Executive Coaching Questions & Answers

To accelerate the development of a leader receiving executive coaching, shadowing is an option to consider for many engagements. Shadowing means observing the leader in day-to-day interactions (in-person, or more likely these days, on Zoom, etc.), watching her in real-time, and seeing how others respond to her.

Coaching should not occur in a vacuum. Watching the leader in action provides the coach with deeper insight into the executive’s leadership and communication style, work context and how the leader is perceived by others. When conducted by an experienced coach, this type of observational coaching can be profoundly effective, shedding light not just on what skills the leader needs to improve or deploy, but how she needs to exercise those to be most successful in that particular system.

While there is widespread acceptance that executive coaching works to effect positive improvements in executive performance, providing concrete metrics that measure this improvement can be challenging, as human change can be a very complex process. This can be compounded by confidentiality issues that may limit access to specific data regarding progress made by the executive. However, there are several tools that can be useful in determining whether observable behavioral improvement has occurred and what, if any, impact this has made on the business.

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