What do you do if you want to boost your skills and abilities with executive coaching?

Whether you join a coach in your leadership development process or not, always work on your vision as a leader, the leader you want to become, and the next improved version of yourself. Setting the vision defines the results you want to create. Then, assess where you are and what you need to change/improve in yourself to move towards your vision. Be objective, asses your true reality. And identify those things that step on the way to achieving your vision. You need to be very objective about your current reality. Depending on your awareness, a coach may be useful in this area.

The first step is determining whether the executive is teachable. Are they willing to put in the hard work to become more self-aware? This can be uncomfortable because self-awareness requires honesty. This is more than pinpointing strengths and weaknesses. It requires executives to tap into what makes them tick as leaders and what drives them to perform.

I am certainly in favor of executive coaching as a sounding board if nothing else. If you're an executive that has a meandering mind, a good coach can help clarifying a goal and shore up a self sustaining mindset. But executives are responsible for driving organizational wealth and that's a whole new ballgame. The problem is that most executive coaches have no clue how to help a company grow. So first assess the skills of the coach and make sure that they have organizational performance understanding, using tools that align business systems, people & misalignments. Make sure you know what you really need. SO...Find a coach that has both requisite skills...Being a "shrink", but can then help solve business problems and keep your job.

Your willingness to learn and openness to new perspectives are indeed crucial when embarking on a coaching journey. While a coach can provide guidance and support, the real work and progress come from within the coachee. Success in coaching requires authenticity, self-awareness, and a commitment to personal growth and development. Ultimately, it's the coachee's responsibility to drive the process forward, take ownership of their goals, and actively engage in the coaching journey. By being true to oneself and fully embracing the coaching experience, individuals can unlock their potential and achieve meaningful transformation in their lives and careers.

One thing I would add to this conversation is that coaching is not always the answer. As others have said, it’s helpful to get clear on the skills and abilities you’d like to develop. Where those skills relate to technical knowhow or specific capability development, it may be that a training course or specialist mentor is a better fit for your needs. In my experience, individuals get most value from coaching when they’re seeking to build self-awareness, explore and shift patterns of thinking, clarify a path forward, experiment with new behaviours and build confidence. In other words, aspects of life/career that are more nuanced around an individual’s perspectives, experiences, values and aspirations.

The coachee selects the coach, and the coach also chooses the coachee with whom they want to work. We must establish a trusted relationship, a safe and courageous space where feelings can be expressed without judgment. At the same time, the coach must guide the coachee through uncomfortable conversations, challenging and encouraging them to grow. We establish all these conditions in the 'initial alliance' between the coach and coachee; this agreement is dynamic and can be modified at any time.

This is an important step. It is like choosing a life partner, or the best friend or a spiritual guru. Invest in the process of choosing the right coach

Coach fit feels right for you. Coaching is a highly personal experience. The coach holds the space for you to reflect your inner most thoughts (values, aspirations, self limiting beliefs, fears etc...). Choose a coach that you feel that you can be honest with and supports you. You’ll need that level of comfort to work through potentially challenging things that are holding you back.

The qualities I offer to my clients that ensure a supportive and empowering coaching relationship are safety, presence, curiosity, and non-judgment. I believe these are crucial for anyone seeking coaching support. Look for a coach who embodies these qualities, as they create an environment where you can explore, grow, and achieve your goals with trust and authenticity.

Chemistry is critical, and experience is key. It is important to select the coach you think can be part of your journey today. Aligned with the needs of your professional journey and able to work together to meet your goals. It’s almost scary how you can feel this in your first session if you ask the right questions. The questions are dependant on the clarity of your goals from coaching, so basically it’s a two way street.

Embracing the principle of "Better done than perfect," it's crucial to focus on action and completion. In executive coaching, set objectives that are not just SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) but also distinctive, ensuring they elevate you above the competition. This approach will help you make tangible progress and achieve standout results.

In my experience for best outcomes, the fundamental need is correctly defining objective/goal. Because basis that plan of action will be drawn. At times the micro things/ transactions cans create noise and goal is drawn as to solve transactional things while the area to focus was bigger life aspects like purpose/satisfaction/happiness. But at times, it could be merely about fixing of a micro/transaction level aspect and people unnecessarily strive to make problem look big.

