Executive coaching is used by chief executives, senior leaders, middle managers and first-line leaders in all sizes of corporations.  Chief executives and senior leaders have known and used an executive coach as a way to challenge their thinking, get objective feedback and focus their work.  Middle and first-line managers are discovering that executive coaching helps them develop on the job.  Through executive coaching, these leaders are able to  deal with and learn from situations as they arise.  Think “just in time leadership.” 

While the coaching agenda is always unique to each client, typical executive coaching engagements are focused on improving the leader’s ability to:

1. •Gain clarity
   

2. •Find new, more effective ways to deal with situations
   

3. •Focus and prioritize important work and projects
   

4. •Plan
   

5. •Communicate
   

6. •Obtain unbiased feedback
   

7. •Identify assumptions in business-critical thinking
   

8. •Align organizational goals and individual values
   

The process for executive (or sounding board) coaching is depicted in the diagram on the right.  Specifically, the coach and leader work together to:

1. •Set goals in a clear and specific manner.
   

2. •Raise awareness around the leader’s current behaviors, desired behaviors and effectiveness relative to the goal.
   

3. •Expand the leader’s possible actions through education, observation, discussion, role-playing and modeling.
   

4. •Develop a theory and craft an experiment to try the new behavior.
   

5. •Take action.
   

6. •Debrief the action.  Modify it or work to engrain it as needed.
   

In addition to the typical one-on-one formats for executive coaching, senior leaders now have the option to join an executive group when they want  input from a coach and a peer group.