Today’s post is a guest post by Mark Persall. Mark has been a friend for over 20 years. We first met in Taipei, Taiwan, where he and his wife Kandy were living and working. I have had the great fortune to receive excellent leadership training from him, and then, later to work with him in training others. He has a great depth of executive coaching experience. His web site is under construction, but you can follow Mark on Twitter.
I maintain my own yard because it is cheaper than going to a therapist. I also enjoy being outdoors. The sweat of my brow produces a well manicured yard and flower beds. My pores divest my body of salty confusion. I emerge with clearer thoughts and focused energy. Weird as it may be, it works for me.
I invest in an executive coach because she helps me reach my goals; and she is cheaper than going to a therapist. Granted, sometimes therapists are needed. For other times partnering with an executive coach yields a well manicured life and focused energy. It works for you.
Values of personal executive coaching
1. Gain clarity about, and maximize your personal strengths.
Everyone has personal strengths. Few succinctly identify them. Fewer still effectively engage those strengths in the areas most important to them. Executive coaches assist you in bringing focus to your strengths.
2. Gain understanding and improvement about your leadership style.
Leadership is influence. You have influence is some arena. As such, you utilize a primary leadership style. Your tertiary leadership styles need development to best lead others. Executive coaches help you identify your primary and secondary leadership styles, and help you know when to use them appropriately.
3. Gain ongoing encouragement and accountability about reaching your goals.
We all want encouragement. We all need accountability. Executive coaches keep you accountable to the things you want, and need, to be accountable to.
Values of corporate executive coaching
1. Gain perspective of your organization’s past.
Irrespective of where you have come from, your organization’s past has dramatic impact on your future. Executive coaching enables you to critically look at your past achievements and failures with implication to your future.
2. Gain insight to your organization’s future.
Stop, start, or continue. Outside perspective from an executive coach helps your leadership know what to stop doing, what to start doing, and what to continue doing. Coaches also help you discover how and why.
3. Gain focus on your organization’s present.
Perspective on the past and insight into the future are of little use unless they impact the present. Executive coaching brings the appropriate balance into play. The accountable relationship keeps the end in mind with measurable realtime results. Executive coaching’s individual and organizational return on investment includes:
1. Increased satisfaction on and off the job
2. Greater focus on primary responsibilities
3. Higher levels of trust and unity in the workplace
The highest ROI is the easiest to measure and the most important to the investor – you reach and sustain higher results.
What results are you looking for? What investment are you willing to make to reach them? Share via a comment!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Jason,
I value living within your budget and commend you. Having a personal coach for me is an investment that has proven to continue to provide significant return. As with everything, you need to choose wisely. Thanks for reading and for your comment.
I have never personally hired a coach but I know a few people that have. I’ve only heard great things but I’m always intrigued as to how the process works.
It wouldn’t currently fit into my budget but as time goes along it’s something that I’m going to look into.
Jason recently posted..Why I’ll Never Get My Future Kid a Credit Card
I have only heard positive things about the experience too Jason.