The beneﬁts of executive coaching: voices from the C-suite

Source Name: Strategic HR Review VOL. 19 NO. 1 2020

Author: Clinton Longenecker and Mike McCartney

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with research findings based on qualitative data that describe the benefits of executive coaching from a sample of 70 senior business executives, all of whom have a personal executive coach. In addition, the paper provides readers with specific questions concerning their organizations’ approach to executive leadership development and the application of these potential benefits to their enterprise.

Design/methodology/approach – The findings of this study are based on personal interviews with 30 executives and ten four-person focus groups in which both sets of participants were asked to describe personal and organizational benefits associated with their experiences in using executive coaches. Findings – Interviews and focus group findings converged around a number of benefits associated with effective executive coaching. These benefits included improved executive focus, better alignment of key leadership behaviors, candid and ongoing feedback, accountability for appropriate leader behaviors, improved emotional intelligence and ego control and personal support and encouragement, among others. Research limitations/implications – This qualitative study provides empirical evidence of the benefits of executive coaching from the perspective of senior business leaders. These findings provide researchers with specific criteria that can be tested and measured on a larger scale. The primary limitation of the study is the small sample size of only 70 executives.

Practical implications – The findings of this research provide a compelling set of benefit trends that individual executives, boards of directors and organizations need to consider in the development of their senior leaders. Specific questions are included to guide practitioner’s thinking concerning executive coaching and its role in their organizations.

Social implications – These findings make a compelling case that senior leaders can become more effective and can experience great benefits when they properly make use of an effective executive coach. The development of senior leaders using this tool can have a powerful impact on organizational performance and organization’s culture.

Originality/value – A review of the literature will reveal that anecdotal evidence abounds, but there is limited empirical research chronicling the true benefits of executive coaching.

Keywords Human resource management, Talent management, Coaching, Learning and development

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

I can state with great clarity that having an effective executive coach has made a significant difference in my ability to grow and develop as a senior leader. There was a time that I believed that I could push forward as a leader on my own […] I have always engage my people and been a good coach myself but I have learned that having someone in my professional life as a senior leader, to serve as a coach, sounding board, and accountability partner has had a significant impact on my performance and my ability to grow to meet the growing challenges of my job! Division President, Fortune 1000 Enterprise.

When the literature on critically important leadership practices is reviewed, employee coaching quickly surfaces as a key behavior that can have a dramatic impact on employees’ performance and their ability to deliver desired results for their enterprise (Longenecker, 2014).

Employee coaching can provide a platform to create focus and clarify job expectations and goals, can provide critical feedback on how to improve performance, can afford the employee an opportunity for reflection and self-assessment, can provide an employee with both accountability and motivation for improvement and help an employee stay aligned with the changing demands of their job (Wickman and Boer, 2016). And, while the benefits of employee coaching are well documented, there is a growing body of research that makes a very strong case for the importance of applying this critically important practice of “coaching” to the executive level (Grant, 2014).

A compelling case for executive coaching can be made when you look at the changing nature of the organizational landscape and the necessities for peak performance on the part of senior leaders in virtually every organization on the planet. In our previous research with senior leaders, we have found that:

performance expectations for senior leader continue to grow;
the pace and dynamic nature of executive work continue to accelerate;
the cost of ineffective leader behavior and executive failure has become larger; and
senior-level leaders are frequently left to their own devices when it comes to their development as leaders and performance improvement (Longenecker and Insch, 2018; Longenecker, 2017).

While there is a great deal written about “how to” effectively coach executives, the purpose of this paper is to explore “the benefits” that are created by effective executive coaching. Our purpose here is to explore the “benefit trends” that have emerged from our work of executive coaching relationships with over 70 senior-level leaders from a cross-section of US service and manufacturing organizations. The benefits described in this paper are based on two primary sources:

structured interview input from our executive coaching participants; and
ten four-person focus group discussions conducted with executives to better understand the benefits received from the executive coaching experience.

In this paper, we would like to share that what we have learned are the reoccurring benefits of executive coaching that converged from both interviews and focus groups. The benefits of executive coaching described below are those that have consistently emerged as most important to our sample of senior leaders.

The benefits of executive coaching

Executive input has provided us with some very specific benefits that these senior leaders associate with having an executive coach. We would like to discuss top nine benefits that emerged from this trend analysis. To benefit readers, we provided a key leadership question associated with each of these benefits to help stimulate organizational and leadership thinking around each of these issues.

