What a value-packed conversation! On Thursday, November 10th, 2011, Jeremy Robinson (the great) led an energetic discussion on professionalizing your executive coaching and he touched on some amazing points!
Click the play button below to listen to the absolute gems:
Or, if you prefer to download the mp3 to your iPod or other player for later listening, you can do that by clicking HERE.
Jeremy’s new book, Becoming an Exceptional Executive Coach! Use your knowledge, experience and intuition to help leaders excel, is featured in the Library of Professional Coaching, where you can access a sample chapter and then click through to buy your own copy!
Meanwhile, Jeremy generously shared his 10 points for sharpening your professional saw as an executive coach, and he magically turned 10 into 29 points-with-style. Here they are, in case you want to follow along while you listen:
Jeremy Robinson’s top ten (well, a few more than ten):
1. Have a point of view. The coach with a hypothesis about what’s going on his Client’s life is a hundred times more useful than that coach who only asks questions.
2. Ask good questions. After that, don’t try to ask better questions. Remember better is the enemy of good.
3. The most wonderful sound of good coaching has a baseline of silence. Always be prepared to self-regulate and go silent.
4. Be prepared to punctuate meaningful remarks of your Client and yourself with silence.
5. Most coaches over talk.
6. Be clear about who the Client is– is it the person in front of you or the organization? Clarity about who the Client is makes for the best boundaries in coaching. Good boundaries make coaching possible.
7. Never argue with your Client. Never. Instead- influence.
8. Always have a teachable point of view and always be prepared to have another teachable point of view in your back pocket if the first one flops with your Client.
9. Speak the language of your Client in terms of her vocabulary. You don’t have to be a content expert in what your Client does, but you do need to know the vocabulary of your Client’s world.
10. Great coaching is about going from having a strong sense of self and big presence to no ego and completely merging with the Client- all in a nano-second.
11. Coaching is always about getting results. If you’re going for insights vs. results you’re on the wrong train.
12. Be wary of Clients who are great talkers. A lot of the talking that Clients do is propaganda. Yada YADA YADA. So what.
13. Always keep your ears and eyes on the Clients’ behavior. How is she behaving? What’s changing or not changing?
14. Forget about your Coaching Client’s politics. Some of the most interesting coaching Clients have the most nauseating politics. It’s not what you’re there for.
15. The use of self is everything in coaching so pay attention to how you use your self.
16. All executive coaches should have at least two years of 2X per month supervision at different points in his/her career.
17. Coaches who haven’t had supervision or coaching themselves are saying they don’t believe in the work that they’re practicing. Such men are dangerous!
18. Sharp goals make for good coaching process- especially early on.
19. Goals in Executive Coaching often morph as the Client changes, the boss changes or the organization changes. Be prepared to go with those changes.
20. Tension is crucial to the coaching process the way a tight sail allows a sailboat to glide across the water. If you are too friendly with a Client and don’t have enough tension the process, the coaching will become flat and meaningless. If the coaching is too tension-filled and without play, the coaching experience will become uninhabitable for everyone.
21. Don’t be a steam-roller about your Client’s goals- you’ll turn into their nagging parent. Most of us have enough parents already.
22. Keep your ears on the underlying dilemma that is playing as the Client articulates her goals. Understand the dilemma, and you get the Client. Understand only the goals, and you lose the Client.
23. Be prepared to be a total empath with your Client, especially during the tough times. But that doesn’t mean you become a mushball. Remember to drive the process.
24. There’s no crying in baseball but crying is good in coaching. It means there’s feeling going on.
25. Never coach someone who is a borderline personality disorder- unless you don’t mind getting sued.
26. Keep your priorities straight. Create unfair advantages for yourself in how you contract your coaching so both you and your Client have a better chance of winning than losing.
27. Coaches will strong sycophantic tendencies and behaviors need personal therapy, not coaching.
28. Never try to win a land war in Southeast Asia- line from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride.
29. Also never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line- another line from The Princess Bride.
That’s why I like Jeremy so much…The Princess Bride is my favorite movie of all time. :)
Here’s more about Jeremy and his book!
You can visit Jeremy’s blog at this link here: www.ceocoachrobinson.com
You may also know Jeremy as the head of the Executive Coach Academy, the mission of which is to bridge understanding gaps between worlds of business and psychology and to create a learning community of emotionally intelligent coach-sages.
He’s also one of the principals at another coach training institution, iCoachNewYork.
He’s an MSW and MCC, and a well-known coach, trainer and supervisor of executive coaches based in New York City. He was co-creator and co-academic Director of the Wharton Executive Coaching Workshop at the Aresty Institute Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1999, he has been the Dean of Executive Coach Academy.
Jeremy is the author of Becoming an Exceptional Executive Coach! You can take a peek inside the book by clicking to the book site, which is http://www.becominganexceptionalexecutivecoach.net/book.php
