Executive Coaching
An executive coach is a professional that works with executives (sometimes high-potential employees) to help them gain a better understanding of who they are (self-awareness), identify their goals, and development objectives. Help them to unlock their potential and act as a sounding board (critical for most executives/business owners). They are not consultants or therapists, they usually refrain from giving advice (but at times, may have to) or solving client problems. Rather they ask questions, help them to think through solutions/scenarios so they eventually learn to solve problems on their own.
What Do Executive Coaches Do?
An executive coach provides a confidential and supportive sounding board for their clients. They ask questions, challenge assumptions, help achieve clarity, provide resources, and yes, sometimes, with permission, provide advice. The ultimate goal is to help the client come to an acceptable answer for the situation. They often guide and help interpret situations and behavioral assessments, conduct confidential interviews with employees to help understand the executive, leadership, business and situations that exist. Thus giving the coach a more well-rounded understanding which helps to provide more meaningful coaching.
Who Hires Executive Coaches?
In the past, a company would hire executive coaches to come in and fix broken executives. Today, most companies hire executive coaches as a way to invest in their top executives and high potentials. It’s no longer a disgrace to have a coach; it’s a status symbol. The coaching foundation recently published that statistic that shows 55% of all privately held companies hire an executive coach while 34% of public companies do the same.
While executives can hire their own coaches (usually CEOs or business owners), it’s more common for companies (often the human resources department) to recommend a coach to an executive as a part of an executive development program. The employee could be newly promoted (transition/executive coaching), learning to deal with a number of challenges (usually involving employee relationships), or developing them for larger roles. In case you’re wondering, yes, coaches are still hired to correct behavioral problems as well as helping leaders resolve interpersonal issues, which in turn makes them better leaders and executives.
If you are looking for Business or Executive coaching, we hope you will reach out to us. The first call is a short 15 min introductory call. We will get to know each other, identify a challenge or two. Then if you feel comfortable, we can schedule a longer call to go a bit more in-depth, where we will provide you with some potential solutions that are yours to use all at No Charge.
To contact us, email us at info@pullthechute.net or call us at 615-572-9500.