Everybody Needs a Coach!

An interesting phenomenon in collegiate and professional athletics is that coaching is so central to those particular performer’s outcomes that the coach is often as famous as the athlete him or herself. If we think about tennis, for instance, there’s as much concern, speculation, and drama around the switching of a coach as there is around the player’s actual last performance. Likewise, when we look at professional athletic teams, the selection of a new coach, or for that matter, whether or not a coach should remain in the job, is a blood sport among fans. Ironically, coaching doesn’t hold this sort of importance with business executives even though CEO’s and C-suite executives arguably have more responsibility and are responsible for more value creation and preservation than most individual athletes. Fortune 2000 executives (and their counterparts in privately owned businesses) are caretakers of thousands or tens of thousands of careers, and responsible for billions of dollars of revenue. And yet, if we talk about an executive having or needing a coach, it is somehow construed as a political liability or intimates some particular shortcoming that the executive may have.

An executive coach is a force multiplier for a particular executive and his or her ongoing ability to execute at or above the high expectations that are placed upon them. At Acorn it is our belief that everybody needs a coach! Coaching is a structured, methodology based conversation that a coach has with an executive to identify various areas in which the executive’s own beliefs, behaviors, etc. may be holding that executive back from being the best possible executive they can be – just like the athletes’ coach. Coaching is critical to help executives see themselves in a different light, and importantly, in a light that many of their stakeholders already see them in. By seeing themselves, identifying themselves in this particular fashion, they have the opportunity to reflect upon specific behaviors and attitudes that they can choose to enhance, modify, eliminate – changing so that they can break through to operate at a higher level.

So, why is coaching the right path forward and what could both parties expect?

A powerful practice for personal and professional development, Executive Coaching involves the development of a one-on-one working relationship with a Coach who will provide tools, methods, guidance, and ongoing support to help executives overcome challenges, achieve a higher sense of self-knowledge and executive capacity, and achieve, if not out-perform their stated goals.

Improved Self-awareness

One of the most significant benefits of executive coaching is the increased self-awareness it provides. Working with a Coach, executives gain a deeper understanding of their own strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral patterns. This self-awareness helps leaders make better decisions, improve communication with all stakeholders, and build stronger relationships with their superiors, peers, and teams.

Enhanced Leadership Skills

Executive Coaching helps leaders develop their leadership skills, whether it is managing people, managing change, leading projects, or making strategic decisions. Through Coaching, executives learn to better communicate effectively, inspire and motivate their team, and foster a positive work culture. Improved leadership skills inevitably lead to greater success for the individual, their team, and the organization as a whole.

Improved Emotional Intelligence

Within the last decade, Emotional intelligence (EI) has been identified as a critical characteristic of effective leadership. Executive Coaching helps individuals develop their EI by providing a safe space to explore emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. A Coach will often help executives learn to manage stress, communicate assertively, and develop a growth mindset, among many other high-performance behaviors. By improving EI, leaders will create more positive and productive work environments, achieve higher employee satisfaction, and realize greater employee retention.

Accelerated Learning

Executive Coaching can help executives learn new skills and develop new behavioral strategies quickly. A Coach helps leaders identify their learning style and can develop customized learning plans for leaders to achieve new goals and responsibilities. This learning can be particularly beneficial for executives who are transitioning into new roles, leading organizational change (especially ownership changes, and merger and acquisition integrations), taking on new responsibilities, or seeking to develop new entirely new management or leadership skills.

Increased Accountability

Executive Coaching provides a level of accountability that is often lacking in other forms of professional development. A Coach will help executives to set specific goals and develop action plans to achieve those goals. Regular check-ins, progress updates, and ongoing dialog and accountability help to ensure that the executive is making progress towards their objectives. This increased accountability leads to greater personal success with a more significant impact on the organization.

Better Work-Life Balance

Executive Coaching can help individuals achieve a better work-life balance. By identifying priorities and developing time-management strategies, a Coach can help leaders identify ways to reduce stress and avoid burnout. Improved work-life balance can lead to greater job satisfaction, higher productivity, greater retention, and better mental and physical health.

How do you measure the benefits of executive coaching?

Why should a business invest in coaching for their workplace professionals? There is a growing body of research that supports the effectiveness of executive coaching, especially within the corporate world. Studies report a return of 5 to 7 times the initial investment of Coaching, because Coaching can increase employee retention, enhance productivity, and improve morale. Executive Coaching is proving to be a better value than traditional training programs. While many training programs are a “one size fits all” approach directed to a group of people, executive coaching is immersive, non-disruptive, and the relationship between coach and client can be customized to address individual needs with week-to-week support and opportunities to integrate learning into real life work experiences.

Individual Benefits

In a study of 100 executives from Fortune 1000 companies who received coaching for 6 months to one year, the benefits to executives who received coaching were improved:

• Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)
• Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%)
• Teamwork (67%)
• Working relationships with peers (63%)
• Job satisfaction (61%)
• Working relationships with clients (37%)

Organizational Benefits

In the same study of 100 executives, benefits to their companies included improvements in:

• Productivity (reported by 53% of executives)
• Organizational strength (48%)
• Retaining executives who received coaching (32%)
• Cost reductions (23%)
• Bottom-line profitability (22%)

We at Acorn Growth Partners invite you to explore the use of Executive Coaching, both as a concept and a practice for yourself, for a peer or a subordinate, or for your team. The individual and organizational benefits, and the financial returns from the engagement of a coach are easily within reach.

It just starts with a conversation!