You have a leadership or development issue that you are brave enough to admit to and are interested in working closely with an executive development coach or trainer –but where do you turn to find the assistance you require? Once you have targeted some options, how do you choose the coach who is right for you and your business? I was faced with this once on joining the executive team within the UK’s Environment Agency and I was offered the option of executive coaching sessions. I turned immediately to our corporate training advisors and was allocated someone from their approved list. I wish I had undertaken more research and been more selective in who I selected for help in a coaching and mentoring role. The coach I started working with was professional and an expert in working with HR execs – one problem was that I was a professional environmental sustainability professional with years of operational experience, we wasted several sessions building up trust and getting to understand each other’s mindset!
I speak regularly with future clients who have never worked before with a developmental coach before, never mind a sustainability leadership coach, and don’t know initially how to determine whether we would form a good team and a good fit for their professional needs and business challenges. So, drawing on the experience and with a little extra drawdown from respected authors, I present a simple list of guidelines for you:
Don’t throw yourself at the first suggestion, take your time. Ask the opinion of any mentors or colleagues whose views you respect. Have they worked with a professional coach before, were they a good fit, and was their experience what you needed? If they have had a good experience of coaching, they will be happy to recommend their contacts. If you are looking for specialist assistance in areas such as environmental sustainability, IT and engineering you may have to spend a greater amount in time looking around as these skills are rare within the marketplace. Consider your industrial and organisational needs, the role you play and how you wish it to develop, and the knowledge gaps you wish to work on.
The key here is taking the initiative to recognise your need and to ask for that assistance. Although corporate and private coaching is an increasingly common experience within organisations, it is always a very personal occurrence. In many organisations, one-on-one coaching has the cache of being a perk for high-potential employees or those attaining senior management tiers, rather than a supportive, performance-enhancing or a very cost-effective means of enhancing organisational change management.
Increasing organisations are turning to specialist coaches in addition to the traditional management and leadership schools of behaviour, reflecting the agility and mobility of business in today’s world and the need for senior management teams to understand issues often traditionally ignored in their developmental training. This is the niche that specialist leadership coaching organisations such as Leading Green fill in today’s marketplace.
This is the challenge–but still not that difficult to complete successfully. If you have a specialist need, take care in ruling out coaches based on arbitrary factors such as industry background or certification. A good coach doesn’t need to know much–if anything–about your technical background or organization’s inner politics to do a great job, and some of the best and most experienced coaches in specific sectors aren’t certified–coaching training and certification programs offer many benefits, but their skills may not yet have developed into new business sectors and expanding leadership functions.
Once you have a shortlist, contact each coach directly. Most coaches will be willing to talk with you to understand your challenges, developmental needs and whether it’s a mutual fit as far as personalities go before a formal commitment. Our work is not the same as consultancy in which you are given an answer, in coaching we seek actively to help and guide you towards an answer that fits your leadership style, preferred traits and to equip you with the skills needed. I would expect to have a 30- to 60-minute pre-call during which you and the coach can essentially interview each other to understand your goals for coaching, skills training, and the best approach to the process.
Ultimately the most important factor in choosing a coach will be your subjective judgment, and the sense of trust you determine on the first meeting. Forget the CV if the fit doesn’t seem right!
Below are ten sets of questions I have gleaned from my own experience and published information to guide you in your evaluation, and act as pointers to different aspects of the coaching experience you require, and which can be used when talking to a potential coaching partner. These are not a definitive checklist, as you will have your own specific business and personal development questions, as well as the simple matter of suitably matching personalities!
Good luck!
1) Trust
2) Approach
3) Advocacy
4) Mission
5) Experience
6) Discernment
7) Selectivity
8) Self-Development
9) Growth
10) Boundaries
If you’ve read this far, you might be ready to take that next step into appointing a professional coach to assist you.
Getting a coach can be a great professional step forward in self-development and avoid many of the traps that leaders face when entering new roles within organisations, businesses, and sectors. No one is too old to learn new skills!