Executive Coaching

Our coaching clients (or ‘coachees’) describe the relationship as one where they can be uniquely open and honest without feeling judged – a rare opportunity in many people’s working lives. There’s mutual trust, confidence and commitment to the coachee’s objectives. The coach brings both challenge and support, with no hidden agenda. Depending on what the ‘coachee’ is looking for, there’s often also a real sense of camaraderie and humour.

Our coaches invest in understanding the complexities and demands of your organisation, blending that with their insightful, empathetic and psychological approach. Importantly, though, while clients sometimes choose coaches based on their experience of the client’s industry, research suggests there is no statistical relationship between that shared background and fulfilment of the client’s goals¹. This underlines a critical distinction between coaching and mentoring: coaches provoke insight and provide challenge and support to enable the client to make their own decisions; mentors offer lessons learned from their own time in similar roles.

1. Chinn, Richmond & Bennett (2015) Walking a mile in an executive’s shoes. International Coaching Psychology Review, 10(2), 149-159.

The wider research into organisational coaching consistently reports an impressive return on investment (ROI). The methods and figures vary but a review of executives from 56 organisations in 2001 used a conservative, semi-statistical process to estimate an average 570% return².

When our clients tell us about the impact our coaching has had on them and their organisations, though, they’re rarely interested in putting a financial number on it. After all, it’s hard to put a price on many people’s coaching objectives and there are a whole host of ‘confounding variables’. By way of example, coachees have told us the work has left them “enlightened and inspired” or helped them rediscover a “mojo” they’d lost and thought they’d never recover. Some have reported “a seminal year” in terms of their career, often because they’ve made important decisions or upped their game. They’re better able to identify and manage their own patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving – less inhibited by unhelpful habits and assumptions. They’re more creative, more strategic. They’re able to delegate more effectively, in spite of challenges they’ve had in the past with trust and perfectionism.

Many feel more confident and have greater “personal impact” with others. For some, that impact comes from seemingly simple (but fiendishly difficult) changes to their body-language and the way they speak. For some, that enhanced impact comes from creating a compelling vision for their team or organisation. For others, it’s a case of working on their emotional intelligence, sometimes engaging in proactive stakeholder management – often in complex, politicised environments.

And then there’s the impact coaching often has outside of work. While the focus is always on enhancing the coachee’s capacity, commitment and/or performance in the workplace, coaching often affects the whole person. Hence the coachee whose friends could see the difference in how she carried herself. Similarly, the partner in a professional services firm whose behaviour at home changed in line with changes he was making at work. The impact of that? Well, for one thing, his daughter told him she’d had the best day of her life to date.

2. McGovern et al (2001) Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching: Behavioral Change, Organizational Outcomes, and Return on Investment. The Manchester Review, 6(1).

Every relationship unfolds differently, but typically includes:

• A ‘chemistry meeting’ to discuss the objectives and check both parties feel confident and comfortable
• Goal setting, typically involving the participant’s sponsor or line manager
• Perhaps some form of psychological assessment or use of existing data from psychometrics, 360s, etc.
• An agreed schedule of one-to-one sessions lasting 1.5 – 2 hours, typically every 4-6 weeks
• Our award-winning two-way ‘reflective feedback’ between the participant and their coach, which deepens the participants’ ability to reflect on their own ways of thinking and operating
• Work between sessions, putting the learning into practice – some coaching sessions are just the catalyst that accelerates development back at work
• Formal reviews with the coachee and their sponsor