I confess I have been vaguely aware for a long, long time that there is such a thing as executive coaching, but didn’t know or think much about it. I am acquainted with two people who promote themselves as part-time executive coaches, neither of whom I would ever ask to coach me on anything.
To the extent I thought about executive coaching at all, I have this picture of an executive coach being more like an unlicensed therapist, where some executives who were too embarrassed to admit they needed therapy, accessed therapy lite.
And Then . . .
I attended the Marcus Evans CXO summit where Scott Middleton, the CEO of Agape Senior Living did a presentation on 9 partnerships every assisted living community should have. His 9th partnership for every leader to have was a coach.
After the event, I reached out to Scott for permission to publish his 9 partnerships and he referred me to Lisa Yakobi, his speech coach/executive coach for the manuscript. My first conversation with Lisa lasted almost an hour and at the end of it she offered me a complementary speech coaching session.
Speech Coach
I took her up on the offer, because while I get consistently good evaluations when I speak, I want to be better.
My goal is to be spectacularly great and I believe I have the ability to get there. The complementary session was valuable enough that I became a paying customer, meeting by phone a few times per month with the goal of creating a world-class speech.
Executive Coaching
I was also aware she did executive coaching, but had not thought about it much except that I knew how much credit Scott gave both Lisa and executive coaching for the explosive success and growth of his companies.
A few weeks ago Lisa offered me a complementary executive coaching session. I almost turned it down, except that I had two issues related to Senior Housing Forum. Both were growing pains — meaning they were good problems to have — but they were frustrating and stressful. So I thought, “what the heck, might as well give it a try.”
The Experience – A Breakthrough
Prior to the session I completed and sent to Lisa a very short questionnaire where I sketched out what I wanted to work on. When we got on the phone, the session started with my describing what Senior Housing Forum does and how my business model works. I then laid out for her, the single biggest problem I have, which related to the process of supporting partners and creating a manageable publishing schedule.
In a very short period of time she helped me work out a simple, easy, cost-effective solution to the problem. It’s not that it is all solved, but I now have a very clear path to a workable solution. It was a major breakthrough that will make Senior Housing Forum better for me and better for you the readers. It is unlikely I would have uncovered the solution without that session.
Coaching for Everyone?
If you were to ask Scott Middleton about coaching he would tell you it was, and is, one of the most valuable things he has ever done for his organization and the leaders who work for him. He has made executive coaching a part of every property leaders week.
It is not particularly inexpensive, but often things that seem expensive turn out to have great, great value.
Have you used an executive coach? How was/is the experience?
If you would like to try it, I have a handful of complementary executive coaching sessions available. Fill out this form to give it a try
Steve Moran
