How to Choose an Executive Coach

These days everyone seems to be adding ‘Executive Coaching’ to their portfolio of skills and services. When you’re asked to find an executive coach or a selection of executive coaches to work with your senior people, how do you go about making the best possible selection?

Here we look at the key points to consider when finding executive coaches:

Account Management

This is very important when you are looking for executive coaches to work with a team. Look for a coaching organisation which has processes in place for managing your business. On smaller coaching assignments it is possible to work with coaches who work independently, but when you are organising coaching for more than three to four people, it can become difficult and time-consuming to have to manually track who has taken their coaching sessions and when they are due to have their next one. Unless looking after the coaching process is part of your full-time role, it’s better to work with a company that can do all of this for you. Also, think about what would happen if the coaching isn’t going as well as you hoped it would. A well organised coaching company should be able to tell you who to speak to and how any issues will be resolved.

Credibility

If you are going to ‘sell’ the idea of coaching within your organisation, you need to be sure that the coaches you put in front of your senior have the credibility factor. Are they used to coaching at an executive level? Do they understand the language that will be used? Are the people having the coaching likely to take them seriously? In the case of particularly feisty coachees, can the coach be assertive and manage the relationship in a respectful way without either party losing face? You can usually tell this just from speaking to one of the directors/partners in the coaching company and trusting your gut.

Cultural Fit

The people you choose as executive coaches should be able to quickly understand the culture of your organisation and adapt their style accordingly.

Relevant experience

This is an interesting one because of course you would expect executive coaches to have experience, but what makes experience relevant to the individuals being coached? Despite what you might think, it is not absolutely vital for the coach to have held the same position as the person being coached. What is important however is that the coach has experience of the kinds of challenges that the coachee is facing and knows how to handle them. Ideally, look for coaches who have themselves held senior positions within organisations and can demonstrate success with similar clients.

References

A professional executive coach should be more than happy to put you in touch with other clients who you can contact for a reference. When you follow up on the reference find out about the aims and objectives of the coaching programme they were engaged in – did they achieve the outcomes they were looking for? What was it like to be coached by them?

Chemistry or 'Fit'

The chemistry between the executive coach and their coachee needs to be right to have an effective coaching relationship. Ask the coaching company whether they are willing to meet or talk with the individuals being coached to make sure it’s right before the programme starts.

With the right partners, the Executive Coaching process can be an incredibly effective way of developing the skills of your senior people.

Copyright Hannah McNamara HRM Coaching Ltd

Hannah McNamara is the Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd an Executive Coaching company based in London, UK with clients all over the world. They have a team of Executive Coaches available to choose from and will manage the coaching programme for you from start to finish. for more information call +44 20 7939 9910 or visit www.hrmcoaching.com.

Negotiation Skills Workshop London

Negotiation Skills Workshop in London | Thursday 19th April

Learn about negotiating from an experienced international negotiator. If you struggle to secure the fees you're worth or find yourself always beaten down on price, this one-day course will help.

We keep the group size small so that you get lots of practical experience and can network and get to know the other people on the course.

Special Offers apply. For more information go to www.smeacademy.co.uk.

Grant for Executive Coaching

Over the past week I've been very busy dealing with new clients who are taking advantage of a new grant for Executive Coaching.

Provided businesses fall into certain categories (audio/visual, automotive, construction, hospitality, retail, sports & leisure, and training) and meet other criteria, one of which is being based in a London postcode, they may be eligible for a £1,000 grant to be spent on the director's development.

The grant can be used for Executive Coaching or Management Training.

For more information about coaching and to find out if you are eligible for the grant, visit us at HRM Coaching or contact me on 020 8544 8024 or via the Contact Page of our website.

All work and no play could be a marriage wrecker

Within life coaching and personal development, there's a lot of talk about Work/Life Balance. Most people would agree that having a healthy balance between your working life and your personal life is good, but we don't really talk about the consequences if you don't.

In London, we work hard and we play hard. In fact in many circles, you're frowned upon if you don't network in the pub after work. It's just the way things are done. With that culture in mind, is it any surprise that divorce rates are rising?

I was recently approached by Inside Divorce magazine about an article they were doing about this issue.

Along with a couple of other contributors, we were asked about how to spot signs that you might be just a little too focused on work. You can find the article at Inside Divorce magazine.

Mind of an Entrepreneur

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to run a workshop at the Mind of an Entrepreneur event at City Hall, London.

