immediately, or else they risk drowning in the sea of information.

Coaching which benefited me the most, was where I learned a method to address my challenges, allowing me to become a self-directed learner, not someone who has to run to his/her coach every time there is a problem. On this basis, a tailor-made and structured coaching program must be developed jointly by the coach and coachee. Like any other structured program, it can perfectly be delivered in hybrid or online mode, depending on the client's preferences.

Coaching as Learning

Coaching is too important to be left to psychologists alone. Some psychologists come from a counselling background and focus mostly on understanding past problems, while failing to show how to take advantage of emerging opportunities. For psychological aspects, it is important to realize all personal transformations follow a transition curve with seven distinct phases: shock, denial, awareness, acceptance, experimentation, search for meaning, and finally integration of new competences and behaviors.

Group training and one-on-one coaching can both be important to learn to deal with transition issues, communicate like a leader, and reinforce positive behaviors. Individual coaching remains essential for personal transformation in order to deal with the inevitable shame of learning things which you should have learned a long time ago.

Often career progression stops because of a lack of competences, not a lack of motivation or ambition. In my view, coaching should therefore be seen as a form of learning, with group coaching and one-on-one coaching each having an important but complementary role. Experienced and successful managers and leaders can provide this type of coaching. After all management requires getting things done through others, which in turn presumes a high degree of emotional and political intelligence. Moreover, they have stood in the same shoes, have an intimate understanding of the complexities of managerial and leadership roles, and therefore have authentic credibility.

Final Remarks

My experience as a coach with online, competency-centred executive coaching have been positive, and I have been receiving overall positive feedback from clients. The more structured approach that is required in an online environment, makes it easier to assess the effectiveness of coaching and adapt to individual needs. Clients value the hassle-free aspects of online sessions, which do not require travel and save time. At times, they also value occasional in-person meetings, so a hybrid approach is usually chosen.

A structured online program, with short modules and frequent activities and assessments, is superior to the stream of consciousness with occasional surprise assessments which has unfortunately become all too common in the coaching world. Times are gone where coaching was a kind of ongoing free-flowing conversation, and the use of online tools for coaching has become necessary and desirable.

All you need is the courage to begin, and good luck with your journey!

Does my approach to coaching appeal to you? Make an appointment for a free consultation https://bit.ly/calendardralbert . We can meet in my personal Zoom room https://bit.ly/meetdralbert . I am fluent in Italian, Dutch, English and Spanish. You can also fill out the intake form on: https://bit.ly/intakedralbert .

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Albert Schram, Ph.D.

References

Allen, D., & Fallows, J. (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Penguin Group USA. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.it/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563

Chapman, T., Best, B., & Van Casteren, P. (2003). Executive Coaching: Exploding the Myths. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.it/Executive-Coaching-Exploding-Tony-Chapman/dp/1403902615

Drucker, P. F. (2008 - 1999). Managing Oneself. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.it/Managing-Oneself-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/142212312X

Drucker, P. F. (2006 - 1967). The Effective Executive. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.it/Effective-Executive-Peter-Ferdinand-Drucker/dp/0060833459

Schram, A. (2020) Tips & Tools for Better Time- and Self Management | LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/5-tips-tools-better-time-self-management-albert-schram-ph-d-/

Schram, Albert (2023) LinkedIn Profile "Make Powerful Connections with Albert Schram: Network with a Proven LinkedIn Expert" https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/albertschram/

Sutton, Jeremy, Ph. D. (2023). Applied Positive Psychology Coaching: The Ultimate Guide. Positive Psychology. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/positive-psychology-coaching-guide .