If you are working remotely and want to develop your career, you might be thinking about the types of executive coaching programs that can help you accelerate your career. If you don’t know much about these programs – or how they work, who they are intended for, and why you (or your company) should use a coach, this article is for you.
Do you have key leaders that you need to develop?
Do you have new senior leaders that you want to make sure succeed?
Or talent you need to ready for the next level?
Maybe you are a leader yourself. Eager to develop and succeed.
Wondering how executive coaching can help you move forward in your career?
There are many types of executive coaching programs to fit your needs and many types of executive positions, executive office setups, and leadership behaviors.
If you are an HR leader, you know that people want to be developed. You know that people need to be developed.
It’s key to retaining them. It’s key to helping them be successful, especially during these challenging times.
And now, talent is now being lured away by distance markets which are hiring remote people. This is true of up and coming individual contributors and more seasoned executives.
This is another reason why executive coaching programs are so important for your career and health of your organization.
If you are a leader, especially a new leader, you know first-hand the demands for ramping up quickly and the added pressure of leading teams virtually, as your peers or team is likely working remotely.
Here’s the opportunity to hire a coach and learn more about the types of executive coaching.
5 Types of Executive Coaching
Here are the most common reasons for executive coaching:
#1: New Senior Leader in Role
You need your new senior leaders to quickly ramp up, navigate their new roles and drive results. There is a lot at stake and a lot to do. It’s generally overwhelming for them. This is why working with a professional coach is so important, especially during times of remote work when navigating one’s career trajectory is even more challenging than usual.
Specifically, a professional coach can help senior leaders (or you) with the following:
- A coach can partner with your leaders in their first 12 months to keep them at the top of their game.
- Professional coaches can work together with the leader as he or she works to gain business knowledge and build new relationships. Leaders benefit from gaining credibility with their teams as a result.
- Coaching helps leaders stay focused and helps remove obstacles more quickly.
- A leader can bounce ideas off of a coach in a safe environment. The coach can help the leader devise clear priorities and solutions. And a coach can apply different approaches and strategies based on the needs of the leader and his or her organization. A coach meets you were you are and helps move you forward.
#2 Leader in a Key Executive Role
McKinsey noted that the best results for supporting new leaders came from tailored executive coaching and customized assimilation plans. They double the likelihood of success.
It’s an important time to invest and support the key leaders in your business. Economic instability, living and leading virtually and constant change and uncertainty is a reality.
Leaders have a difficult job. At the same time, strong talent isn’t easy to replace.
A professional coach works with your key leaders to support them to deliver on their biggest goals and priorities and be effective in their roles. They have a dedicated space to reflect.
#3 Valued Leader With 1 or 2 Areas that Need Executive Development
You may have a strong leader who has a few areas that really require development for them to move up or stay effective. For example, they may do a great job achieving goals but need to soften their edges with people.
There are many capabilities and competencies that a professional coaching service provides to develop leaders to grow their effectiveness overall.
#4 Need to Provide Their Leader with Growth and Development Opportunity
Leaders value and even expect the opportunity to continue to grow and develop. In fact, it is a growing top consideration of employment. Leaders want opportunities to build new skills and capabilities.
Professional coaches work with your people to identify and develop specific areas. Coaching is an excellent development choice because it is personal, custom and supports them over time.
#5 Need to Develop Leaders for Succession Planning
As an HR leader – or as a leader yourself – you have your eye on the people and skills you need today and into the future. As leaders move up and move on, it is important to have people who are “ready” for those open roles.
Professional coaches work with your people to ready them for new levels of opportunity. In some cases, these coaches create formal career development plans and discuss career paths.
Other times, a coach focus solely on growing specific leadership skills needed at the next level in an organization or field. This keeps you and your people in a ready state. You won’t suffer from unfilled leadership roles and untapped potential.
The ROI of Coaching
One of the common misconceptions about coaches is that they are advice-givers and problem-solvers. In reality, coaching puts the client in the driver’s seat. Instead of giving leaders a one-size-fits-all solution, executive coaches support leaders as they develop their own styles and approaches.
By design, the growth that each leader experiences during a coaching program is unique to that person. It means that communicating the value of coaching programs is not always a straightforward process.
Manchester Inc. survey shared that the average ROI of coaching was 6X the cost of coaching.
