Receiving Executive Coaching does not equal Failure!

When most people hear about someone that is receiving executive coaching they immediately believe the person is failing in some way. Why else would they need a coach?

Well the truth be told, that is generally far from the reality of the situation. After all, Super Bowl teams have coaches and they were just named the top team in the entire National Football League.

Good coaching will enhance the skills of an individual so that they can achieve even more than they already have.

To use another sports analogy take a home run hitter that is trying to improve upon their swing. A hitting coach will watch them swing the bat time 'after time making very small adjustments improving the swing a little with each adjustment.

That is exactly what coaching will do for the experienced leader. After all any leader that believes they have nothing left to improve upon should retire. No leader or business is perfect and will always have room for improvement.

Now the difference between executive coaching and executive mentoring is slight, but certainly different.

Executive mentoring is more of a guide while coaching is more of a director/teacher. The two can blend together at times and make the process more seamless, but there are differences.

As an example if I was an executive coach for someone that I believed needed to improve on their communications skills with subordinate staff I might handle it in this manner. I might begin with asking a number of questions involving the productivity of their staff. Through those questions I would continue to narrow them down until I had the executive realize that they needed to improve in that area. That would involve both mentoring and coaching skills.

Sometime coaching must be more direct and to the point. In those cases, depending on the executive, they can be less responsive. People in general are defensive and pointing out what appears to be fault is hard to hear. On the other hand time is a factor and addressing the same issue as above I might handle it like this. I observed you speaking with a number of your staff and if it were me I would make the following changes... ...and here is why I would make those changes.

Executive coaching is not a perfect science and both coaches and executives are different. Both have to be open for change. Yes even the coach must be open for changing. If they believe their way is the only way they better get out of the business.

Of course coaching is just another term for training, and I truly believe training is the key to having a successful organization. As I mentioned earlier if someone believes they have nothing left to learn they better retire, because they have lost their mind. We can always improve.

Study after study shows that dollars spent on training have a greater return on investment (ROI) than dollars spent on upgrades. The point is that people are the key to your success, not machines, equipment, buildings, vehicles, or anything else.

It is the people that will help you succeed. If you can improve your skills so that you can help them improve their skills, you are moving in the right direction.

Get involved with executive coaching and you will reap the rewards!

May God Bless you!

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