Finding the Right Executive Coach

After completing her PhD in physics, Karen entered the fast growing Start-Up world where she successfully contributed to and led several projects. The project teams she led generally delivered excellent results. At the same time she wondered how to even better fully develop and use her talents and unleash those of her teammates.

Inspired to build further her leadership capabilities, she wondered how to best train and build her leadership muscles. A friend from another Start-Up spoke of the positive impact from working with an executive coach and several training sessions. She engaged in research into her options and was quickly overwhelmed with the multitude of options. How to choose?

Karen's situation is all too common. Never before have there been more leadership books, courses and coaches as are available today. According to John Reed, author of Pinpointing Excellence, Succeed with Great Executive Coaching and Steer Clear of the Rest , there are over 1,000 coaching accreditations available today and growing!

When large organizations like Google or Amazon engages coaches, the People Operations team provides extensive screening and guidance to select highly qualified coaches. For those in smaller organizations who seek structured leadership growth, how to best proceed? Below a few tips. (Full disclosure: I both work as a coach and continuously contract to receive coaching myself, including 28 different coaches the the past 8 years.)

Preparing Yourself to Engage with a Coach

In order to find the right coach, start with some self-reflection.

1. What is the optimal outcome you seek from the coaching?

What end do you have in mind? Are you seeking to identify your collaboration and performance blind spots and address them? Looking for a promotion or pay raise? Do you come from a scientific background and look for a coach who can share their business expertise? Or perhaps you seek help to improve your work/life balance? Those who get the most from collaboration with a coach write down their goals.

In the case of Karen, she wanted 1) to identify and work on her blind spots to improve her growing team’s effectiveness as well as 2) to be challenged by a sparring partner with deep business experience.

2. What skills or capabilities will be important for your coach to have?

Do you want someone with leadership experience? Proven business acumen? Expertise in one or more areas of management fundamentals like communication, delegation, giving feedback, meeting effectiveness or time management? Functional expertise in Finance, Sales, or as CEO?

Karen decided to focus on someone who could help with communication, feedback, and task assignments.

3. How much effort, time, and money are YOU willing to commit?

For those looking for sustainable change, I’ve found that the leader needs to be willing to commit to a least 12 months of effort. We all know it’s far too easy to slip back into old habits unless we have someone to catch us going backward and help us keep forward momentum.

As an exception, consider a 6-month assignment. This is how the Swiss Entrepreneur of the Year, who had never engaged an executive coach began. Be sure your coach shares this caveat: "Please understand the greatest measurable improvement in your leadership happens in the 2nd six months, according to our data."

Based on preliminary results and a revisit after the initial 3-4 months, this Swiss Founder and Entrepreneur of the Year extended to 12 months. If you are not willing to make at least a 6-month and preferably a full 12-month commitment, then perhaps coaching or the timing is not right for you.

Before looking at cost, spend some time reflecting on the value you want to harvest from coaching. One client, after years of double-digit topline sales growth, achieved triple-digit sales growth the year after coaching began. Another was able to cut employee turnover in half, saving many times over the costs for coaching in recruiting and onboarding costs. Accelerated innovation and faster new product introduction? How about less disruption from product transfers? Or improved cross-functional collaboration and focus to overcome supply change bottlenecks and deliver greater revenue? Coaching is only one of several inputs to deliver better business performance. Many find coaching as a way to unlock untapped value.

When it comes to cost, prices will vary. My mentor Marshall Goldsmith asks US $500K for an annual engagement.

In Karen’s case, she was committed to improvement, so agreeing to a one-year engagement wasn’t an issue. Since her company had no experience working with coaches in the past, she opted for a half-day, coach-facilitated team learning session with her management and followed up with an initial 6-month engagement.

Finding the Right Coach

Once you’re clear about what you want to achieve and what kind of commitment you’re able and willing to make, take some time to think about how you will recognize a good fit when you find it. Here are some tips on what to explore about the candidates you identify for your executive coach.

A. What is their background and experience?

Coaching Professor and author Sunny Stout-Roston describes the maturity of coaching profession as “adolescent”—still experiencing growing pains. Today anyone can call themselves an executive coach. How can you validate to secure the knowledge and experience you need?

·??????Hours of coaching delivered.

Coaches who are serious about their professional development log their coaching hours.

·??????Accreditations

Many options. Some with only training; others with mentoring or coaching supervision. When a coach engages their own coach or a coaching supervisor to reflect on their most challenging coaching situations, you can be certain they will grow with you. Be sure to ask your coach what they gave learned from their coach(es) the past year.

·??????Professional development

Every successful leader deserves a professional development plan. Serious coaches as well. Ask if you can review.

A few questions to consider when interviewing a possible coach. Ask:

·??????What are the 3 greatest coaching gifts they have learned and from which coaches?

·??????Where have they failed and what did they learn?

·??????Which coaches and or coaching supervisors have they worked with and which were the most valuable lessons learned?

B. Will they be able to help both you and your team?

Leadership is about achieving results with and through others. So improving leadership skills cannot be only about your behaviors—it has to include how other people perceive and interact with you. You cannot improve leadership without involving the team that surrounds the leader. (In fact, the most powerful indicator of leadership growth is how those around you perceive your behavior and its impact on them.)

That’s why, you need to be wary of coaches who primarily engage with you “one on one” behind closed doors. Remember a coach is only with you a few hours each month. Your co-workers are always your best “coaches.”

Look for an executive coach who will help you communicate your leadership growth goals to your coworkers and engage them in helping you improve in those areas. Ask the candidates you talk with how they will fully engage your team and/or coworkers in your growth plan.

C. How do they measure results (and do they deliver)?

There are many ways to measure coaching results, such as having you and your team answer daily questions captured on a mobile app, complete quarterly mini-surveys, or doing 360 degree assessments like the Leadership Circle. My advice to make sure that the measurement system is highly time efficient (think 1-2 minutes a day, 5-15 minutes quarterly and and not more than 25 minutes for an annual or 18 month comprehensive assessment).

You want to ask your coaching candidates how they will measure your improvement. What methods will they use? How much effort will be involved? What examples can they show you of how they have measured improvement in the past?

The most powerful measurement system is when those on the receiving end of leadership, the Stakeholders or co-workers complete a mini survey evaluating numerically. (often a 7 point Likert scale from -3 to + 3 is used)

If you are curious to receive an example from an actual leader who agreed to share his results, please leave a message below.

What other tips and advice can you share about finding the right coach? What other questions come to mind? Please share your inputs for further writing inspirations.

Bill Zeeb helps CEO's reach new summits in their leadership effectiveness. The founder of infinitas SA, a Swiss-based leadership coaching and team performance consultancy he is a member of 100 Coaches and Stakeholder Centered Coaching? Master Coach. Bill and the infinitas team focus on helping Founders and their leadership teams to measurably improve their individual and collective leadership effectiveness. The infinitas team specializes in accompanying highly motivated leaders (think PhD.'s) who frequently have little or no experience working with a coach and seek to significantly grow their business. The infinitas approach to coaching is highly data-driven, extremely time efficient and delivers guaranteed measurable leadership growth.