Coaching a senior executive is always a challenge.Some issues a coach will deal with…
1) Solitude. “It is lonely at the top”.  Being a CEO is tough and many individuals in that position, contrary to popular belief, have a difficult time coping.

2) CEOs have a very limited life ourside of work. With 16 hour days, the feel tremendous strain to keep up relationships with their spouse, children and friendships. They are usually 24/7 slaves to their jobs.

3) A global economy means mobile CEOs.  Many spend much energy and time in planes, in new residences in different country. Sounds exotic but is it really?

An executive coach will help a CEO to learn to drive their own agendas instead of letting the business drive them. A coach will encourage an executive to build an active support network. He will help him work out a schedule so s/he can spend more time with a spouse and children. Finally, he will point out the importance of staying in top physical and mental shape.

It seems that more and more business people are doing it! Getting out there and meeting people to build their network and to grow their business. kIt is a well known fact that if you are looking for a job, the fastest and most efficient way of landing one is by networking.

When it comes to networking, you can begin with Internet sites such as LinkedIn,  Facebook, MySpace. But, these new avenues can’t replace genuine ‘face-time’, where you choose your venue and you meet people, show interest and handout your business cards. Meeting people in person remains the best way to network. That’s why organizations such as BNI and CEO Space work so well. It is fundamentally about creating rapport with other people. Hit it off with someone else, and your chances of hitting a homerun for your business skyrocket. Getting involved, without being self-serving, in an authentic way is really a key to success. The good old proven method of you “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” works more than ever. Learning to focus on the other person; getting interested in them and actively listening to them are invaluable ways of creating the rapport which will pay big dividends for all in this win-win situation.

“To succeed in your business, Be purposeful, Be patient, and Be active. Learn to put all three of these laws at work, and you will save yourself years of heartache and trial and error. Instead, you will manifest what you want in your life and your business much faster than you’ve ever created anything before.”
The Answer, Growing any business by John Assaraf and Murray Smith; ISBN-13;978-1-4165-6199-6

You have to know that where you are presently in your personal and business life is a direct result of the way you think, believe and act which includes the way you perceive reality. The way you organize your map of reality. (Important principle: the map is not the territory).

So, if you are looking for different results, you have to be willing and decide to think, believe, act and perceive reality in a totally new way. Otherwise, you will continue getting the same results as you have presently.

Working with a coach is an excellent way to explore and adopt new ways of thinking, believing, acting and perceiving.

How do you know if you have found the ideal coach for yourself?

• Does the coach have a lot of life experience?
• Does the coach approach you with empathy?
• Does the coach have good listening skills?
• Do you feel the coach is centered on your concerns?
• Is the coach certified?
• Does the coach have a professional code of ethics?
• Has the coach explained the coaching process?
• Has the coach demonstrated clarity and openness?
• Do you feel there is a good “fit” between yourself and the coach?

Set better goals and then reach them with your coach. With a coach “in his corner”, a client does more than he would on his own. A coach helps him to focus and to produce results. By providing the tools, support and structure to create important results, a coach becomes the client’s best ally. Some people believe a best friend can provide the same support as a coach. It is true that a best friend is a wonderful person to have in your life. However, is your best friend a trained and professional expert in change whom you can trust to tell you the truth on the most essential aspects of your life or career? Why not have a best friend AND a coach?

The coach’s job is to help an individual move forward, set personal and professional goals that will concretely get the client the life he really wants. Unlike a therapist, the coach won’t focus on ‘issues’ or delve into the past with the client to see what events could have caused a dysfunctionality. Coaching is about the future. It is not about problem solving in the past but it seeks solutions for the immediate future. And a coach will stay with his client as long as necessary to help implement new skills, changes and goals to make sure they really happen. A good coach makes his client accountable for doing what he said he would do. Someone once said that psychotherapy helps an individual move from dysfunctional to functional, from -10 to 0. Coaching can move a person from being simply functional to being outstanding, from 0 to +10!