According to Epiphany Coaches, which has coached thousands of leaders around the world, clients tend to make significant progress in at least one of the following areas during their time with a coach. These improvements can be tied directly to ROI for the organization:
Building Influence & Leadership Capacity
Year after year, the top priorities for leaders are influence, executive presence, team leadership, and impact. Working with a coach supports leaders over time as they build the skills, behaviors, and mindsets they need to be effective in their roles.
Accelerating Success
Many senior leaders work with an executive coach to support them through a challenging time in their career; transitioning into a new organization or bouncing back from a difficult fiscal year, for example. Coaching helps leaders get results faster.
Fostering Collaboration
In a business landscape that prioritizes innovation and agility, collaborative leaders are able to reach their goals more quickly & easily. Working with a coach supports leaders as they build better working relationships up, down, and across.
Enabling Innovation & Change
Business moves extremely fast nowadays, and being able to lead through change is now a requirement in most industries. Coaching gives leaders new perspectives & tools that they can use to grow their strategic impact and their ability to motivate their team.
Over the last year, leading virtually, leading through transformation and navigating uncertain times are very big priorities for leaders.
The top 3 reported areas for ROI are: Enhanced relationships, Improved teamwork, and increased productivity.
What Can You Expect
The many types of executive coaching programs have different use-cases and need to align with your expectations.
Coaching develops and supports leaders to be their best.
Strong leadership is a marriage of the heart and mind. It’s a combination of mindset, skills, competencies, and capabilities.
It requires a leader to be open and experiment. It works when leaders try new things to get new places. Coaching helps leaders get focus, clarity, support and accountability. This way, leaders can be intentional. They can learn about themselves. They can find new ways to be successful.
Coaching is an on-going partnership to support the leader over time as they navigate new situations and evolve their leadership.
Leaders Are the Driver
Leaders define their own goals. They make their own decisions. Leaders choose their own pace. Therefore coaches navigate the conversations, share observations, and bring you tools and approaches to support leaders. Every coaching session ends with specific action items that move leaders one more step forward.
Our coaches both champion and challenge leaders to reach their potential.
With the onset of Covid-19, many professional coaches supported clients to lead virtually and lead through these challenging times.
Coaching is an opportunity to get support through group coaching and 1:1 coaching.
Leading Virtually
Explore how to create structure. Learn how to navigate your employee’s well-being. Design new ways to achieve goals.
Work on getting visibility in a virtual environment. All these topics and more are coachable topics. Get support for your success.
The technology is available to make your experience easy, simple and effective.
Virtual coaching is a favorite coaching option because it offers the same connection but offers greater convenience. It gives you more choice of coach globally and is easier on your budget. You can take calls at home, in front of your monitor, with total privacy.
For sensitive topics, it is also easier to leaders to be transparent. Coaching sessions are so focused and deep in their nature that the connection remains very strong as do the results.
What Is Important in Every Type of Executive Coaching Program
There are many ways to design a coaching program. There are many types of executive coaching programs and a diverse array of benefits.
Here are the elements that we believe are important to consider for every coaching program:
Strong onboarding support
- Strong on-boarding materials help you to be focused, informed and excited by the opportunity.
Executive Electronic Coach Selection
- Choosing your own coach. Make sure you have options. You want a strong connection with your coach.
360 Tools and Discovery Reports for Executives
- The more you know about yourself, the more awareness you have to be effective. Reports help us get there.
Coaching Sessions that last as long as the Executive needs
- Coaching programs work best between 4 to 12 sessions over a six to twelve month period. Custom design your program based on your goals and timing. You have options.
Manager and HR Involvement
- Manager and HR involvement supports success. Aim to include a way to share progress and feedback together in your program.
24/7 Coaching Partnership
- We view our coaching as a partnership vs. a series of formal sessions. Having the opportunity to connect with your coach between sessions in valuable. You can share wins or share your nerves. Anything goes.
Reporting and Success Metrics
- All good coaching programs have clear goals and outcomes. Progress tracking and success metrics for coaching are important. There are opportunities to track usage, trends across the organization and very specific results such as the value and impact of coaching.
Coaching is an excellent option to grow and develop leaders. Now you have a deeper understanding of what coaching is, how it can accelerate your impact, and the benefits it affords your career mobility.
Above all, there are many types of executive coaching programs to fit your needs, as noted above. The call to action is to start working with a coach now.
