Executive Coaching Services: Your Comprehensive Guide

Are you thinking about hiring an executive coach? 

The global Executive Coaching market has been expanding at an annual rate of 6.7% since 2015. In 2022, it was estimated to be worth $9.3 billion. It’s growing because it works. 

Harvard Business Review research concluded that coaching boosts productivity by 44%. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) commissioned a study that found coaching clients reported a median ROI of 788% by increasing productivity and retention. 

Clearly, top companies know this too. Approximately one third of Fortune 500 companies hire executive coaches for their leaders.

Who are Executive Coaching Services for?

Executive coaching is for anyone in a leadership position who wants to break the inherent isolation of their role. 

Courageous leaders recognize the value of having a confidential space to explore their own behaviour, thoughts and beliefs. When they can challenge their assumptions safely, they can begin to change their behaviour for increased productivity, enhanced interpersonal relationships and increased self-confidence. 

What is Executive Coaching?

Executive coaching is a process for developing individual leadership performance. 

Executive Coaching isn’t training, consulting or teaching. It’s a partnership in which the coach supports the client in exploring their goals and uncovering their own brilliant ideas and creativity.

It’s introspective, thought-provoking and exploratory. 

It’s also highly personal.

Executive coaching is tailored to the individual executive and focused on their internal growth. It develops awareness and clarity, while also developing specific and new external behaviours. 

In executive coaching, the target areas for growth depend entirely on the client’s goals and needs. The client drives the content of the conversations. They could range from improved decision-making, nurturing team dynamics, or encouraging agency in passive team members. 

Essentially, the process is about uncovering the untapped brilliance inside of the leader.  Ultimately, executive coaching provides the scaffolding to create tangible behavioural change. 

What Makes Executive Coaching Valuable

Executive coaching is valuable both to the organization and to the individual leader.

“Organizations that offer training alone experience 22% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching that figure rises to 88%” (Gerald Olivero, Denise Bane & Richard Kopelman, Public Personnel Management). American University

A study carried out by the Harvard Business Review found that out of three stock portfolios made up of companies that invested aggressively in employee development, “each outperformed the S&P 500 by 17 – 35% during 2003.” 

How does executive coaching do this?

Executive coaching helps leaders change their behaviour. And changing behaviour is not easy to do.

For example, trying to meet deadlines more consistently on your own is not usually effective. “Left to your own devices, you are 80% likely to fail,” says the American University.

“Behavioral change that requires both new high-level skills and high motivation to implement those skills is in fact the hardest behavioral change to achieve.” (The Neuroscience of Goals and Behavioral Change, March 2018). 

Executive coaching bridges the gap between the leader’s values and their performance, so that they’re inspired to tap into their own creative capacities.

Executive coaching also supports the development of stronger relational capacities, so that team members respond more positively and engage more meaningfully. 

Executive coaching is valuable to the individual leaders too – precisely because the personal growth they undergo is deeply meaningful to them. In a sense, it’s a process for manifesting the vision they have of themselves at their best. And the skills they learn are transferrable to every part of their lives.

When to Hire an Executive Coach

Below are some situations when executive coaching can be enormously helpful.

• You’re transitioning to a new position and you want to be at your best. 

Perhaps this new role will require a leadership skill you hadn’t needed before. Leaders who are great at details must also learn to be great at seeing the bigger picture when they’re promoted. What skill would you like to hone? 

• You’re receiving feedback that suggests you need help.

A performance review that confronts you with behaviours you’ve suspected have been an issue for a while, but you couldn’t change them yourself. Or, the feedback you received makes no sense to you. You don’t quite know how to make concrete something that feels amorphous.

• You’re feeling overwhelmed.

You’ve tried not to let it show, but the reality is you feel swamped by the sheer volume of the demands on your time. You might be losing your temper or resorting to doing everything yourself as a way to ‘get things done’. You want to feel peaceful and in control.

• You’re living with imposter syndrome. 

You love your work and can’t quite believe why you’ve been elevated to your position. You’re undermined by persistent thoughts that you’re not as good as others and that you don’t belong. Worse, it shows in your behaviour. You stay quiet when you could use your voice. You let others share their ideas first.

• Your output is not matching your goals for yourself.

Who do you want to be as a leader? Where do you shine? What are your results telling you? If your results are not matching with what you want for yourself, executive coaching would support you in reaching those goals efficiently.

How to Recognize the Right Executive Coach for you  

Choosing the right executive coach for you is a very personal matter. You want great rapport, but not a friend. You want someone who has considerable emotional intelligence, adaptability, curiosity and professional credentials, but not necessarily an expert in your field.

Your excellent executive coach should show they can:

• Communicate clearly
• Hear your words but also what you’re not saying, 
• See you as you are now and who you want to be – and what’s causing the gap
• Challenge your thinking gently, consistently and boldly
• Provide ongoing, neutral feedback
• Strictly adhere to the rules of confidentiality 

Measuring Success in the Executive Coaching Process

Successful coaching outcomes begin with successful initial meetings.

Create clear objectives 

In your initial meeting with your coach, you want to create very explicit goals. Your coach may help you refine your objectives, if needed.

Create a way to measure where you are now and where you want to get to.

When your goal feels unmeasurable (e.g. increased confidence), you can still use a Likert scale to record where you are now.  “Today, my confidence feels like a 4/10 but I want to get to an 8/10.”  Make sure you identify key behaviours that indicate increased confidence. “When my confidence is at an 8/10, I’ll be speaking up more assertively with my superior.” 

Feedback from observers

Objective feedback from your team and/or your mentor/leader at work can be invaluable for challenging perceptions. Get this feedback at least twice during the coaching period.

Executive leaders who ask to be coached are the ones who gain fresh insight, new perspectives and powerful new ways of leading.   

“Lynda’s coaching has been game-changing. In only a few sessions, her empathetic approach and wise questions have unlocked so many powerful revelations that helped me understand what was blocking me and made me a better leader and person. I highly recommend Lynda to any executives who want to grow in their roles.” C.D.