How to Become an Executive Coach: Getting Started
Coaching is both a career and a vocation that has become more in demand in recent years. Industry research shows 70% of organizations provide their leadership with coaching, while 22% are interested in it if they can afford it. But coaching isn’t just about career success. It’s about having a passion for providing guidance and advice on something you’re knowledgeable about and have experience doing. Here’s some advice and information on becoming an executive coach.
Training and Certification
Getting trained and certified are key parts to how you become an executive coach. Simply knowing about an industry isn’t always enough. Clients are far more likely to trust your advice if you’ve been verified as an expert in your field, and training will help you learn how best to provide your advice and guidance.
The International Coaching Federation is a good organization to go to for certification. As the largest professional coaching organization in the world, they offer several forms of certification as an executive coach, as well as training program accreditation. It’s a good idea to use their accreditation program to find a quality training program.
Important Coaching Qualities
While considering how to become an executive coach, it’s important to develop the skills and qualities that go well with coaching. A good coach needs expertise in a given field or industry in order to understand important issues, as well as the client’s objectives. Your experience can be called on to provide examples of how your advice can work.
Coaches also need good listening and communication skills. Sometimes a client may not be the best at explaining things, like their goals or issues. A coach needs to be able to deduce what a client is trying to say from what limited information they can provide, and then give the client advice in a way that’s clear and comprehensive.
A coach also needs emotional intelligence and a high degree of professionalism. The former is important to help see things from other people’s perspectives and advise them on creating good working relationships. The latter is important to assure your clients that you’re someone who keeps their word and maintains their integrity, which is vital to earning your clients’ trust.
It’s important for coaches to know how to personalize their approach for each client. No two clients are the same, and not all methods work for everyone. Finally, as an executive coach, you should be willing to keep improving and coach with a passion for the work.
Choosing a Coaching Niche
There are several different types of executive coaching. It’s a good idea to determine which coaching type you want to focus on:
- Career-oriented – coaching focused on career advancement and transitioning.
- Business – coaching focused on achieving an organization’s vision and goals.
- Strategic/organizational – coaching focused on improving time management and scheduling.
- Therapeutic/emotionally curative – coaching that addresses stress reduction and emotional stability among staff.
Getting Clients
With all the preparation that’s been done, you’re still not entirely ready. You’ll need to have a way to bring in clients if you’re going to make it as a coach, so having some sort of marketing strategy or hook to bring people in is important. One way to do this is to create executive coaching packages. These are digital solution packages that offer a bundle of your services based on varying client needs.
To create a package, you need to provide certain information: an introduction, the package’s purpose, the intended client, testimonials (when available), the coaching process, the intended results, the duration of the services in the package, pricing, support services and materials, client support, and payment options.
Getting all this information together and putting it into a marketable package is a lot of work. And that’s just one way to bring in customers. There’s another option for you that takes a lot of the burden off your shoulders: joining an existing coaching company.
Franchising is a good way for you to start a new business without trying to go it alone. Your franchisor will provide you with a variety of services, including administrative and marketing support. They can help you make contacts in the industry and help you locate clients, or even refer clients directly to you.
Start Your Coaching Career with ERA
As an aspiring executive coach, you may be just what ERA is looking for. We’re a business consultancy firm that offers multiple types of business coaching, including financial executive forum coaching opportunities, dedicated to advising company leaders on how to improve their business’ efficiency and find savings in their regular operations. As one of our franchisees, you’ll join a global network of experts in many different fields, all working together to serve our clients. To learn more about ERA, visit our website to request more information today.
