What's Executive Coaching?
Dr. Jeff Doolittle
I elevate leaders and empower organizational excellence with analytics and science | Principal Consultant & Executive Coach @ Organizational Talent Consulting
Most executives want more out of life and work, and businesses want to grow. The pressures of increasing uncertainty and a fast-paced digital workplace are intense, and leaders face many new challenges. If leaders and teams are not striving to improve, they are falling behind. So, how can leaders and businesses avoid wasting time chasing ideas that don't move the needle in a turbulent environment? Some of the most admired companies in the Fortune 500 are turning to executive coaching. It's a high-value business investment. Evidence suggests coaching significantly increases goal leadership and business performance. However, executive coaching may not be familiar to you. This article provides insights into what it is and is not, evidence-based benefits, the coaching process, and much more.
What is the ROI of Executive Coaching?
If you ask five different people to define coaching, you will likely get five different definitions. Coaching is a thought-provoking partnership focused on achieving a client's goal. It is a creative process that starts with clarifying the goal and the gap between where they are today and their desired future. It provokes the client to explore and experiment to maximize their personal and professional potential.
The ultimate goal of executive coaching is a positive transformation in life and leadership for the client (e.g., behavioral, attitudinal, or motivational). The coach-client relationship is grounded in trust, transparency, and confidentiality. While the coach and client are the primary stakeholders, the executive's sponsoring organization is often an additional formal or informal stakeholder.
The benefits of investing in executive coaching are well documented. According to the International Coaching Federation, 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence. Over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report recouping their investment in coaching and more.
Executive Benefits:
Business Benefits:
What Executive Coaching is Not
Executive coaching is not counseling or mentoring. Counseling deals with past or current trauma, mental health, and symptoms to restore emotional wellness. Executive coaching focuses on the future and not the client's past.
Unlike a coach, a mentor sets the agenda for their client using their experiences to guide the relationship. While that approach can be helpful in reality, we are all created with different strengths and backgrounds. A coach draws out the executive's desires and works to co-create options to achieve the executive's goals with personal and professional benefits.
In addition to executive coaching, there are several other popular targeted c oaching services:
Who typically hires an executive coach?
Individual executives and organizations hire executive coaches to achieve their goals. Sometimes, the executive is in transition, facing new challenges, or making a career pivot. Hiring an executive coach is a good fit for any executive who wants to get more out of life and work, accelerate their career, or shift their mindset.
Here are a few scenarios from recent executives who hired me to be their coach:
It is typically not a good idea to hire an executive coach if:
What is the Typical Executive Coaching Process?
Current evidence-based research supports various psychological approaches to executive coaching, such as cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused, strength-based, and GROW. While each approach is similar, the GROW model is very popular.
Given that executive coaching's ultimate goal is change within the executive, the process centers on using essential questions and client-centered critical thinking to invoke the executive's self-awareness and personal responsibility.
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The GROW model represents a journey that begins with clarifying the goal, which is both inspiring and challenging to the executive. Then, the following step involves exploring the current reality and considering barriers between the current state and the desired future. The next step involves exploring options based on the principle that imagination creates breakthroughs. The final step is clarifying the executive's will and the way forward. It involves defining specific timebound actions with the commitment, accountability, and reporting to lead to transformation. The client ultimately chooses the decisions to make and steps to take to meet their goals.
A typical coaching program includes four fundamental steps over 12 months:
Is virtual executive coaching effective?
While in-person communication is proven to be most effective, a skilled coach can effectively utilize virtual technologies such as Zoom to achieve lasting results. Thoughtfully incorporating virtual coaching has many benefits:
Take this free Virtual Coaching Fit Checker quiz to help you determine if virtual coaching is a good fit.
What makes an excellent executive coach?
An excellent executive coach is experienced, trained, and qualified. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is a globally recognized association with evidence-based competency and code of ethics certification requirements. The ICF identified the following eight essential core competencies of a coach based on research collected over two years of job analyses from 1,300 coaches globally:
Additionally, an excellent coach usually refrains from giving advice or sharing their personal stories. Instead, the coach asks powerful questions to help the executive clarify their problems in achieving their goals. Also, evidence suggests that a coach's academic background in psychology enhances executive coaching outcomes such as the client's self-awareness and leadership performance.
References:
Athanasopoulou, A., & Dopson, S. (2018). A systematic review of executive coaching outcomes: Is it the journey or the destination that matters most? The Leadership Quarterly. 29(1), 70-88.
Berglas, S. (2002). The very real dangers of executive coaching. Harvard Business Review, 80(6), 86-153.
Bluckert, P. (2005). Critical factors in executive coaching - the coaching relationship. Industrial and Commercial Training, 37(7), 336-340.
Dean, M., & Meyer, A. (2002). Executive coaching: In search of a model. Journal of Leadership Education, 1(2).
Goldsmith, M., Lyons, L., & McArthur, S. (2012). Coaching for leadership: Writings on leadership from the world's greatest coaches 3rd Edition . Pfeiffer.
Kampa-Kokesch, S., & Anderson, M. (2001). Executive coaching: A comprehensive review of the literature. Consulting Psychology Journal, 53(4), 205-228.
Kimsey-House, K., Kimsey-House, H., Sandhal, P., & Whitworth, L., (2018). Co-active coaching: The proven framework for transformative conversations at work and in life. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Lai, Y., & Palmer, S. (2019). Psychology in executive coaching: An integrated literature review. Journal of Work Applied Management, 11(2), 143-164.
Thach, E. (2002). The impact of executive coaching and 360 feedback on leadership effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 23(4), 205-214.