Notion, global experts in behaviour change and coaching say that if you want executive coaching to pack more of a punch, it might be time to start thinking differently about what executive coaching can do for your organisation.
Laura Ashley-Timms, Director of Coaching Notion, asks: “Why reserve coaching for just a few executives at the top of the hierarchy, when in today’s agile organisations, creativity, innovation, dialogue and decision making is also happening at the very heart of organisations? Wouldn’t it be better for you to also use executive coaching in a way that could have a much greater impact and far better consequences across your organisation?”
Laura suggests these 6 ways to use executive coaching to get results in both the short and long term.
SHORT TERM
1. Onboarding
The first 100 days in a new job is a delicate time. During this time, it’s important to help new people onboard in the best possible way, especially into critical roles. The costs of getting it wrong can be substantial, in terms of disruption, duplication, recruitment costs and lost productivity. An executive coach can help accelerate that process by helping to:
-Unlock potential faster
-Define compelling goals that align to organisation needs
-Identify and work effectively with key stakeholders
-Increase impact and influence and self-promotion
-Navigate politics and cultural nuances
-Generate quick wins
-Maintain confidence and momentum
2. Projects/International Assignments
When you’re preparing people to undertake critical business projects or for new overseas assignments, an executive coach can really help you to leverage performance quickly. By helping people individually, in duos, or in teams to:
-Avoid a performance dip
-Maximise impact and credibility as a leader in a new context
-Overcome resistance
-Forge new connections
-Deal with diversity and new collaborations
-Manage the impact of change
-Navigate complexity
3. Returning to work
Whilst executive coaches are sometimes assigned to people as part of an exit strategy, it is far less common for executive coaches to be used when people return to work from periods of extended leave or career breaks. However, executive coaches can really help to add value, by helping your talented returners to:
-Manage the transition
-Re-build confidence, self-belief and motivation
-Overcome obstacles and leverage time
-Deal with prejudice and discrimination
-Balance priorities
-Deliver high performance faster
LONG TERM
Executive coaching can really leverage long term results when successfully integrated with leadership, high performance and talent management.
4. Leadership
Executive coaching has become a more popular tool for leadership development. Executive coaching is already commonly used to help leaders:
-Understand the complex dynamics of leadership
-Take a broad strategic approach
-Improve agility
-Manage change
-Build high performing teams
-Instill high levels of employee engagement
-Make decisions
-Drive culture
-Develop influential relationships
5. High Performance
Executive coaching can be seen as a ‘perk’ and a ‘privilege’ for leaders in business, but often executive coaching strategies support key leaders at the exclusion of other talent categories. Executive coaches can also leverage sustained high performance by helping your high performers to:
-Maintain momentum
-Generate innovation and creativity
-Get the best out of their teams/customers/suppliers
-Improve communications and relationships
-Manage multiple demands on time
-Develop a climate of high performance
6. Talent Management
Most talent management processes help you to identify high potentials inside your organisation, i.e. those people who have the potential to develop to a new level within a relatively short period of time. This helps you to build a talent pipeline. But is your talent moving quickly enough through the pipe? Are there any blockages and where are they? Are succession plans achievable? What benefits do you offer to people moving through the pipeline? Executive coaching can help your high potentials to:
-Get the most out of leadership development opportunities at the current level
-Develop clear career plans
-Undertake sideways developmental roles with clear goals
-Prepare for promotion
-Identify and develop the professional and personal skills required to succeed at the next level
-Prepare for assessment processes
-Increase personal presence and gravitas
-Network and build relationships at a more senior level/internationally
-Improve ownership for learning
Laura sums up, “Executive coaching can add value and help deliver results for your organisation in many ways. To understand how best to use executive coaching, consider the full employee life cycle, from initial attraction through to exit, and evaluate the benefits of executive coaching against your short term and long term goals, then integrate executive coaching into the L&D mix in a strategic and sustainable way.”
Notion is a global expert in behaviour change and coaching. Their team of world-class executive coaches work with an exciting cross-section of organisations to get the best out of people. If you would like to find out more about how executive coaching can add value to your organisation, click here or call us for an informal chat on +44 (0)1926 889 885.