If you speak with anyone who has experienced successful executive coaching services, they will tell you it accelerates how fast you reach your goals, no matter what the goal is. Working with a professional coach gives you the opportunity to work through obstacles and opportunities to support your professional growth and keeps you accountable to yourself!

Coaching is your investment in your future and as with most investments, you get out what you put in.

Yesterday a client shared this perspective, “I look at my coaching session as demonstrating to my team and my organization that I am fully committed to being the best leader I can be.  I dedicate time with the executive team working on how we can lead better together, and I dedicate time with my direct report team focused on how we can work better together too.  I view my coaching session as the opportunity to dedicate time that I need to work on myself and develop my leadership skills so I can be better.”

Why Executive Coaching Services Work?

Coaching is about creating the most value for yourself through this 1:1 time that is designated to be all about you! One client shared the importance of her monthly coaching sessions by saying, “This 45- minutes is the only time I slow down, breath, and focus on me.”

Executive coaching services work because it is personal and customized to you. You set your own goals, you make your own decisions and you select the strategies and action items that are going to work best for you. Coaching is not about following someone else’s agenda!

Another client shared this perspective on why coaching is working for him, “You are my confidential objective sounding board. When we are brainstorming and problem solving and exploring new ideas and perspectives, I don’t have to worry that what I’m saying is going to impact what someone in the organization thinks of me or that it might make them question my skills or question whether I am right for a certain role. It is so freeing to know I’m not being judged. I believe I move faster through issues when I don’t have to worry about that.”

Executive coaching services are designed to connect you with a personalized leader that will guide you to quickly drive success personally, professionally, or both!

Maximizing Your Executive Coaching Services

You and your coach are going to explore things together and creating a strong foundation of trust in the relationship is the first integral step in a successful coaching services engagement. Your focus determines your reality. To get the most from your coaching relationship you create the focus and you have to bring all of yourself fully. This is not a relationship where holding back serves you!  

Here are a few tips to capitalize on this transformational experience:  

1. Be Committed. This time is about you, for you. You want to use your time well. Show up on time for sessions and complete action between sessions. The work you do between the sessions is where the real learning and movement happens. You will reach your goals faster if you commit to the coaching process.
2. Be Open. Allow yourself to be honest and transparent, bring the real you and the real issues. If you are not willing to be open and honest with yourself and your coach, you won’t be open and honest with others which limits your growth potential.  
3. Be willing to experiment. Your coach will stretch and challenge you. What comes up in your coaching session might be uncomfortable. Often the light gets shone on potential blind spots and habits that are derailing you, be willing to explore these and seek feedback from others to truly identify whether these habits are limiting you.
   
4. Be open to being challenged and also challenging back. A great coach will challenge you if they think you are stuck in a narrow perspective or perhaps have a blind spot that needs exploration. That doesn’t mean the coach is ‘right’. It just presents an opportunity to explore. I love it when a client says, “I’m not sure that’s what it is, but what you said has me thinking that maybe this is what it is about.” That’s perfect! This is a two-way relationship and executive coaching services are your individual growth journey!
5. Come prepared and willing to take action. This is your time, your opportunity to move yourself forward so come with your agenda and be prepared to jump right in and get to the issue or topic that is most important to you. And, come prepared to discuss the action you took away from last session. If you are not taking action between sessions, you are not moving yourself forward.

Who Are Executive Coaching Services For?

In order to grow, you have to be willing to invest your time and attention to address blind spots and build on your strengths. Executive coaching services offer you the platform to do this…you bring the rest!

I saw this quote recently, “Dream your own dreams, achieve your own goals, your journey is your own…and unique!”  Coaching supports this perspective. Your coach is there to support you on your own unique journey.  

All leaders have to make a lot of choices when it comes to how to invest their human resource dollars.  We are often asked by potential clients who they should be targeting in their organization when it comes to investing in development. Most lean towards thinking they should invest in people that hold the top 'titled' positions or the people they already see as their top talent.

Consider Coaching for All Company Roles

It is very common to have your 'go to' people. The ones you rely on to get things done. The ones you can trust to go the extra mile. It is also very easy to unintentionally burn out this top talent while under-utilizing others. This can leave the organization very vulnerable if the 'go to' people can no longer handle the load and there is no one to step into their shoes. So how do you decide who is a good candidate for development and coaching?

This article voices the trending concerns of business leaders today,
"Many CEOs also say they regret leaving adequate performers in key positions and failing to realize the full potential of their roles. The best CEOs think systematically about their people: which roles they play, what they can achieve, and how the company should operate to increase people’s impact." It went on to identify where to look at the 'value creating' roles...
"Of the 50 most value-creating roles in any given organization, only 10 percent normally report to the CEO directly. Sixty percent are two levels below, and 20 percent sit farther down."  

So when we are asked who might be a good candidate for coaching the answer is there are many levels in an organization where coaching is creating a lot of value, from front line supervisors to CEO's. Executive coaching services are beneficial to anyone who has influence over another!

How to lower the risk but raise the ROI potential of your investment?

1. First, do an analysis. Look beyond job titles and identify the roles that have a significant impact on getting your product or service to customers.

2. Look at the people that currently occupy those roles. Are they top performers? Is their talent being over- or under-utilized? Do they have someone underneath them that is being developed to take their place?

3. Do you have a few people at each level that are identified and interested in developing their skills and talents and stepping up to the next level?

Our belief is that there is no 'wrong level' at which to offer executive coaching services.  Coaching is proven to help individuals develop faster as they take new concepts and tools and put them into practice immediately. Having people at every level in the organization that are eager to do this creates high value in the long term.

Related articles:

• How To Choose the Perfect Executive Coach
• Building Influence From the Bottom Up
• Influence and Impact: Engaging Key Stakeholders

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