Executive coaching self-help is designed to provide some advice and guidance to executives who want to try to handle things independently or try techniques before deciding whether to use services like mine. Whether these techniques are enough or you want more formal assistance, you should be commended for seeking a path toward improving your performance, skills, and overall effectiveness. One way or another, you should see positive changes in your leadership abilities, communication skills, decision-making, and other essential qualities required in your position.
Executive Coaching Self-Help Initial Steps
Your executive coaching self-help journey should begin with an honest self-assessment to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Reflect on your leadership style, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and any specific challenges you face in your role that you feel are due to your style or personality. Think about what you do well and how you developed those skills or attributes. Seek feedback from colleagues, subordinates, and mentors to gain valuable insights into your leadership performance. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and areas where you can grow.
After you do all that, define specific and achievable goals for your executive development. Consider the areas you want to enhance and establish measurable objectives to track your progress. Ensure your plan is detailed and outlines your steps to achieve your goals. Break down your plan into smaller, manageable tasks and set deadlines for completion. Be ready to add new goals and objectives as you reach the current ones.
Remember that there will be a limit on what you can accomplish by using executive coaching self-help techniques since they will not be uniquely tailored to your goals, existing strengths and weaknesses, and experience.
Executive Coaching Self-Help Ongoing Tips
Some ways to ensure you reach the goals outlined above include engaging in continuous learning through books, articles, podcasts, webinars, and leadership and executive skills workshops. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in your industry. Translate all of that into your own specific goals and plans. In a related way, network effectively – a solid professional network is essential in many ways, and those people can become mentors and examples of where you want to go and even how to get there as far as your professional goals. Connect with other executives, industry leaders, and mentors to exchange ideas, seek advice, and gain new perspectives on leadership.
Executive Coaching Self-Help: Time Management
Almost any executive benefits from prioritizing tasks effectively and managing time efficiently. Executive roles often come with demanding schedules, so mastering time management skills is essential for maintaining productivity and reducing stress. Also, focus on improving your communication skills, including active listening, assertiveness, and the ability to convey complex ideas clearly and concisely. These areas may or may not be on your specific list for improvement, but they are still worth working on
Executive Coaching Self-Help: Get Feedback
It would be best if you began any journey to improve as an executive with an assessment to understand your strengths and areas for improvement. This can involve 360-degree feedback, personality assessments, and self-assessments. Listen attentively to people’s concerns and challenges related to your leadership, and provide a safe and non-judgmental space for them to express themselves. Use open-ended questions to get feedback and encourage deeper thinking.
This process will be helpful for you and also shows how much you respect your colleagues and want to grow.
Executive Coaching Self-Help: Set Goals
You need to set clear and measurable goals. These goals should be specific, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART objectives). Focus on your strengths and also seek to leverage those strengths to overcome challenges and achieve your goals. Identify specific behaviors that need improvement and develop strategies for changing those behaviors. Developing emotional intelligence to enhance self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation is a strong step, though hard to do on your own.
Stay Accountable Through Feedback
Make sure to get regular feedback on your progress from the people who initially helped, and stay accountable for your goals by setting action plans and reviewing progress regularly. Include getting feedback about whether you are understanding and navigating cultural differences and promoting inclusivity and diversity within your organizations. Explore ethical dilemmas and get advice about whether everyone agrees that you are making morally sound decisions.
Network and Build Relationships
Develop and maintain valuable professional relationships, including mentors who you look up to and who have experience that will help you become a better leader. Look for people who give you honest feedback, and with whom there are no potential conflicts of interest (e.g., a person who works for a competitor).
While executive coaching self-help can be beneficial, you can see from the above that it is not always enough. If you try some of these specific techniques used in executive coaching on your own but are not seeing the results you are looking for, you may want to hire an executive coach, even temporarily. Coaches will carefully choose from the techniques listed here, and may use a combination of these techniques to provide a tailored and effective coaching experience. You establish a trusting and confidential relationship with the executive coach to ensure a safe and productive coaching environment.
Personal Areas for Improvement
Executive coaching self-help should also include a dose of more personal improvement. You certainly want to improve in your role for the good of your company and your performance. Still, you should also set out to improve in ways that will bring you more enjoyment in your professional life and perhaps even your life outside of work. This is one reason why when I refer outside my practice, I try to choose executive coaches who are also licensed psychologists or social workers who are trained to dive a little deeper, even when doing coaching.
Examples of Personal Improvement
One example of more personal executive coaching self-help that is more personal includes cultivating emotional intelligence, as it plays a crucial role in effective leadership. Practice self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation to build stronger relationships with your team and stakeholders. Another example is working on stress management. As an executive, stress is often part of the job. Learn and practice stress management techniques such as meditation, mindfulness practice, exercise, or hobbies to maintain your well-being and resilience.
Other Suggestions for Executives
Beyond the formal coaching, even if delivered as self-help, there are some suggestions that I often make to all leaders. First, stay committed to your personal and professional growth. Read books, attend seminars, and engage in ongoing learning to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and practices. Be motivated to improve continually. Second, ensure you are always willing to receive feedback, consider new perspectives, and embrace change. And finally, pay attention to the advice and insights provided by those around you. Active listening helps you absorb information and apply it effectively.
Executive Coaching Self-Help Conclusions
It is vitally important that during this process, you hold yourself accountable for your development. Regularly review your progress, celebrate successes, and identify areas needing attention. My clinical specialties can be highly beneficial and powerful if these executive functioning self-help techniques work. Still, if you want to take things further or a more uniquely individualized plan, please feel free to contact me.
The following executive leadership coaching example involves Alex, a COO at a large technology company. She has been working in her current position for several years and has shown strong technical skills. She recently got promoted to a higher management role. Alex has struggled to adapt to the new responsibilities and challenges of the position. This is particularly true of the added visibility and pressure. Specifically, she’s finding it challenging to do the increased public speaking and motivate her high-level team effectively. She also wants to work on communicating with upper management even when she disagrees and making even higher-level strategic decisions.
The goals of this executive leadership coaching engagement
The company is very happy with Alex. They are offering executive leadership coaching because they know how young she is and how motivated she is to develop the necessary leadership and management skills for their new role. The executive coaching aims to help Alex build her leadership capabilities, improve her communication skills, develop a strategic mindset, and overcome her challenges in their new role. Executive leadership coaching differs from therapy in that the goals can sometimes combine what the company wants to see and what the executive wants to work on. These goals usually are closely related.
