If we had a dollar for every time someone asked, “Coaching is like therapy for leaders, right?” we’d be moving into our homes on Billionaire Beach. Okay, okay… corny. But it’s true! Many seasoned executives assume therapists and coaches are one and the same, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, that very assumption is one of the reasons many executives have avoided executive coaches. For many decades executive coaching was utilized as a remedial obligation. A punishment, in some cases. It meant that the executive was struggling or falling short of their responsibilities and needed some kind of therapy –anything– to get them back on track or clear on what’s next.
The truth is, executive coaching is the difference between being “effective” or becoming an elite executive who moves the organization to the next level. Today, proactive executives seek out coaches because they know their performance is the growth catalyst for those they lead. As a successful executive, your journey toward growth is never truly finished. Your potential is limitless, and an executive coach is the key to unlocking it.
The Role and Purpose of an Executive Coach
Let’s talk about what coaching is not. Coaching is not focused on helping you get closure about past circumstances or peering into your past to find explanations for them. While closure and awareness are important, they belong in the therapist’s office and not in the executive coaching relationship.
An executive coach keeps your growth deeply rooted in the now and desired future state. While we are aware of your history and reasons why you got here, we’re chiefly concerned with helping you navigate the gaps between where you are now and where you want to go while unlocking your performance, passion, and leadership.
Think of a goal you’ve been meaning to achieve. It doesn’t have to be monumental. It could be as simple as prioritizing strategic planning time into your schedule. Got your goal in mind? Good. What mindsets, routines, and excuses are keeping you from achieving that goal? Is it because you don’t have enough time? Maybe you don’t have the right tools? Are you simply afraid to commit because you haven’t tackled this before?
Some are small, and others feel as wide as chasms. However, all of them are powerful until you reshape the way you approach with your mindset, strategies, and commitments. The role of an executive coach is to help you build the bridge between the gaps so that you can take another step toward your goal.
As your coach walks with you through these gaps, they’ll help you gain clarity on why you need to courageously make the next leap. They’ll show you what you need to give up or invest in to get there. Most importantly, they facilitate growth in performance and passion so that you can transform from leader to visionary leader, effective to exceptional.
What Executives Can Expect When Working with a Transcend Executive Coach
At Transcend we believe transformation is achieved through the artful blend of data, reflection, action, inspiration, and courage. Our coaching process is a thoughtful combination of deepening awareness, real-time solutions, and long-term planning.
Every coaching engagement is squarely focused on transformation. It’s through transformation that leaders achieve exponential growth and find renewed passion and purpose in their lives and careers. With transformation, opportunities and challenges that once seemed daunting become inspiring. You’re not alone in the process. You have a coach by your side sharing the insights, tools, and stories of how other executive transformations created prosperity and focus. The coaching engagement becomes the anchor for the journey ahead but keeping your growth center of desk.
Transcend executive coaches deliver transformation across 6 core areas that matter most to elite executive performance:
Productivity
Our executive coaches empower you to take control of your time. We show you how to prioritize, artfully delegate, and give you the tools to drive purposeful collaboration at all levels of your organization. With your coach by your side, you’ll learn how to align your organization so that everyone is moving in unison toward the same goal.
Leadership Confidence
We understand that building trust within your team and leading change requires an executive who has the self-confidence and passion to lead with purpose and conviction. Our coaches help you master communications detailing the future business, and shift your mindset from real-time all the time to engaging talent and capabilities towards what’s next.
Business Performance
Transcend executive coaches give you the tools to lead with impact and influence, which in turn accelerates internal and external business goals. We not only help leaders drive growth and innovation, we deliver exceptional ROI. Our coaches focus on increasing efficiency, effectiveness, capabilities, and capacity to drive success into the bottom line and across the organization.
Engagement
As an accomplished leader you know that your people are critical to the success of your organization. With your coach by your side, you’ll transform your organization’s culture, talent & performance, and empower your people to reach their highest potential. It begins by creating an exceptional talent strategy founded in data and competencies. With new talent insights you can elevate engagement and build incredible performance based relationships across the organization.
Relationships
Our experience shows that many executives can’t find the time or energy to be fully present in their day to day interactions. Relationships are forged in your presence, and through authenticity you can align others to grow alongside you. Our coaches show you how to seek and understand others, provide valuable feedback, and inspire connection so that you become a trusted and inspiring leader.
Wellness
We believe that before you can lead others with authenticity, you must first care for yourself. Through deep alignment of your mental, emotional, and physical components, we help you maximize your performance and grasp fulfillment in your personal and professional life. Transcend helps you manage stress, embrace mindfulness, and increase effectiveness in your daily life. We treat executives like elite athletes, because that is what it takes to succeed in today’s dynamic environments. Being elite means nurturing your own energy and performance. We are about building better leaders for the long game, not short sprints that are unsustainable.
When all 6 facets are done exceptionally well, executives become elite performers who are able to level up their tactical and interpersonal skill sets in order to reach full leadership and business potential.
These core elements of transformational growth are expertly entwined with 9 executive competencies that have been proven through extensive research to drive the most value in executive performance. At Transcend, these competencies are the benchmark for how to lead into the future. You don’t have to be an expert in all of them, but you definitely need to surround yourself with a team that can deliver across the full spectrum of competencies.
Transcend Executive Competencies Download
You can explore Transcend’s Essential Executive Competencies by downloading a copy. We guarantee it will be the most impactful resource you read today.
How do I know if I’m ready for an executive coach?
More often than not, our executive clients come to us because they want more from their executive experience and business but need to cross a new or longstanding gap to get there. For them, it’s an opportunity to invest in themselves like they have invested in countless others over the years. They have done their research, asked their executive colleagues and determined that staying relevant, progressive, and passionate requires a commitment to their growth. They want to move fast and know that doing it alone only slows what they are actually seeking to achieve.
Transcend executive coaches play a pivotal role in strengthening executives while igniting their passion, purpose, and elite performance. So, we ask you…
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- Do you have a crystalized and shared vision for how you’re driving transformational growth?
- Are your efforts providing maximum value to the business and to your life experience?
- Does your team struggle with alignment, accountability or fully owning what’s next in the business?
- Are you doing the things you’re exceptionally good at that only you can do, or are you consistently managing real time business needs?
Perhaps most importantly, are you fulfilled when you roll out of bed each day?
If you’re not inspired by your responses, we can say with confidence that you would benefit from a coach. Executive coaching is about preparing for what’s next. The truth is, there is no end to executive development. Being an executive requires a deep commitment to endless curiosity and innovation.
Your executive team looks to you to set the roadmap to success and lead fearlessly with infectious enthusiasm. That level of performance requires you to flank yourself with the best resources available to you, and if we’re being honest, an executive coach is one of the most valuable resources on the market, and research supports that assertion.
You don’t have to curate and carry the weight of the journey on your own. An executive coach is a partner, a teammate, and a fierce advocate for your success on the road ahead. We will always strive to be the accelerant to your “what’s next”.
And if we may be so bold…. there is no better journey than a shared journey. We can’t wait to see where your journey leads. Give us a call. We’ll get our hiking shoes on.