Finally, coaching is based on the principle that as human beings, we all have great potential and that we have a need to discover what we really want. People want more quality in their lives; they want to grow. Today, more and more people are forming a partnership with a coach to realize their full potential and to lead more satisfying lives. They begin taking more effective and focused actions immediately. They stop tolerating the things they don’t want in their lives and they create momentum which helps them set better goals and attain results.

Finally, a coach will contribute to the client experiencing a stronger foundation; discovering a personal value system and focusing on what is going to help him succeed in his life.

“How leaders find the right solutions by knowing what to ask.”

If is true that change begins with inquiry, Leading with Questions is a very useful book to start a transformational process because of its practical approach for business leaders who want to develop and ask questions that provoke reflection, get meaningful information, and jumpstart action.

“Throughout the book, author Michael Marquardt demonstrates how effective leaders use questions to encourage participation and teamwork, foster outside-the-box thinking, empower others, build relationships with customers, solve problems, and much more.”

The book is based on interviews with over twenty business leaders who lead with questions. The author classifies the different approaches and questions which lead to solutions and action. The reader can learn different strategies on how to use questions that will get results. The book teaches the art of questioning and shows how to use the techniques of active listening and follow-up. Most importantly, the author presents guidelines for using questions in a variety of situations (individual, team and organization).

“Leading with Questions is a great guide for understanding when, how, and where to lead with questions”.

Leading with Questions; Michael Marquardt, Jossey-Bass, 2005; 216 p.  ISBN-13:978-0-7879-7746-7

The authors tell you how to adapt the coaching techniques sports professionals have been using for years into your managerial style. Become a winning manager-coach and help employees evaluate their performance, outline a plan of action with clear goals for improvement, and hold employees accountable to what they ’say’ they’ll deliver. “Achieve the results you want, build an unbeatable team, and everybody wins!

Some Highlights:

• Everyone has blind spots. A coach helps to explore how you can look into yours and become more effective. It is the client who connects the dots while the coach asks the questions such as: “What are you going to do to do differently moving forward?” He lights a fire under his client. “What steps are you going to take?” “By when?” He follows up with his client. He keeps him focused.
• A coach helps his client cut through the clutter of a situation and reveal the real issue and a plan or strategy for solving it quickly. In effect, coaches bring “…a brilliantly simple solution.”

• 3 elements in coaching:

TO SEE: Help the client to see what is missing or what part of his potential he isn’t using. The client reacts to this kind of insight with a “duh!”

TO SAY: Get clients to say what they are going to do. It is the insight that is now articulated into a goal. The client is more likely to follow through if he says it.

TO DO: The coach help get his client into action and holds him accountable.

This formula has been used by great coaches for thousands of years to help people shift from being average to amazing.

• Coaching is a tool that can change everything in companies and corporations. When manager-coaches work with people until they “see” a clear picture of how to unlock their potential or the potential of the company (“duh”)…amazing things start to happen.
• Coaching comes from the Greek civilization. They invented heavily in figuring out how to make good athletes into champions. Boosting performance. These experts were called coaches. Coaching turned gifted athletes into champions. Individual attention from an expert. Coaches help clients see that they aren’t realizing their full potential (see).Then coaches guide them through the process of turning potential into performance gains (say and do). “…individual attention from an expert is the only way to unlock a person’s full ability. But to help the client to remove their blind spots, you have to get him to let his defenses down. How? By creating a “relational context” in which anything can be said without penalty. It is the hardest thing to do because most people think they listen but they don’t really. “Creating an open and safe relationship with employees so they can begin to see their mistakes, admit their weaknesses, and talk about their potential that is, so far, just potential.
• Steps: create an atmosphere of openness and trust, safe for insight and change; help people see their own potential; plan specific actions that will improve the operation of the team and the company. You can train managers to become coaches for their employees. You change the entire culture of the place.
• Why not just good old fashion training? It is an easy and inexpensive approach to employee development like class-rooms. But, to become world-class, training isn’t the answer because people need individual attention. And that is the weakness of the training model. Today, we need a model that is more intensive and more focused than training. Training alone isn’t able to unlock the potential of employees and managers. It usually fails to make us “see” our potential; “say” what we’re going to do; and hold us accountable to make sure we “do” it. Training has gotten us this far, now we need coaching.
• Advantages of coaching: 1) improvement in ways of dealing with common problems in the workplace 2) morale of team will rise 3) employee retention rate increases 4) managers and employees are happier 5) the workplace is calmer 6) people are developing their skills 7) the company is moving forward. Everyone wins!
• A coach’s four favorite words

