Coach at Business Is My Religion and French real-estate investor. My mission is to enable people to have access to financial security.
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Executive coaching is a powerful tool that leaders can use to boost their performance by exploring the field of possibilities that can take them out of their comfort zone. In the last few years, the profession of executive coaching has become increasingly important in the organizational environment as leaders are aware that their style of leadership directly affects the results of their company. Given the large budget that is required for executive coaching, it is important for these leaders to choose their coaches properly. If you want to be among the best executive coaches, there are seven main qualities that you should develop.
1. Expertise
Expertise is very important because executives are often very busy people who do not have time to explain their problems in a detailed way. They rarely open up about the full range of issues they are facing in their role in an organization. As a coach, your role is to guide them so they can find their way in order to achieve their goals. And to do this, having extensive experience in this field is an unquestionable asset. Therefore, you must be able to understand the different issues and the objectives of the person you are coaching. And through similar experiences you have had, you will be able to show to the executive that they are not alone in this case or that there is a better solution to their problem.
2. Listening
A good executive coach knows how to listen to someone without interruptions in order to embrace the situation and respond to it in an appropriate manner. Their perspective must be objective in order to avoid coaching mistakes. To do this, it is essential to analyze the situation as a whole. Active listening enables you to grasp half-formed ideas and poorly expressed concepts in order to reformulate them clearly. Thus, you should learn to develop a high quality of listening if you want to be among the best executive coaches.
3. Emotional Intelligence
Because mutual respect is the basis of a solid relationship, the essential quality of emotional intelligence allows you to put yourself in the shoes of the executive you are coaching. To make the coaching effective, the executive must feel that they can confide in you without any fear of judgment and that you are able to help them. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that most executives consider the most difficult part of their job to be managing interpersonal relationships. With your emotional intelligence gained through your experience, you will be able to provide better guidance to the client for establishing a healthy and caring relationship with their colleagues.
4. Professionalism
The best executive coaches demonstrate their professionalism by being competent and reliable in their work. Any competence is acquired through training and experience. Alongside professionalism, reliability is a personal quality that you should develop. This includes keeping your word and maintaining integrity. Saying one thing and doing another can negatively transform your image and make you lose the trust of the coached executives. Today, this quality is essential in order to stand out in the world of coaching.
5. Good Communication
A good executive coach is not afraid to say something when things are not going well. It is necessary to find the right words in order to help the executive to move forward. And, in case of a mistake, it is your duty to remind the executive that you are coaching the right strategy. To formulate a message appropriately, empathy is necessary. It allows you to understand the needs and the feelings of the person you are coaching and to not hurt them, as this is not the purpose of coaching.
6. Personalization In Approach
It is very important to remember that each person in this world is unique and therefore needs a personalized approach, adapted to their situation. Although it is tempting to use the same formula every time, if an executive calls on your services, it is because they need a unique solution and not a one-size-fits-all solution that can be found on the internet. The best executive coaches are therefore very creative in adapting their methodology to each context.
7. Vocation
Last but not least, the best executive coaches have coaching as their primary vocation. All of them are passionate about coaching, and they do not see it as a secondary activity or a simple job. These executive coaches are enthusiastic about helping leaders and companies to improve and to reinvent themselves, and they are on the lookout for any new methodologies that can improve the way they do things. Thus, if you want to be part of this minority, you have to be prepared to learn about the business every day in order to keep improving.
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