If you are a top executive, you don't owe it to yourself to be coached, but you do owe it to all of those whose lives you touch. The coaching conversation must be informed by the emerging economic environment, tomorrow's customer's needs, and the business strategy. A number of coaching disciplines are common:
- Coaching is about framing the conversation such that the coachee finds their own way (power to).
- What the coach believes, the coachee will perceive. The coach must therefore work from the belief that the agreed outcome will (not might), could or should happen.
- An experienced coach learns how to work from a beginner's mind.
- To coach is to listen in the way the coachee has always wanted to be listened to.
- To coach is to help connect the coachee with their own story, ask great questions, introduce a new metaphor, share a compelling story, open the door to best practice and personally model the behaviour being sought.
- Coaching mastery draws on a robust coaching model, meaningful executive experience, cultural relevance, interpersonal sensitivity and mental agility.
Insights from "Coaching the CEO" by John O. Burdett, Leadership advisor to TRANSEARCH International.
