Typically, clients come into executive coaching to become more effective by addressing the challenges or issues that are limiting their success. I help my clients address those underlying factors that prevent them from reaching their full potential and to play to their strengths. Clients tend to enter executive coaching through three different routes:
self-initiated route
CEOs and those near the top of their organizations, who may have few peers in whom to confide, may be seeking an external, confidential ‘thought partner’. Other senior leaders can be facing a particularly challenging period or strategic organizational task and feel that coaching will help them perform at their best. Some struggle with anxiety, overload and stress of various kinds at work and look to coaching to help them learn to cope more effectively.
offered or proposed route
Many leaders and high performers, however, do not initiate coaching. Instead, it’s offered or proposed to them by their boss or the HR professionals within their organization. This happens for different reasons. Often the individual is being prepared for a more senior role. They may be in line for succession to a key post or about to take charge of a particularly critical area or project. Others enter coaching to improve their skills and effectiveness in areas such as people management, influencing, communication, handling conflict, delegation and work/life balance. Sometimes coaching is simply a vote of confidence, showing that the organization sees them as high-potential and is keen to invest in their development.
sent for route
Some leaders are sent for coaching by their organization in order to address one or more particular issues, for example, to help leaders manage their moods and behaviours and improve their management style. Executive coaching may then be a fruitful way to seek to enable change and development in a managers performance and to retain an otherwise talented and high-performing leader. In turn, this may provide significant cost savings compared to expensive termination contracts and costly search processes for finding and hiring a new leader.
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