What Does an Executive Coach Actually Do?

Most leaders I meet have a vague picture of executive coaching. Somewhere between a consultant, a therapist and a motivational speaker. It's none of those. Here's the plain version: an executive coach helps you see what you can't see from inside your own way of thinking, and then holds you to what you said you would do. That's it. Simple to say. Hard to do alone. WHY YOU CAN'T SEE IT YOURSELF By the time you're running a business or leading a team, you're good. You've solved a lot of problems. The trouble is that the way of thinking that got you here is now the water you swim in. You don't notice it any more than a fish notices water. So when the same problems keep coming back (the team that won't take ownership, the growth that stalls, the week that disappears into firefighting) you keep reaching for the same tools. More effort. More control. Longer hours. A coach stands outside that water. My job isn't to tell you what to do. It's to show you how you're relating to the situation, because that's what is producing the results you're getting. WHAT A SESSION ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A good coaching conversation usually does four things: 1. Separates facts from story. "My team doesn't care" is a story. "Three deadlines were missed this month" is a fact. You can act on facts. Stories just keep you stuck. 2. Finds the real constraint. Not the symptom you walked in with, but the thing underneath that, if it changed, would make everything else easier. 3. Names the conversation you've been avoiding. In my experience there almost always is one, with a partner, a key employee, a client, or yourself. 4. Ends with a clear commitment. Something specific enough that someone could check whether you did it. By when. With whom. Then, next session, we look at what happened. Not to judge it, but to learn from it. THE ACCOUNTABILITY PART This is the piece most people underestimate. Insight is cheap. Everyone has had a breakthrough at a conference that was gone by Thursday. What changes a business is keeping your word, over and over, until it becomes who you are. A coach is the person who remembers what you promised and asks about it. Kindly. Directly. Every time. WHAT IT ISN'T It isn't therapy. We're not digging into your childhood. We're looking at how you're showing up now and what you're committed to next. It isn't consulting. I won't hand you a 40-page report. You'll do the work, and you'll own the results. It isn't a pep talk. Sometimes coaching is uncomfortable. If I only ever agree with you, I'm not doing my job. WHO IT'S FOR Executive coaching tends to work best for people who: - have already built something real and are now stuck at a ceiling - are tired of being the bottleneck in their own business - want results, and are willing to look at themselves to get them If that's you, coaching can be the difference between another year of the same and a year you look back on as a turning point. I've coached business owners and executives for more than 20 years, here in Coquitlam and across Greater Vancouver, and by phone and video across North America. If you'd like to find out whether coaching is right for you, book a free intro call at reinventionunlimited.com. No pitch, just an honest conversation. George Watson Reinvention Unlimited