Coaching Insights for Senior Leaders 

Thankfully it is becoming more acceptable to utilise the services of a coach. Companies seem more able to embrace coaching as a means to develop skills in someone who is already good, we must all admit that too often in the past coaching has been used to ‘fix’ a manager or executive who is making regular mistakes and needs re-aligning.

It is interesting how in other areas of life to use a coach is the norm. If we go skiing for the first time, we are happy to use a coach. Or learning to drive. In fact most new skills. And that is the block isn’t it for most executives, the ability to accept that we need new skills at all stages of our business life. That acceptance is tough for the self, and often we feel implicitly criticised by the organisation for not really being good enough.

Many executives get round this by asking for a coach as a ‘sounding board’. More of a mentor role perhaps. Not really to learn new skills, but to bounce ideas with someone independent from the organisation, which of course is a highly valid and healthy thing to do.

My personal view is that as soon as executives and senior managers can freely admit to self and organisation “Hey I need some new skills”, the more powerful, effective and impactful coaching is. I have run an organisation and have subsequently made good and poor decisions. In being a coach, I can share those experiences in a mentor style. The most powerful coaching happens however when the coachee wants to know how to do something that I know how to do but they don’t yet know how to do. This type of coaching is highly focussed and highly effective.

The key to success then in executive coaching is choosing a coach that the executive or senior manager feel they can learn new skills from. The good executive undergoing coaching will reach a point of admittance of skills shortage very quickly. A blunt remit at the start really helps. A variety of tools such as discussing current projects, doing psychometrics, relating to feedback from the organisation, all of these can help lead to the critical part of the coaching … an admittance that in some areas there is a skills shortage and that the coachee wants to plug that gap by learning new skills.

Directness and honesty is always the key. I still coach some executives who blame their poor performance in some areas on organisational issues. However, the ones who say “I need to learn how to do this better” are the ones that excel.

So what is my recommendation from this piece of thinking? I recommend that organisations ask executives and senior managers “what style of coaching would you like to receive?” before the coaching is even started. Give options of “Direct, Conversational, Experience Sharing” as styles. Those with the most potential to benefit from coaching will choose the direct style. For those who do not choose the direct style, ask them to define the purpose of the coaching in their opinion, and do a quick CBA on that way forward. Or, even more bold, say to them that the direct style produces better results and would they consider it?

Once the executive and senior manager have agreed with the direct style, as a sponsor of the coaching tell them you will find a coach with that style and brief the coach that within the first session you want a clear skills list which is being worked on in the coaching.

I recently coached a manager who did what I suggested to address his impact with colleagues, and he got back to me that it didn’t work. We figured why it didn’t work, and what to do instead. He got back with the news that he had achieved exactly what he wanted. Sure he had a coach who could give him direction and options, but much more important, he had a recognition in himself that he wanted new skills and would practice until he learned them.

Success. And down mainly to him rather than the coach.

By Mark Miller