5 Signs that You're Ready for an Executive Coach

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culled from:www.garfinkleexecutivecoaching.com

Smart executives refuse to settle, choosing instead to get the support they need to take them one rung higher on the corporate ladder. Support can have many faces: it could be attending seminars or conferences to keep up with industry trends, participating in a leadership and executive coaching program, hiring a personal executive coach for leadership training and development, or reading a transformative career coaching book.

Recognize that all the above support mechanisms are active, not passive, experiences. If you haven’t been getting ahead it could be because you haven’t been willing to attend that conference or workshop or consult with an expert coach for guidance.  You can turn things around. Consider these five reasons why an executive coaching and leadership training program might be for you:
1.    You’re willing to invest. Know that hiring an executive coach requires time, money, and effort on your part. Don’t look at the investment you’re putting in; consider what your return on investment is going to be. Understand that once you implement practices most effective leadership coaches teach you, you can easily get many times return on your investment. If you’re willing to invest in yourself, professional executive coaching might be for you. Complement this experience with advice from business leadership books.
2.    You’re ready to get your hands dirty. Realize that coaching will only work if you’re willing to put in work yourself. Coaching is for action-takers; it’s not like a therapy or counseling session where you just come in and talk. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and to get to work, then consider a professional executive coach.
3.    You’re ready to set excuses aside. Don’t show up with excuses on the table. An experienced executive level coach has heard them all and won’t let you get away with lame reasons and justifications for not being more proactive.  Be accountable and remember that making excuses is only a waste of your own time and money.
4.    You plan to stay the course. If you think executive coaching is a quick fix solution with the answers to all your problems, it’s not. Identify what you want to achieve and understand that you might not get results overnight. It may take several sessions to develop a concrete plan of action to achieve your career goals.
5.    You’re prepared to take risks. It might not be easy to practice and implement what your executive coach teaches you if it requires you to step out of your comfort zone. Be willing to take risks and feel uncomfortable. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get the same results. If you’re not ready to take a risk, don’t get frustrated with your lack of progress.
If you’re a senior manager or a top level executive wanting to get more out of your current position, executive leadership coaching and personalized career development training can help steer you in the right direction. A good coach will help you develop your insight, expand your skill sets, teach you how to increase executive visibility, recommend career advancement books for you to read, chalk out new goals, and help you assess job satisfaction levels.

Recognize that you don’t need to be at a crisis point or a turning point in your career to seek executive coaching and consulting services. Your coach can help transform your perspective or improve certain aspects of how you do your job right now. This can help you procure some of the most satisfying leadership roles in your career.