Why hire an executive coach anyway?
To do things you probably would not do on your own. You hire help to change your tires, mow your lawn, improve your swing (golf that is), and help your teenager with her math. You know better than trying to do it all alone. Why on earth wouldn’t you hire help for the most important element of your life, barred none, you? And where do you spend the vast majority of your time anyway? At work! So how hiring help to support and improve both (you and your job) would come after the golf swing and the tires? I am not sure.
Just like your lawn or your tires, you can do what you do by yourself, but nothing like a partner to improve and speed up the process. In my career as an HR Executive and as an Executive coach, I have learned a few things that are seldom spoken of in open forums. One is that being a leader is a lonely and demanding role. It is. Few will admit it in public, but all will say it in private. Working with a coach alleviates that.
The other thing I have learned is that the margin of error a leader has shrinks with every level he/she climbs. There comes a time when it is pretty narrow. There is not always a second chance to make it right. Why risk it?
I have had clients who said that the coaching helped them focus on the right priorities, allowed them to think differently, embrace change, reach their goals, develop as a mentor and acquire new people skills, etc…but all, absolutely all, said, that the benefit of stepping away from it all, closing the door, turning the phone off and taking time to think and reflect on who they are becoming and what they are doing, was by far, the best part of it all.
When was the last time you worked with someone who had no agenda other than your own? Isn’t time you do?