Executive benefit #1: Improved focus on more complete, comprehensive and balanced performance outcomes – senior leaders are constantly under increasing pressure to improve organizational performance. Our sample of executives made it clear that they regularly need help building out a comprehensive list of the specific outcomes that they desire to achieve from their position as a senior leader. While profitability, sales, cost containment, EBITDA and market share are obvious and critically important outcomes for senior leaders, an executive coach can help a senior leader identify additional critical process variables/outcomes that are necessary for long-term results. These additional performance outcomes/metrics that are needed to be built into a leader’s performance mind-set might include retention, product development, organizational change and transformation initiatives, workplace culture metrics and workforce engagement, among others. An effective executive coach can help force a leader to think beyond the traditional bottom-line metrics that can dominate executives’ thought and action to help them develop a more comprehensive set of performance objectives.

Key leadership question: Who is assisting your senior leaders in developing their balanced scorecard for measuring both personal and organizational performance?

Executive benefit #2: Greater emphasis on identifying and aligning appropriate leader behaviors – senior leaders are promoted typically because of their track record of success in delivering desired results. A key requirement for continued success is the ability of a leader to identify and align the most critical leadership behaviors with their current organizational situations and demands. As leaders climb up organizational hierarchies, this realignment process can become more complex, challenging and even daunting. An effective organizational coach can help a senior leader identify the most critical and necessary leader behaviors by providing an effective 360-degree input from the people on their team to help in this alignment process. In our experience, executives have a tendency of using the leadership tools that they are most well acquainted with or that have led to their success to-date. This can be dangerous when executives fail to align their behaviors with the demands of their current assignment. An executive may need to place greater emphasis on timely decision-making, teambuilding, communicating with organizational members, implementing rapid change and building a more engaged and empowered workforce. An executive coach can help a senior leader engage in, identify and align more of the key leader behaviors that are critical to success in their current position.

Key leadership question: Who is helping your senior leaders identify the specific leadership behaviors that are currently most critical to deliver desired results?

Executive benefit #3: Personal accountability for critical leadership actions – while senior leaders are always held accountable for “big picture” and bottom-line performance outcomes, that level of accountability and scrutiny does not necessarily carry over to the leader’s daily behavior and leadership actions. An effective executive coach will help a leader identify the specific leadership behaviors that are most necessary to best achieve the results they desire as previously discussed, but they will take this important issue one step further. They will create accountability to help the senior leader engage in day-to-day activities and leadership practices that will impact both the bottom-line and a plethora of other critically important organizational variables. An executive coach can provide accountability for critical leadership activities such as teambuilding, improving communications, employee engagement, problem-solving, succession planning and any number of important leadership behaviors that drive an organization’s overall performance. Bottom-line accountability is important, but senior leaders need regular accountability so that they will be motivated to engage in the full spectrum of activities that drive overall organizational success.

Key leadership question: Who is holding your senior leaders’ accountable for their day-to-day activities and critical leadership practices?

Executive benefit #4: Heightened emotional intelligence and ego control – An effective executive coach can have a powerful impact on helping an executive develop their ability to interact with people and help busy executives target specific relationships that need work and improved communication. Our sample of senior leaders provided ongoing testimony that a good coach will help them develop their interpersonal skills and working relationships that are most critical for their success. This can happen by helping them target key relationships that need improvement and holding them accountable to do so. In addition, the most senior leaders believe that they are effective communicators, and an executive coach can provide input and feedback to the senior leader concerning their communication’s effectiveness. In our experience, most senior leaders are in need of assistance in this area and welcome input in this regard. Finally, an effective executive coach can help a senior leader keep their ego in check and also help them keep their self-concept firmly grounded in reality which is critical for long-term success.

Key leadership question: Who is helping your senior leaders to develop their emotional intelligence and control their egos and hubris?

Executive benefit #5: Stronger senior leadership teamwork and cohesion – an effective executive coach can play a key role in helping senior leaders increase the level of teamwork and cohesion among their staff. A cornerstone of effective executive coaching is helping senior leaders identify the specific requirements and support what a team needs from their leader to improve the team’s performance. An executive coach will use the inputs of team members to help the senior leader improve his/her support mechanisms for the team. This can have a powerful impact on the team’s overall performance and level of job satisfaction. In addition, an executive coach can provide the leader with specific tips, suggestions and inputs on how to build a more effective leadership team and can help the leader take specific steps to do so.

Key leadership question: Who is helping your senior leaders build stronger and more cohesive senior leadership teams in their operation?

