Using Your Executive Coach [Paperback]

If you are a manager or executive who is beginning a coaching engagement or who is considering a developmental plan that calls for an executive coach, you need more than a desire to improve your leadership capabilities. You also need to understand how to get the most from your work with a professional coach. This guide can help you to understand the unique nature of a coaching engagement and to assess your readiness to embark on this method of professional development. The book describes the three main elements of a coaching engagement—assessment, challenge, and support— and provides information on how you can collaborate with your coach in each of these aspects to get the maximum benefits from coaching. You will also learn how to recognize and overcome your resistance to the disruption and discomfort brought about by the behavioral changes that coaching addresses.

What is Executive Coaching? 7

Getting Ready for an Executive Coach 7

Establishing the Coaching Relationship 9

Working with Your Executive Coach 11

Handling a Resistance to Coaching 21

Building on a Coaching Relationship 24

Suggested Readings 27

Background 28

Key Point Summary 30

This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared-in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working togethel³'