Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is an action learning process to enhance effective action, learning agility and development. It is a personalised process to generate valid information, free and informed choice and internal commitment to these choices and their implementation.

Different types of focus

Skills Coaching
Performance Coaching
Coaching for Development
Coaching for Executive's Agenda

The following general distinctions help to provide clarity of coaching options, a common language to orient people to and decide on an appropriate coaching contract. This will facilitate informed choices that build responsibility for, and commitment to, the coaching process. Choice of coaching contract can be varied as needed throughout the coaching relationship but helps maintain focus and clear mutual expectations during coaching.

Skills coaching relates to knowledge, skills, abilities and perspectives that enable you to take effective action. It involves processes of experience, monitoring, reflection, making sense, planning and implementing actions in live and/or simulated settings. It is not instruction, training or directing, so much as an interactive learning process, including deliberate inquiry, observation, dialogue and discovery facilitated by the coach. The timeframe may include one or more sessions over several weeks or months depending need. When executive knows what to do but needs to sharpen skill coach works with executive to

• Assess current skills
• Clarify expectations for current project or tasks
• Prioritise executive’s needs for present projects or tasks
• Plan for skill building
• Enhance effective action
• Improve (to some extent) learning agility

Performance coaching focuses on the executives competencies and characteristics that contribute to current job or role. This may include a focus on products and results or on how they are achieved, building capability or remedying problems that interfere with executive’s performance or put career at risk. The processes are similar to those above but will emphasise learning to learn to a greater degree and introduce concepts of developmental levels or stages as appropriate. Time frame usually requires ongoing sessions over several months or quarters. When there is pressure to improve performance, executive works with coach to

• Assess current competencies for current job
• Clarify expectations for present job
• Prioritise executive’s needs for present job performance
• Plan for continuing improvement
• Enhance effective action
• Improve (to a noticeable extent) learning agility
• Raise awareness of relevant developmental challenges
  

Coaching for development focuses on the competencies, characteristics, mindsets, etc., required for a future job or role and may entail considerable personal/ professional growth challenge. It will entail being able to appreciate greater levels of complexity, adopt multiple perspectives and ways of framing reality and integrate these into effective action. Time frame is likely to be numerous sessions spread over several quarters or more. When there is grooming, promotion, career moves or succession planning in the offing, executive and coach work together to

• Assess current competencies and stage of development
• Clarify expectations for future performance
• Prioritise executives developmental needs
• Plan for continuing development
• Enhance and extend capability
• Improve learning agility
• Tackle developmental transitions and consolidation

Coaching for Executive’s agenda focuses on executives personal, business or organisational issues or concerns. These may border on life coaching or relate to achieving business results, change initiatives, career management, facing a big challenge or just the need for a confidential sounding board. Timeframe is variable and is usually on an as needed or contracted basis depending on the issue and the level of urgency and importance. In such situations the executive and coach work together to

• Develop more ideas and options
• Prioritise executives needs
• Plan for the executives agenda
• Obtain better support for the executives agenda
• Enhance effective action
• Improve learning agility