What is Executive Coaching and How to Know When Your Company Needs It

Your company is only as strong as its leadership team. If there’s misalignment in the C-suite and among your senior leaders, that could spell bad news for the future. So, for you in HR and L&D, what can you do to strengthen your executives’ leadership skills and build a solid foundation for your company?

Executive coaching for leaders is starting to become standard practice for many successful companies for good reason—it has a tremendous positive impact, with many companies reporting 500-600% ROI of their executive coaching programs. Whether your company is trying to improve how it navigates a shifting market, align your leadership team, or improve team management and morale, there are many reasons to implement an executive coaching program in your organization.

In this article, we’ll explore what executive coaching is, how to know when it’s needed, how to choose between internal and external coaches, and how to leverage online executive coaching software to create a streamlined, effective program.

💡Want to learn more about coaching overall? Read our corporate coaching blog.

What is executive coaching?

Executive coaching and leadership development go hand-in-hand as it’s a tailored, one-on-one process where a coach helps senior leaders improve their leadership skills, build confidence in their roles, and address any specific challenges they’re facing.

As part of a leadership development program, executive and professional coaching creates a confidential and supportive environment where a leader can gain clarity on their goals, identify areas they can improve, and develop actionable strategies to help them move forward.

By focusing on both personal and professional growth, senior management coaching helps leaders refine their decision-making skills, communication, influence, and improve how they work as part of the broader management team.

Combined with other coaching methodologies such as performance coaching, your leaders and high potential employees are set up for long term success.

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How to identify when senior leadership team coaching is needed

First and foremost, coaching is a tool to help build cohesion in your senior leadership team. Here are a few questions to ask yourself and other stakeholders when assessing whether your company needs executive coaching:

• Is there a noticeable lack of alignment among your senior and executive leadership team?
• Are important decisions delayed and riddled with conflict?
• Is your leadership team struggling to adapt to organizational changes?
• Are they having trouble managing and inspiring their teams?
• Is employee engagement and retention declining?
• Are you getting feedback that there are gaps in communication and trust?

If you answer ‘yes’ to any or all of these questions, it’s time to consider corporate and executive coaching.

Executive coaching for CEOs

For CEOs, it’s a little different but still incredibly valuable. Executive coaching for CEOs gives personalized support while they navigate the complexities of leading the company at the highest level.

It helps sharpen their strategic thinking, improves decision-making, and builds a strong foundation of emotional intelligence needed to become a trusted, respected, and inspirational leader. Executive coaching for CEOs helps give them a leg up in driving growth, inspiring their teams (including senior leadership), and staying resilient in demanding environments.

When executive coaching for leaders doesn’t work

There are certain situations where coaching is not the right avenue to take. While the overall benefits of executive coaching are great, you may not see every single benefit or maybe won’t see them to the magnitude you hope for due to a few different factors.

Here are some of the factors that may negatively impact your senior leadership team coaching:

1. Coaching those who don’t want it: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Some senior leaders may not think they need coaching, don’t see the organizational benefits, or may resist for other reasons (lack of self-awareness, aversion to change, etc.). Be prepared to do some convincing.
2. Using it as discipline: Framing executive coaching as a disciplinary measure to your senior leaders is not the way to go. Coaching is a growth and development opportunity that invests in the long term success of coachees, not a last-ditch effort to save a bad hire.
3. Not preparing internal coaches: Training internal coaches on how to be effective is just as important as the actual coaching. Give your potential coaches the tools and resources to learn coaching methodologies or earn certifications.

Who should conduct executive coaching and leadership development

Choosing the right person or people for corporate executive coaching is the second most important step after identifying why your leaders may need coaching.

When you think of coaching, you probably think of a traditional hierarchical relationship, meaning the coach is in a more senior role than the coachee. That doesn’t always need to be the case. Peer learning is just as valuable and choosing a coach should be based on factors other than just seniority.

