Hiring a Top Executive Coach
How do professionals looking to hire a top executive coach determine what qualities make for a top executive coach? Coaches that operate at the highest levels in the professional coaching world have a vested interest in making sure the people that hire us know the criteria they should use to evaluate our services. Although I am a firm believer that top executive coaches posses certain inherent personality qualities, there are specific educational standards, certification standards and work-place experiences that are imperative in order to be considered a true top executive coach:
-
- Certificate of professional coaching from the International Coach Federation. This certification is the international educational standard for professional coaches. The certification process includes a minimum of 125 hours of coach-specific training course work plus 500 hours of documented coaching experience.
- Experience working in a leadership role in a business or organization
- Superior communication skills (oral, written and aural)
- Acute self-awareness and high social-emotional intelligence
- High self-confidence balanced with humility and recognized authenticity
Beyond those basic qualities and qualifications listed above, to be a top executive coach one needs to:
- Posses a love of learning in order to stay current with the social science research relating to leadership and business
- Have both a rich personal and profession history in order to better relate to a diverse clientele and offer support and guidance from a place of experience
- Operate from a place of compassion and caring in order to help clients balance home-life, work-life and the challenges of making tough/layered decisions in business
- Be firmly rooted in a sincere interest in making an impact on each and every individual client as well as the broader world that clients operate within.
- Demonstrate creativity and openness
How can professionals find out if someone is truly a top executive coach? Always start by asking these questions:
- What is your professional background?
- Are you a certified professional coach through the ICF?
- Tell me about three clients for whom you provide similar coaching services to what I am looking for.
- How do you measure success with your clients?
- How would your clients describe your coaching style?
Do you think you or your business can benefit from hiring a professional coach? Are you ready to hire a top executive coach? Contact Kimberly at (504) 261-1026 or via email at Kimberly@KimberlyPutmanCoaching.com to schedule a consultation to learn more about executive coaching with KPC.