What is executive coaching?

Executive coaching is aimed at improving the performance of high-powered executives within an organisation and is similar to sports coaching for high-performance athletes. The role of the coach is to expose blind spots and challenge the executive to achieve greater levels of success.

Every day, hundreds of executives seek the support and council of independent third-party executive or leadership coaches – often referred to as thinking partners. Unlike middle managers or front-line staff, executives are in a unique position at the top of their organisation. Here at Life Coach, we help both individuals and corporations get matched with their ideal coach(es). Scroll to the bottom of this page to either browse our directory of executive coaches by Post Code or request a referral and let us help you find the perfect coach.

What are the Benefits of Executive Coaching?

Benefits Experienced by the Individual:
The benefits experienced by the executives vary depending on the focus of the coaching engagement. Some of the common benefits experienced by the individual include:

Enhanced strategic planning
Presentation skills
Executive management team building
Leadership development
Better communication with team members
Increased confidence
Better work-life balance
Quicker decision making
Better time-management
Greater productivity

Experienced by the Company

The benefit of coaching depends on the type of organisation and the desired outcome of the coaching. In the case of executive coaching, the company benefits if the executive’s performance is improved by more than the cost of the coaching PLUS any additional improvements experienced throughout the organisation based on the executives performance.

According to the International Coach Federation Global Coaching Study performed in 2009, the median company return was reported to be 700% with almost one fifth of respondents reporting an ROI of at least 50 times (5000%) the initial investment.

There are various ways to calculate the benefits of executive coaching, such as 360 reviews, climate surveys, customer surveys and surveys of sales, costs, employee turnover and other business results.

Of course, some results are more “tangible” than others and are easier to translate into a monetary value or bottom-line impact. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the tangible benefits outweigh the intangible in terms of importance. In fact, intangible changes in the client’s behaviour can often have a wider-ranging impact than, or may actually lead to, the more tangible benefits of coaching.

Here are some examples of tangible benefits from coaching:

Increased sales
More customers called on
More new accounts opened
Decreased costs
Decreased employee turnover
Decreased absenteeism
Shorter time to market
Improved productivity
Fewer customer/employee complaints

Executive Coaches are Experts in Human Performance

A common misconception about executive coaches is they are business experts. While many executive coaches possess extensive business knowledge and experience, they need not be experts in your line of business to deliver quality coaching services. A commonly held belief among coaches is that you, the coachee, are the expert in your business.

As a result, many executives use their coach as a sounding board, a thinking partner, and an independent third-party who helps them stay focused on the most important parts of the business. In coaching, the learning, and the change that people experience is much more impactful and sustainable when the coachee has come up with it on their own – when they discover it from within.

In theory, any executive could hire a suitably trained executive coach. In practice that doesn’t happen. Most executives want to work with someone who can relate to them, can understand the corporate environment, and has experience in a variety of personal and professional situations.