New Book Shows Executive Coaches How To Work With Leaders

Five New York City-based executive coaches and trainers have banded together to write the new book, Becoming An Exceptional Executive Coach. 

Although the book is intended to give all coaches at whatever level fresh ideas about how to improve their skills, it also provides business leaders interesting in hiring a coach an inside look at what to expect from an executive coach.

Some of the most interesting sections of the book are:

• Understanding adult change and growth through theories that apply to coaching
• Typical phases of executive coaching
• Specific topics that are usually addressed in a standard coaching contract
• Building trust, honesty, caring and credibility with the person you are coaching
• Guidelines for the first coaching session
• Suggestions for structuring ongoing coaching sessions
• Questions to address when creating a development plan for your client
• Bringing closure to the coaching process

The authors are:

• Michael H. Frisch
• Robert J. Lee
• Karen L. Metzger
• Jeremy Robinson
• Judy Rosemarin

They firmly believe that executive coaches achieve results by facilitating client discovery. 

The book also explains that senior leaders generally do not get to their positions because they are reflective or even conceptual.  And, senior leaders often do not want to give up whatever set of skills and behaviors got them to their current level.

Therefore, the authors recommend that when building credibility with senior-level managers, coaches should avoid:

• too much introspection
• abstraction
• or critiquing past habits

Additionally, senior leaders are apt to treat coaches as consultants, so mission creep needs to be monitored.  Most leaders, however, really value a coach's observations and perspectives as a counterbalance to the isolation of their executive roles.

Helping coaches to be the best they can be is important to the authors because they explain that the quality of the coach-client relationship is the most important ingredient under the coach's control in the client's progress and change.

The book features:

• engaging case studies of actual coaching challenges
• sample coaching documents
• a variety of useful tools
• self-assessment questions