Executive coaching involves a process whereby a coach (a trained professional) supports a person in an executive position by helping them to better understand their goals along with ways to achieve them. This will include pointing out resources they already have easy access to and blocks that may be in the way. The coach aims to assist executives to make educated choices when it comes to their available options, and not to provide advice or to substitute for the capacity of the individual to decide for themselves.

For example, if you are an executive, you may be interested in coaching when another company has approached you and offered you a job and you are not sure if you should accept or if you are experiencing issues with certain work relationships. Try to find coaches who have gone through reputable executive coach training in order to get the best coaching you can get.

1. Advancing Career

Executive coaching may be beneficial to your well-being and career in your current workplace. It offers employees a “safe space” to go through what is happening in their professional life while avoiding the negative consequences and risks of having to do so around work colleagues.

For instance, you may have concerns that expressing the way you truly feel to your peers or employer may result in you being thought of as unreasonably emotional or vulnerable. Executive coaching could also assist you with avoiding lashing out or saying things out of anger at individuals around you who may have no impact on what is currently going on in the workplace or the way you are currently feeling.

It offers the chance to process and manage your reactions to things you are experiencing and feeling more safely.

2. Exploring Options

Your executive coach could also act as your sparring partner. When you start discussing your experiences, the executive coach can assist you with exploring your options as well as evaluating the benefits and costs in a specific situation. As your “sparring partner”, you are working with a professional that works for you and with you, which means they care about your best interests. However, they also won’t hold back when it comes to presenting a few harsh truths. They will also openly and honestly explore anything that may be a risk to you when it comes to pursuing specific things.

Participating in ‘executive coaching’ will also allow you to build your ability to observe others and yourself in different types of situations. In a nutshell, talking to your coach will help you with your own abilities to gain an understanding of what is currently happening in others and yourself. Ultimately, you are going to gain a valuable discernment of the way human experiences and processes impact and affect “organisational life” within the workplace.

3. Solving Workplace Issues

There are several workplace situations whereby employing the assistance of a professional executive coach can be beneficial. For instance, you may be experiencing issues with a colleague or even your boss. Working out what may be some of the reasons that contribute to the negative situation is going to be a lot more helpful than shouting or slamming doors or participating in unproductive and harmful political games.

On the other hand, you can also use executive coaching when you have been presented with an opportunity for a new job. You may be very excited or nervous about the job opportunity, yet you could benefit from understanding any risks that may be linked with it. These are things that an executive coach can support you with by exploring this opportunity and realising the potential benefits and costs.

Despite the overall support these coaches often provide, it is still important that you understand you will still be the decision-maker. Your coach should be viewed as a resource, which means their role is to assist you with ways to critically analyse what you have been presented with or the experiences you are currently dealing with.

A discussion with an executive coach might not always be pleasant. They may in some instances need to play ‘devil’s advocate’, but they will always keep your best interests in mind. Over the long run, executive coaching will help you to understand your weaknesses, strengths, higher aspirations, lower-level needs, and ways to achieve your goals.