According to a study by the International Coach Federation, these are some of the most important attributes to consider when choosing senior management coaching providers or internal coaches:

• Confidence
• Personal rapport
• Personal compatibility
• Sense of humor
• Coach-specific training
• Reputation
• Industry or role-specific experience

If another member of your leadership team checks these boxes for your potential coachee and has a strong grasp of leadership skills, consider pairing them up. Or, looking for outside help is also an option.

Internal vs external executive and professional coaching

There are two routes to take when setting up executive coaching: internal or external. Ultimately, choosing your route should hinge on your executives’ developmental goals, needs, desired level of confidentiality, and the resources available within your company.

Both internal and external coaches have their benefits and drawbacks—your company may even benefit from a combination of the two approaches to close any gaps.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both:

Internal executive coaching pros and cons

This means one of your existing employees steps up to coach a member or members of your senior leadership team.

Pros:

• They have a deep understanding of the company culture and internal dynamics.
• They can offer real-time support and guidance based on firsthand knowledge of organizational challenges.
• They might already have strong relationships with leaders with a foundation of trust, respect, and open communication.
• They can continuously support their coachees even after the formal coaching timeline is complete.
• Cost to the organization is lower.

Cons:

• They may not be able to maintain objectivity since they’re closely involved with the company and its leaders.
• They may encounter conflicts of interest when working through sensitive challenges.
• They might not have formal coaching certifications or training.
• Leaders may be hesitant to fully open up, worrying about confidentiality within the company.

⚡Takeaway: Internal executive coaching is best for flexible coaching arrangements that require deep knowledge of your company and its internal dynamics.

External executive coaching pros and cons

This means your company hires an outside individual or firm to provide coaching to your leaders.

Pros:

• They bring a fresh, unbiased perspective that can promote honest discussion.
• They provide specialized expertise or certifications in executive coaching strategies.
• They often have diverse industry experience, which can come with more creative strategies and insights outside your company’s norms.
• Useful for coaching CEOs or other top-level management.

Cons:

• They can be very costly.
• They often take longer to understand the company’s culture, dynamics, and specific challenges.
• Scheduling is more complex and less responsive due to the coach managing multiple clients.
• There are limited opportunities for continuous, long-term engagement compared to leaning on internal resources.

⚡Takeaway: Hiring an external executive coach is best used as a last resort when more creative solutions are needed—or if your company doesn’t have the internal resources to support executive coaching.

Key benefits of corporate executive coaching

Whether you decide to lean on your employees as coaches or hire an outside resource, your company will still reap the benefits.

Executive coaching and leadership development coaching can help your leaders achieve:

• Better leadership skills: Coaching helps leaders hone core skills like communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
• Improved self-awareness: Leaders gain a deeper understanding of themselves including strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots.
• Better goal setting: Coaching helps leaders set clear, actionable, and reasonable goals while providing accountability to reach them.
• Stronger emotional intelligence: Coaching encourages the development of empathy, resilience, and the ability to manage emotions in high-stress settings. 
• Increased confidence: With guidance and support, leaders become more confident in their abilities to handle challenges. In fact, 80% of coachees report increased self-confidence.
• Improved team performance: Leaders who participate in executive coaching can better inspire and empower their teams, creating better relationships and improving trust.

Get started with online executive coaching software

Beyond any individual leader’s improvement, executive coaching is an investment in long term company success. It equips your senior leaders with the skills and confidence to make better decisions, work more cohesively with other leaders, improve team management and loyalty, and overall build a stronger, trustworthy, and influential executive team.

So, what’s next? Creating your own internal executive coaching program can seem daunting, but technology can take a lot of the burden off program administrators.

Online executive coaching software, like Together’s coaching and mentoring platform, helps you build an accessible, scalable program. Automate coach pairing with a mentor matching app, manage sessions and feedback, track progress, and customize resources all from one platform.

Whether you’re starting a coaching or mentorship program from scratch or building on an existing program, Together can help! Book a demo with our experts to get started.