Executive coaching is not the same as psychological therapy, but there are some similarities between the skills needed by both a coach and a psychologist. Both must be able to listen to the client, assess their needs, and offer guidance toward personal growth. The differences, though, lie in the reasons the client comes to them in the first place and the expected outcome of the interactions.
The most effective executive coaches possess both strong business skills and strong psychological skills. At first glance, this may seem an odd pairing, but when you think about it a bit more it starts to make sense.
A Coach Must Connect With People – An executive coach spends a great deal of time one-on-one with the participant, so he or she must have the listening skills, empathy, and interpersonal skills to foster a successful relationship
A Coach Must Understand Human Behavior – A coach must understand many dimensions of human behavior to assist the coaching participant.
A Coach Must Set Themselves Aside – To be effective, a coach must be able to step away from their own biases and judgments when working with a client. He or she must separate personal feelings and experiences from the interactions and analysis conducted with the client.
A Coach Must Give Effective Feedback – A coach’s role is to listen to the client, develop a full picture of the current situation, and give appropriate feedback to help the client meet development goals. The style and tone of feedback is critical, though, to ensuring the client receives, accepts, and is willing to take action based on that feedback.
Combining Psychological And Business Skills
As mentioned earlier, while there are seeming similarities between executive coaching and psychological therapy, the differences emerge when you start to consider why participants seek coaching and what outcomes are expected from the process.
Participants come to executive coaching with an expectation that they will achieve both personal and professional growth. This is why the coach must have business-related skills to go along with their psychological skills. He or she must be able to infuse business perspectives into the process and help the participant leave the process with action steps and activities that improve business performance.
The combining of psychological and business skills comes naturally to some coaches and not so naturally to others. The best coaches maximize their innate abilities and actively seek development of weaker areas so they can provide effective, well-balanced coaching to their clients.
