How do I find an Executive Coach — Q & A on Breakthrough Leadership

Lou Quinto:

Welcome to Q and A on Breakthrough Leadership. I'm Lou Quinto and I'm Craig Anderson. Our topic we'll cover today is going to be, do I need an executive coach? This is a question a lot of people have been asking themselves lately. Executive coaching has become invoke a, when it comes to improving your performance at work home in life in general. And so what we'll do is as usual, we'll look at three specific areas to address that topic. The first area is going to be what is an executive coach. The second area is why, why do I even need one? And then the last area is going to be what should I expect if I hire an executive? So Craig, why don't you kick it off and, and tell us what's an executive coach.

Craig P. Anderson:

Sure. Well, so for this one, I went ahead and pulled out my old textbook for what I went through to get my coaching certification.

Craig P. Anderson:

And what an executive coach is, it's a relationship. It's a catalyzing relationship between two individuals that helps that individual achieve their goals faster and have more success. And that's really what an executive coach does. If you think about it, it's, you know, Tiger Woods has a swing coach. If you want to lose weight, you get a nutrition coach. If you want to get fit, you get a personal training coach . An executive coach is no different. Executive coach is someone that you hire because you want to achieve your goals faster and you want to have more success. And the executive coach is someone who comes alongside you and helps you with that. Okay?

Lou Quinto:

And in many instances while executive coaching really has not been around a very long time, or at least hasn't been as popular as it is lately nowadays you talk to somebody and they'll want this. One of the things, it's not who's your therapist anymore, it's who's your executive coach. And it provides that opening of conversation. But people actually, when it comes to executive coaching, if they, if they really want to improve their behaviors, if they want to improve their performance, yeah. They need an executive coach. Oh yeah. Which leads us into the next area is why do I need one? And I always tell people executive coaching is there's, there's still that mentality, executive coach genius for those people who are low performers or mediocre performers. But a lot of people don't realize that even the top performers, you mentioned tiger woods, you know, before a top performer.

Lou Quinto:

And I always tell people, you need the executive coach if you feel that you've hit a plateau. So you can be good at what you are. You can be a top performer. But can you go even further? Because one of the advantages of having an executive coach is obviously or more income, right? Wealth. And so if you're in a situation where you're at the top of your game, a lot of people like to rest on their laurels and think, well, I've made it when you actually have, because things change and there's, you know, they say there's that learning curve that we have. And a lot of times when we get to the top of the learning curve, people stop learning and it just becomes a plateau or a flat line. Like in the hospital, you know, that heart, beep, it just becomes a flat line.

Lou Quinto:

And that's why a lot of people never advance any further than they do because they don't have that pushing.

Craig P. Anderson:

Well it's, yeah. I think for, for me, I, when I, where I like working with people who have had success and are trying to figure out how to get to the next level. So I think there is that, you know, there's a book out there, you know, what got you here won't get you there. Right. So there's, there's things that you have done that have gotten you to this point in your career and you've had a lot of success. But you know, the dirty little secret about successes, it creates an expectation for more success. And sometimes you need to think through new strategies or decide what's working and what's not

Craig P. Anderson:

And when an executive coach brings to the table for you as you're going through that process is how do I, you know, what do I need to change? Helps you come up with the, helps you brainstorm, doesn't give you the ideas, but actually helps you kind of figure out what do I need to rethink what you know directionally, where do I need to go? And sometimes even you need somebody to ask you the hard questions. You may not even be willing to ask yourself and you don't want to get from your boss or from a subordinate who may not always give you kind of, you know, the executive coaches, they are for you. They solely exist to help you be more successful in your career. Right. You know, there are still coaches out there who worked with kind of low performers trying to pull people up.

Craig P. Anderson:

I know some of those people who really enjoy that kind of work and you know, if I have somebody who's come to me with that, I usually refer those out to those people because that's kind of where their sweet spot is. But you know, it's really a challenge of you need an executive coach because you want it, as you said, you want to get to the next level and it's time to try some new things and think through some of these strategies. It could even be, you know, Hey, I've been a really successful sales rep, now I'm a sales manager for the first time. Right. Those traits and skills that got you into that role are not necessarily the traits and skills are going to make you successful as a sales manager and an executive coach can help you kind of work through those issues.

Lou Quinto:

Yeah, and we all have our comfort zone. So obviously those skills that we learned before we try to put them into that new role. And a lot of times those skills don't exactly fit up. We need those new skills. And so a lot of times when you need an executive coach is a change in a position in, in your company, in what you're doing. So if I'm in the market for a coach, what should I look for in a coach? You know, there's, is Lou is, you said earlier, right? There's a lot of coaches out there right now. And so it doesn't take a whole lot of work to set yourself up as a coach. You just create a website and say, I'm a coach. So the first thing I would say I'd want to look for when I'm looking for coaches, are they trained?

