BECOME AN EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COACH MEANING

BECOME AN EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COACH MEANING

BECOME AN EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COACH MEANING

The Core Competencies

EXECUTIVE BUSINESS COACH

Psychological Knowledge

In laying out the competencies and knowledge essential for the effective executive coach, it is important to differentiate between formal psychological knowledge – that is, knowledge of psychological theories and concepts relevant to the practice of executive coaching and tacit psychological knowledge, sometimes also referred to as social intelligence or emotional intelligence. This section describes the formal psychological knowledge necessary for effective executive coaching.

Basic

Understanding of:

  • Personality theories
  • Models of human motivation
  • Adult development theories, including moral, intellectual,emotional, relational, and spiritual development
  • Models of adult learning
  • Models of career development
  • Models of personal and behavioral change
  • Work/life balance
  • Stress management techniques
  • Social psychology and how social factors impact individual and group behavior
  • How to identify individuals in need of psychological or medical referral
  • Models of emotional intelligence
  • The role of gender differences in adulthood
  • Models and methods of 360 degree feedback
  • Models of personal and leadership style (e.g., MBTI, DISC)

Advanced

Understanding of:

  • The psychology of transitions between developmental stages
  • Models of substance abuse
  • Clinical diagnoses and how they play out in workplace (e.g., narcissism)
  • Conflict resolution and mediation
  • Family systems theory
  • Abnormal psychology/psychopathology
  • Psychological assessment methods and tools (e.g.,16PF, Strong Interest
  • Inventory, Firo B)

Business Acumen

Executive coaches need business acumen in order to understand the goals and work context of their coachees. Business knowledge also gives executive coaches credibility with their coachees and others in the coachees. organization. In addition to general business knowledge, coaches need to acquire knowledge of the specific businesses of their coachees.

Basic

Understanding of:

  • Business practices and concepts
  • Basic financial concepts (e.g., income and balance sheets)
  • Business functions and their interdependencies
  • The strategic planning process and its relationship with team and individual goal setting
  • Current information technologies
  • The role of information technology in business (e.g. E.R.P., enterprise management)
  • Process improvement technologies
  • Global capitalism and global firms
  • The differences between regulated and non-regulated businesses
  • The differences between for-profit and not-for-profit businesses
  • The key leadership roles of organizations (e.g. COO, CFO, CTO, CEO, Executive Director, Board Chair, etc.)
  • Knowledge of current business events, issues and trends
  • Management principles and processes
  • Human resource management

Advanced

 Understanding of:

  • Merger and acquisition issues
  • Several specific industries and their technologies
  • The use and abuse of technology
  • Leading edge business practices
  • Governance structures and practices and how they interface with business operations
  • Management of the supply chain/network
  • Product lifecycles
  • Government regulations (e.g. compliance, approval, and other governmental regulations and processes)
  • How boards operate in relationship to senior management
  • Re-engineering and downsizing

Organizational Knowledge

Executive coaches work with coachees who must accomplish their work goals and advance their careers within the context of their organization(s). Therefore, it is important for executive coaches to understand organizational structures, systems, processes and how to assess all of these elements of the organization in which the coachee works.

Basic

Understanding of:

  • Basic organizational structures, systems and processes including functional, divisional and matrix organizational forms as well as the behavioral patterns associated with each
  • Organizational assessment and diagnosis
  • Organizational design and development principles and practices
  • The impact and role of organizational cultures and subcultures
  • The phases of team development and the characteristics of effective team leadership
  • Models of leadership
  • Leadership development programs and processes
  • Organization development methodologies
  • Organizational systems theory
  • The nature and role of organizational politics, power and influence
  • Organizational change management theories and practices
  • Consulting theory and practices
  • The role of ethics in business and in organizational consulting
  • Models of the learning organization
  • Models of succession and leadership transition

Advanced

Understanding of:

  • The processes of executive talent management and successionplanning
  • The tasks, challenges, and success factors associated with executives coming into new roles or assignments (.on-boarding.)
  • The nature of and processes associated with organizational learning (e.g. knowledge transfer, knowledge management, information sharing, etc.)
  • The distinctive characteristics of family- owned and family-operated enterprises
  • The processes associated with organizational design principles
  • The practices associated with changes in organizational designs
  • Diversity management issues

Coaching Knowledge

Executive Coaches need to have specific knowledge of theory, research and practice in the developing field of executive coaching.

Basic

Understanding of:

  • The history of executive coaching
  • Executive coaching models and theories
  • The definitions of coaching and executive coaching as a specialty practice
  • Seven overarching principles for executive coaching: systems perspective, results orientation, business focus, partnership, competence, integrity, and judgment
  • Seven guidelines for practicing the different phases of executive coaching by the coach, the executive, and the executive’s organization: managing confidentiality, pre-coaching activities, contracting, assessment, goal setting, coaching, and transitioning to long-term development
  • The underlying principles and approaches of the different types of coaching and how they differ from and/or can be incorporated into executive coaching
  • The distinction between executive coaching and other models of coaching
  • The role of manager as coach and the impact of executive coaching on the development of that capability
  • The roles coaches can play and when and how to effectively apply them (e.g. trainer, mentor, advisor, etc.)
  • The differences between executive coaching and other helping methods for executives (e.g. counseling, consulting, therapy, mentoring, etc.)
  • How coaching theories and methods apply to various situations of individual coaching clients
  • How to tailor the coaching process to adapt it to the unique needs and circumstances of the coachee and the organization
  • Measurement of coaching outcomes and process
  • Research findings on executive coaching (past and emerging)
  • The core competencies of executive coaches
  • The wide variety of available coaching resources (books, articles, internet sites, tools, etc.)
  • How to maintain and implement a continuous plan for one’s own professional development

Advanced

 Understanding of:

  • Evolving trends in the practice of executive coaching
  • How coaching models can be developed and customized to emerging needs and trends

Coaching Tasks and Skills

The executive coaching process can be divided into six phases: Building and Maintaining Coaching Relationships, Contracting; Assessment; Development Planning; Facilitating Development and Change; and Ending  Formal Coaching and Transitioning to Long-term Development. Each of these phases, as outlined below, has a set of tasks to be performed. Many of these tasks can also be viewed as specific skills that an executive coach can develop and hone.

