Executive Coaching

Monday, June 8th, 2009 - Career Development, Executive Coaching, Executive Recruitment, Personal Development

Executive Coaching

photo credit: UF Digital Collections

I have to admit, before you read this piece, that I am highly cynical of the majority of Executive Coaching. This is wholly based on one element: the term has been market spun by the Executive Coaches from an excellent internal company practise, to a piece of marketing hype.

Resultantly, on at least a weekly basis, we are asked to write Executive CV‘s for executives and directors who have paid large lumps of their redundancy package to someone who on average seems to have a piece of base level NLP training behind them and a degree in an arts-based subject. These people have no right to use the term coach, which is traditionally an experienced hand in that sport who guided the young players to success.

We don’t do coaching at CV4.biz, and there are two reasons for this:

• I don’t believe we are best positioned to give broad life advice when our business is placing people: tactical positioning yes, strategic choice no
• It is not core to our business of recruitment, executive search or CV writing

We therefore strictly implement a policy that Executive Coaching should remain in the hands of experienced third parties. Hence, if someone approaches us who we feel would benefit from Executive Coaching, we can provide contact details of Executive Coaches who do match up to our standards and have more than an NLP certificate behind them. We also don’t take an introduction fee for this service from the third parties, requesting evidence that it is donated instead to a charity – as I said, we need to be neutral on such issues

Executive Career Coaching

The executive career is high pressure, and the need for either guidance by an experienced senior director or third party has always been part of the business world. Most large plc companies have an Executive Coaching programme, and it surprises me that many more graduates don’t ask about such programmes before making their final career choices. However, the largest application is in advancing middle managers into Executive Jobs, and lower level executives into Director Jobs.

To gain the third party input element, most plc’s use trusted and pre-selected third parties, who operate in a closed conversation agreement: ie – the third party is approved by the company, but the conversation is private between the third party and the executive

SME companies are squeezed to pay what are frankly large consultancy fee’s to these trusted third parties, and so the executives are often left without third party input. How could this be gained, on both a company and personal level?

Executive Networking:

One of the questions I always love asking people who seek advice on finding an Executive Coach, is to find out what they know about the founding of Lloyds of London. This was a group of rival business men who under wrote the export and import of goods to the British Empire, most of whom met in a coffee shop called Lloyds. As most did business with both the same customers and between themselves, a group agreed that it would be a wise idea to have a common building where they could all do business and network.

Hence on a corporate basis, my view on Executive Coaching is that there are many options to address the need for third party input, without resorting to a certified Executive Coach: yes, even asking your rivals to come in have a conversation. Often this can be achieved by attending trade associations and shows, and either presenting at or listening to other companies in the same area of with the same problem. I would also suggest that bringing in an experienced hand – perhaps retired form the industry – as a consultant would also be of greater immediate and long term benefit over employing an Executive Coach. For guidance on this, read the excellent Mike Southon book Beermat Entrepreneur

Career Coaching

On an individual basis, the is also the need for third party input. Apart from talking to colleagues and friends, and making use of networking, there are additional passive options available for addressing both operational and career issues.

With regards career management, both recruiters and Executive Search firms provide passive career coaching – its is in part why we an Executive CV Service, so we could pick up on people seeking career change. They can provide advice both on what the market looks like, and what career options you have both in the immediate and longer term.

Executive Coaching

However, accepting that some will want to choose Executive Coaching as their choice of way forward, what are the key elements to consider? having worked with a number of Executive Coaches, the following would seem minimum requirements:

• Coaching is as much about skill as communication, and there are few below the age of 40 who would have the developed communication ability to be a coach
• Look for a coach who has chosen a successful coaching career built on top of a successful business career
• Seek confirmation of certification. Yes, anyone can set themselves up as a coach, but membership of a coaching professional society – many of which are American based – is essential
• Find coaches by recommendation over searching through Yellow Pages or Google. Always ask about introduction fee’s between your introducer and the coach
• Once you find a coach, ask for an initial meeting before paying out any money. Successful coaching is about chemistry at its core, but don’t expect a best friend – they need to be your independent eye

If you want a recommendation or an introduction to an Executive Coach, please just ask – 0844 884 2825

Good Luck!

===================================================================

If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

===================================================================

Comments are closed.