Executive Coaching

Coaching provides the executive a one on one partnership with a skilled professional from outside the organizational environment that creates clear focus more effectively than other professional development strategies. The coach is able to help the exective develop new perspectives on self and situation, uncover possibilities for action and assist the executive in being accountable to implement the desired actions. As Marshall Goldsmith has written in his article Expanding the Value of Coaching : From the Leader to the Team to the Company:

True long-term change requires discipline over time and process management. One of the great false assumptions in leadership development is, “if they understand, they will do.” If this were true, everyone who understood the importance of going on a healthy diet and exercising would be in shape. Every executive that I meet is smart. In terms of behavior, they all understand what they should do.

The Executive Director in most nonprofit organizations (or CEO and C-level executives in larger nonprofits) is often said to face the greatest leadership challenge, more even than leaders of for-profit corporations. The Executive Director is in the central position of responsibility to multiple diverse stakeholders of the organization: including but not limited to the board of directors, various government agencies, private and corporate foundations or others that supply funding for the organization's programs, the staff of the organization, the recipients of services and the community in which the organization operates. An Executive Director must also be able to develop and maintain competency in multiple disciplines, from public relations to financial management to human resources and operations, to strategic planning and vision building, to understanding and managing organizational culture.

Another commonly reported challenge faced by nonprofit executives, and especially Executive Directors in organizations where they are the lone executive level leader, is maintaining an effective balance between their work and personal needs and responsibilities. When this balance is not maintained, the resulting disruption in relationships outside the organization and effects of lack of personal time and self-care may degrade the effectiveness of the executive in leading the organization, whether it is easily observable or not.

Any or all of these relationships and responsibilities can increase the level of stress on nonprofit executives that makes clear vision and effective leadership difficult. Because the coach does not have a personal or professional stake in any of these interests, and operates from outside the orgainzation's environment and culture, the coach can help the executive find clarity and identify effective ways and means to meet the various challenges. Because the coach has no hidden agenda, the commitment of the coach is strictly to assisting the executive achieve the agreed upon goals. The only agenda in play is that of the executive being coached.

"Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organization."                      ~ HR Monthly