What does a good executive coaching approach look like?

The purpose of one to one coaching and group/team coaching is to help you and your colleagues to set and achieve your specific goals and improve your performance and that of your team/organisation through changing and improving your thinking, behaviour and actions.

Individual executive coaching gets to the root of those performance issues that lie deep within your belief and value system. Coaching enables behaviour change so that a specific performance issue is resolved and sustained.

My aim is to develop long term relationships with you so all engagements start with a discussion about how I can help you to achieve your targets, designed so as to build trust and let you decide whether you would like to work with me.  From this initial discussion, we develop specific objectives for the coaching and if you want we complete an organisational impact tracking document.

Coaching is a partnership that will help your directors and managers achieve results in their professional and personal lives.   Through the process of coaching, participants learn more about themselves and their goals, improve their performance at work and can enhance the quality of their daily life.

The biggest benefit of professional, structured coaching is that it speeds up the process of moving the team or individual from where they are now to where they want to go. Another benefit often cited by my clients is that it helps them to think differently and more positively so as to resolve a particular issue or to move forward on their career ambitions.

As your Personal Development Coach, you have the opportunity to benefit from a directive (direct feedback and advising) or non-directive style of coaching (ask not tell) whichever best helps you to reach your goals.  The coaching process will have you/your directors and managers more focused and aware of your/their choices, and through this help you/them to achieve goals more quickly.  The process will concentrate on where you are today, what you want to achieve and what you will do to reach your desired outcome.

Prior to the first coaching session, I have a preparatory discussion with the individual/team during which the coaching process will be explained in relation to your needs and situation and you will agree scope and parameters i.e. those areas of focus for the coaching.

This may be followed by an assessment of your strengths and development needs using interviews and an assessment tool.

A specific set of objectives and means to evaluate are developed and agreed with you. This will include specific behaviours that you want to change to achieve the objective. I listen and contribute observations and questions, with the aim of clarifying your positions and options and moving you into a position to prepare yourself well for the actual coaching sessions.

I recommend that your line manager assists in providing input to your objectives to be achieved with coaching support. At the end of this session you will be asked to sign up to a coaching contract.

The length of the actual coaching sessions will depend on the amount to be covered and can be agreed with you following the preparatory discussions.

The actual coaching session will often follow the GROW format [Goal, Reality, Options, Will].

Additional psychological techniques and tools will be used where required to help you to change your thinking and behaviour. For example, certain successfully proven Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques can be used to help change thinking and behaviour quickly and effectively.

During coaching a clear action plan detailing the way forward with dates for review, will be developed with the you along with homework tasks. By following the GROW format, the coaching process encourages you to generate your own ideas and solutions, take responsibility for forward action and to make your own decisions.

I will help you to discover and clarify precisely what you want to achieve, encourage you to learn more about yourself, work with you to achieve your own solutions and importantly to hold you responsible and accountable.

I provide appropriate collateral and book references as we work together which will help you to further develop yourself.

If you would like to learn more about this then please get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk