What is Executive Coaching? Why bother? What is coaching in organizations? Helping you achieve full potential. Focusing on what you do every day on the job and practicing new approaches, re-framing how you see things and learning new skills. A sounding board for new ideas. A good coach is... A strong listener to understand needs and feelings. Determined to maintain or enhance self esteem. Able to flex between drawing solutions out of people and offering developmental tips as required. Able to inspire trust quickly. Coaches ask questions to help others achieve new insights. Good questions help people think through issues for themselves. When managers need to solve problems on the job, an effective coach asks supportive questions so that managers develop and own their own solutions. More direct ''tutoring'' is OK for specific skill improvement such as how to manage time or delegate more effectively. In this case, executive coaching works exactly the same way as sports coaching.   Coaching skills Executive coaching has the same objective as in sports - to help high performers reach greater heights. The coach works with you on your objectives and skills. As in sports, the coach must understand the "game" - your culture. Coaching is a mixture of advice and questions designed to stimulate thinking. Open ended, non-judgemental questions stimulate broader thinking. This requires listening skills, patience, sensitive probing and supportive feedback. Pose suggestions as questions: 'How do you think this approach would work for you?' 'What would be the advantages and disadvantages as you see them?' Avoid closing down quickly on a solution - dig deeper into how the other person thinks by probing with further open questions: 'I wonder what leads you to that view?' 'Can you help me understand your reasoning there?' 'What are the benefits of that approach for you?' Acknowledge any insights gained and good points made. Ask what they will do differently and by when. Strive to maintain and enhance the other person's self esteem. Effective coaching is forward looking - where do you want to go from here rather than a lot of emphasis on why you got to where you are. Too much of the latter undermines confidence, making the person feel that they have something really wrong with them. A balance needs to be struck between backwards introspection and positive, forward action with the emphasis on the latter. Coaching adds most practical value when the other person has a concrete action plan to do something different. What do executives work on with their coaches? Handling difficult situations with people. Issues that are hard to discuss openly with colleagues. Concerns about competence, personal doubts. Interpreting negative feedback from others. Feeling plateaued, career stalled. Recent blows to self esteem and confidence. Dealing with difficult colleagues or boss. Coaching focuses on the improvement of skills such as: Leading others more effectively. Making better decisions. Managing delicate transitions more smoothly. Resolving conflict. Negotiating tough deals. Communicating more effectively. Career management. Performance improvement. Presenting yourself with greater impac Enhancing emotional intelligence Achieving your potential Why do the best sports people all have coaches? They are determined to reach their full potential. ''We didn't seem to need coaching 20 years ago'', you object. Everything is more competitive with more demands to face. Professional sports people use coaches more extensively than casual sports people because tougher competition makes them work smarter to reach their full potential. It is difficult for managers to accept coaching from their peers. At junior levels you can accept coaching from senior colleagues or role models, less so your peers. A professional golfer would only expect ad hoc tips from peers, not serious coaching. In business it is hard to accept feedback from colleagues anyway- we are too defensive - a nd they may have an axe to grind. Their perception may be biased, being so close to you, like family. They may be caught up in the same issues. Greater distance is necessary to achieve objectivity. A good coach is like a mirror - you may not see yourself accurately. Without a coach, how will you achieve your full potential? Benefits of coaching Advance your career. Deliver better results to stakeholders. Someone to confide in. Develop new skills. Tailored, one to one tutoring. Tackling current challenges. Why coaching? For the same reason top athletes and sports people have coaches. To transform good performance into winning achievement. Management is a sophisticated profession requiring highly developed skills. Most sports people recognize that their best is due to a team effort. Top athletes know that individual excellence is not enough to beat competitors. It is not about doing it all yourself - such managers are only effective in a crisis. The pressure to perform at high levels requires your continual improvement. Typical issues Coaching Skills Your potential

Executive coaching can be abused. It is important that you agree some way of measuring the effectiveness of executive coaching. Your coach should agree a personal development plan that leads to observable change in how you behave on the job. Executive coaching needs to deliver results to be considered a credible profession. Avoid using an executive coach who does not agree to some measure of performance improvement.