How do you know if you are ready for an executive coach?

Not every manager needs an executive coach. In fact, if you’re a brand new leader, you may want to first consider a mentor relationship with a senior individual within your own organization. Have some experience that you want to build upon? Here are two great reasons to seek out an executive coach and one reason to skip it.

An executive coach can help you reflect and refocus if you feel like you’re plateauing in your current role. Harvard Business School “To change and grow, [managers] must be prepared to engage periodically in introspection—to collect feedback on and analyze their behavior, attitudes, and values. The difficulty in remaining objective about oneself, however, is well documented…The more candid feedback that managers can obtain from varied sources, the more accurate and precise their assessment will be.”

An executive coach can help you problem solve if you’re facing a new challenge at work. American Association for Physician Leadership “In my case, the ultimate goal of getting help from a coach was to ‘learn to observe the observer that you are.’ The process involves challenging blind spots about self-perception. You become powerfully aware of how you are perceived by others and how you interact with the world. More importantly, you are able to develop the power and leverage to change and to take action with a new ‘world view.’”

An executive coach cannot help you if you’re not open to the process. Forbes “If you're not willing to go through the often-daunting, frustrating and embarrassing process of acknowledging that you need to grow, and actually doing what it takes to grow, you won't benefit from having a coach. No matter how old you are or where you are in your career, if you want to get the most from having a coach, you have to be willing to be a novice in some areas.”