As of December 1st, I’ll have been an executive coach for 25 years. Given all those years and reps, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I get a few requests every week to talk or otherwise connect with folks who are considering a career pivot to executive coaching.
I just had another one over the weekend via LinkedIn from an impressive corporate professional with strong experience and credentials in her field. She’s considering enrolling in the leadership coaching certificate program at Georgetown University (my coaching alma mater) and wanted my advice. Since I get so many of these kinds of queries, I thought it could be helpful to my readers here to share the essence of what I offered in my note back to her.
There are three main points I’ve been making lately.
First, my LinkedIn correspondent has it right – no matter what your professional experience entails, if you’re considering a pivot to executive coaching as the next chapter of your career, you need to get some education and training in the basic skills of good coaching. You may consider yourself a great leader who regularly coaches their team members, but trust me, coaching clients who aren’t reporting to you is significantly different than coaching your team members. Want to be an executive coach? Step one is to get yourself enrolled in a reputable executive coach training program. (Google that phrase to learn more about the range of options.)
Second, the executive coaching industry is a lot different today than it was when I got into it.
Two of the biggest differences:
1. There are a lot more coaches now, and
2. The industry, due in part to the number of coaches, and in part to AI driven or enabled solutions, has become more commoditized.
Third, that leads to two main pieces of advice:
Focus on differentiation and, as they say in sales, your USP – unique selling proposition. In other words, what makes you different in the way you bring value compared with other coaches or solutions? It’s usually easier to figure that out if you have some client personas in mind that represent “your people.” For me, in the first 10 to 15 years of my work, it was high potentials on track to the executive level. Being clear about that made it easier for me to write The Next Level which ended up being a big differentiator for me.
As you’re starting out, don’t get too hung up on the difference between coaching and consulting. Sometimes clients want questions that make them think and sometimes they just want an answer from an expert. If you’re a mid-career professional making a pivot you likely have professional expertise unrelated to coaching. Use it as you start your business and don’t worry about all the “rules” related to what coaching is and isn’t. You’ll figure out what skill set to use when. Focus on meeting your clients where they are and delivering what they need.
That’s the basic outline of the advice I’ve been giving lately to folks who want to get into executive coaching. If you’re a coach, what would you add? What do you agree or disagree with? If you want to be an executive coach, what questions do you have that I haven’t addressed here? Leave a comment on LinkedIn and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can.
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