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If you’ve been considering working with an executive coach, you may be wondering just what kind of benefits you might see from your coaching sessions. Executive coaching can offer lots of benefits to senior leaders in all shapes and sizes of organisation. It can help you develop strong leadership skills and reach your professional goals.

As an executive coach I can help you work on a specific thing such as identifying your default approach to managing conflict, or you may identify several key areas you’d like to work on, such as self-leadership, presence and engagement, or relationship building.

You may even be unsure where to begin, but don’t worry: we’ll start with an initial 30 minute complimentary call to learn more about you, your challenges, your motivation to change, and an initial identification of your coaching needs. If you feel like we’re a great fit and agree to go ahead, we’ll then explore your key areas of focus, resulting in your agreed coaching objectives and measures of success to work towards in your coaching sessions.

What happens in executive coaching?

The first rule of executive coaching? We don’t talk about executive coaching…

I’m kidding, of course, but it is important to know that your coaching sessions are confidential. Senior leaders are often under enormous pressure to appear cool, calm and collected at all times, and coaching is your much-needed safe space to discuss the things you aren’t so confident about.

There are lots of different tools and techniques to use, and each coaching session will be different depending on your own individual needs and goals. Normally, sessions will include a review of what was covered in the previous session and any actions taken as well as discussion around what went well, and what could have been done differently. Sessions also include outcomes around your agreed focus, exploration using a variety of assessments and tools, and an agreed plan of action to encourage mindset and behavioural change.

While all of my sessions are different because all of my clients are different, they are always focused on supporting you become the best leader you can be.

What are the benefits of executive coaching?

Whether you’ve been a senior leader for ten years or ten days, working with an executive coach can help you take your leadership to the next level.

The benefits of coaching include:

Time to focus on you

Coaching provides the time and space away from the chaos and pressures of work, for you to reflect on yourself, with the main focus on exploring factors that enable you to grow personally and professionally.

Yes, that’s right …it’s all about you!

By using the ‘ask, not tell’ approach, I’ll encourage you to:

• Be true to yourself – stop trying to do everything and focus on your values and strengths
• Confront your ‘home truths’ – things change once you stop pretending things are OK
• Explore your fears and face up to how they are holding you back
• Step out of your comfort zone – start doing things differently to see better results
• Commit to new behaviours and new ways of thinking to boost your confidence as a leader and reconnect with your teams.

It’s not easy, and at times it will feel uncomfortable. Believe me, that’s a good thing.  It means you’re listening to your inner self, facing up to your areas for development, and stretching yourself to make positive changes.

Despite the challenges, you should walk away from each session feeling energised and inspired.

Build your self-awareness

Coaching can help you develop a stronger sense of self-awareness: what you stand for, what your strengths are, how others perceive you, and any ‘blind spots’. Having a strong sense of self-awareness can make you a more effective leader as you’ll be honest about who you are and be the ‘real you’, not the ‘pretend you’.

Tackling your development with a strong sense of self-awareness allows you to grow and improve at a much faster rate. Having an awareness of how you tend to react to situations and any stress triggers can help you develop better strategies for dealing with those situations.

A safe environment to gain a fresh perspective

Executive coaching gives you the chance to talk through any challenges with someone who is both experienced and impartial.  Sometimes as leaders, you can get bogged down in the day-to-day stuff and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Working with an executive coach who has gained insight from working with numerous senior leaders in different organisations can help you get some valuable perspective. Over time, coaching will also help you develop the skill to quickly recognise when you’re losing sight of the big picture, so that you can take a step back and reassess a situation.

With a fresh perspective, you’ll often find new ways to tackle old problems and achieve your goals.

Build your confidence

We often think of leaders as being supremely confident people, but the reality is that we’re all just human beings and we all experience a lack of confidence from time to time.

A lack of confidence can often cause senior leaders to overthink or doubt their abilities as a leader, or struggle to manage conflict.

Coaching is based on the belief that you already have within you the knowledge and experience to answer your questions and / or to identify a route to discover the answer.

As a previous client shared “The answers are already in your head, you just need time and space for them to emerge.”

I can help you develop the possibilities for yourself, that way you’re more likely to implement the actions, taking full ownership of yourself and your development.

How to get the most out of executive coaching

Of course, a great coach can get you great results – but only if you put in the effort. At times it can be hard to allow yourself to be honest or vulnerable with your coach, or to do the hard work of implementing what you discussed in a coaching session, but it’s the only way you’ll see results.

Here’s some of the outcomes my previous clients have achieved since working with me:

Focus – feeling energised and reconnected to my purpose

• Have a clear vision for my future
• Live my values
• Know where I add value and what I do well
• Use and develop my strengths
• Focus on my priorities
• Feel like I’m making a positive contribution at work
• Have my work-life ratio much more balanced

Resilience – boosting my resilience

• Address under performance
• Manage conflict
• Clearly express what I think and feel
• Communicate more effectively with others
• Give clarity and am more assertive with my expectations of others
• Hold others accountable
• Have better relationships with my team and others
• Have the respect and trust of my team

Confidence – believing in myself and my abilities as a leader

• Feel inspired and bring energy to my work
• Proud of what I’ve achieved
• More confident and am personally more positive
• Acknowledge and act on feedback
• Seek opportunities to grow
• Reflect on my leadership practice by taking time for myself

You can see more here.

When I’m coaching senior leaders, I make sure to bring the whole of me to my work because this enables you to bring your whole self too. By ‘your whole self’ I mean your real self, not a persona you carry around to make the world think you’re OK.

It’s important because when you stop pretending and take stock of your habitual thinking and unhelpful behaviours, you can discover for yourself what you need to do.

As an executive coaching client, I want you to see the best in yourself, and that sometimes requires you to dig deeper than you might be comfortable with. I challenge and push you to develop and grow outside your comfort zone – because that’s how you can feel energised and inspired.

I question your beliefs and assumptions – because I want you to feel confident, trust in your decisions and believe in your abilities as a leader.

If you’re expecting me to do all the hard work for you, or that you’ll improve with minimal effort from yourself then you might be disappointed. However, if you commit to taking positive action from the sessions, and to bringing your whole self – you’ll see improvements in no time at all.

Are you ready to commit to your development and grow as a senior leader? Get in touch with me today to learn more about how executive coaching can help you achieve the results that matter to you.

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