Best Practices of Executive Coaching

Executive coaching refers to consultation for management executives. It is part of organizational development (OD). Coaches help organizations and executives accomplish goals that they may not be able to achieve on their own. Coaches can provide resources, give advice, or teach executives. Coaching can also help with personal, cognitive, or skills-based goals.

Executive coaching has existed since the 1950s. It began with a small group of people combining psychological and organizational development approaches. Today, it has grown into its own profession and, these days, there is an increasing demand for coaching services for both executives and individual contributors, alike.

A piece from The Coaching Psychologist described the current state of research and the benefits of coaching for executives and organizations. The author also highlighted the values and skills that make coaches successful. Previous research on executive coaching has been associated with a high return on investment, increased self-awareness, sustained change, and effective leadership. In addition, it has been linked to increased productivity, relationships, teamwork, job satisfaction and customer service.

The authors also highlight four values that coaches should have along with their related competencies.

• Respect and Inclusion. The first value is respect/inclusion, meaning that coaches should value input equally from everyone. They should also follow ethical guidelines and standards of the profession.
• Collaboration. The second value of coaching is collaboration, meaning that both the coach and client are working together on the client’s goals. Because of this, trust should be established with the client.
• Authenticity. The third value is authenticity. Coaches should act in-line with their values and courage clients to do the same. Skills aligned with this value include active listening, direct communication, and powerful questioning.
• Self-Awareness and Lifelong Learning. Finally, the fourth value is self-awareness/lifelong learning. Coaches should work with their clients in developing their own solutions. They can facilitate this by creating awareness, designing action plans to help clients set goals, and to help clients track progress.

Beyond the above, CMA offers a unique process for ensuring a successful coaching engagement.

1. Clarify expectations. We clarify the expectations and desired results for both the participant and coach.
2. Assessment. We then conduct an assessment and/or 360° feedback to provide a data-driven benchmark for improvement and change.
3. Goal-setting. We establish developmental goals and provide targeted coaching around them.
4. Continual feedback. To help gauge the success of the coaching, we obtain objective feedback about the participant from others within the organization on a regular basis.

Interested in working with experienced coaches to take your or your team’s effectiveness to the next level? Get in touch with us.