How to Choose an Executive Coach

Hi everyone, I'm Chris Coward, executive coach and leadership development expert. I'm here to do a little video for you today on how to choose an executive coach. I'm going to go over four things that I recommend you consider when choosing your coach.

The first thing is chemistry. The way to assess that is to have at least a 15-minute conversation with the respective coach. And maybe have several different coaches that you're looking at.

And you're looking for how easy it is to share with them what your trust level is of them. Can you be open, honest, and vulnerable because that is how you're going to grow? What's their style with you? Are the warm and friendly, which is easy for you to open up? Or is there a little bit of an edge to them that maybe for your purposes of coaching is going to be really helpful to you to be challenged to grow.

So you should feel by the end of that conversation if it's the right coach, pretty excited, and ready to go. And also maybe a little daunted or nervous about it because you know you're going to be asked to stretch and grow beyond your comfort zone. So that's all a good thing. That's chemistry. That's a biggie.

The second is what is this executive coaches’ thought leadership? And you can find that out by maybe asking them directly on their leadership approach, how they work with leaders. You may see on their website what they talk about. Are they talking about using a coach approach to management? Are they specialists in managing difficult conversations, getting more productivity from the team? What is their leadership philosophy if you will.

That's good to know because you want to make sure that it's going to be helpful to what you want to grow in and learn about.

And then the third thing is you want your coach to have an understanding of organizational dynamics and team development, because that's a big part of leadership, is how am I leveraging the strengths of my team, how am I helping my team grow, bringing them together, what are the organizational dynamics in my organization, and how can my coach help me create a better understanding at how to move through that and leverage my team to get the best from them?

And then the fourth thing in this, I recognize that I'm very biased around this, is that your executive coach should have an ICF credential. What is that? The ICF stands for International Coach Federation. Again, I'm biased, but I believe it's the gold standard of the coaching industry. Meaning they have had training from a school that's approved from the International Coach Federation, and they adhere to ethics and standards around that, so you know you'll be taken care of that way. And they'll be following that code.

And again, the 11 competencies that are part of ICF training are really important and they work. The danger out there in the coaching world that you know, everybody and their mother can call themselves a coach. What happens sometimes is that people are not really trained in coaching, and they're out there calling themselves a coach and doing coach.

That can be dangerous because you don't know what you're getting. And at least with an ICF credential coach you know that you're getting someone who has been trained in a great set of core competencies, and is holding the ethical standards of the ICF.

That's it for this video. It's a short one. And good luck with that. And if you have any questions on how to choose a coach please comment below or reach out to me at the link below. Have a great day.