Do you ever wonder how your employees are doing? Are they meeting their goals and targets? Do they have the skills to get better at what they do or even help others in the company grow as well? This is where executive coaching comes into play. It’s time for CEOs, managers, supervisors, and executives to take a step back from all of their responsibilities and focus on themselves. In order to be successful in this position, it’s important that you have self-awareness around your strengths and weaknesses so you can work with them effectively. The first step is knowing where to start. That’s why we’ve created a list of frameworks that will give you an idea of what type of framework might work best for your organization:
1. The GROW Model
This framework focuses on goals, reality, options and will. This is a great model for executive coaching because the framework focuses on understanding goals and what it will take to get there. The most important concept about this framework is ensuring that you have a defined goal before we start working together, as well as an idea of what your real situation is and how much effort it’s going to take to achieve the goal. The focus of this executive coaching framework is to ensure that we’re defining the path to your goals and helping you think about all of the options available along the way. It’s also focusing on having you understand your own strengths and weaknesses and how to communicate effectively with others.
Let’s say that you’ve set a goal of increasing revenue by 10% in the next year. However, when I ask you how your company is going to do this, you don’t have an answer. This might be a sign that we need more information about the goal before we continue working together. You might also be unsure of what options are out there and how much effort it will take to reach our goals. When executive coaching with The GROW Model, some questions that would typically be asked include:Where are you now?
What needs to happen to get where you want to go?
What is stopping you from getting there?
What choices are available for steps along the way?
What will you do?
2. Systems Perspective
The executive coaching framework here focuses on the balance between being open versus closed, as well as thoughts and feelings. This executive coaching model helps you visualize yourself in relation to others and the world around you. The goal is to look for patterns that might exist within your interactions with other people or any of your daily situations. To be successful, it’s important to focus on what role each interaction plays.
It’s especially helpful in executive coaching when we’re looking at interpersonal relationships and seeing how these can affect different areas of your business. The Systems Perspective executive coaching model also helps you understand your executive presence in terms of how people perceive you.
The Systems Perspective executive coaching framework is all about thinking of yourself in relation to others and the world around you, including patterns that exist within your interactions with other people or in daily situations. It’s important to focus on what role each interaction plays, as well as be willing to be open or closed during conversations or events throughout your day, and thinking about any thoughts or feelings that come up while going through these activities. This executive coaching model also helps you understand your executive presence in terms of how people perceive you.
For example, let’s say that you notice a lot of tension between you and your executive assistant. When I ask what the issue is, you respond by saying that he always seems to do things wrong. This might be a sign that we need to explore this issue further. It’s possible that there could be an ongoing pattern within your relationship with him or her and that it might help if we both took time to better understand each other in order for us to move forward together. When executive coaching with The Systems Perspective, some questions that would typically be asked include:
What emotions are you experiencing?
Which person’s perspective do you think might be different from your own?
What is the bigger picture versus just focusing on this specific situation?
3. Experiential Learning Perspective
The executive coaching framework here focuses on real-life scenarios, as well as making executive coaching more interactive. This executive coaching model is all about building your executive confidence through challenging and stretching yourself. It’s important to focus on trying new things and pushing outside of your comfort zone in order for you to grow personally and professionally.
To be successful with this executive coaching model, it’s essential that you’re willing to leave your comfort zone in order for us both to learn how you can improve upon different areas of your business or career which might require some vulnerability in order for us to move forward together.
For instance, a client might be experiencing some executive coaching challenges in her role. She feels that she has fallen behind on her executive to-do list and is struggling with prioritizing the items within it, thus getting very little executive coaching done. With this executive coaching model, there are several ways that we could approach this challenge such as taking time to explore what executive breathing space looks like for you and how you can create a calmer environment for yourself when things get hectic around your office. When executive coaching with The Experiential Learning Perspective, some questions that would typically be asked include:
What did you learn about yourself?
What was easy (or hard) about trying something new?
How can you apply this executive coaching experience to your everyday life?
4. Competency Modelling
This executive coaching model focuses on training executive coaches to work with executives as well as providing executive coaching to leaders who need assistance in certain areas of their personal and professional lives. This executive coaching model is all about increasing your executive leadership knowledge and building on your skills when it comes to executive coaching others. It’s important to focus on learning from influential people within the field, strategizing different ways that you can bring these ideas back into your work environment, and then applying this new knowledge or skillset to help you improve upon challenging situations at home or at work.
For example, a client might be joining an executive board for the first time. We would work together using this executive coaching model in order for him to better understand how to lead executive board meetings and ensure that they are a success. When executive coaching with The Competency Modeling Perspective, some questions that would typically be asked include:
How does executive board meeting planning differ from project team meetings?
In what ways can this experience help you regarding executive breathing space?
Going forward how do we both plan on measuring your executive success moving forward?
5. Positive Psychology
This executive coaching model adopts a positive approach to executive coaching and executive private sessions. This executive coaching model is all about learning how you can be your best self, as well as acquiring new executive skills that will allow you to improve upon challenging areas of your executive leadership life at home or at work. It’s important to focus on executive coaching that allows you to enjoy your work, as well as focusing on executive breathing space and building executive confidence.
For example, a client might be experiencing executive coaching challenges such as executive burn-out or constantly feeling stressed about their executive workload. With this executive coaching model, we would explore together what executive private sessions look like for her moving forward. When executive coaching with The Positive Psychology Perspective, some questions that would typically be asked include:
What are you most grateful for?
How can thinking about these things help during particularly challenging times?
Plan three goals that we can work towards together over the next few weeks and months in order to keep us focused so that executive private sessions are a success.
6. Action Frame Theory
This executive coaching model focuses on executive leadership performance specifically. This executive coaching model is all about executive private sessions that help you to achieve your goals, build executive confidence and improve your executive leadership skillset in order to be the best version of yourself possible. It’s important to focus on planning for action when it comes to executive leadership success, as well as focusing on bringing forward actions to the forefront so they are top of mind during executive private sessions.
For example, a client might be joining an executive team for the first time and turning into an executive director for a new department shortly after. With this executive coaching model, the executive coach would explore together what the client wants his legacy within his work environment to be moving forward. When executive coaching with The Action Frame Theory Perspective, some questions that would typically be asked include:
What executive leadership actions do you need to put in place moving forward?
How can executive breathing space help you during executive private sessions when it comes to making executive decisions?
Conclusion
When executive coaching with one of these executive coaching models, executive coaches are provided with the tools necessary to help executive clients become the best versions of themselves possible. These executive private sessions approach is not just helpful for executive clients but also executive coaches who are learning what works and what doesn’t when it comes to executive coaching frameworks and tools.
If you’re looking for some help getting started with anyone these frameworks and tools, let us know! Our team can provide individualized assistance in selecting which option works best for your specific business needs. Or if you already have a favorite program in mind but want to learn more about it before committing, our experts would love to share insights and answer any questions you might have.