Four Ways To Maximize Your Executive Coaching Experience

If you are a leader already engaging with an executive coach, or contemplating engaging one, here are four ways to make your coaching experience a success, as reported in a relatively recent issue of Fortune magazine:

Find the right match. Find someone to push and challenge you. To encourage you and to hold you accountable. Be sure the person you engage with is a person you can trust and can talk to easily.
Be aware of your company's expectations. If your boss hired the coach to work with you, make sure your boss, and your boss's boss, share their expectations and hoped-for outcomes with you. Then, make sure your coach knows that those things belong at the top of your goals list.
Get your money's worth. Work with your coach on issues or questions that have a direct correlation to success in your job.
Be sure your coach sees you in action. Allow your coach to observe you interacting with your peers or direct reports. This also gives your colleagues a sense that you're seen as valuable and promotable. And, it shows them that you're working on improving yourself.

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Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

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