Use Executive Coaching to Your Best Advantage!

I've previously posted on how to select your executive coach and touched a bit on what executive coaching is all about.  However, I've not yet addressed how you should prepare to get the most out of your executive coaching engagement.  Executive coaching can be one of the most effective ways of accelerating your development as a leader and well it should since it can represent a significant investment of personal and/or organizational time and money. Here's my list of things you should do to maximize the benefits of your executive coaching experience.

1. Define your outcomes.  Any good executive coach will seek to establish an understanding of your specific goals and objectives for the engagement.  Moreover, they may have at hand various methods by which to draw those out of you and define the work for the next number of months.  Ultimately, however, the goals and objectives and outcomes are for you to own, create and work towards.  In the case of support being provided by an organization (not just an individual) there may be specific expectations and outcomes defined by a supervisor.  Regardless, work towards clearly defining the target.  Otherwise at the end of the engagement all parties may be frustrated with what's been achieved or not.
2. Be prepared to work.  An executive coach is there to challenge your thinking and assumptions, to move you to new levels of performance, and to enhance confidence through action.  But just as it is incumbent upon you to define the outcomes it is equally essential that you show up in the coaching session ready to work.  The time spent with a coach should not be akin to pulling teeth - you are addressing your current challenges, taking charge of your future, and you should be prepared to work as hard - and harder - than your coach.  Don't expect your coach to do the heavy lifting for you.
3. Be prepared to work - Part II.  The work in a coaching engagement doesn't just or even mostly happen when you are face-to-face with your executive coach.  Your time with your executive coach is designed to develop plans, explore options, test assumptions and commit to change.  While a change in perspective and perception will happen in the executive coaching session, delivery and action happens in between sessions and back at the coal face of your work.  All the best laid plans are only as effective what actually happens when you implement your plans.  Be the change you want to see!
   
4. Drive the agenda.  Sometimes it's of benefit to think of your executive coach as your co-pilot.  You are in charge of where you need to go.  You define the work for each session.  Again your executive coach will be there as a guide, a thinking partner, and a challenger, but you are in charge.  You are the leader in your business (and personal life) so be the leader in your own personal development.  Work with your co-pilot to plot the course at each session and once decided focus on your path.
5. Be truthful, candid and honest.  Your executive coach is focused on your success.  Period.  In that regard, if you have done the best job possible in selecting your executive coach (check out my October 14, 2014 post "Selecting Your Executive Coach - Redux") you've determined a fit does in fact exist, you trust the person in front of you and you are confident in their track record in support of your goals.  So don't beat around the bush.  Time is money and if you are going to move forward assertively be prepared to be vulnerable.  It's in your best interests and your executive coach has no other agenda than what works for you. 
6. Have the courage to change.  Engaging with an executive coach is not about maintenance or just having a great conversation.  You - or your organization - is expecting you to evolve, grow and change as a result of the investment of time and money made in an executive coach.  Work with an executive coach is not about maintenance of status quo.  You should expect that when you choose an executive coach that you will be undertaking new challenges, overcoming anxieties, and assertively progressing forward.  The coaching engagement should make you feel uncomfortable.  Be prepared for and embrace change!
   
7. Own the coaching relationship.  As tough as it might be for some executive coaches, you are the customer and the customer is always right.  Tell your coach - your vendor - what is working for you in the coaching engagement, what's not working and how the work can be changed to be more effective.  That being said, be prepared for your coach to push you.  Part of the value in executive coaching is breaking out of your comfort zone and traditional patterns of behavior.  It's a give and take relationship and both you and your executive coach will work to develop an effective and constructive working partnership.

It's my hope and expectation that following these guidelines you will make the most out of your investment in yourself through executive coaching.  Coaching can be a powerful tool in moving your leadership forward in a powerful way but much of that success depends on your leadership in the engagement.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
President & Co-Founder
BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.