Why you deserve executive coaching!

More and more senior executives, Directors and Chairman in Australia are using experienced executive coaches to support and fast track their performance on the job. While still a relatively new concept in Australia, US executives have used coaches for many years to support them in their roles.

In 2009, the Harvard Business Review surveyed 140 executive coaches on the state of the executive coaching industry. Diane Couta and Carol Kauffman found that while the origins of executive coaching may have been to help fix toxic behaviour at the top, today most coaching is about developing the capabilities of high potential performers.

There can be a tendency for organisations to assume that, because a person has had the skills and experience to be promoted to the top, then they know all they need to know to perform in that role very successfully. The ‘top’ can be a very lonely place to be and  it may not be a preferred or safe option to share with the management team or board all of your concerns about key issues impacting the organisation.

An executive coach is a confidential, safe and challenging sounding board that can open your eyes to other ways of looking at things, help identify your blind spots and test your thinking on solutions to key issues that are impacting your leadership ability and the ability of the organisation to be successful.

The trend toward engaging executive coaches is not confined to executives.  The Australian Institute of Company Directors in its Company Director magazine (Volume 27, Issue 04, May 2011) published an article by Doug MacKie and Warren Kennaugh who claim that boards are increasingly using executive coaches “to facilitate the board through key transitions and challenges every high-performing team faces.”  Examples of these challenges include ‘on-boarding’ a new director on to a board, assisting the board consider options for dealing with conflict situations, and working with the Chairman to assess the effectiveness of his/her performance in the role particularly where the board composition has changed.

The increase in the use of executive coaches is not surprising. Early testimonials confirm that quality coaching produces quality performance results that are demonstrable to the individual and to the organisation.

There is a lot at stake for both the individual and the organisation when people are promoted/recruited to positions of seniority. It is in neither party’s interests for the individual not to be spectacularly successful in the role.

Executive coaching can assist the chances of that success.