7 Reasons to Hire An Executive Coach for Yourself

If you don’t know what is holding you back from achieving your personal, professional, and business goals, you might want to know these 7 reasons to hire an executive coach for yourself.

Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. All you might need is a magnifying glass to uncover what you are missing. That’s because when you are in the middle of the field with other players around you, you are sometimes blinded by what is going on at the end of the field in the goal zone. 

Don’t be blinded by what’s happening immediately around you. Learn how to take a step back and see your future more clearly. An executive coach can help you clearly see the goalposts at the end of the field even when surrounded by the opposing team.

Business coaching and executive coaching are not just for business owners, they are also relevant for those looking to advance their career, start up a business or even grow their business skills. Think of hiring an executive coach for yourself as investing in your own personal and professional development.

If you have never worked with a coach before, the thought of it could seem daunting. You might even think, “What do I need to hire an executive coach for. I got where I am today through my own efforts.” This thought is usually a result of not fully understanding what a business coach or executive coach does. 

Why You Need to Hire an Executive Coach

When you first leave school or graduate college, you enter the workforce for the first time pursuing a career. Usually, you take on a role in an industry related to what you studied, your qualifications, what your skill sets are. 

You begin your career using your technical skills. You undertake extra training when you first start because your qualification or technical skills at this stage are still based on knowledge, not experience. You also undertake this type of training to get you up to speed and often it’s training specific to the environment you work in. 

No two businesses are exactly the same, even if they sell similar products or services. That’s because business leaders all have their individual management styles, and policies and procedures vary from business to business. For example, how Starbucks trains and runs its business is quite different from a local cafe that also serves coffee and food. 

Training is good, executive coaching is even better. To advance your career, climb the corporate ladder or start your own business, you need to develop skills beyond your technical skills. This is where personal and professional development comes into the equation and why you need an executive coach, to get you there faster. 

Unless your organization invests in you and provides company-funded personal and professional development programs, you may need to invest in yourself. The quickest way to advance your personal and professional goals is with a business coach, life coach, or executive coach.

Following are 7 reasons how you will benefit from hiring an executive coach for yourself.

7 Reasons You Will Benefit From Hiring an Executive Coach

1. They Help You Uncover Your Blind Spots

All of us have blind spots. According to the Johari Window Model, a blind spot is what others know about you you don’t know about yourself. 

Perhaps you have a poor communication style that rubs people up the wrong way and have no idea that this is why you lack cooperation across business functions. There might be other reasons why you fail to get that promotion or perhaps you have a particular talent you don’t see in yourself but others see in you. Blind spots aren’t always negative.

Imagine if you could uncover the blind spots that might be preventing you from getting to the next level, what would that mean? Greater freedom, more money, prestige, job satisfaction, peace of mind, or something else again?

2. They Provide Unbiased Feedback

Most people find it hard to accept feedback especially if the manner in which is delivered is confrontational or not constructive. Therefore it’s human nature to shy away from soliciting the type of feedback you need to grow yourself and your career. However, without feedback how can you uncover the barriers to success or even uncover hidden talents you were unaware of. 

When asking for feedback from friends, family, and even your colleagues, it’s often biased. They mean well but don’t necessarily have the experience or skills to help you in a constructive manner. By hiring an executive coach for yourself, the coach can solicit and facilitate feedback in a way that is palatable and easy to handle.  What the executive coach does, is filter through the feedback to discover the intent of the messaging.

A good business coach can take you through the feedback process that is highly beneficial to you to outline a strategy to work through your strengths and weaknesses. It allows you to absorb feedback through an unbiased third party. An executive coach who has a background in running a business can also offer higher-level insights into what it takes to grow your career, move up the corporate ladder or even grow a business.

3. They Help You Close the Knowledge Gap Quicker

As you aspire to greater heights in your career or business, often you can’t see the woods for the trees. You don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know what you need to know. You don’t know what additional skills you need to get you over the line. This is why you need the guidance of a business coach or executive coach.

An executive coach works with you where you are right now. They take you through a process where they guide you to see where you want to go in the future. In between is the knowledge gap. Working together you come up with a plan to close the gap to achieve your vision for the future. With their help, they help you set SMARTER  goals aligned to your vision because what got you to where you are today won’t always get you to where you want to go. 

