Bernadette Boas explains why clarity matters before hiring an executive coach. Define whether you need developmental coaching or corrective coaching, then involve the person being coached in those conversations. Many coaching engagements fail when the coachee doesn't understand why they're being coached or what success looks like.
Chapters
it's really important for anyone hiring, including HR, an executive/leadership coach, is to understand exactly why you're hiring them and what type of coaching engagement will this be. Is it developmental? Is it remedial? Meaning, is it corrective coaching that for that individual who might be creating a challenging team environment? Is it developmental, meaning is it high potential, someone with a lot of growth opportunity, fill in the gaps of their skills, help them navigate the political landscape? What exactly is it? And then what's most important is however that engagement lays out to be, the individual needs to be part of the conversation about why they'd be receiving coaching, what the goals and the objectives and the outcomes are, are that are expected, and ensuring that they are on board with all of that before engaging the coach. Too often I see a coach hired, including myself, and an individual connected to me and they don't even understand why they're being given a coach. And that is not how you want to set up your employee to work into a coaching arrangement. You want them fully on board. You want them fully understanding what they're getting from it, what their contribution will be, what the expectations are. You want to be totally upfront with them. Whether it's corrective or it's developmental. That's the only way you're going to get them fully committed to that relationship and that partnership.