DUH: It’s a sign that people have taken the first step in the coaching process. That they “see” things differently. Duh is a sign that the need for change has become self-evident. When people discover and see something that is important and missing presently in his approach. “It’s when the entrepreneur sees that he’s spending his time in ways that won’t make money, when he’s ignoring proven sources of revenue” that he’ll utter a duh!

AHA: It is a step from duh. It is what people say when they learn a new insight, a tool or technique that complements what they already know. With this addition, they can move to the next level of managerial effectiveness.

WOW: A level beyond Aha. It’s what people say when they see the Big Picture. A vision that propels their business and career into warp speed.

SHAZAM: A word seldom heard but it is the feeling that-depending on your view of things-God, the universe, the Force or Fate,- has given you a thought that will change everything. It is Einstein’s eureka or Ford’s vision of the assembly line.

If the coaching is great, people will see and have one or all of the experiences described above.

• Listening like a coach: “You can hear a lot just by listening”. A coach has to listen. Like birds and fish, our listening is often drawn to the shiny object…our minds are a thousand miles away and waiting for something shiny in the words of others to spark our attention. We aren’t present. Furthermore, we can pass everything the other person is saying in our interpretive filter system. We see unchecked, interpretive filters, and the resulting Patella Reflex blocking progress in the workplace all the time. So, if we listen normally, we have 2 choices. Either we pretend to listen but really focus on our thoughts then miss the person’s message (shiny objects) or we listen through a filter and get sucked into the black hole of evaluating the issue we’re hearing about (Patella Reflex). How does a coach listen then? He “listens for” as opposed to the everyday kind of “listening to”. LISTEN FOR THE PERSON’S MOTIVATION.

The Coaching Revolution; David Logan & John King; Adam Media; 2004; ISBN 1-59337-078-4

I attended a very interesting conference last evening given by Danielle Lapointe, a business coach who lives in la Ville de Québec.
Based on the work of a group of psychologists residing in the mid-west of the United-States, their philosophy stresses the fact that the client is the expert in his life and profession and that he possesses all the necessary tools to be competent and to succeed. Called Constructivism, this coaching trend is future-looking and stresses exploring the ‘possibilities’ instead of trying to ‘problem-solve’. “Problem talk creates problems; solution talk creates solutions.” In large, the Constructivist movement is inspired by developments in NLP. Where does the coach fit in? He is the partner who co-creates solutions with his client instead of trying to resolve and ‘fix’ problems. Milton Erickson had developed an approach which taught that the ideal way to help a client is to build on the ressources by helping ‘to direct him towards his own future’. Concretly, it is the difference between a coach carrying someone on his own shoulders (very uncomfortable for both parties!) as opposed to actually helping the client to discover where he wants to go and to follow him as he brings us there. The coach then acts as a person who leads his client ‘from behind’.

Problems drag us down or keep us in the past. Dreams and an approach based of discovering solutions propulse us towards the future and get us out of our boxes, our comfort zones, and also out of our limiting behaviors. When we create objectives, we begin creating a new reality.

A coach can help a client change his perspectives and his perceptions. He can assist the client in opening that space in his mind and heart in order to ‘create new possibilities and solutions.’