Executive Coaching
I frequently work with Executive Directors as a management consultant and coach to help them prioritize how to spend their time and political capital and to think through some of the myriad “sticky wickets” that emerge in the course of the job. This type of engagement is often quite limited – an hour or two a month, meeting in person and/or by phone, sometimes incorporating a longer individual planning sessions to look at the ED’s overall game plan for leadership. My approach is a hybrid of my consulting practice with coaching technique.
I believe that passionate commitment is most effective when the leader takes care of themselves and in my coaching relationships I advocate for self-care, sometimes whether my clients is asking for that or not! Several years ago at CompassPoint we began looking at the difficulties of working as an Executive Director, starting with a study called Leadership Lost and continuing with a series now called Daring to Lead. One of the chief findings is that Executive Directors typically have remarkably little in the way of institutionalized support structures. Combined with an ethic in our sector that tends to encourage a “self-sacrificing” approach to work, the importance of taking care of oneself is paramount. As they say on airplanes: “put your own oxygen mask on first.” If you don’t take care of yourself you can’t help other people.
While at CompassPoint I was a strong advocate for making Executive Coaching services available more widely to the nonprofit sector. We conducted a study of the use of coaching for executive directors which found, unsurprisingly, that senior leaders in the nonprofit sector found enormous value in this service just as their counterparts in the private sector do. Executive Coaching Study The use of coaching has really come into its own and there are a wide variety of approaches to coaching. I am always happy to make referrals to other coaches when I feel a different approach might be more valuable.
For more information on coaching in general I suggest the Haas Jr. Fund website – they have put up a few excellent videos on the experience of coaches and people who have received coaching. Haas Jr. Fund – The Power of Coaching