Executive benefit #6: Expanded thinking and improved decision-making – senior executives operating in dynamic, complex and, often, political environments can frequently find themselves in need of a trusted confidant that can serve as an objective, candid and apolitical-sounding board for decision-making and who is not afraid to test their thinking. While boards of directors and fellow leaders frequently perform this role, it is quite common for executive coaches to serve in this important capacity to provide an additional layer of thinking, input and scrutiny. From this perspective, an executive coach can play an invaluable role in assisting senior leaders in strategy planning, major personnel decisions, policy development, exploring best practices and getting out in front of major organizational challenges and potential crises. The significance of this role cannot be overstated given the importance of strategy development and decision-making.

Key leadership question: Do your senior leaders have access to objective, candid and outside-the-box input to improve their thinking and decision-making prowess?

Executive benefit #7: Ongoing and candid feedback and alignment – in our previous research, we have found that executives receive surprisingly little feedback and coaching around behaviors that are important for their success. Senior leaders can easily find themselves in a “feedback vacuum” for any number of reasons, all of which can damage a leader’s ability to stay focused on doing the right things, the right way, at the right time. An effective executive coach will provide a leader with ongoing, balanced and unvarnished feedback on their performance which is critical for a leader’s long-term development. This is a major challenge for leaders at all levels, but especially senior leaders as they need feedback to grow and develop and to deal with “blind spots” that can have a debilitating effect on their performance. Participants of our study made it very clear that there executive coaches can help them stay aligned with the demands of their job while at the same time provide them feedback so as to improve their performance.

Key leadership question: Who is providing your senior leaders with meaningful and specific feedback to accelerate their development and improvement?

Executive benefit #8: Personal support and encouragement – senior leaders are always responsible for providing encouragement, inspiration, reassurance and positive feedback to their people. And yet, senior leaders are frequently in need of encouragement and support themselves especially when they are going through periods of rapid organizational change and hard times. An effective executive coach can provide them with encouragement; he/she is someone who is willing to listen and will remind them that they are doing the right thing. They are like a personal support system. It is often said that “it can be lonely at the top” and a good executive coach can prevent this sense of isolation which can have a debilitating impact on executives’ personal morale and performance.

Key leadership question: What steps are taken by your organization to keep your senior leaders pumped up and encouraged so that they can perform at the highest possible level?

Executive benefit #9: Increased self-awareness and creating a real plan for leader development – self-awareness is the bedrock for becoming a better leader which is the ultimate aim of executive coaching. Senior leaders are exceptionally busy people who frequently struggle to find time for reflection and self-assessment. An effective executive coach will help a senior leader take the time to reflect on their personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement and the threats to their success that exist in the position that they hold. Executive coaching can help senior leaders become more aware of the specific things that they need to do to improve their performance and make a bigger difference in the lives of the people that report to them. The self-awareness can be translated into a personal plan for leaders’ development with specific goals, activities and most importantly accountability for action. An effective coach, with good tools, can help a leader focus his/her attention on better understanding how he/she is perceived by others which is critically important in creating any executive development plan. The more a leader is in touch with others’ perception, the better the leader can calibrate and properly align their improvement plan to the needs of the enterprise.

Key leadership question: Who is helping your senior leaders to develop their personal self-awareness and a real and comprehensive plan for their professional development?

A call for action

I am a better and more successful leader today because of the relationship I have with my executive coach who has challenged and help me refine my leadership in very real ways [.. .]. We have come a long way together! Division Vice President, Fortune 500 Organization.

It is our hope that this review of the potential benefits of executive coaching and corresponding key leadership questions might offer you some encouragement and ideas about the potential strategic and tactical benefits of executive coaching. A review of the quote above provides us with a real incentive to explore this powerful leadership development tool and consider its application to your enterprise. Effective executive coaching can provide a unique and tailor-made performance improvement tool for busy executives with a potentially powerful return on investment. In closing, we would encourage you to take a long, hard look at your organization’s view and approach to executive coaching and identify specific leaders that might be in need of assistance to take their leadership game to a next level. In the competitive global marketplace of twenty-first century, senior leaders need all the support they can get to achieve and maintain peak performance, and executive coaching can play an important role in that regard.

References

Grant, A.M. (2014), “The efficacy of executive coaching in times of organizational change”, Journal of Change Management, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 258-280.

Longenecker, C.O. (2014), “The best practices of great leaders”, Industrial Management, pp. 20-25.

Longenecker, C.O. (2017), The Successful Career Survival Guide, Amazon Books.

Longenecker, C.O. and Insch, G. (2018), “The fatal flaws of leadership”, Industrial Management.

Wickman, G. and Boer, R. (2016), How to Be a Great Boss, BenBella Books, Dallas, TX.