Building and Maintaining Coaching Relationships

 Basic

  • Build and sustain trust ! Hold the coachee, his/her boss, and HR accountable
  • Identify and manage resistance and conflict
  • Influence with and without authority
  • Maintain confidentiality on sensitive organizational and individual issues
  • Hold multiple perspectives
  • Solicit feedback on one.s own performance as the coach
  • Utilize the coaching relationship as a tool to help the coachee
  • Maintain the balance of the close coaching relationship and professional boundaries
  • Make and explain observations about what goes on in the coaching relationship and its similarities and differences to the coachee’s other relationships
  • Appropriately challenge the coachee and deal with the his/her defensiveness without impairing the coaching relationship

Advanced

  • Provide guidance on diverse cultures and cross-cultural issues
  • Use earned trust to challenge values, assumptions, and business practices
  • Work with a diverse group of clients and stakeholders (cultures, races, genders, styles, ethnicity, etc.)
  • Hold sessions with senior management and Organizational
  • Effectiveness/HR staff to share observations, organizational knowledge, data, and themes relating to leadership and organizational issues.

Contracting

Basic

  • Evaluate the readiness of the coachee for coaching
  • Engage all appropriate constituents in goal setting and agenda setting for the coaching (coachee, boss, HR, others)
  • Obtain commitment and support from all appropriate constituents
  • Establish guidelines for confidentiality
  • Establish the boss’s and HR’s role in the coaching
  • Facilitate agenda-setting and goal-setting meetings between the coachee, his/her boss and the HR professional
  • Develop realistic and challenging coaching goals
  • Set realistic time frames for accomplishing the coaching goals
  • Re-contract when appropriate
  • Tailor the coaching process to the unique needs of the coachee and organization

Advanced

  • Play multiple roles without crossing key boundaries or compromising the guidelines for practice
  • Challenge the coachee’s com
  • Contract with the boss for feedback to him/her
  • Negotiate and write three forms of coaching contracts: the learning contract with the coachee, his/her boss and HR professional; the business/legal/financial contract with the coachee’s organization; and the personal/relationship contract with the coachee
  • Manage times of low and high demand in one’s own coaching practice so as not to negatively impact client
  • Service

Assessment

Basic

  • Design assessment plans
  • Administer and interpret 360 degree feedback instruments and measures of personal and leadership style
  • (e.g., MBTI, DISC)
  • Interview the coachee and his/her key constituents
  • Unobtrusively observe/shadow the coachee in his/her work environment
  • Gather data from multiple sources, aggregate them and present the results and implications in a useful format
  • Use the results of assessment tools and instruments to evaluate the coachee’s strengths, weaknesses, abilities, tendencies, preferences, behavior patterns, emotions, thinking styles, opportunities, constraints, and other factors important to the coaching
  • Use the results of assessment tools, instruments and other methods to evaluate the coachee’s organizational context (e.g. characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, constraints, etc.)
  • Refer when appropriate to Employee Assistance Programs, career counselors, or other specialists for the administration, scoring, and interpreting of assessments
  • Identify the coachee’s learning style

Advanced

  • Design and develop 360-degree assessments: surveys, interviews, observations, and focus groups
  • Administer and interpret assessment instruments in the service of the coaching contract (personality, developmental stage, ability, interest, culture, climate, efficiency, quality, etc.)
  • Interview the coachee’s spouse and family
  • Design and implement systems and tools for the measurement and evaluation of coaching interventions
  • Conduct specialized assessments: customer needs and satisfaction, benchmarking, team effectiveness, etc.

Facilitating Development and Change

Basic

  • Take the coachee.s point of view and offer alternative points of view
  • Show accurate empathy
  • Listen actively and respectfully
  • Communicate clearly, concisely, and directly
  • Provide constructive feedback
  • Observe the coachee.s behavior in coaching sessions and provide real-time feedback
  • Offer specific strategies and suggested behavior changes
  • Demonstrate and serve as a role model in the coaching for new work methods and ways of communicating
  • Create and raise awareness
  • Design assignments that encourage experimentation, reflection, and learning
  • Ask powerful questions
  • Support and confront appropriately
  • Challenge assumptions
  • Solicit solutions
  • Swiftly translate ideas into action plans
  • Develop management, executive and leadership skills
  • Provide learning resources as needed (reading, models, etc.)
  • Involve the boss as the ongoing coach
  • Measure and monitor the coaching process and results
  • Address new issues and learning opportunities as they arise

Advanced

  • Deal with multiple parts of the coachee.s life that affect his/her job performance and satisfaction (spiritual, physical, emotional, etc.)
  • Spontaneously design and improvise unique combinations of approaches to meet the special needs of individual executives
  • Incorporate other specialty knowledge and techniques in the coaching intervention (financial analysis, market analysis, innovation, total quality management, group process consultation, family businesses, etc.)
  • Use video, audio, and other feedback techniques in the coaching
  • Help to design organizational structures
  • Identify opportunities for organizational improvements
  • Share knowledge and expertise appropriately to help the coachee develop solutions for complex business challenges
  • Mediate interpersonal and inter-group conflicts

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