Craig P. Anderson:

Are they certified? Have they gotten their certifications? Because you know, anyone can put them out there and you know, you can put yourself out as a life coach at 18 you know, but you can certainly do that. But I think it's one thing is, you know, what have they done, you know, and then who have they worked with? Do they have any referrals that they can provide to you? Do they kind of align with what I need? Do they have an experience and skill set that I think will be complementary to what I'm trying to do? So I think that's kind of the starting point when you're looking. And the other thing too, in addition to credentials, experience, certification, and there is the personality match between you and your coach. I mean, you don't want to hire someone who is got good certification, got great experience in everything, but you just don't mesh with that person because that won't work.

Lou Quinto:

And so a lot of times it's like looking for a candidate for a job. You know, you've got your requirements that you want, you know, must have been, you know, an advanced degree and things like that. But a lot of times those people with all those requirements don't, aren't that perfect personality fit. Right? And those are some things that's something that you truly need to take into consideration is does this person fit my personality? And then second, do they fit my budget? Because when it comes to executive coaching, you get prices that range anywhere from $100 to, well, we talked about a Tony Robbins $15,000 a session or a who was the other one that you were Malcolm Gladwell.Yeah. And I think Tony Robins might be a little bit higher than that, but you're probably looking at do I have the budget? And so if you're looking at a hundred to $500 per session you know, what do I have that in my budget?

Lou Quinto:

Is this going to be a three-month engagement? Is it going to be a six-month engagement? Isn't going to be a year engagement. And so when you're looking at that coach, what you should look for is does it fit your pocketbook or the budget that your company has? But you know, I think one thing too when you're looking at is the reason you're hiring an executive coach is to enhance your performance. So, you know, if you can hire a coach to come in, that'll get your annual bonus from 2% to 5% that's a great return on that investment. So if you're spending 100 200 500 bucks an hour, you know, you need to look at this. This is really an investment in yourself. And I think, you know, what are you willing to spend on yourself? So if your health is at risk, you're willing to spend a gym membership and you have a personal trainer and pay 700 bucks a month because you want to get healthy, right?

Craig P. Anderson:

Yeah, you've got to use the coaching. Oh yeah, absolutely. So it's, so you need to look at this as kind of a return on my investment when you're looking for a coach. And the other thing too is that, you know, when it comes to companies, because there are still some companies who they question executive coaching. And so if this is going to be something that's gonna come out of your pocket or it's going to be shared by you and the company that needs to be taken consideration. Yup, absolutely. Let's go ahead key takeaways. Why don't you ramp everything up here? Oh yeah, we'll just, yeah, we'll tee it up is one, I think, you know, the big thing for me in coaching is this is about, you know, how am I going to make myself better and how am I going to hold myself to a higher bar?

Craig P. Anderson:

You, I'm an executive coach, so obviously this all sounds very self-serving, but I have a coach because for me, I need that couch behind me. And as I look back, you know, just for me over the last couple of years, I've gone through some pretty big transitions in my life. And throughout that, the thing that I had was a coach that helped me be that on fitness or be that on, you know, it's changing in Garth, starting a new business, having that coach there, it was really important. And so I think for me it's the fact that there's somebody there whose sole concern and sole focus is helping you be successful. And how many of us really have that person who comes to us without an agenda, who just wants us to be successful? And that's a pretty rare thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My key takeaway is when you're looking for a coach, you need to have someone who fits your personality.

Lou Quinto:

They've got to laugh at the same jokes. You laugh at read the same type of book. Someone that you, you would want to go out on a regular basis and have a cup of coffee with your, you know, become friends. But there's gotta be a meshing. And then the other thing too is your budget. You need to know what you're going to spend on a coach because if not you, you could get sticker shock and think, Oh, I want to get an executive coach. But then you start looking at coaches who are highly recommended, who, you know, have a lot of experience and you know, all the certification. But then when you start looking at their prices, that's when you go, Oh, well, maybe, you know, maybe I can keep doing things myself. So really look at personality and look at budget to make sure that fits in your situation.

Lou Quinto:

Sure. Okay. All right. So if you liked this episode coaching please go ahead and like subscribe, share this with people that you work with that may be thinking about or looking at an executive coach because truly if you want to get to the next level, getting that help, having someone turn the mirror around on you to get you to see what you're doing will definitely help you to propel you to that next level. So we hope you've enjoyed this episode of Q and a on breakthrough leadership. I'm Lou Quinto and I'm Craig Anderson.