|
What makes a good executive coach?The short answer is a mix of real-world business experience, competencies and insight.
 -High-Level Business Experience: For the relationship to work, the executive and the coach must be peers. To be able to provide appropriate guidance, the coach should have not only worked in the corporate world, but also have held senior line positions. -Interpersonal Competencies: The coach must be adept at handling all sorts of complex, touchy interpersonal dynamics, at sizing up a situation quickly and dealing with a wide range of personalities. Good listening skills are critical. -Integrity: Executive coaching often involves discussing not only sensitive personal issues, but also high-level, strategic and confidential information. Honesty and the ability not to betray a confidence are essential. -Political Savvy: To be effective, executives must be able to navigate the tricky political waters of their organization. A competent coach needs to be up to helping him or her do that. -Flexibility and Creativity: You never quite know what's going to happen when lots of egos, ambitions and agendas collide. And that calls for the ability to turn on a dime, to come up with new solutions when necessary---or---to be able to discard ideas when they seem ineffective. At the same time, the coach should be comfortable with ambiguity, fast change and lots of uncertainty. -Tough Love: Ultimately, coaching is all about achieving real, bottom-line results. The coach needs to be able to confront tough issues, hold people accountable and demand tangible outcomes. -Comfort at the Top: Unless the coach can relate to upper management--and understands the expectations of boards and shareholders--he or she won't be able to grasp the subtleties of each coaching situation. -Organizational Insight: The goal of executive coaching is to strengthen a person's performance, but only as it relates to real corporate objectives. That requires an understanding of both the executive's needs and the organization's needs--- and how to make them work together to achieve clearly defined goals.
|
