How to find the best executive coach for you or the leaders in your organization
This article is to find the best executive coach, aka leadership coach, or find the best executive coaching services if
1. You are a leader considering hiring an executive coach.
2. You are in HR and/or top management looking to hire an executive coach for your organization’s leaders.
3. You have already implemented executive coaching in your organization, but it did not deliver the desired behavior change and business impact.
I have outlined the selection criteria and questions to ask a prospective executive coach.
If you would like to know more about executive coaching or executive coaching services –
Read: Everything you wanted to know about executive coaching
Finding the right executive coach is critical
A majority of large organizations now routinely use executive coaching for their leadership development plan. Choosing the best executive coach is a critical step in the executive’s success. The process of selecting an executive coach is usually initiated by the Human Resources (HR) department with top management’s consent. It is quite similar to an interview process to hire a candidate. HR will line up a few prospective leadership coaches as candidates and set up the interviews with the leader to be coached.
Sometimes, executives jump into selecting a coach based on referrals, first impressions, or HR recommendations. As a consumer of coaching, it is always a good idea for the leader to know the entire process and know the criteria to select the right executive coach. Rushing this step or not knowing what to look for in a coach can result in a waste of time, money, and reputation for both the leader and the sponsors (HR or top management)
During the first meeting with prospective coaches, it is the leader’s job to assess the leadership coach’s ability to select the best execute leadership coach’s ability to coach to improve her leadership skills.
Here are some criteria to find the best executive coach
Is the coach supportive?
Executives are paid and rewarded for being decisive, precise, and confident. By the nature of the leadership position, it is difficult for executives to admit flaws or ask for help. However, for leadership growth to occur, these are precisely the things an executive needs to do! A coach who listens, understands, is non-judgmental, and supports will provide a safe environment for the leader to open up and address his fears, uncertainties, concerns, and improvement areas. After speaking with the executive coach, the leader should feel that the coach “gets him.” The leader should think that it is OK to open up with the coach, discuss issues, and take actions to improve.
Can the coach challenge you?
While it is good for the coach to make the leader comfortable, it is also essential that the coach challenges the leader to examine unhelpful beliefs and behaviors in a polite but firm manner. A coach who is a cheerleader will have little chance of nudging the leader out of her habitual behaviors and comfort zone. Here is a leadership quote by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.
There cannot be any growth in the comfort zone, and there is little or no comfort in the growth zone!
The executive coach must be able to probe and uncover unproductive or unhelpful assumptions and confront the leader in a calm, polite, and non-judgmental way. A good executive coach is an expert in “tough love” and striking the right balance between supporting and challenging the executive.
Can the coach collect and deliver honest feedback about you from your team members?
Executives hold a lot of power due to their senior position in the organization. Generally, team members are reluctant to provide any critical feedback to a senior leader. The team members may fear the consequences of making the leader unhappy or maybe uncomfortable, giving crucial feedback to the leader’s face. As a result, executives end up getting anywhere from plain flattery to only positive feedback.
A skilled coach should collect honest feedback from the team members while ensuring their anonymity and respecting their boundaries. This step is essential at the beginning of the coaching engagement. The executive coach has to sensitize the team members of the benefit of candid feedback for the leader, team, and the organization. When the leader improves in certain areas, it also benefits the team members. When the team members see the benefits and are aware that their identity for individual feedback will not be revealed, they get comfortable and provide accurate and honest feedback.
Without clear and candid feedback, there will be an inaccurate diagnosis of the leader’s strengths or improvement areas. Without proper diagnosis, any cure that the executive coach may offer may be ineffective or even harmful.
The coach will collect this feedback through multi-rater (or 360-degree assessments) and behavioral interviews with each team member.
Once the feedback is collected, the coach has to deliver the sometimes unpleasant feedback to the leader in a non-judgmental way that does not elicit a defensive response from the leader. The coach also makes the leader understand the benefits of accepting feedback and improving.
Can the coach provide a structured and tried and tested process for the leader’s development?
Changing the behavior of an adult is one of the most challenging tasks. Changing the behavior of a successful leader usually is an even more challenging task. A good coach should have a tried and tested, a well-structured process for the coaching engagement that he should be able to share with you. It is essential to find the best executive coach. Too many coaches and coaching engagements are unstructured. Structure helps, especially with the busy schedule and work pressures that executives face.
The coach should provide a clear road map for the entire coaching engagement and the timelines. Some of the common steps involved in a coaching engagement are
- signing a coaching contract
- assessments to get feedback and understand the leader’s inherent style
- reviewing the feedback
- planning regular coaching meetings
- involving team members to practice new behaviors
- assessing the results of the efforts
- helping the leader form habits that will last even after the end of the coaching engagement.
Can the coach maintain confidentiality?
During a coaching engagement, the coach comes across a lot of information that is of a sensitive and confidential nature. The coach routinely interacts with many team members to collect feedback. The coach may also be working with other leaders in the organization. Although it seems quite obvious, to keep the trust of the leader and the team members, the coach must maintain boundaries and save the information confidential. In case the coach wants to share any information with others, he should first take permission from the executive.
