4 CHALLENGES OF EXECUTIVE COACHING

Jeff Mignault • July 7, 2017

Investing in executive coaching is a process that benefits many companies. Everyone needs coaching from time to time, and executive coaching provides your company leaders with the opportunity to address issues and reflect on their approach to leadership, how they operate, and where they can improve to become better and more effective leaders.

However, executive leadership does not come without its challenges. Here are three of the top challenges of executive coaching:

1. ADDING IT TO ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

If coaching is not already part of your company culture, it can be difficult for current leadership to understand its need and value. Many see it as another cost that gets added to the bottom line rather than looking at it from a strategic perspective and how it can help the company long term.

2. SEEING A DIRECT ROI

3. I DON’T NEED IT

One of the biggest challenges of executive coaching is not in the practice itself, but for senior leaders and CEOs to see the value of it. Many have the frame of mind that since they are successful right now, they don’t need coaching.

“One study, conducted by Adam D. Galinsky and colleagues at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, found that increased power tends to make one more self-centered and self-assured, but not in a good way: The researchers found that power makes one ‘prone to dismiss or, at the very least, misunderstand the viewpoints of those who lack authority,’” says Douglas LaBier on Huffington Post.

4. PERCEPTION

A final challenge of coaching is how leaders perceive it. “So, why do CEOs and other senior leaders say they want coaching but don’t seek it?” asks LaBier.

“I think the answer lies in what they’ve learned to think coaching provides, in contrast to what they think they need. Both views create a gap between desire and action. Ironically, that gap is unwittingly supported by most coaching programs, themselves,” he adds.