If you want to boost your skills and abilities through executive coaching, you should first identify your goals and areas for improvement, then find a qualified executive coach who can provide personalized guidance and support to help you achieve those goals. It's important to approach coaching with an open mind, be willing to receive feedback, and actively engage in the coaching process to maximize its benefits.

Case Study -ctnd *Coaching Intervention* Working together, Sarah crafted SMART objectives tailored to her goals, such as refining her communication skills, adopting a collaborative team culture. Through targeted exercises & my feedback, Sarah honed her leadership skills, practicing effective communication techniques & implementing strategic decision-making frameworks. Sarah translated her newfound skills into action, implementing strategies in her workplace & navigating challenges with confidence, supported by my guidance. With regular reflection sessions with me, Sarah assessed her progress, adapted her approach & sustained momentum towards her goals. #LVitin #ProfessionalGrowth #SMARTGoals #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment

First, clients should start by articulating what their future vision looks like: What will be different for them/how they show up with & to others once they achieve this. It's then critical to create action-oriented goals (1-2 typically) that are time-bound, explicitly articulating what success will look and feel like and what the success measures are, as well as identifying what small steps, actions, experiments are to achieve their goals. It's also helpful to identify what their strengths are that will help them to achieve these goals, as well as what obstacles (internal and external) might get in their way. A client's goals need to be viewed as dynamic, not static; it's important to regularly revisit them through the engagement.

I tell clients that the work of great coaching is done IN BETWEEN our sessions. That's because in the sessions, the coach plants seeds in the client's "mind garden". It's up to the client to give those seeds water, sunshine, and care to get them from seed to bloom. That means practicing a mindset or skillset, experimenting with a new process or system, capturing data points over time, practicing a new tool anywhere and everywhere to test it, and generally giving yourself over as the client to new ways of thinking and being. It's the time in between sessions - a client's most POWERFUL timing, which bring the keys to developing new, more impactful ways of being and doing.

When developing leadership skills, I prefer to work with a actionplan between the sessions. Take small actionable steps towards the end goal. In addition it’s of value to work with your co-workers. You can share your actionplan and ask for ideas to improve them upfront. Your plan will become better and by involving coworkers their perception of you as a leader will become more positive

Constantly seek improvement opportunities like reading books, attending workshops, doing complementary coaching to practice, etc. Seek feedback, reflect on learnings, mentor another coach or some ways to develop skills.

It's always the client's agenda that drives the coaching session. Whatever the main focus areas needs to be for the session, the client sends the info sheet ahead of time to share where they are and what they look to accomplish. This helps the coach maximize the coaching time together, recommend additional tools and resources to amplify the outcomes and help harness certain skills. For example, if a client is preparing to deliver a presentation, we may focus on what is it that she lacks confidence in, what's the end goal and together, with her permission to step out of the coaching relationship and shift into an advising/mentorship format to consider and evaluate additional tools and resources that may help and add value to her skillset.

Don’t be afraid on trying methods such as horse coaching , hypnotherapy, NLP etc … going out of your comfort zone will support you to develop and also tackling deep unconscious pattern that typical rational coaching will not always help.

Change happens when one work on it. Set time to develop action plans and execute it. Be accountable to yourself, your coach and others in implementing your next steps. Celebrate successes that will help you get motivated to move forward.

Why attend coaching sessions if you are not ready to apply the learnings? This is why the sessions take place. Some leave the sessions with a plan, implement the learnings and with the first challenge they give up. This is exactly why its important to have ongoing sessions with your coach to discuss why this has come up in order for the coach to support you. Consitency and effort pays off.

Deliberate practice is the key to skills development. You may find your awareness increase as a result of a Coaching conversation, however, your adaptability will only increase if you do the work between sessions. This is where a Coach can play an important role in holding the Coachee accountable to the promises they make to themselves.

The very essence of coaching is to translate concrete transformations into one’s life with actions that allow adopting new habits and rooting them. Our new habits will produce concrete results that will be the true fruits of coaching.

