How can executive coaching benefit you?

General Senior Executives

If you think executive coaching is a resource only for high-achieving executives in crisis, think again. While coaching can be valuable in emergency situations, its usefulness goes far beyond that. Executive coaching is a dialogue-based tool that improves professional performance and wellbeing, tackling issues such as resilience, empathy, motivation, leadership, difficult relationships, decision-making and fulfillment.

In short, it helps you to become a better professional, in the broadest sense. That in turn helps you to become a more effective leader – better inspiring and motivating your team.

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Benefits of executive coaching

IESE Business School held its International Coaching Symposium, and Prof. Alberto Ribera, head of the Executive Coaching Unit, has published a book on the process. Here, some of the benefits of coaching for leaders:

1. It creates a time and space for thought and discussion

In the day-to-day of life and work, it can be difficult to find the time or context for deliberate, conscious reflection on what your goals are and what you’re doing to achieve them. Coaching creates exactly that space.

2. It gives you a different kind of feedback than you’re likely to hear from anyone else

Coaching isn’t an assessment. It’s not criticism (or praise) from your boss, or feedback from employees. The coach has no agenda except to support you – which can sometimes begin with discovering a weakness you didn’t fully realize you had. Together with your coach, you’ll arrive at new conclusions.

3. It gives you new perspectives on existing situations

One of the processes learned in the coaching process is reframing – or seeing things in a different light. That means viewing problems as possibilities, challenges as opportunities. Sometimes, the solution was there for you and was just waiting to be discovered.

4. It gives you renewed confidence and self-awareness

You emerge from the coaching process better prepared to make decisions and move forward, whatever your situation may be. Coaching is all about finding solutions and taking action, so that renewed self-awareness will be a source of productivity.