Coaching an Executive…Is it Worth the Investment?

Is coaching an executive worth the investment? This is such a great question and there is only one answer…it all depends.

We recently took on a new coaching assignment where the CEO of the company vacillated for almost 90 days on whether she should hire an advisor or coach for one of her executive team members or whether she should let the executive go. This CEO was asking herself the right question, because coaching, no matter how good the coach is, will never be a sustainable substitute for not holding one of your direct reports accountable.

Some of the most common reasons that a board or executive will hire an advisor or coach include:

• The executive is a high potential leader and coaching will help the individual prepare to take on an even more significant role in the organization. Many times, we have coached CFO’s or COO’s as they are part of a succession plan to become the CEO.
• The executive is a strong leader, but has been assigned a very difficult task like taking over as CEO and inheriting a high performing team that is at war with each other. Every strategic move that the CEO takes is a high risk maneuver since they do not want to undermine results. Having an advisor from outside the company to discuss their thoughts and decisions proves incredibly valuable.
• The executive struggles as a leader, but is gifted when it comes to either their technical ability, their ability to drive revenue or the significant results they produce. In this case, the overriding goal is almost always to help the leader build even stronger relationships in their organization where direct reports, peers and internal customers are highly motivated to follow their lead.

So how does an organization successfully utilize the services of an executive coach or advisor?  The following 9 tips will increase the success rate when engaging the support of a coach.

1. Readiness: Ensure the executive is ready, motivated and has a hungry desire to learn from a coach or advisor. Executives who know it all are not good candidates to coach.
2. Pick the right coach: It is true, some coaches or advisors are not a good fit for the executive who is being coached. It can be as simple as gender, race, as well as life and business experiences that are not aligned for success.
3. Clear goals and outcomes: The most successful projects result when the manager being coached and their boss are in perfect alignment regarding the goals and outcomes for the coaching process. Knowing exactly what skills the manager needs to gain or what behaviors need to improve is critical for everyone involved to know.
4. Clear accountability: If there is no accountability for the manager being coached, the chances for sustained success diminish significantly. For example, if the manager being coached does not build stronger cross-departmental relationships, he will not be a candidate next year to take the place of a retiring COO.
5. Get 360 feedback: For coaches to be highly successful, they need feedback regarding the manager’s leadership from the boss, direct reports, peers and internal customers. With all this feedback collected, you will know where the manager is strong and where are the two or three most important themes for development.
6. Share examples: When both the boss and the person being coached share examples of what is going well or right, as well as opportunities for improvement, it creates a rich coaching environment. When the coaching candidate comes to each coaching session to tell the coach that everything is going great with them and their team, there is not a lot to coach.
7. Real time access: Only talking about problems or opportunities at the monthly coaching session is often too late. Allowing anytime access to the coach or advisor through a retainer engagement allows the person being coached to talk through decisions and situations in real time.
8. Implement actions: At the end of each coaching session, create a list of discussed actions to implement. Review actions in each session to determine what is working well, as well as what may need to be tweaked or discarded
9. Validate feedback: In a successful coaching project, almost always, people who work closely with the person being coached will say, “John has changed…” Sometimes co-workers will tell the manager being coached, the manager’s boss or the manager’s direct report. If there is change with the person being coached, either good or bad, people always talk. Reputations are built, for better or worse, on gossip. We need to validate what people are saying about our leader.

We coach approximately twenty-five leaders each month. When the aforementioned tips are put into play, almost always the feedback is unanimous….the manager being advised or coached has become an even more effective and successful leader.