Could I Use an Executive Coach?

Years ago, while going through a rough patch in my career, an executive coach proved to be invaluable. He gave me important feedback, helped me monitor my truth meter and provided me with a renewed sense of worth. He also helped me find the courage to begin exploring other options and reminded me to keep looking forward. Jay Bloom says that the higher up one goes the fewer confidants one will have. No doubt. Think about it, could you use an executive coach right now? Bunnie

Could I Use an Executive Coach?

by Jay Bloom, President of Bloom Anew

An executive coach is a valuable resource for organizational leaders because the higher one ascends on the formal leadership ladder, the more limited one is in whom s/he can confide. A leader cannot confide on certain issues with direct reports, employees, colleagues, competitors, or individual Board members, for example. And leaders understand that confining oneself to internal dialogues can limit effectiveness.

In the more than 25 years I’ve been involved in executive coaching, I’ve seen two primary areas that make coaching truly valuable to leaders: transitions and skill development.

Leaders facing some type of transition choice are usually asking one or more of the following questions:

Should I take a promotion and/or relocate?
Do I leave this company and change employers?
Do I get out of this field and re-career?
Am I the right leader for this organization at this time, and going forward? Do I retire? What do I want to do after I retire?

The leader’s spouse or partner may be a resource, but because they clearly have a vested option in the outcome of these questions, the spouse or partner may not be able to provide the neutral space that the leader needs to consider and reflect on his or her primary needs and desires.

At this time of critical transition, an executive coach can help frame the choices, explore the leader’s personal and professional goals, and understand the possible outcomes. The executive coach provides a leader-to-leader/peer-to-peer perspective that also provides encouragement and motivation for change.

The second purpose of executive coaching is in the development of a particular leadership skill or set of skills. As a leader rises higher in an organization, his or her technical skills become less important, and a greater requirement is the development of emotional intelligence skills. No longer responsible for executing tasks or strategies, leaders must manage people, inspire performance, and develop partnerships. These kinds of leadership responsibilities require greater self awareness, managing one’s emotions and the development of one’s empathic skills. All of these skills are required to work more effectively with people and the growing diversity in the work environment—diversity that not only includes race, gender, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation, but also generational differences.

Executive coaches can provide immediate support to organizational leaders in:

crisis management situations
facilitating communication between the board and management
improving management and supervisory skills
creating a healthy organizational culture
consideration of merger or other partnership models
succession planning

As the economy takes its toll on organizations of all sizes, leaders are experiencing increasingly relentless pressures and what feel like permanent whitewater conditions. The confidential relationship with an executive coach is not only a very important investment for the individual leader, but for the organization as well.

Jay C. Bloom provides executive coaching and organizational consultation as President/CEO of Bloom Anew. Jay has undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology, and has attended executive management programs at Yale and Harvard Universities. Most recently, Jay served as the interim President/CEO of United Way of Columbia–Willamette, as the director of Multnomah County’s Task Force on Vital Aging, and as President/CEO of Morrison Child and Family Services, a $20 million nonprofit, for 13 years.