Parachute Executive Coaching

Executive coaches are hired for a variety of reasons. Set the investment up for success by knowing what conditions need to be in place beforehand.

There are five conditions for coaching success that need to be in place before hiring an executive coach can possibly be a good investment.

There is an executive sponsor for the coaching process.

Executive coaching is done in the context of the client’s organization, and the client can only be successful if they make change that is aligned with and relevant to the organization’s goals.  To ensure that the coaching goals and areas of focus are aligned with the bigger picture, it is critical that there be an executive sponsor for the process.  It does not necessarily have to be the client’s direct manager, but it does have to be someone who agrees to be a resource and source of feedback.

The client agrees that there is something to work on.

The client must agree that there is something they could change or improve that would either optimize performance or accelerate career progress.  The best coaching client is the one who is committed to his or her own development.  The worst coaching client is the one who resists feedback.

The client agrees that they would benefit from an external resource.

Most strong, smart, successful people got that way because they are driven and committed to their success.  The really successful ones realize they can’t do it alone.  If the individual is open minded and willing to consider a new way of advancing their development, they are creating an excellent starting point for coaching.

The client agrees that it’s up to them to do the work.

The client has to understand that the coach doesn’t tell them what to do, and that organizational conditions might not change.  The individual client must accept that they are responsible for their own success or lack thereof, and must agree that their future results will depend on their own ability to change.

Conditions for success are in place.

In the case of coaching used for remedial or corrective purposes, the culture of the organization must be amenable to any change that the client does achieve, and allow them to thrive and succeed without being encumbered by history.  In the case of coaching to accelerate performance or unleash potential, the organization must see the individual as credible at the next level.  The executive sponsor plays a key role in creating this particular condition for success by smoothing the path for the individual with other organizational stakeholders.

While there are no guarantees that an investment in executive coaching will pay off, if the above conditions are in place the chances for success are strong.

Read a terrific post on Great Leadership, about executive coaching and the state of the business. According to some, it’s still very “wild west” out there – even though some of us know it’s way better than it used to be. I guess I am in a bit of a bubble – I’ve been talking about process rigor and client due diligence for years. That said, in my view the more people who advocate on behalf of potential coaching clients holding their coaches to a high standard of process rigor and accountability, the better for all of us who take our responsibility seriously.

For those reading who don’t know me, I’ve run my own coaching business and I’ve worked “inside” a big consulting firm running theirs, so I’ve seen at least two sides of how coaching practices can operate. I do know that there’s still a huge need for client education, so people know what they’re buying and why they’re really buying it. The biggest problem continues to be, in my opinion, the unfortunately low barrier to entry into this field we’re trying to establish as a profession. As an OD consultant I met at an ICF conference years ago told me, “anybody who is unemployed and has a phone” can call themselves a coach – and more than a decade later it’s still true. So the biggest favour the ICF can do for us would be to encourage regulation, force admission standards for accredited coaching schools, require supervision before full accreditation, and implement a license renewal process that includes both practical and theoretical components.