As you learn new ideas and develop new skills, you will use them in your daily life. Some will go very well, some will be awkward, and some will, at least at first, seem unsuccessful. As you participate in periodic coaching sessions, you will discuss these outcomes with your coach, and both of you will learn more about what will work well for you. You will also, most likely, find that some of the practices your coach offers you are very difficult. In that case, many coaches will offer "the step before the step," a less complex or less intense version of the basic practice.

Daily we rush through our lists to check off boxes and move one to the next thing. Effective coaching reminds us to reflect -- on our processes, mindsets, lessons, and behaviors. The processes of reflection and adjustment, in my opinion, are the greatest benefits to coaching. Reflection allows us to see how actions are connected to mindsets that sabotage forward movement and keep us stagnant. In reflection we look both our fears and potential head on, and decide what changes we will make based on our learnings. Those adjustments create the movement clients want to experience, whether it is greater leadership or self-awareness, or the ending of behaviors that stem from self-defeating mindsets. Coaching+Reflection+Adjustment=Change

One of the best strategies is to have reflective dialogue with the coach about lessons learned. That highlights the key changes achieved as well as further things to work on. It can be difficult to fully see one’s self without the benefit of an observer. Similar dialogue with the boss also will help maintain focus on gains achieved and reinforce them.

La reflexión constante es clave en el coaching ejecutivo. Una vez que hayas implementado cambios, es importante hacer una pausa para evaluar los resultados. Revisa con tu coach qué ha funcionado y qué aspectos pueden mejorar. Este ciclo de acción y reflexión permite un crecimiento constante, asegurando que el proceso de coaching se mantenga flexible y se ajuste a tus necesidades. Al adaptar tu enfoque según los resultados, refuerzas el aprendizaje y te encaminas hacia una mejora continua, haciendo que el coaching sea una herramienta poderosa para tu desarrollo profesional.

This is the most important aspect, as coaches vary in experience and knowledge sets. Ensure that you have a varied collection of coaches within your grasp, and that they have the collective tools available to be able to develop you, and when they can’t, then be adaptable enough to collaborate with a different coach. I always recommend my clients to seek differences of opinions, and to keep in check my advice and the advice from others.

Reflection is the cornerstone to action, change and growth. We need to be intentional about reflection. Too often I see leaders acting on knee-jerk reactions or acting quickly without reflecting on what is working, what needs improvement and where there are opportunities for growth and development. Effective leaders create a daily habit of reflecting, not just within coaching but throughout their day. Every decision needs to be subject to at least a moment of reflection. We often act from our own limited perspectives and experiences, and reflection helps us with relational reciprocity, reflexivity, understanding other peoples’ perspectives, and new ways of thinking, feeling and doing. Reflection helps us move beyond our old ways of being.

When looking for a coach, one important aspect that mostly stays unexplored is the alignment of values. This is very important as this is a relationship where transparency and trust are paramount for the change to be successful. Identifying your own values and then being conscious of them when exploring the right coach for yourself is the first step in establishing an effective coaching relationship.

To enhance skills with executive coaching, beyond assessing needs and setting objectives, engage in peer coaching for mutual support, practice thought leadership, and embrace networking for broader insights. Leverage technology for continuous learning and seek diverse feedback. Commit to lifelong learning and apply coaching principles in leadership to foster a growth culture. Define clear, measurable goals aligned to your purpose, dream, vision and mission and track milestone progress meticulously, ensuring a holistic approach to personal and professional incremental improvement.

Get a coach. And/or get certified or re-certified. Coaching is a muscle. It can atrophy, or it can get stuck in repetitive motions - many of which may not serve the coach or coached as they once did. Moreover, the world has changed. What you learned 10 years ago may be dated. A coach, and/or fresh certification boosts confidence, skills, and awareness to more effectively lead others.

In a world of unprecedented disruption and acceleration I have found that traditional models only gets you to a certain point. Don't get me wrong I am a firm believer in coaching and mentoring and I believe that we need to do more in this space, but a formalise one size fits all does not work when leaders are faced with advanced complexity and pivoting is required sometimes within seconds. For me, it is about creating an inner circle of strength. Individuals that challenge your thinking, that has different skills to yours and become impact players alongside you as you navigate the waters of complex change. Invite the right people to sit at your table. A small, trustworthy, agile, credible group of diverse individuals that stretches you.