A Typical Executive Coaching Process

Written by admin on Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Many people who are considering using executive coaching to improve their bottom line, or efficiency may have many questions about how the process works if it is their first time using executive coaching services. There are questions about how many sessions will it take, how often are the sessions, what are they like and what do they cover among many of the questions. This article gives a great description of what a typical professional coaching experience will be like. Read on for more.

Coaching is a well-recognized intervention for developing talent and leadership, but what does it really involve?

In this article we aim to demystify executive coaching and what happens in practice by outlining our typical coaching process as performed by us regularly in London, the UK and internationally.

The process starts with a matching meeting between the executive to be coached and the potential coach in order to:

Explain the process and possibilities
Establish the individual’s initial objectives for coaching
Allow the executive to experience the coach’s style and approach first hand
Act as a chemistry check

Session 1

Once the client has chosen their coach, the programme starts with the first coaching session to:

Gain an understanding of the client’s goals and motivations
Refine the objectives for the programme and draw up a coaching contract
Agree any additional information that would assist in meeting the objectives, for example stakeholder interviews, 360 feedback, leadership profiles, psychometric tests etc.
The coach may then go and interview key stakeholders to gather feedback.

Session 2

In the second coaching session the aim is to:

Review feedback from others, psychometrics and profiles as identified in session 1
Refine the coaching objectives
Build the executive coaching action plan for meeting the objectives
Identify short-term wins
There is often a 3-way meeting held between the client, their manager and the coach to agree the final objectives and any additional support required.

Session 3 Onwards

Once the coaching objectives have been refined and a coaching action plan has been put together the focus is on putting the learning into practice, tracking success, reviewing the coaching action plan, deciding what’s worked and what hasn’t, and drawing conclusions for the future.

We respond to individual needs and learning styles, interventions include some or all of the following:

Raising self-awareness
Discussing and overcoming challenges
Planning for events
Expanding understanding
Brain storming
Identifying resources
Committing to action

Final Session

The final session is focused on reviewing the executive’s progress and planning for future sustainability, we aim to:

Review against initial objectives
Give transactional feedback to the manager and organisation as agreed up front
Plan actions for sustainability - Identifying ongoing support if appropriate

Duration and Frequency

The coaching programme normally has a fixed duration, which is usually between 6 to 12 months, depending on the coaching objectives. We strongly believe that the objectives and duration need to be clearly contracted up front.

Meetings normally take place on average once per month, they are often closer together at the beginning and further apart towards the end to reduce dependence on the coach.

Working with executives from diverse backgrounds requires a flexible attitude to the learning styles of different cultures so this will always be taken into account.

Edward Dulson Dip. Exec Coach, BEng Hons., MAC
Based in London and coaching internationally, Edward is the Managing Director of Blue Triangle Coaching Ltd. Edward has been coaching senior executives since 2000 and has now coached over 200 senior executives in 22 countries for some of the world’s leading organisations. For more information click Executive Coaching London

Blue Triangle Coaching Ltd
Established in 2003, Blue Triangle provides executive coaching for board members, senior managers and high potentials of organisations internationally. Blue Triangle are an international group of seasoned and professional executive coaches, backed by solid industry experience. They are united by their common purpose of enabling clients to release their full potential and transfer their learning to improved business results. Please visit our website: http://www.bluetrianglecoaching.com/