best executive coaches

 by Lawrence

Anyone can benefit from coaching – are you ready for it?

While coaching is gaining in popularity and acceptance as an effective means of development, it is relatively new and misunderstood, which leads potential clients to ask:  Is coaching right for them?  Coaching are client led conversations:  the client drives the agenda, leads the discussion, creates and ultimately commits to a plan of action.  The coach’s role is to ask the right questions to stimulate the client’s thought towards greater self-awareness.

 

Rather than ask if this process is suitable for you, I offer another perspective:  are you ready for coaching?  Everyone can benefit from coaching but being in the right frame of mind will ensure that you will maximize your gain from the process.  By the end of this article, you will be able to determine if you are prepared for the coaching process.

 

Three questions measure your readiness for coaching.  The first is rhetorical: “Do you have an area of self-development?”  Everyone has room for improvement, whether it is seeking growth in new skills, behaviours or mindsets or remedial in nature.  The amount of knowledge, skills and capabilities are limitless and one’s ability to deepen their competence has no bounds.  Seeking growth would be developing necessary and new skills after your first promotion to management.  An example of remedial action would be improving or correcting behaviours that you already have as a manager of people.  Recognizing that everyone has growth and improvement areas, including our own opportunities, is the first and biggest obstacle to overcome.

 

Do you want to heighten your self-awareness through coaching?  At first glance, this second question may also seem rhetorical but it is not: recognition of blind spots, room for improvement or new areas of discovery does not equate to action.  In fact, you may be afraid or unwilling to take action.  In my experience, clients must address their fears to achieve desired goals.  Recognizing, let alone overcoming, fear is not easy nor obvious to clients – the nature of fear is to avoid.  Your receptivity to coaching through these fears will largely affect the change to your desired mindset.

 

Last but not least, are you motivated to proactively change your paradigm?  This is an important phase because it is where positive transition and change occur.  A coach and client can achieve a great deal of learning and client self-awareness through conversations, but the best coaching relationships also commitment to action and establishing accountability for improvement.  This is also the section where a coach can provide a lot of support.  A coach helps clients identify and work through obstacles to change.  The answer ultimately lies within the client, but an effective coach will use effective questions so that the client realizes and commits to true actions of growth.

 

If you are true to yourself and able to answer these three questions affirmatively, then you ready for coaching and will be part of a growing group of successful clients who has benefitted from the coaching process.  So let me end with a call to action – schedule a discovery session with a coach that you have chemistry with and ask whether you are ready for coaching.

As originally posted for The Executive Coaches Group (http://executivecoachesgroup.com/are-you-ready-for-coaching/)

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 by Lawrence

The Best Coaches Act Dumb, Heartless and Lazy

A dear friend (and fellow coach) and I recently discussed what we thought made for an effective coach.  We concluded that clients would be best served by coaches that act dumb, heartless and lazy.  We had a chuckle at the thought of pitching this perspective with future coaching prospects –

 

Effective coaches don’t have preprogrammed notions or expectations of the conversation, nor analyze the situation for the client.  Dispensing advice or setting actions for clients serve a coach’s need to show value to a client or give the coach confidence.  But there is no correlation between a coach showing a client how intelligent they are and client value.  Over preparation means that the coach has a preconception as to how the session will proceed.  The coach should facilitate the client’s self-discovery, analysis and action steps by acting dumb and asking powerful questions.

 

Everyone has emotions and biases but an effective coach will check these at the door prior to a client session.  Effective coaches detach and serve as an empty vessel for clients to express themselves.  While establishing chemistry is essential to build a trustful coaching relationship, it should be a means for the client to share perspectives, not for the coach to express opinions.  The coach’s role is not to judge what the client says as that will influence the client and steer the conversation.  An effective communicator, however, will use positive emoting and active listening to encourage the speaker to share more.  In positive emoting, a coach demonstrates interest and care about what the client says but again, does not offer a judgement about what was said.

 

The role of the coach is not to advise or give the answer – coaching is not consulting.  Clients should work hardest during sessions; they are the expert of their own life and the best way for them to learn is through self-discovery.  This means minimal preparation for the coach prior to the client meeting and taking a follower role during.  A coach-dominated conversation saps energy from and disempowers the client.  An effective coach will free their mind of distraction and bias, be present and trust the process itself and follow the conversation based upon what the client says.

 

Effective coaches are obviously not actually dumb, heartless and lazy but must be able to appropriately take on these personas in a client situation.  Not having pre-conceived notions means the coach has to ask basic questions.  Being emotionless encourages the client to express opinions freely.  By taking a follower role, the client guides the conversation and achieves self-discovery on their own terms.

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