10 things that typically happen at an executive coaching session
- Taking time and space from your frantic schedule to look at issues in depth (1-2 hours)
- Clarifying goals and keeping you focused and inspired
- Helping to remove mental barriers and obstacles to success -Removing 'stuckness' and creating change.
- Look at the thought processes that underpin your strategy for doing things and how common thinking errors from Cognitive Behavioural techniques can help.
- Self awareness, taking responsibility, changing what you do, changing what you think and feel. Some things may only require mindset change rather than environment change.
- We will look at your values, beliefs and even your identity/purpose for solutions to areas you want to improve in.
- Work with your strengths and maximise those.
- Work out ways to manage around weaknesses if we can’t change them.
- Work at a level that suits where you are heading i.e. improve skills or performance at work or focus on longer term career development or even greater life transformations.
- Help to develop your emotional intelligence (the biggest indicator of success) for long term benefits.
What are the benefits of an executive coaching session?
- As coach I will be asking questions to raise your awareness not to check up on you!
- I will employ precision listening to unpack limiting beliefs or unhelpful strategies which leave you un-resourceful.
- I will give you the unconditional listening we often don’t get from friends and families who have a vested interest in keeping you the same.
- I do a lot of paraphrasing, summarising and reflecting back your own language to sometimes challenge entrenched attitudes. Help you to see from a different viewpoint by spotting patterns of behaviour.
- I give you helpful and honest feedback in a supportive way.
- A coaching session helps you to learn and reflect more on experiences to aid better decision making in the future not just your current issues.
- Above all I do not supply advice and I will not and cannot do it for you. I believe the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution and we just need to find it!
What happens after my Executive Coaching session?
- You will be encouraged to do some light reading/ listen to audios/watch videos around relevant topics such as emotional intelligence.
- You may complete some behavioural questionnaires.
- You will be encouraged to write some reflections after each session and to prepare before sessions to get the most from your time.
- Most of the change will occur when you are trying out new ways of being in your own life in the real world.
- Above all, you should be able to explore possibilities and solutions with an open mind.
In Summary
Coaching is not therapy although some of the skills used by the coach such as listening and questioning are the same, the focus is different. Coaching is much more future-focused whereas therapy tends to look back. However, sometimes in coaching we need to look back a little to establish how certain patterns of thinking and feeling have come about but more with an acceptance that these things have happened and cannot be changed but may help us to understand and plan forward.
It is possible to have therapy and coaching from separate practitioners at the same time if needed to explore different facets of someone life and issues. A coach should always work in your best interest to establish whether therapy would be a better course of action and refer you on to someone with those particular skills.
This is the secret to what any good executive coach will do.
For more details on how we can get the best out of yourself or your executives, please do get in touch julia@sparkcoachingandtraining.co.uk