Executive coaching boasts a wide range of benefits, not just for the individual progressing through the process, but their colleagues and organisation too. It can support leaders and managers in enhancing their communication skills, managing conflict, and increasing collaboration in the workplace.
But that’s not all. Executive coaching can support career development by offering you time to think and supporting you in improving your self-awareness. Working with an executive coach additionally helps identify strengths and weaknesses and provides you with a safe space to practice skills you’d like to develop.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of executive coaching, we share five ways executive coaching can support career development with expert guidance from leadership coach Lisa in this blog.
1. It Offers You Time To Think
First in our top five ways executive coaching can support career development, is that it offers you time to think.
As leadership coach Lisa shares, work can often feel like a hamster wheel. Now more than ever, we’re experiencing endless meetings, back-to-back Zoom or Teams calls, and an overflowing email in-box to navigate once the day’s meetings have ended.
Aside from leading to higher rates of workplace stress, burnout, and decreased employee well-being and satisfaction, increasing workloads leave many of us struggling to find time to think strategically.
Instead, we end up spending more time than we want getting caught in the weeds. Before you know it, another year has passed, and you haven’t had the time to think.
Does this sound familiar? If so, coaching may benefit you, especially as one of the ways that executive coaching can support career development is by offering you time to think.
When working with a coach, you’ll find that you have time to pause, slow down, and reflect. In a safe environment, you’ll have the opportunity to think about those really big, important questions that we often don’t get the time to think about because we’re so busy firefighting.
2. Executive Coaching Can Help Improve Your Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is a key requirement of effective leadership, and yet often, the more senior we get, the less opportunities there are for genuine, honest feedback about our impact on others.
When it comes to executive coaching, your chosen coach will have no agenda other than to help you be the best version of yourself.
During coaching sessions, they can play things back to you, share observations with you about how you show up, and give you honest feedback – if that’s what you are looking for from them.
In addition, leadership coaches and executive coaches can help you see where you might be getting in your own way. They can shine a light on assumptions, or self-limiting beliefs that you may not be aware of, that might be hindering you in your career. They can be a critical friend – if you want them to be.
3. They Can Help You Identify Your Strengths and Values
Who are you at your best? What are the things that you do at work that set your heart on fire, and those that bore you rigid? What are the tasks that put you into a state of flow and those that drain you?
Understanding your values – the things that make you tick – and your strengths – those things that you are either naturally good at, or have the ability to become great at, can be incredibly powerful.
But how often do you spend time thinking about these things? How much time do you have to think about them?
There is lots of evidence to show that if we tap into our strengths and values at work, not only will our confidence increase and our stress levels reduce, but we will also perform better.
When it comes to career development, these are all crucial components. When we’re happy at work, when we’re passionate about our role, and when we work within an organisation that aligns with our purpose, we’re more likely to stay within our role and seek out opportunities, such as career development. We’re also more likely to work better with those around us.
4. They Can Help You See the Bigger Picture
It’s very common as a leader today to focus on the next quarter, the next set of financial results, the next round of appraisals, the next set of numbers. Organisations often require a focus on the short term, and so there’s a natural inclination to think that way.
But knowing where you want to end up – where you want to be heading in three, five, or even 20 years from now - can give you the information you need to be able to make powerful choices right now to ensure that you seek and receive the support you need for your career development.
Executive coaching can give you the space to think not just about your next promotion or your next role, but the one that you might want after that. In turn, this can give you information about the choices you make and the actions you take in the job you are doing right now.
5. You Can Practice the Skills You Want To Develop in a Safe Space
Last but certainly not least in our top five ways executive coaching can support career development, Lisa shares that coaching is all about progress.
Many people who seek coaching know what they struggle with – whether it’s people pleasing, a lack of confidence, or imposter syndrome. But they don’t know how to move forward and take positive action. This can leave us feeling stuck, which can often cause us internal and external conflict – with ourselves and with other people.
A coaching session can give you the headspace to identify realistic actions that are going to move you closer towards your goals – where you want to be. And the space between one coaching session and the next is a great opportunity for you to practice.
Coaching can be deeply practical. If you ask your coach to help you become more confident with difficult conversations, for example, the likelihood is that as well as the opportunity to role play a difficult conversation with your coach, you might also decide to have a conversation that you’ve been avoiding outside of the session.
This then gives you data – new information - to go back to your coach with and review in your next session, knowing that however the conversation goes, your coach will hold the space for you in a non-judgemental way.
How Do I Know If Executive Coaching Is For Me?
After reading these fantastic ways that executive coaching can support career development, you might find yourself wondering how you’ll know if executive coaching is for you.
Although many people think this type of coaching is just for those in C-Suite roles, it’s actually beneficial for anyone in a leadership position.
From navigating imposter syndrome to career changes and developing leadership skills to exploring a better life-work balance, leadership and executive coaching can support you in many areas too.
Contact Us Today
At The Leadership Coaches, we specialise in executive coaching. Many of the coaches within our team offer coach-mentoring, meaning they may have experience in your industry. All of our coaches have their own personal experience working within organisations too, so they know first-hand the issues that many leaders face in the fast-paced workplace.
If you’d like to find out more about executive coaching with us, we welcome you to book a no-obligation chat with our CEO, Zoé Lewis, to discuss your needs and learn more about what we can do for you.
To contact us, simply fill out our contact us form here. Alternatively, give us a call on 03450 950 480.
