Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a potent solution for ensuring top performance from executive level teams. Much like top-notch athletes, high performing executives know that keeping their edge requires a continual honing of skills, behaviors, and mindsets. Today, executive coaching is most often used to develop high-potential talent and to act as a sounding board for high-profile leaders. Executive coaching may also be used to address blind spots or derailing behaviors in otherwise highly talented executives. Often organizations choose one or more executive coaches to coach all or most of the executive team to optimize both individual and overall executive team performance.

Common Executive Coaching Areas Include

Executive Coaching Defined

What is coaching?

Executive coaching is professional coaching with a focus on developing leadership skills — the skills needed to drive change, manage complexity, build top performing teams, and maintain a strong personal foundation to thrive under the most challenging conditions.
“Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses, and organizations. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.” — International Coaching Federation Definition of Coaching

Coaching is a partnership process in which you discover answers to your most difficult business and life challenges. The coaching relationship uses a process of discovery, goal setting, and strategic actions. Throughout the coaching process you will be supported, encouraged, and stretched to new heights. You become more aware, committed, and action-oriented in order to achieve important personal and professional goals.

How does coaching differ from consulting?

Consulting uses research and the direct application of knowledge and expertise to solve problems and improve results. Coaching is more personalized and involves working with individuals and teams to discover their own solutions. Through coaching, individuals and teams can improve their 0verall capability to solve problems and improve their results.

How coaching benefits a company

Return on Investment

Based on two years of research and analysis of approximately one million data elements, Bersin found 22 talent management processes that drive highest business impact. The #1 best practice was coaching.

“Even after adopting the most conservative approach to determining the return on investment, we showed a 700% ROI for the coaching initiative.” – Center for Performance Excellence, Booz Allen Hamilton

College researchers found that a training program alone increased productivity 28 percent, but the addition of follow-up coaching to the training increased productivity 88 percent.

A study of 31 public-sector managers by Baruch College researchers found that a training program alone increased productivity 28 percent, but the addition of follow-up coaching to the training increased productivity 88 percent.

The Manchester survey of 140 companies shows 9 in 10 executives believe coaching to be worth their time and dollars. The average return was more than $5 for each $1 spent — The Denver Post

“Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organization.” – HR Monthly

The Process & Results

The Parrish Partners Approach: At Parrish Partners, we leverage neuroscience and positive psychology as foundations for our coaching apporach. In addition, most of our executive coaching programs include these four key elements:

  1. Intake: Our coaching beings with a thorough intake to understand the individual as a unique person. Employment and educational history, styles, values, strengths, accomplishments, short-term and long-term goals, preferences, mindsets and more are comprehensively reviewed and discussed to provide a highly customized approach to coaching.
  2. Assessments: Assessments are a powerful part of the coaching process. DISC (behaviors), Personal Interests, Values and Attitudes (motivators), ACI (acumen), and Emotional Quotient (EQ) are key assessments that provide significant information to jump start the coaching process, discover strengths, and determine focus improvement areas.
  3. 360 Feedback: Interviews with managers, direct reports, and peers (360s) are another common (yet optional) part of the coaching process.
  4. Goal Setting & Progress Checks: Coaching goals and success measures are designed upfront and are reviewed regularly to ensure progress to plan. At the same time, the process is flexible, allowing the client to set the direction and focus in each session. Each coaching conversation is guaranteed to result in new insights gained and/or action plans set to achieve progress on critical goals. Overall goals are reviewed and measured throughout the process. Success is defined by the client and key stakeholders.

What to expect in the coaching process:

In each coaching meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. ICF member coaches and ICF credentialed coaches recognize that results are a matter of the client’s intentions, choice and actions, supported by the coach’s efforts and application of the coaching process. –International Coaching Federation

The Results

Results from coaching frequently include:
Desired results are agreed upon upfront and progress is measured throughout the coaching process.

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