- Know the difference between Coaching and other professions: If you were a Behavioral Trainer or Consultant before becoming an Executive Coach, it always helps to remember the key differences in these roles! You would consciously need to move away from the role of ‘telling’ to ‘eliciting’. For some of us, it is tough to make this shift!
- It is OK to say no to an assignment: When you start working as an Executive Coach, you may get some assignment which may be outside the scope of a Coach (e.g. assignment requiring ‘Therapy’). It is absolutely OK to tell the customer that you are not the right person for this job. You could refer them to right resource if you know any.
- Take a pause during Coaching conversation: During the executive coaching process, you may get busy in asking a series of questions. At times, the process becomes intense. To ensure that the coachee gets maximum benefit from the coaching process, it helps to slow down. At times, you should take a pause before asking your next questions. I call it – coming to a neutral gear! This neutral gear space gives you the ability to think objectively and ask next appropriate question to coachee.
- Be patient – Trust the process: When we play the role of a coach, all of us want the coachee to be very satisfied (at times thrilled!) at the end of the coaching process. Some of us get impatient in the middle of the coaching process. We get anxious with the fact that the coachee has not yet experienced an aha moment! This affects our ability to ask next powerful question. So be patient – trust the process! Coachee will experience the aha at the right moment.
- Know your power of giving perspectives: Coaching is a process of giving different perspective to the coachee. And in the process of getting new perspectives, coachee ends up enhancing his/ her personal and professional potential! At times, the coach does not realize the impact the process has made on coachee.
Let us always remember this power we have so that we all can make a positive difference in the world we live in.
All the best to you in the journey of being an Executive Coach!
