Hiring an Executive Coach: Select for Support and Ability to Challenge

Hiring Your Executive Coach

Are you working in a company or law firm where leaders are engaged in an executive coaching program? How does your organization hire its’ executive coaches?

One of the most powerful questions you can ask is “What should we look for when hiring the right executive coaches for our company leaders?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders have a well thought out plan for selecting the right coaches in their executive coaching program.

Select for Support and Ability to Challenge

Executives are hired for their strengths. We don’t expect them to show uncertainty, express fear or naturally ask for help. Executives who wish to grow, however, must do these very things.

You’re more likely to open up to a coach who creates a safe, confidential environment. Coaches accomplish this in part by demonstrating that they understand you and respect your interests, values and concerns. This enables you to feel accepted, be honest about your thoughts and feelings, and be more willing to try new behaviors.

But coaches must be more than cheerleaders. They need to provide challenges that motivate you to perform beyond your habitual behaviors and perceptions; confront you directly, yet non-judgmentally, with the impact of your actions; and courageously probe the motives and assumptions underlying your behaviors.

Coaches who lack the capacity or courage to push you out of your comfort zone aren’t doing their jobs. Some learning is achieved only through discomfort.

Using the Coaching Relationship

Good coaches will use their personal experience with you to teach you about yourself. How you treat your coach reflects how you treat others.

The way you select your coach is significant. Do you see the coach as a subordinate? A vendor or outside consultant? An authority figure whose primary relationship is with your boss? How do gender, race or other personal characteristics influence the way you interact with your coach?

Effective coaches will detect and decipher the subtleties within their clients’ interactions. They will provide feedback on how one’s behavior impacts other relationships and goals. Pick a coach who can raise issues impartially and show you how your behaviors affect others.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help company leaders have a successful executive coaching experience by choosing executive coaches who are the right fit. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged and aligned with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.

I am currently accepting new executive coaching and career coaching clients. I work with both individuals and organizations. Call 415-546-1252 or send an inquiry e-mail to mbrusman@workingresources.com.