What is Executive Coaching?

Like high-level athletes, business leaders and managers set performance targets and are expected on their results. In general, leaders and managers have the opportunity to learn the art of management throughout their career, through many adjustments, because knowing how to manage a company and a team well is not a talent.

However, in an increasingly competitive and uncertain environment, a growing number of managers and leaders are calling on Coaching Professionnel to help them overcome a variety of problems. Indeed, a leader can often feel isolated, because he is the only one to make decisions to run the company, and can sometimes feel misunderstood by his subordinates. Thus, managers choose to turn to coaching, in order to improve their skills or to solve a problem.

Definition of executive coaching

Coaching made its appearance in the 60s in the United States in the world of theater and cinema: the coach is the one who trains and makes them rehearse. In the 1970s, Timothy Gallwey wrote a series of books developing the methodology of coaching in the sports world. Then, coaching gradually spread to the business world during the 1980s, until it became popular in France in the 1990s.

Executive coaching is defined as personalized support which aims to help executives and managers identify and put in place by themselves the means necessary to achieve their objectives.

It is important to specify that this is neither training, nor counseling, nor psychological help. It is described as a behavioral approach.

Who is executive coaching for?

As its name suggests, executive coaching (coaching dirigeant) is aimed at business leaders, senior executives or even business unit managers. This support is suitable for both private and public companies and self-employed workers.

Why call on an executive coach?

Executive coaching helps to develop a clear strategic vision, in order to achieve specific goals. It is therefore wise to call on a coach when a manager feels that his professional environment is in the midst of a crisis, when he feels overwhelmed by a situation that only he can resolve. Sometimes a leader may feel the need to simply think aloud with someone they trust, in order to clarify their motivations, ambitions, and strategies.

The manager’s coach can also intervene when the manager is confronted with a new environment, unusual or intercultural for example. It will allow you to share your perceptions and strategic questions. This type of coaching also responds to a need for support when the manager is going through a professional or organizational transition in which the executive issues are crucial.

In all cases, executive coaching allows you to get out of loneliness, take a step back from your actions and think aloud, in a strictly confidential environment in order to avoid any form of stress that would lead to a depression or worse, a real burnout.

Examples of goals for which to call a coach

• Develop your leadership
• Learn to organize yourself better
• Improve team cohesion
• Knowing how to better manage conflicts
• Understanding the behavioral and perceptual dimensions
• Learn to communicate better
• Acquire the skills needed to grow
• Dealing with burnout and professional pressure
• Increase productivity and results
• Support your professional transition

 Who is the executive coach?

There is no legally required diploma to declare oneself as a coach and exercise this type of support, which can cause some mistrust with regard to this practice. However, there are many repositories of skills related to executive coaching, such as that provided by the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC).

In general, a professional manager’s coach has specific skills in areas such as psychology, personal development or even human resources management. But the effectiveness of coaching depends above all on the relational qualities of the coach himself, such as his empathy, his ability to put his interlocutor in confidence, and finally to know how to listen and understand. Without forgetting that the coach must master the support process in order to guarantee progress towards the set objective.

The coach is not a trainer, therapist or friend, but a professional who helps to think. Needless to say, the coach must remain neutral in all circumstances, never pass judgment, and never seek to influence the coachee.

What are the goals of the executive coach?

The manager’s coach always has the same objective: to help the coachee to find the answers and the solutions to his problem by himself. The coach is aware of the potential of the creativity of the person he is helping. He knows that the coached manager can find a solution to his problem on his own. Its role is to assist it in this reflection, while encouraging it to demonstrate its talents and mobilize its resources.

The role of the coach is in no way to provide solutions to the coachees but, on the contrary, to support them in their reflection until their own solutions emerge. Clearly, a good coach is above all a good guide.

The benefits of coaching

According to the International Coach Federation, 75% of managers who have benefited from coaching are satisfied with it and consider having achieved their goals. In general, the coached leaders observe a marked improvement in their communication and in their behavior. Thanks to coaching and learning to active listening, they know how to welcome the comments of their interlocutors and avoid unnecessary conflicts. Even if the manager is the first beneficiary of coaching, he is not the only one to feel the benefits, since all employees can see the effects, and often the atmosphere at work improves.

Thus, coaching allows you to better manage your business, improve your self-confidence, communicate better with your team and therefore improve your performance and results. It is therefore a high added value service.

How much does executive coaching cost?

The price of a coaching session for an executive varies greatly. Sometimes coaches offer monthly packages. The price of coaching varies depending on the objectives to be achieved, its duration, the reputation of the coach, as well as the position held by the coachee. Like the profession, coaching fees are not regulated.

Although the cost of executive coaching is significant, we observe that the return on investment is often positive.