Finding the Right Coach for You
The best executive coaches deliver practical advice with guidance through the process of self-discovery
By Lori Brewer Collins
If you’re an executive manager or an emerging leader in your organization, there is no doubt you will benefit from one-on-one coaching. But how do you know if you’ve found the right coach who’s the best fit for you? What should you be looking for?
Since I became an executive coach in 1995, the whole field of coaching has exploded; you have a huge array of approaches and coaching philosophies to choose from. Especially common are coaches who excel at “inside-out” models of self-discovery and self-exploration; the underpinnings are often based in clinical and industrial/organizational psychology. While this is genuinely valuable, what is not so readily available are coaches who combine an inner journey with solid business experience — those who can add a practical “outside-in” component. This business savvy helps equip you to behave and perform differently — the “outside-in” stuff.
If you’re a manager inside an organization, particularly at a senior level, I recommend you consider a coach who is agile with both “outside-in” as well as “inside-out” processes.
Yes, it’s important to know yourself better. But I’m here to say that your coach also needs to know what it’s like to live in your world. You need someone with years of real-life experience who can relate to your organizational and business situations and help you make real-life, practical applications. The best leaders are highly self-aware, and they’re able to solve real business problems that include leading others toward effective results and developing those around them.
Last week I spent time with two senior managers who demonstrate the importance of this point. I am accompanying them through interior, capacity-building, developmental processes. However, both of them are facing very real business challenges that require I understand the complexities of the real world they operate in. Without that knowledge and experience, my value to them would be limited. By using an approach that combines “outside-in” and “inside-out,” we use their current situations as the perfect “classroom” to create the best context for problem solving while stretching and growing their leadership agility.
I believe this blend of developmental focus with actual organizational experience has served my executive coaching clients. Because I’ve spent 20 years working in the guts of the corporate world and consulting with large organizations around the world, my expertise is accompanied by wisdom and insight.
Thanks to my firsthand experiences, it’s not unusual for me to be able to predict with pretty strong accuracy how people are going to act and react in a given situation. I can quickly grasp the office dynamics. So when clients talk about situations and challenges I readily picture what they’re talking about and we’re able to craft a way forward from that place. As a result, I find it natural to help teams and individuals walk through what’s happening.
My desire is for clients to experience coaching as something that gives them practical, real-life results while helping them develop as human beings.
I encourage you to keep these perspectives in mind as you search for an executive coach who will best fit what it is you need.
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Lori Brewer Collins is owner and managing principal of Artemis Leadership Group, a firm that focuses on leadership and organizational development, executive coaching and team facilitation. Collins’ background includes the Center for Creative Leadership – Europe as well as consulting and training for leaders and teams throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East. She was a part of the original team at Saturn Corporation (General Motors) where she was leader of corporate culture and retail training. Her distinct gift is helping others to achieve clarity in the midst of complexity, uncertainty and change. http://www.artemisleadership.com/