Executive coaching is not a silver bullet to every organization’s problems, but it is a helpful tool for managing-level employees to learn and develop. The purpose of organizational coaching is to promote change on the most fundamental levels in organizations. Organizational coaching can serve as the launchpad for business change on a deeper level, which is critical in any organization.
In organizations, coaching can be an effective way to customize and accelerate executive growth and learning. However, coaching has emerged as a way to accelerate and customize individual growth and professional development for high-potential leaders for years. Not only can it increase the attainment of strategic goals and executive development, but coaching can foster true, lasting culture and organizational change.
By working together with executive coaches, training and development teams can enable high-potential individuals to find greater success and be leaders in transforming entire organizations. As worthy as helping a single individual or a team may be, the most valuable executive coaching comes from developing the entire ranks of an organization’s top executives. Executive coaching helps organizations create and nurture highly qualified employees on the job, something that is immensely valuable in our constantly changing workforce.
Executive coaching is accomplished through a coach helping an executive navigate through performance and potential, modelling employee beliefs, focusing on organization, and building awareness and empowerment. While the purpose of coaching is to help an employee benefit his or her organization and career, it helps him or her to grow as a person. During the coaching engagement, a coach can help a member understand and utilize information obtained through assessments, develop and execute a developmental plan, and work on specific work-related and interpersonal challenges.
The pipeline for development may also help an organization identify the type of coach that is appropriate for an executive, based on needs analysis. If an organization is not sure of what an executive needs, it may want to recruit a coach who will assist with issue identification, like a needs analysis. For instance, if an executive needs a sense of perspective, a better fit coach can give feedback and goals that will promote creativity.
For instance, when an emerging leader with high potential needs more training, a department is learning new skills or methodologies, a new hire is being brought on board, or senior leaders need a guide in evaluating their strategic options, you may want to think about finding a coach that is well-suited for these goals. Executive coaches can be hired to work with individuals who show potential but lack confidence in taking a leadership role, and with those who are already senior managers but are becoming stagnant in their roles. Organizations need to choose coaches carefully that fit their requirements for executive development.
Executive coaching is designed to fill this gap, but only about a third of organizations are using executive coaching to develop individuals for senior roles. About half of organizations are using executive coaching to develop senior-level executives and beyond, yet the majority continue to rely on custom training and development work assignments as the basis for their leadership development approaches. Coaching, for example, may assist leaders who are making transitions, such as moving from operations jobs to positions in corporate leadership, which demand soft interpersonal skills in addition to performance skills.
Executive coaching and leadership training can prove to be tremendously valuable, not just for those receiving coaching, but also for the companies where trainees work. By focusing the Executive and Leadership Coaches on the critical topics, and using optimal Executive Coaching methodologies, a trainee may be developing new skills that improve his or her career opportunities. Coaching should be an essential skill and capacity of all leaders and managers, and employees, at every level in an organization.
Executive coaching is an effective way to improve performance in your most critical leaders, help them with critical transitions, and empower them to change behaviours that might inhibit their effectiveness. To support organizational change and sustain change, coaching is a technique effectively used to motivate organizational leaders to make implementations and validate changes in behaviours among surrounding executives. The best coaching provides businesses with a disciplined method of deepening relationships with their highest-valued employees, as well as improving their performance. Systematic coaching programs that target entire cadres of executives provide a disciplined way for businesses to deepen relationships with their most valued employees while also increasing their effectiveness.
If your organization provides access to both coaching and therapy to its executives, it is critical that you know the difference, and that you are setting up your company for success by using these services. To make sure that you are using all of your resources for the best management of your teams, consider developing a toolkit of employee-coach strategies. The Life Styles Inventory Circumplex, or LSI, is an organisational tool that uses self-assessment and feedback from colleagues and employees to generate these insights for leaders.
Learn more about our high-impact, virtual coaching solutions, or embed a coaching culture across your organization by building up your staff’s coaching skills. If your organization is considering offering executive coaching for your high-potential leaders, ensure that your executive coaching program includes concrete goals and timeframes, allows for continuous communication, and is matched appropriately with the level of services needed for your talent.
To be effective with senior executives, coaches need both the capacity to understand difficult business issues at the practical and strategic levels, as well as the professional training to use methodologies that help individuals see inside themselves for change and growth. Teaching employees critical career skills makes a positive difference that extends beyond the individuals who are receiving coaching. Providing coaching for senior-level employees may be one way to reinforce leadership skills and provide desirable rewards for hard work.
