In a recent conversation about executive coaching, a partner and very successful investor at a large private equity firm said, “that’s where you fix broken leaders, right?”

This is a common misconception. In the past decade, we’ve coached over 5,000 leaders and we did not “fix” any of them. We also didn’t tell them what to do (advise them) or offer them lessons learned from our past experiences (mentor them). Instead, as professionally trained and certified executive coaches, we help leaders reflect, become more self-aware, set learning objectives, experiment with new behaviors, and develop into more effective leaders.

Richard Boyatzis, a professor in the departments of organizational behavior, psychology, and cognitive science at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, has studied executive coaching extensively over the last two decades. Here is Boyatzis’s perspective:

“Good coaches help people through (the change) process. Note that we used the word ‘help,’ not ‘guide,’ ‘lead,’ ‘push,’ or ‘pull.’ (The coach) is not there to tell anyone what to do…. (but) to ask good questions and listen intently, to offer compassion, to explore a person’s individual vision, and to build a caring relationship. (The coach’s) job is to assist someone else with making a change, and how you go about it matters. (The coach) is there to help him or her spot the learning opportunity, set the groundwork, and see things through… to support people with challenges that range from very big (I’m unsatisfied in my career) to relatively small (I’d like to interact with others differently).”

Let’s look at just one example of how a trained coach does that.

In the process of building a trusting relationship with a leader, a coach typically asks a leader to envision and articulate how they want to operate as a leader in the future. This exploration of a positive future creates beneficial changes in the leader’s brain (arousal of positive emotions, activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, changes in the neuroendocrine system, etc.), which in turn lead to:

• a decrease in stress
• greater openness to new ideas
• clearer thinking
• stronger emotional intelligence
• an increased receptivity to behavioral change
• the generation of new neurons, which increase the level of learning

All that from just one of the hundreds of techniques a trained and experienced coach leverages!

Here’s more research on executive coaching and its impact:

• A study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology indicates that working with a trained coach has a statistically significant positive effect on self-management, work attitudes, well-being, coping ability, and performance.
• Research conducted by Elizabeth Thach at Sonoma State University and published in Leadership & Organizational Development Journal found that the combination of 360 feedback and executive coaching increased leadership effectiveness by up to 60%.
• Leadership programs that combine training and coaching lead to an 88% improvement in performance, compared to just a 22% improvement from training alone.

Given these benefits, it’s no wonder that 72% of the organizations surveyed by Chief Learning Officer offered executive coaching as part of their talent development strategy to help improve skills, increase engagement, and retain top talent.

We’d love to talk with you about how we can help you and your organization with executive coaching. Let us know if you’d like to connect.

The Boda team