Navigating the Contours of getting Coached as an Executive

As an Executive who later turned Executive Coach, I’ve always realised the power of neutral listening and of people who in my career made me think. The power a Leader can derive from executive coaching is essentially the power of neutral listening and someone trained to not judge you or form opinions but to help you discover solutions through respectful probing. The coach also “causes a pause” so you can step back from the place you feel stuck in and reflect. As a coach I have realised that some of my coachees at times share a life experience or mention mentors that helped them. I’ve used these for visualisations of what is possible. That also helps coachees move ahead from situations they felt stuck with.

How does one find a good Executive Coach ?

This dilemma faces a lot of executives. Many start limiting their choices down to people who have been in similar roles or at times Industries. Leaders forget that most leadership and people scenarios are fungible and repetitive across industries. A coach who has traversed many industries is better suited to help you challenge the status quo. We always recommend evaluating a coach’s journey, their roles which built leadership or significant shifts that they created for themselves. ?A chemistry meeting towards this is always very useful. Also always assess the coach’s listening skills in the chemistry connect. ?A coach ready with an answer vs a coach who asks you 20 more questions towards deeper understanding? Whom will you choose ?

So how does an Executive successfully work with a coach ?

A coaching journey is built essentially on four building blocks.

• Trust
• Authenticity
• Curiosity
• Intent

In the absence of any of these many Coachees become non coachable. When probed to be understood, the Coachee must drop guarded conversations and the fear of being judged. For this the Coach can share a formal or informal coaching principles related to confidentially and professionalism. That is key. Authenticity normally follows trust. For a great coaching journey both need to be curious. Curious about understanding and curious about exploring earlier undiscovered journey maps that emerge. And finally, intent is key.The why do you want to get coached needs to be clearly highlighted. And the intent to try a set of actions is key.

How does coaching benefit ?

In our career journeys there are stages we feel we need to reinvent ourselves to stay relevant. There are also stages where leaders feel they are stuck in a vortex and cannot grow. Many times perceptions of others tend to undermine potential. Coaching is a wonderful solution to breaking these deadlocks provided we are ready to move forward. ?Coaching enables us to define our limiting beliefs, step back and consider smaller shifts enabled by great questions from our coaches and gradually break free of many of them. It’s a powerful tool that enables us to bring out many aspects from our sub conscious mind to the aware so we can break those limitations.

What are the challenges during coaching ?

The biggest challenge I see as an executive coach are twofold :

Coachees believing they have changed and quickly falling back to old patterns, and organisational sponsors expecting a Leader who was coached to suddenly start operating differently.

Coaching is a mindset shift. It requires intent, action, conscious awareness of driving change and seeking feedback around that change. It’s a journey for a leader. That’s the reason we never recommend that someone gets coaches over 3-4 months. We believe a 6-12 month journey is necessary for both shifts to be visible. The other aspect of falling back on old patterns is dependent on intent and a deliberate effort to practice the shifts committed to.

The Author is the ex-CHRO of IBM, American Express and KPMG, and has been a Management Consultant across India and the Middle East for KPMG. He is a certified ICF, Marshall Goldsmith, Global Coach Group and a Human Potential Coach. He is a founding member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council-Asia Pacific.

WOY Consulting Pvt. Ltd.