Like top athletes, business leaders and managers set profitability targets and are driven to succeed in their challenges and achieve the expected results. In general, executives and managers have the opportunity to practice the art of management throughout their professional career, thanks to numerous adjustments, because knowing how to lead a company and a team is not an innate talent.
In an increasingly competitive and uncertain environment, a growing number of executives and managers are turning to professional coaches to help them deal with the problems and difficulties they face. Indeed, senior executives can feel isolated as they are often alone in making choices and can sometimes feel misunderstood by their team, colleagues or staff. As a result, senior execs naturally turn to professional coaching to improve their skills or to resolve their difficulties. Moreover, in today’s world of soaring ambition and fierce competition, coaching can quietly unlock one’s innate potential to excel.
Executive coaching and individual coaching is defined as personalised coaching that aims to help leaders identify and implement the necessary means to achieve their goals themselves.
“Everything that does not kill us makes us stronger,” said Nietzche. So how can we learn from experience to do better next time?
First, from my own experience, it may be helpful to remember that coaching alone does not solve all problems. The main requisite of executive coaching is that the coach remains outside the problem. They never solve it for his coachee. It is, consequently, an auxiliary helping hand. A divine moment where the exec has the space to jump off the non-stop train, reflect on what is going well and what isn’t.
Coaching provides a safe space to understand. A coaching relationship is a place where you can show up as yourself and continue the conversation even when there might be discomfort or fear. It is a lab for experimenting with ways of operating in the world. And as coaches, we are on the same team like you with a mutual vested interest, you!
Indeed executive coaching can be of immense value in bolstering your self-confidence and bringing greater clarity about yourself, your needs, goals, emotions, beliefs, insecurities, and blind spots. This paves the way for self-reflection, adaptation, and change.
I see coaching as a profession that helps individuals and groups improve their performance on an emotional level. Coaching is not merely positive thinking, many sessions include examining personal information that clients have. The idea is for the client to realise their professional and personal resolutions, strategies, and schemes. And good coaches build relationships swiftly. This involves the exceptional ability to understand people’s needs, strengths, and vulnerabilities.
I hope that my coaching has a ripple effect and that once our coaching process comes to an end, it creates deep trust and safety for the people involved and they take this forward into their world.
Remember, this is their time to develop a more profound self-awareness, press the pause button, and use this space to disentangle attitudes and aspirations. What I want for them is to be better, live better.
My mission is to bring coaching into people’s lives, and not just for the elite few. I want to make coaching accessible to everyone, whoever you are, whatever you do, and wherever you live. When I work with my clients, I want to convey that leadership is about being adaptable. At home, at work, and school, leadership is about working with other people. It is about dealing with highs and the lows, and essentially this has a great deal to do with understanding oneself. Working with my clients, I encourage them to become aware of their roles. Are they nurturing or directive? It may be a subconscious role, and by becoming more aware of it, they can decide if it will help them or hinder them.
Finding answered to these unanswered questions is where an executive coach can be incredibly valuable. Here is where an executive coach can boldly hold a mirror up to your face and help you genuinely confront and deal with those challenging issues.
An effective coach combines a keen intellect with a profound understanding of human nature. Therefore, coaching is an action-oriented process, focusing on the here and now, aimed at future impact.
The fundamental purpose of a coach is to commit to supporting her client and, through the coaching process, to enable the client to realise their answers. Thus, it is the client who drives the process and who determines the goals. All the while, the coach will encourage the client to be responsible for their development.
Change of any kind is stressful, and as a coach, one needs to be mindful of this. However, talking about your reactions can help you to deal with them more constructively. And I like to remind the people I work with that when things aren’t going well; they must permit themselves to be human. When we acknowledge emotions, we are more likely to overcome them. Conversely, snubbing our feelings, positive or negative, leads to disturbance and sadness. The irony is that when we acknowledge our feelings, we give ourselves the go-ahead to be human and experience tender emotions, so we are more likely to open ourselves up to encouraging feelings.
There are numerous reasons for choosing a coach to work on challenges, practices, or performance.
We all need help to put things into perspective, and it is not easy to self-evaluate. Therefore, having a coach brings an unbiased view to those internal conversations. In addition, a coach creates a safe space and can tell us certain things we don’t necessarily want to hear. Although executive coaching has proven results and organisational development is critical for all organisations, it is often only called on in a crisis or neglected and seen as nice rather than a must-have.
Hiring a coach is the first step. The more you know about the coach, their process, and your goal, the clearer your decision. A skilled coach is both compassionate and competent, asking the right questions that trigger deeper reflection. They listen attentively without judgement. Everyone has different needs and their own goals, and thus coaches need to develop an individual approach towards each coaching assignment.
Coaching takes someone from point A to point B. Granted, the ride is not always smooth, but when you need direction, coaching is ideal, as it steers you back on track.
Coaching is an effective way to change something in someone’s life that is not working. Indeed, coaching has a track record as a successful method to increase well-being, performance, and personal aptitude.
It has been shown to generate change, be it emotional, cognitive, or behavioural. Furthermore, research has shown that coaching can accelerate the attainment of specific goals by focusing on the competence of individuals in non-clinical circumstances.
When I work with my clients, I like to think of them as fellow explorers, highlighting that we are all in this together.
Coaches are not hired to fix a situation. If a coach tells you that they can improve your case, then don’t hire them! This is a process that you have to work through, and it is hard work. However, if you do the work, it can be very empowering.
I believe this application is functional. The coaching process offers guidance in a one-to-one relationship in which the coach supports the coached to identify, focus on, and achieve what is important to them. This is essential because the client needs help to develop a career strategy and gain clarity. Coaches are there to create a personalised approach to your development. The executive coach emphasises potentially hazardous topics that might impact interpersonal, strategic, and executive skills. Having clear outcomes is key to your results.
You determine what you want to attain by outlining clear outcomes. Then you begin to decide where you want to go and what you want to achieve. When you can act, you can start to live your life with purpose and meaning. If you don’t want to change, don’t waste your time or money on coaching. Instead, do it when you know you want to change. You are the driver, no one else, and it is you who will take personal accountability to authorise yourself.