Finding the right corporate coach can increase your profit margin by 46%. Corporate coaching will change the way you view your team, your productivity and your industry as a whole. Still, if you don’t know what to look for, finding the right corporate coach can prove to be a challenge.
What to Ask Your Corporate Coach
Most CEO’s and executives approach hiring a corporate coach the same way they would hire any employee, by focusing on their strengths and their backgrounds. However, as you’ll see below, the questions for your potential corporate coach are best focused more on how they engage and listen.
Question 1: How will you approach my situation?
Whenever you hear corporate coaches claiming to have a “magic formula”, consider that a red flag. Every situation is different, and every solution should be as well. While you ask for their proposed solution, you’re actually observing how well they listen and uncover key information.
To get an accurate idea of who you are and what you need, a good corporate coach will penetrate the initial understanding of your situation with poignant and insightful questions. By the time you finish your call, ask yourself: how much do they know about me? Do they get what makes me and my team tick? Our unique gift and pain point? Were they interested in my background, my family, my aspirations? Pick the coach to whom you revealed your true self the most in that initial call.
Question 2: What will it be like when we’re done?
Corporate coaching is about the power to fulfill creative intent. The act of engaging a great coach will, in itself, alter your present course and speed for the better.
From the answers prospective coaches provide, you want a felt sense of a specific benefit, not just empty promises. The best way to assess that is to ask yourself: did I get something from this call that actually helps me now? Measure how you feel before and after the call to see how well the coach’s energy affects you.
Question 3: What makes this kind of work exciting to you?
You want to feel the passion that motivates your corporate coach. By learning about what energizes them, you can tell how compatible what drives them is with what you need. It is important that your coach is genuinely as excited about working with you as you are with them.
Chances are you, at least for some of your initial conversation, will receive well-rehearsed answer or two. Which is why you want to follow this question up with Question #4.
Question 4: Tell me a story about someone you helped that has a similar situation to mine?
Preserving confidentiality is vital, so you don’t want to hear them drop names. You do, however, want to get them talking, generically and anonymously, about a real-life story. Feel into their attitudes. How deep and effective were the solutions the coach provided the client? Does it smell credible? If not, then explore concerns further when you do your reference check.
How to Prepare Yourself for Hiring a Corporate Coach
It’s important to prepare yourself to be more open than usual, especially with someone you are just meeting. Let yourself feel uncomfortably vulnerable is the best way test your coach’s ability to get the crux of the situation and to provide solid solutions.
If you think you or your team would benefit, we invite you to schedule a free executive coaching session, to get an idea of how corporate coaching can serve you. If you’re still not sure, start with the Numina app, to explore the kind of development you may expect from your coaching sessions.