» choosing an executive coach

Stuck Not Broken: Tops teams understand this concept.

Guy Bloom — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:33:32 +0000

Not broken, just stuck.

Executive coaching and leadership development is a strange place to inhabit, an area of working with leaders and senior managers to improve their performance. Usually this is funded by a company who understand that investment in the person is investment in the business, in it’s most simplistic terms, ‘it is a little bit like servicing the engines components’. Development is understood to make a difference, sometimes it is tangible (performance figures improved), sometimes it is intangible (people just feel better) and the belief, correctly held is that the latter enables the former.

The development and coaching of senior individuals and teams is sometimes made out to be very complex, with the internal observers bought into the fact that the political, emotional, career and strategic nuisances are so truly binding that the best ‘we can hope to do is get them to play nice”. It is with this in mind that companies call in an individual to help them move forward, someone from the outside who isn’t bound by the hierarchy, the politic or the emotion and is able to both ‘support and challenge’ from a non-judgemental and peer level respected position; so that’s where I come in.

One of the first things I like to get people/teams to discuss is the idea of being ‘stuck’, rather than ‘broken’, it seems like semantics but in reality being ‘stuck’ is usually the reality, apart from death there aren’t many things that prevent you from moving forward, granted you might not like the options or you may not be comfortable with them, but they exist, I mean how bad can it be: Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975 is an American mountain climber and public speaker. He became widely known in May 2003 when, while canyoning in Utah, he was forced by an accident to amputate his right arm with a dull knife in order to free himself from a boulder). Are things ever, ‘cut your arm off bad?’ Unlikely.

As a coach my role is to enable people to see in between th gaps of the facts, as between those gaps usually sits the emotional content that prevents the individual, the team or the business from moving forwards, it is supplying the question, the challenge and the tool to become ‘unstuck’.

I refer to the gap between the facts as the ‘shadow’, taken from a poem by T.S Eliot, for that’s what moving forward is really about, yes understanding the facts as you know them to be, but then facing the shadow (your fears and your colleagues) to process data with an understanding of the emotional content and then to act, working with high performing teams to enable the best performance is as much about the competence of communcation and function as it is about the interpersonal dynamics at play within the individual and the team.

“Between the idea and the reality,
Between the motion and the act,
Falls the shadow”
- T.S Eliot

Executive Coaching – 'Knowledge vs Know How'

Guy Bloom — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:48:41 +0000

Executive coaching is without a doubt an art form all of itself, that art is made up two distinct areas.

1. Knowing what to do.
2. Knowing how to do it.

Like any area of valued endeavour, there is something intangible about the capability of an individual to read the moment, sense the thought, pull on the right experience and frame a question or offer an observation that impacts on another individual enough for them to change a perspective and re-frame a behaviour.

Though that is coaching and like any other skill, that is honed to a high level, the art form, the mystic, the value is often made easy around something that is not.

When looking for a great executive coach:

1. Consider the whole person, the depth of their life experience.
2. Are they comfortable in their own skin.
3. Can they be a confidante, will they challenge, be an advocate, inspire, coach and mentor.
4. Do you feel a connection (not friendship)

Simple things that point to whether or not you are prepared to enter into an adult relationship as opposed to a commercial one. Simple things that go beyond a certifate of competence and into your instinct about whether or not the balance between knowledge and know how sits before you.

Executive Coaching Qualifications- Qualified or Qualification?

Guy Bloom — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:02:51 +0000

Qualifications are a bone of contention to those that possess them, don’t have them or are looking to utilise an executive coach. How do you choose a good executive coach?

Word of mouth from a trusted source will always be the predominant factor.
References that you HAVE spoken to, that have been coached by the individual in the last 24 months, should run hand in hand with the above.

In business you soon notice that people see themselves as great coaches or believe that this could definitely be a good thing to do to escape the rat race. I’ll become a coach! The reality is like just about any other profession or skill, just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should do it and come to think about it, just because you have been on a course doesn’t mean you are qualified to do it.

Case in point: Ever had a bad experience with a doctor, lawyer or estate agent? All have qualifications.
Another point to ponder:Ever had bad meal in a restaurant? I bet the chef has a cooking qualification on the wall!

Being qualified doesn’t in itself mean anything, but by the same token having no qualifications can be a really bad idea. Because I don’t care how bad the doctor is I’m still going to choose one with a big certificate on the wall versus my mate over the road, who says “he’ll have a crack at it!”

And of course this is the bind there are many executive coaches out there without a single qualification (these are normally the older, more seasoned coaching veterans) or perhaps they where senior players in business, sold up, paid off the mortgage and thought what next. Sir John Harvey Jones (The original troubleshooter), doesn’t have a executive coaching qualification, but you’d remortgage to have him as your coach.

There’s another factor in play, anyone with multiple qualifications in coaching all topped off with a Coaching Msc, has surely made the effort to get good at their chosen field? And yes they have, just as the MD who turns to coaching has experience coming out of their pores.

But I hear you ask, ”Guy, what happens in your experience when you interview executive coaches to partner to senior leaders?” Ah! Well strange you should ask! Guess what it always comes down to whether or not the person is ‘qualified’ to be a coach, which means:

- Attitude
- Experience
- Commercial Acumen
- Personal Credibility
- Relationship Awareness
- Courage
- Political Savvy
- Common Sense
- Coaching capability

Qualifications? Well to be honest (and I have qualifications to) qualifications don’t really mean anything in isolation, they do of course point to the attitude of the individual in regards to their own professionalism and they demonstrate that the individual has knowledge on the topic.

What’s my point?

Well most importantly if you are thinking of working with or hiring in an executive coach:

Points 2 at the beginning of this blog is a must
Use your own judgement
Allow your instinct to tell you if the person in front of you feels like a good fit
Continually question if the relationship is adding value
Don’t presume they know YOU, better than you know YOU!
Are you reaching the milestones you both agreed on
Is the coach really contributing, by sharing their knowledge and emotion

An executive coach can add enormous value to you and/or the organisation, but a bad one can be equally damaging: Choose well & trust your own judgement!