4. They Help Create New Habits

We all have habits formed over many years, some of which are helpful to your personal and professional growth, others are detrimental and need refining. Before you change a habit, you need to identify what your habits are. Unless you become aware of the habits holding you back, how do you know what to change? An executive coach can bring about this awareness and put in place a strategy to move you forward faster than you could on your own.

Two habits that hold most people back from advancing their careers, or succeeding in business are procrastination and a lack of self-belief. A very important aspect of achieving all your goals is your belief system. By changing habitual negative thinking into positive thoughts is one of the keys to success.

5. They Keep You on Track

Many people make a resolution to lose weight and get fit. They promise themselves to go to the gym five days a week and they don’t. This is a major reason they hire a personal trainer or wellness coach, to keep them accountable. There’s something about paying the extra for the personal attention that helps them get results. Because you have a fixed appointment, you turn up. Because it’s costing you more than a simple gym membership, you turn up. It’s this accountability to the coach that makes you turn up and do the work. This is what gets you over the line and delivers results.

This is what happens when you hire an executive coach. They keep you accountable and keep you on track. When you report your progress to someone, it makes you do the work that you might not do on your own.

6. They Will Stretch You

An executive coach will stretch you and take you to places you would not go on your own. The reason for this is, we have a tendency to operate in our comfort zone. Fear is what stops most people from moving out of their comfort zone. Unless you can confront your fears, you will fail to learn and grow. An executive coach gives you the resources to face your fears in a safe environment. As a coach, they hold your hand as you climb the mountain until you can climb it for yourself. They become your courage until you develop the courage on your own.

7. They Help You Navigate the Challenges

Success is never a straight line from point A to point B. As you progress your career, climb the corporate ladder, or grow your business, you are always going to be challenged. The higher up you go, the fewer people you can rely on as confidants. It’s difficult to discuss your aspirations with others you work with. An advantage of hiring an executive coach is they help you navigate challenges and you help you achieve your personal goals with their insights.

Identifying the Right Executive Coach

Not all coaches are equal. Identifying the right coach for you will depend on what your goals and aspirations are and what stage you are at in your professional life. A business coach focuses on leadership and works on strategies to grow a business and increase profitability. An executive coach focuses on the individual and their personal and professional goals. A life coach focuses on your life, relationships, and personal accountability. A great coach combines all these approaches to help you become the best – that you can be.

The higher you climb within an organization, the less you use your technical skills, the more you use strategic thinking skills. This doesn’t come naturally to some but these skills can be learned. If you aspire to higher levels of management and leadership, then you need the ability to sell yourself into roles and sell your ideas across business functions in the workplace. 

When choosing an executive coach or business coach, ensure they have a solid background in business.  The reason for this is that if you are trying to grow your career, someone who has experience in senior leadership roles has a greater understanding of what qualities are needed to operate at higher levels within a business. They also know how important strategic decision-making skills are due to their experience and oversight of all business functions.

An executive coach provides insights into what skills are required to transform from a technician into a leadership role whereas a life coach may not have the right background in business to be able to do this.

Like any personalities, there are going to be coaches you resonate with and coaches you don’t. One of the most important things in choosing an executive coach, apart from their background in business, is someone you trust and have a great rapport with. You must feel connected in a way that the relationship drives personal growth.

What Outcomes Should You Expect From an Executive Coach?

Another way of answering this question is what would you expect to be the return on your investment?

As a result of hiring an executive coach, you will come away with increased confidence and better decision-making skills. You will gain an understanding of the difference between leadership and management along with insights into leadership styles and emotional intelligence. The key to your personal and professional success is communication skills. The single most overriding factor in growing yourself, your career, or a business comes back to your ability to relate to others.

An executive coach will not wave this magic wand and have everything will fall into place without you having to do any work. Commitment and accountability are what works. A good executive coach won’t take on someone who is not committed to the process. If you don’t do the work, you won’t see the results. 

Learn how the Strategez for Success Coaching Model helps you master a life of Success. Learn what your keys to success are and the changes you need to make to drive your momentum forward and get the results you want. With an executive coach, you will learn to thrive, not just survive.

Contact us now or set up your FREE discovery session to find out if Executive Coaching or Business Coaching is right for you.