Too often, people are deterred from the process of coaching because of the time involved, the costs and lack of clarity around the ROI, and the admin that comes with it, especially if a business has several leaders being coached at any one time.
But a good executive coaching provider should actually make life easier for businesses, and coaching of this kind should only offer a positive experience. So what should you expect from your executive coach provider to ensure you’re getting the best service? From our vast experience in this area, we share exactly what you should be looking for.
Needs Analysis
Everyone has their own needs and we have all come through different life experiences, so it can be challenging at times to manage and implement the right learning and development solutions for lots of individuals.
What is sometimes overlooked here is the importance of a needs analysis, and this is where all executive coaching should begin.
Coaching is a broad term. It can often seem like the right way forward, but without a needs analysis, it’s not easy to determine whether it really is the best solution.
There are several factors involved to ascertain the right approach. Is coaching going to make the right difference for that individual in that business at that moment in time over the long term? A needs analysis is the only way to help decide that.
Completing a needs analysis isn’t always easy. And that’s why working with an executive coaching provider that has a wealth of training and experience behind them is vital to ensure the most relevant results.
The Journey
When it has been decided that coaching is the right way forward, the coachee and the relevant sponsors involved need to be ready and prepared for the coaching journey. This task is something that a good executive coaching provider should automatically take care of. Without this important step, the results could be impacted.
The preparation work should help to set expectations, and it involves running through the whole coaching process so that the coachee or sponsor knows what's coming up, and what to expect every step of the way.
At The Leadership Coaches, we also conduct chemistry calls to ensure that the coach and coachee feel comfortable with each other before any formal work begins, and this also ensures that the right selection of coach is made.
When the coaching does begin, we check in with all coachees along the journey. This takes the burden away from the client having to assess that the coachees are getting what they need from coaching.
We check in through the official coaching route, but we conduct quality review calls as well, which is another added bonus in helping to communicate how much everything is on track.
The executive coaching provider should be there to manage the admin. This shouldn’t fall onto the shoulders of the client.
Service Levels – What to Look For
To really get the best return on investment from executive coaching, and to ensure that your life is made as easy as possible, you should expect two distinct things from your coaching provider:
1. Expertise – you need peace of mind that your chosen executive coaching provider can offer long term L&D solutions, and that they have the skill set to conduct a needs analysis to ensure the solutions offered are the ones actually needed. Without this, you could be investing in services that just aren’t right
2. Admin Support – alongside the expertise, you also need a good level of support and accountability, with your executive coach provider working with you and relieving much of the admin surrounding the process
At The Leadership Coaches, we have also recently introduced a third and very important addition to our services, to provide even more transparency with our clients. These are our impact reports.
These are reports that reflect on the coaching journey to detail the impact it has made. Please note, we take confidentiality very seriously, and so the level of detail within these reports depends very much on the permissions we’re given by the coachee.
We would initially ask the coachee if they're happy for us to share the highlights of their journey with their employer. We would only ever share it with their permission, and it's not mandatory. Without this permission, we’re still able to provide a basic impact report that is still informative. But the more thorough reports showcase the often brilliant progress made.
We have found that, in many cases, the better the progress the coachee feels they’ve made, the more they’re willing to share it. So it’s win win for all.
One of the key benefits that our clients have found with these reports, whatever the level of detail, is that they can help to secure future budgets for coaching, as they make it far more tangible. We aim to work with our clients to meet their needs, whatever they may be.
Looking at all of this, how many of these elements are catered for with your executive coaching provider? If you could benefit from deeper levels of service, then we’d be happy to share more details with you and explore how we could help. Get in touch to find out more.