Coaching Company Leaders

According to the 2013 Stanford Graduate School of Business/The Mils Group survey, two-thirds of CEOs and nearly half of senior executives don’t receive coaching. However, near all report that they would be receptive to it.  The top areas where coaching is desired were identified to be conflict management, sharing leadership/delegation, team building, and mentoring. In addition to building specific skills, coaching can help executives function more effectively in their current role and advance their personal development.
 
CEOs have unique needs. Additionally, there are few people available at this level who can offer honest advice or point out the blind spots. This leaves the individual with the most responsibility for the company without candid feedback. As an objective third party devoid of company influences, an external executive coach can provide input that others cannot.

A coaching engagement that meets important conditions of trust, mutual respect, and confidentiality may create the only space where top executives could be totally open and can deal with difficult issues. Regardless of how talented they are, top leaders can still have their share of doubts. The impartiality of an external coach can encourage executives to take a step back for a more objective look at an issue, to verbalize their concerns, and to be supported.

Executive coaches often rely on assessment batteries and 360 feedback to help identify individual’s talents and growing edges. Each instrument comprising the battery is usually selected to identify executive’s characteristics in various domains, such as for example personality or motivation. Such assessment helps the executive and their coach to better understand what personal qualities got them where they are and in which areas they could benefit from further development. When utilizing executive assessment, contracting an external coach has an advantage over utilizing an internal one; an executive can be more open since the assessment data can remain a privy of the coach and the coachee and does not have to be shared with the HR department of the organization.

Executive coaching can assist leaders with more than just helping them to become aware of their strengths and shortcomings. Coaches can help executives practice their learning in the context of their current job while maintaining day-to-day responsibilities and can provide constructive feedback on how their performance changes over time. The top executive’s behavior change is likely to trickle down throughout the organization. It can lead to improvements in company culture, moral, teamwork, and productivity. This can help build a powerful competitive advantage for the overall organization.