In today’s competitive and ever-changing environment employees at all levels – especially leaders and entrepreneurs are always looking to build sustainable and thriving businesses. Sometimes one may feel stuck, draw blank ideas, and may feel like they do not have the skills or abilities needed to move ahead. In such cases, an executive coach can help the leaders and employees of an organization to figure out the barriers that are holding them in place. They can give the employees at all levels the jump-start they need to excel professionally and pursue their career goals with new enthusiasm.
What is Executive coaching?
The professional coaching relationship between a trained certified coach and a client is known as executive coaching. Executive coaches are hired by individuals and organizations to help clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The main goal of executive coaches is to elevate their client’s leadership qualities, personal development, and management performance.
Executive coaching helps clients improve clients’ ability to perform, achieve their goals as well as develop their interpersonal skills.
Coach To Transformation can help you in this regard.
5 Things to consider while hiring an executive coach
While the impact of coaching is deep and far reaching, it is important to vet a coach before hiring them. Many people only ask the length of the engagement and the price without realising that picking a coach is a complex process and there are several factors to consider when hiring a coach. Some of the important things to look into before an executive coach is hired are:
- Qualifications and Accreditation: Coaching is not a universally regulated industry and there is nothing stopping anyone from calling themselves a coach. Therefore, it is important to check the qualifications of a coach before hiring them. Qualification includes training, accreditation and experience. It is best to look for someone who has earned their certification from an ICF-certified, credentialed program as ICF certifications are well-respected and recognized in the coaching industry. Check if the executive coaching services are aligned with the core competencies and standards of the globally recognized International Coaching Federation. Always choose executive coaches with ICF credentials such as Associated Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC), or with the highest credentials, Master Certified Coach (MCC).
- Evaluate the executive coaches’ coaching experience: When hiring an executive coach one should check their executive coaching experience. It is better to hire a coach who has spent a considerable amount of time coaching people at the same level or in the same industry. Along with knowing how many years the executive coaches have coached, it is important to know some of their clients and have conversations about the specific problems they were able to solve for these clients.
- Check if the coaches’ skill matches with the goals of the client: When hiring an executive coach always check their specialization and coaching strengths and whether those skills are beneficial for the client. If someone wants to elevate their leadership and team building skills, they need to work with coaches who have leadership coaching experience. On the other hand, someone who wants to break through barriers holding them back from a promotion, may need a coach with more skills on building self-awareness and working through weak spots. Since coaching is a personalised process, the coach must be able to truly personalise the process for their clients.
- Testimonials – If a coach has no testimonial and is wary of allowing you to talk to earlier clients or speak with references, that should raise a red flag. While coaches may not be able to provide lots of references due to confidentiality clauses, testimonials will definitely help. It is important to hire executive coaching services according to the business needs of an organization. It is also important to go through the coach’s websites, reviews, and references backing up their work before finalizing.
- The coach’s philosophy should match the hiring client’s philosophy: Always check if the executive coach’s coaching philosophy aligns with the client’s needs, values, work culture, and goals. This is often a gut-feeling, but do ask the coach to list down their processes and the philosophies they follow when coaching. Only when the ethical practices of coaches match with the client does the client see change and growth.
- Tracking and Measuring Results – While Executive coaching is a qualitative process, being able to track if changes are happening is important. Coaches often follow different systems of measuring the impact of their coaching. While methods may differ, it is important that a coach is able to elucidate the process they will use to track if changes are taking place.
Executive Coaching has become popular due to the many people who have been able to grow and develop themselves both personally and professionally due to Executive Coaching. The process of executive coaching can have a far -reaching impact but it is important to be able to find the right executive coach. This is why one must go through a vetting process before getting into a coaching relationship.
