What do college athletes, Olympic gold medalists and smart business leaders have in common?  They rely on coaches to help them reach their greatest potential and teach them to overcome challenges.  Yet a study by the Stanford Business School found that nearly two-thirds of CEO’s and nearly half of senior executives do not receive any executive coaching or leadership development.  Almost all of them (69%) said they would like coaching to enhance their development.

Imagine your college coach working with you all pre-season to prepare you for your first conference game and then once the game is over turning to you and saying, “okay kid, good job, now you’re on your own.”   You’d be horrified.

We have found that many companies focus on developing new leaders, but often forget the importance of practice and guidance.  Practice occurs daily, but the mentorship and perspective a coach can provide is sorely needed.

Many leaders have the feeling that something is missing or isn’t working as well as they would like it to but struggle with how to identify “it”.  An executive coach can help uncover these opportunities and also provide structure and accountability for reaching goals.

An executive coach will not replace your boss, but he/she will help you to develop goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Agreed to, Results-oriented, and Time-phased (SMAART).  Coaching works for leaders and managers at many levels; an organization can use it to develop the executive and those that support them across the entire organization.  The coach often begins with a task and producing positive changes in business behavior and will do this on a set schedule within a specified time frame aimed at increasing organizational results.  Remember, the attitudes and actions of any person in a key position have a ripple effect throughout your entire organization.  Executive coaching not only helps the coached individual it also has a positive impact on their team and company as a whole.  The area most influenced by coaching is relationships.

A study by Korn Ferry of more than 200 executive coaches found that senior leaders most need to work on their self-awareness and their interpersonal relationships.  These coaches were asked to classify the top 10 most recurrent coaching topics by level of the leader.  The top 10 coaching topics include:

1. Self-awareness
2. Interpersonal relationships, listening skills and empathy
3. Influence
4. Leading during times of change
5. Communication skills
6. Motivation and engagement and leading with vision and purpose
7. Building effective teams
8. Strategy and strategic thinking
9. Working with uncertainty and ambiguity, decision skills
10. Mentoring, developing internal talent, succession

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” – Ara Parasheghian.

At Applied Vision Works, we’ve developed 35 principles of leadership that can be integrated into your executive coaching plan for every career stage.  If you’d like to learn more about Executive Coaching and how we can help you, call us at 800-786-4332 x106 or email Candace at CClemmer@AppliedVisionWorks.com

See more about executive coaching in our blog, “NOT JUST A FIRST QUARTER PLAY: EXECUTIVE COACHING PLANS THAT ADAPT TO THE LIFECYCLE OF A LEADERSHIP CAREER.”