We offer a multitude of coaching services. We can coach you or your team in a variety of ways.

Executive Coaching…What is It?

Do you remember your first career mentor? 
Maybe it was a supervisor or manager who took an interest in coaching you to greater success, or maybe it was a more experienced colleague who shared insights and feedback to help you become more productive and improve your performance. 
No matter the industry or professional level, the most common characteristic of successful people is that they have had a career mentor somewhere along the way.

Executive coaching is different, though, in that it takes a much more formal and organized approach to helping you develop your abilities and become a better leader. An executive coach provides structured development, acting as your guide, your advisor, your most enthusiastic supporter and your toughest critic. 
The focus of the executive coaching relationship is not on technical expertise, it is on helping you develop the leadership and interpersonal skills so vital to success in today’s world.
Read more about...

Why Hire an Executive Coach?

The higher you rise in an organization, the fewer career mentors there are available to you and the more you need a professional coach to help you continue to grow. 
You’ve heard the phrase “it’s lonely at the top” and there is a lot of truth to that statement. 
When you are the leader responsible for guiding and motivating a group or organization, where do you turn for your own guidance and motivation? The answer is an executive coach.

Your coach is an experienced professional who brings an objective perspective to the issues that concern you and is a confidential sounding board for your thoughts, feelings, emotions and concerns. 
Coaching sessions are great opportunities to open up and receive input from a non-judgemental person who is committed to your development. 
Read more about...  what will the executive coach teach me?

What Will I Learn?
As mentioned elsewhere, an executive coach will not teach you technical skills. 
Rather, the coaching relationship focuses on helping you develop the emotional intelligence to become a better leader. 
This means mastering the people skills that make you more effective, more productive, and better able to set the example by which your organization will operate.

The concept of emotional intelligence is relatively new, but it is central to your success. 
Study after study shows that the most successful executives actively develop and raise their emotional intelligence levels to serve themselves and their organizations better. 
When you can quickly and accurately perceive and assess your emotions and those of other people, you are in a much better position to positively influence actions and outcomes.

Read more about...  is it worth the money? 

Is executive coaching worth the money?
In a word – yes. 
A skilled executive coach will help you reach your full potential both personally and professionally. 
Among executives who have received coaching, improvements are seen in productivity, personal and professional relationships, and general job satisfaction. Remember, though, that using an executive coach is not a magic answer to all of your problems. 
In the end, the most important factor in successful executive coaching is you. You must be actively engaged in the coaching process and expect to put a great deal of effort into self-improvement. 
Your enthusiasm and commitment have a direct effect on the level of improvement you will gain from executive coaching
……………………………………………………………………….

 

This is perhaps the most important step in the whole coaching process. It establishes the coaching relationship and forms the foundation for all of the work to come. 
Just as essential, though, is the rapport that is established between the coach and the participant. 
The coaching relationship is highly personal and highly confidential so it is critical that the two parties be comfortable with each other and have a high degree of trust in each other. 

The participant and the coach will have several in-depth discussions about goals, needs, areas of concern, and other specifics. 
Feedback tools such as 360° surveys, peer reviews and self-assessments are examined and discussed to establish areas to be strengthened. 
These discussions usually take place in sessions that can be up to two hours long at intervals ranging from weekly to monthly. 
The number of sessions will vary depending on the needs of the participant and the amount of money available to spend on coaching.

Not everybody makes it past the first step, because sometimes after the participant has a chance for an in-depth discussion with the coach, he or she determines that they are not ready to be fully engaged in the process for some reason. 
It may be due to a life situation, a work situation, or any number of other conflicts that would make it difficult to put their full energy toward the coaching experience. 
In cases such as this, it is usually best to postpone coaching until the participant can give it their full effort.
This is where the real work begins. 
Coach and participant use all of the information gathered during Step #1 to decide on specific actions and behaviors that the participant will start to use. 
The participant typically practices these things as role playing with the coach at first so they become more comfortable and prepared to put them to use in the real world. 
There will likely be a number of sessions in this step, starting with role playing and practice and progressing to feedback and discussion of actual experiences. 

This is where new behaviors and actions become habit. 
The coach works with the participant to make sure changes and improvements become a way of life. 
They look for ways the changes impact the business or organization and reinforce what is working well. 
As the participant becomes more proficient and confident in their new abilities, the coaching relationship tapers off and the regularly scheduled sessions are discontinued.

In most cases, though, the coach is still available to the participant in the future should he or she have questions, concerns, or simply need a sounding board for dealing with a specific situation.

Coaching envy

As executive coaching has soared in popularity and its use has become quite widespread, many organizations are dealing with a common phenomenon called coaching envy. 
This occurs when executives or managers who are not receiving executive coaching are jealous of those who are receiving executive coaching.

While envy and jealousy are normal human emotions, if they are allowed to get out of hand in the workplace then lasting damage can be done to the organization. 
The fact is that few businesses can afford to supply executive coaching to all potential participants, so they inevitably must set priorities and make some hard choices about who will and who will not receive coaching during a particular timeframe.

Educate The Workforce
One of the biggest reasons that envy arises is that people at various levels of the organization do not fully understand the nature of executive coaching. 
It may be seen as a form of favoritism when one person receives coaching and another does not, when the reality is that coaching is an intense commitment of time and effort. 
It may look like “play time” from the outside, but those who have accurate information about executive coaching know this is not the case.

The best way to combat coaching envy is to educate the workforce. 
Put information in the company newsletter, devote a section of the internal website to FAQs about coaching, and talk about why the coaching experience really is intense work.

Expand Coaching Programs
Another reason that coaching envy develops is that coaching is seen as something provided only to those at the top, regardless of their motivation level. 
Often the employees who complain about unequal opportunities are really trying to say that they have ambition and goals, too, and they would like a chance at professional development, too.

While traditional executive coaching is not cost-effective or appropriate for all employees in an organization, it can be a good idea to provide modified coaching opportunities to a larger group of employees. 
This may occur in the form of seminars, workshops or weekly discussion groups, or perhaps be implemented as an informal program that matches internal mentors and coaches with employees looking for additional development.

Deal With The Perpetual Complainers
While many employees who experience coaching envy are really hoping they will have a chance at further development, there are almost always a few other employees who are more interested in having something to complain about than in growth or development. 
Dealing with these individuals can be a bit tricky if you’re not careful, but it is possible to get them to stop.

Complaining and whining are usually best dealt with as issues of behavioral expectations. 
Make it clear to the entire workforce that complaints are welcome when they have a constructive purpose, but that baseless complaining is not acceptable behavior. 
Be very clear about the consequences for engaging in unacceptable behavior, and enforce those consequences as needed.

Please note – you must obey all applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws when dealing with employee complaints. Follow the proper processes and procedures to ensure behavior is dealt with appropriately.