HRD chats to Julia Ng, senior executive coach at Executive Coach International, about how and when executive coaching is most effective
HRD chats to Julia Ng, senior executive coach at Executive Coach International, about how and when executive coaching is most effective
Coaching is a collaborative partnership between the coach and the client, and works on the basis of trust and empowerment. Coaching can reach deeper levels of personal transformation, thereby creating long-lasting shifts and continued growth. Executive coaching yields the best results with high-potential people who choose coaching and are willing and able to make an effort to change. If someone isn’t willing to do the work, or feels like he or she has been persuaded, nothing’s going to change.
We call this ‘getting involved’ in the client’s case.
On the other hand, a coach without specifi c industry experience can be open and curious, allowing the client to see their situation from a fresh perspective.
Coaches also need to be curious, ask evocative questions that reveal new information, be able to listen deeply in order to pick up what the client is not saying but needs to express, and be able to laser in to the real issue, thereby resolving problems at the root rather than coming up with surface solutions.
Successful coaches transfer ownership and responsibility over to their clients and do not do their work for them.
Above all, any coach who is worth their salt upholds their integrity and works on themselves and their own issues, such that they have the attraction and the capacity to work with other people.
Julia Ng is the Senior executive coach at EXECUTIVE COACH INTERNATIONAL
- In what circumstances is executive coaching the most suitable executive development option?
Coaching is a collaborative partnership between the coach and the client, and works on the basis of trust and empowerment. Coaching can reach deeper levels of personal transformation, thereby creating long-lasting shifts and continued growth. Executive coaching yields the best results with high-potential people who choose coaching and are willing and able to make an effort to change. If someone isn’t willing to do the work, or feels like he or she has been persuaded, nothing’s going to change.
- Does an executive coach need to have specific industry experience to match what the person being coached does?
We call this ‘getting involved’ in the client’s case.
On the other hand, a coach without specifi c industry experience can be open and curious, allowing the client to see their situation from a fresh perspective.
- What traits make for a successful executive coach?
Coaches also need to be curious, ask evocative questions that reveal new information, be able to listen deeply in order to pick up what the client is not saying but needs to express, and be able to laser in to the real issue, thereby resolving problems at the root rather than coming up with surface solutions.
Successful coaches transfer ownership and responsibility over to their clients and do not do their work for them.
Above all, any coach who is worth their salt upholds their integrity and works on themselves and their own issues, such that they have the attraction and the capacity to work with other people.
- Do you think senior HR professionals can make good executive coaches?
Julia Ng is the Senior executive coach at EXECUTIVE COACH INTERNATIONAL