Can the coach help you with altering the perception of team members about your leadership behaviors?
Leaders develop a leadership style that comes from their personality, past experiences, and recent successes: each leader and her style have some inherent strengths and shortcomings. When team members work with the leader for a more extended period, they form an impression about their behaviors and style.
Just as it is difficult for the leader to change her leadership style, it is equally painful for the team members to change their perceptions about the leader that has been formed over the years, even when the leader works with the executive coach to change her behaviors, the team members’ impressions persistent and sometimes even stubborn.
A good coach helps the leader to change her behavior and simultaneously improves the stakeholder’s “see” that change. Over some time, this effort results in changing both the executive’s ineffective practices and the team members’ persistent impressions about the leader’s behaviors and style.
Is the coach a role model of the behaviors he expects the leader to exhibit?
The best way to teach anyone is to teach by your example. As they say – actions speak louder than words. Does the executive coach practice the same behaviors that he expects from the leader? Some of the acts that the coach should exhibit are
Openness to feedback – when a coach expects the leader to listen to and accept feedback from the team members, he should openly receive the leader’s input. If the coach gets defensive or evasive to feedback, it is not the sign of a good coach.
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is considered the world’s number one leadership thinker and a coach, lists three essential qualities of the leaders that are successful in improving themselves through coaching engagements. The coach should also exhibit these same behaviors in the coaching interview with the leader.
Courage – Courage to tell the leader the unpleasant truths even if it may alienate the leader and possibly be rejected in the coach’s interview.
Humility – The executive leadership coaching engagement is about helping the leader. It is not about the executive coach. A coach who makes the interview process all about himself may lack the humility to help the leader.
Discipline – Nothing of significance can be achieved without a good dose of control. A leadership coach who has a disciplined approach has a much higher probability of helping the leader stick to the process and achieve results.
What happens if things don’t go right? What is the escape clause?
Even after the due diligence, there is always a chance that a coaching engagement may not go as per the leader’s expectations or the sponsors. What happens in such a case? What are the conditions of early termination? It is always a good idea to ask for the details and read the contract carefully.
A good coach will have enough confidence in their own ability and have a high level of trust in their process and experience to deliver results. A good coach will always want to have a win-win deal or walk away. Hence, either party will notice short notice to terminate the coaching contract if either party’s expectations are not met.
Does the coach have the relevant education, certifications, and experience?
Executive coaching services is a mostly unregulated industry. The barriers to entry into coaching are shallow. Coaches come from varied backgrounds – human resources, psychology, business majors, consultants, and even yoga practitioners! While there are excellent coaches from different backgrounds and vice versa.
There are a few agencies that claim to have some minimum standards of education and experience for coaches. Still, their authority is neither widely accepted, nor do they do an excellent job selecting the best coaching candidates. They seem to make a lot of money certifying coaches, while the accredited coaches by such agencies hardly have any real paying coaching clients! Anyone willing to pay specific fees can get certified as a coach by doing an online course over the weekend and “coaching” a few willing or unwilling colleagues or friends to garner experience!
Often the coaching certifications mean little. An alphabet soup coaching certifications are no guarantee in gauging the coach’s ability to deliver results for the executive.
It is good to look for a coach who has a business or other degree and, ideally, some industry experience. A good coach has experience in coaching real executives in real companies and can provide references and testimonials to vouch for the expertise and the ability to deliver results for the coaching clients. Apart from this, education and certifications are not of much importance.
Relevant experience in coaching is the only yardstick that correlates with the coach’s ability to deliver results.
Here is Marshall Goldsmith’s quote about who he considers a great coach
“The measure of a great coach is not how many degrees you have or how many books you’ve written – it’s achieving positive, measurable results.”
Will the executive coach guarantee results? Would she defer her payment only after they deliver results?
Now, this may sound radical, and it sure is! But this is the ultimate test of the coach’s confidence in their ability to deliver results. Just ask the prospective coach this question and see their response.
Is there an executive coaching service or a program that can meet all of these criteria and help me select and find the best executive coach?
Fortunately, the answer is yes! You can find the best executive coach and avoid costly mistakes! We offer Marshall Goldsmith stakeholder centered one on administrative coaching services with a no-growth pay clause. What does it mean? If we don’t deliver measurable growth in the executive’s leadership competencies, you don’t have to pay us! And the growth is not assessed by the coach, nor by the leader, but anonymously judged by the leader’s team members!
Our executive coaching India, middle-east, Asia, Europe, and USA has a 95% success rate and comes with a no-growth no pay guarantee. Our executive coaching services are one of the best executive leadership coaching programs in the world.
Read: Which is the best executive coaching program
NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents). It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.
Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs. We go to the leader and her team. And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.
Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different. One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy.
Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.
The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.
Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.
Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.
Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis. What does it mean? If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.
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References
Executive Coaching Solution – Getting Maximum Benefit from the Coaching Experience
Executive Coaching – A Guide for the HR Professional
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