While the field of executive coaching keeps evolving, there are still some general best practices that coaches follow to build a successful practice. By deploying these best practices, a coach can work from a basis of confidence and clarity and serve clients well. Here they are as we see them from our perspective in the world of executive coaching:
- Earn the Qualifications and Credentials.
The importance of obtaining coaching qualifications and credentials as a requirement to be respected in the field keeps growing. When a company selects an executive coach to work with their leaders and teams, they expect the coach to be highly trained, with deep knowledge of both the coaching and business worlds. Because of this expectation, it’s a best practice for the coach to acquire an ICF or similar credential along with a certification from an established executive coach training and certification program such as what we offer in conjunction with the Center for Executive Coaching.
In addition, leading coaches tend not to rest on their laurels. Instead, they remain in “learn and grow mode” by enrolling in ongoing learning opportunities to stay in tune with emerging trends and methodologies. Great coaches go beyond what’s required to renew their credentials. They also continue to move up the credentialing ladder as time goes on.
- Maintain Strict Confidentiality at all Times.
Trust is the basis of any productive business relationship, and the trust between the coach and coachee is rooted in the coach maintaining strict confidentiality about everything that happens within coaching conversations. Coachees won’t speak freely unless they’re assured that what they say in the privacy of the coaching session stays there. Therefore, coaches who work within sponsored engagements are very clear with sponsors how and when information about the progression of coaching will be shared.
The best coaches spend time up front with sponsors and coachees explaining what confidentiality in the coaching relationship means. They also look for potential conflicts of interest and ensure those are addressed prior to the beginning of the coaching engagement. When time is spent up front ensuring everyone is clear, the coaching relationship will get off to a solid start and be satisfying to all parties involved.
- Place the Client at the Center of the Coaching Process.
One of the principles of effective executive coaching is an understanding that the coachee is at the center of the coaching process. The coaching goals and agenda are all based on the coachee’s needs and requirements, not what the coach plans out. Therefore, the coach must listen carefully to the coachee’s input and show respect for the coachee’s knowledge, perspective, background and experience. Client-focused executive coaching encourages coachees to identify their challenges and opportunities, think from different perspectives, and search for answers within themselves. The coach stays with them all along the way encouraging, reflecting, challenging and so forth.
Many newer executive coaches come from backgrounds in executive leadership, consulting, HR, academia and government. In these former roles, people were often expected to give direction and provide solutions to challenging problems regularly. Indeed, it’s often the case that their pronounced strength in problem solving distinguished them from others while moving up the ranks. As they enter the realm of coaching, they must suppress their interest in offering solutions and focus on the client’s ability to do so. This is a master skill that great coaches will bring to their clients.
- Be Flexible and Willing to Explore Different Approaches.
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to executive coaching: the needs of the newly appointed executive can differ vastly from those of a veteran leader. And although the basic principles of effective leadership coaching come into play, every coachee will require some adjustments based on their unique challenges, end goals and willingness to be vulnerable and truly dive into the possibilities presented by coaching. Therefore, executive coaches need to be flexible in their approach towards different coaching assignments, while staying within the framework of the session objectives.
Great coaches will have different coaching models they can employ, various assessments to tailor the engagement, multiple approaches to getting 360 feedback, exercises to suggest to the client and so forth. By being flexible, an executive coach can adapt to meet the needs of their client and truly help them break through to a new level of understanding themselves and the world around them.
- Encourage Self-Awareness and Accountability.
The executive coach needs to challenge their coachees to be the message. This is exemplified by a coach wholly representing what they’d like to see in those that work with and for them. Living into this ideal form of leadership requires a high degree of self-awareness to see where one is being true to themselves or where one has blind spots that are holding them back from being the model leader they strive to be.
Through heightened self-awareness, coachees can better zero in on their obstacles, false assumptions and limiting beliefs. Because this insight is essential to executive growth, the coach should skillfully push the coachee towards achieving true self-awareness.
Another key aspect of successful executive coaching is to set reachable and meaningful goals for the engagement and guide the coachee to be accountable to attain them. Often business leaders find themselves so inundated with work that they will set goals only to have to table a number of them for the time being. A great coach is there to help break this trend by guiding the client to reach meaningful aspirations and feel great about themselves.
- Be Honest when Giving Assessments and Feedback.
Top-level leaders often find themselves in a position where they don’t receive enough clear and direct feedback about their performance from those they work with and lead. One of the crucial and valuable elements of an effective executive coaching program is genuine feedback from the coach as well as those around the client through the use of 360s and confidential 1on1 interviews with those who work closely with the leader being coached. The executive’s position or status in the organization should not factor into the coach giving the coachee feedback they need to hear. Indeed, many executives rely on their coach to present them with candid feedback they won’t get anywhere else.
This can also happen in real time when coaches attend meetings the leader is running. During the meeting, coaches can call for time outs to provide feedback to the leader about how they are conducting themselves in relation to their goals. Clearly, this needs to be set up in advance with all attendees being briefed on the process. Given that, this type of feedback can be highly valuable since it’s in the moment.
- Run Your Practice like a Reliable Business.
This is the one best practice that applies to every organization and consultancy. How you run your business will affect the quality of your coaching engagements. So, be reliable, responsive, and easy to do business with. Find great help as soon as you can afford it so you can focus on the key areas of your practice only you can handle.
Use appropriate software to support your business and be highly organized. Set aside time for sales and marketing each week to avoid peaks and valleys in your client flow. Lastly, have clear agreements and send invoices on a timely basis and charge what you are worth.
- Be Open to Feedback Yourself.
Don’t be afraid to request your own feedback about your coaching services. While following the aforementioned best practices will put you in a great position to compete with other executive and leadership coaches, a sure way to grow and improve will be to follow your own advice to your clients – get feedback and act on it. We all have blind spots. Only a few of us truly look for them as an opportunity to learn and grow.
You can get your own coach, go through a mentor coaching program, or enroll in coach supervision. Any of these options can help you to feel more confident about how you are showing up as an executive coach in a highly competitive and growing field.
•••
We hope the best practices outlined above will guide you in growing and strengthening your executive coaching practice now and for years to come. Remember, success ultimately comes down to building a strong knowledge and skill base and then having the persistence to apply that knowledge to effect positive results.
If you’d like to learn more about our executive coach training and certification programs, please visit our enrollment options page. Contact us if you’d like to learn more firsthand about the available options or schedule time to meet at a time that works for you.
Doing these things will garner you a great deal of respect even as a newer coach.
Photo copyright: Featured photo is from ©RDNE Stock Project via Pexels. Second photo is from ©Megan_Rexazin via Pixabay.
