Half of all white-collar workers put in 50 or more hours per week in their job, according to a recent study. The more senior executive often works many more hours than the average. In today’s fast-paced, 24/7, fiercely competitive business environment, more senior executives are working many more hours than their predecessors did but just a few years ago. Moreover, these same people are increasingly challenged to accomplish ever more with ever less. The Executive Coach role at Jack B. Keenan, Inc., is the most demanding one we play, and only our most senior partners with relevant business and industry experience serve our clients in this capacity.
What is Executive Coaching? Executive Coaching is the process of an independent expert helping another executive improve their performance and their fulfillment in their leadership role.
How does the Executive Coaching Process work? While there exists considerable room for variation in these engagements, most follow the general process outlined below:
- Introductory Meeting. Before any substantive work begins, the Client and Coach meet over a meal outside the office to discuss the client’s needs, objectives, and preferences and to determine if there is a sufficient comfort level to continue to build the relationship.
- Engagement Agreement. With an agreement to continue, the Client and Coach meet to discuss the details of the engagement. If there is a senior sponsor for this engagement, he or she attends this first substantive meeting. Measureable outcomes are identified, meeting frequency agreed to, and the engagement duration is clearly identified in a written document.
In this early phase of the engagement, confidentiality and progress reporting protocols are discussed and agreed to. In general, we prefer to have the Client provide any progress reports to their internal sponsor, and the JBK Coach to communicate with the sponsor only in the presence of the Client, and again at the conclusion of the engagement.
- Discovery Interviews. With the objectives of the engagement identified, the substantive work of the engagement begins. Depending upon the Client’s needs and the engagement objectives, the JBK Coach will conduct discovery conversations with the Client, with the Client’s peers and team members, and, if relevant, additional direct reporting relationships and others who can provide observations and insights relevant to the engagement.
When appropriate and relevant, these discovery conversations will be supplemented with instrumented profiles and other feedback tools.
- Coaching Sessions. With the objectives of the engagement in hand and the relevant Discovery done, the on-going Coaching engagement begins.
These private and confidential conversations often take place outside of the office, and generally last 60 to 90 minutes per session, with a common monthly or bi-monthly frequency. When appropriate and relevant, these discovery conversations will be supplemented with instrumented profiles and other feedback tools. For more information, contact us directly for an introductory conversation.
