Working as a coach in business and executive coaching is a highly skilled and increasingly competitive role and requires demonstration of the following competencies:
Psychological Mindedness
- A thorough understanding of a number psychological frameworks which underpin a coaching approach
- An appreciation that the personal and professional are inextricably linked and understanding that an attempt to separate them is unrealistic
- An ability to understand the conscious and unconscious motivations of others and the effect on their thoughts and behaviours
- An ability to make links between different domains of a person’s experience
- An ability to build an account of a person’s history and its emotional meanings
- Self-awareness and an ability to identify when the coach’s own personal ‘hot spots’ are being triggered in a coaching session
Business Mindedness
- Ability to read the organisational context for a piece of coaching – spoken and unspoken agendas
- An awareness of other coaching interventions used within the organisation and a willingness to knowledge share with other coaching providers, if appropriate
- A discernment of the nature of a client’s key work relationships
- Understanding of how a business is structured and the nature of its key roles
- Understanding of how a business makes money, understanding of its products and services, its markets and competition, its financial performance and potential for growth
- Understanding of and comfort with business terminology used by the client/organisation
- An ability to manage the coaching contract, specifying and managing boundaries
- Confidence to embrace and manage the tension between organisational and personal goals
- Effective communication with the organisation in terms of contractual arrangements, evaluation, return on investment and insights
Coaching Credibility
- Academic coaching qualification
- Professional coaching qualification
- Commitment to regular CPD
- Membership of a professional coaching body
- Evidence of regular coaching supervision
- Track record of coaching in other organisations
- Testimonials available for clients on request
Some of the opportunities which exist for Business and Executive Coaches include the following:
- One to one high performance coaching
- Coaching to support promotion or new role
- Coaching delegates on graduate, management development, leadership development schemes
- First 100 days in Post coaching
- It’s lonely at the top – reflective space or sounding board for Senior Board members
- Coaching for specific projects
- Leadership Coaching
- Maternity Coaching
- Coaching Senior Female Leaders
- Team Coaching
- Coaching skills for Managers or Leaders
Oh – and the final and most important thing – you’ve got to love doing this work and be passionately interested in your clients.
To train to as a Business or Executive coach please take a look at our coach training courses.
If you would like to have a Business or Executive Coach to work with you click the link to find out more.