Organised by serial entrepreneur Alexander Amosu, the event featured speakers such as René Carayol (BBC2's Pay Off Your Mortgage in Two Years), BJ Cunningham (Death cigarettes), Alex Tew (Million Dollar Homepage) and Leila Wilcox (winner of Channel 4's Make me a Million and MD of Halos n Horns).

My talk was on 'How to Build Your Business...and Still Take Time Off' and the whole of my workshop is available to buy on CD for just £9.97 + P&P. It's 45 minutes long and includes some of the information in this newsletter's main article - plus LOADS more!

Because it's a normal audio CD, you can listen to it in your car, on your CD walkman or transfer it onto your iPod or MP3 player. This is good because you can listen to it while you're doing something else and save yourself some time! To order your copy, send an e-mail to info@hrmcoaching.com with details of which CD you'd like to have.

Hannah McNamara

Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day

Apparently over 5 million people work more than their contracted hours and, according to the TUC, senior managers (such as senior civil servants and company directors) would be paid on average an extra £24,000 per year if they were paid for the extra hours they put in.

I wonder what would the results would have looked like if the survey had been conducted solely in the City? In particular, within the larger City Law Firms?

Long hours is part of the culture, isn't it? Surely it's the people who are first to arrive and last to leave that get noticed, hit their billable hours targets and ultimately get promoted. If you want to be a partner, you put the hours in.

But it's not just work/life balance that gets sacrificed. In order to perform at your best, your mind needs rest. Just as an over-trained muscle will eventually shut down, an over-trained mind can become fuzzy and a tired, fuzzy mind can lead to mistakes, irritability and occasionally aggressive behaviour or bullying.

"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen".

To a certain extent this has been true. The top tiers of partnership are populated by very successful lawyers who have fought their way to the top. But what about the younger lawyers coming up through the ranks? The expectations of young lawyers are changing and not all aspire to partnership. There are huge drop-out rates and talent is being lost to smaller, niche firms or Associates choose to move in-house.

How long can the legal profession sustain the high-pressure, long-hours culture without imploding on itself?

Probably not for much longer.

If the Clementi Report is a predictor of the legal world of the future, then we can expect more young, talented lawyers to move to Tesco or the RAC where they will have access to working conditions more in keeping with those of their friends unless something changes.

Within the last year, many more firms have been looking to industry for inspiration on how to develop and retain key talent. Two of the areas that has been getting a lot of interest are Coaching and Mentoring, particularly for women. In fact, Freshfields has just announced the launch of a new mentoring scheme for female associates (The Lawyer, 20th Feb 06).

Coaching, particularly when conducted by an impartial, external coach with a non-legal background, enables the person being coached (the coachee) to think clearly, creatively and objectively, to improve their time management and their leadership skills - they are also exposed to ideas from outside of the legal profession. The benefits for the firm are huge - their lawyers become more motivated, focused and are more likely to stay with the firm, saving on recruitment costs (regardless of whether they have their sights set on partnership).

Is coaching taken seriously by Lawyers?

In a word - yes.

The Law Society awards CPD hours for face to face coaching and workshops which teach coaching skills to people who manage staff.

For more information on how coaching could be integrated into the Learning & Development strategy for your firm, call Hannah McNamara of HRM Coaching on 020 8544 8024 or visit www.hrmcoaching.com.

Girls! Flirt your way to the top!

We've all heard about the 'casting couch' and most of us wouldn't go as far as sleeping our way to the top, but is there really any harm in fluttering a few eyelashes and the odd provocative comment to get ourselves noticed at work?

Well, as viewers of tonight's opening episode of the new UK series of The Apprentice will find out, you can actually end up doing yourself more harm than good.

Women have battled with sexism in the workplace for long enough, without encouraging sexual attention at work. Apart from annoying other people and alienating your female colleagues, you can find yourself passed over for promotion simply because male bosses don't want to be perceived as giving you any 'special favours'.

So what can you do?

• Keep conversations at work on a strictly business level and keep conversations about extra-curricular activities clean!
• Don't get drawn into office banter that has sexual undertones (it's better to be thought a prude than the opposite)
• When dressing for work, think stylish rather than sexy
• Leave the short skirts, tight tops and high heels to the weekend

Yes, you may have worked hard to get the figure you have and may strongly believe in Girl Power, but surely it's better to get ahead based on your merits than how you look or who you flirt with.