In my NLP Practitioner and Executive Coaching courses, I’m often asked about the benefits of becoming an Executive Coach. “What benefit would a person receive from executive coaching?” “Do I want to be a professional Executive Coach?” “Why would an executive want to be coached if s/he has reached a senior position in the firm?” “How to start an Executive Coaching Business?” “How to build an Executive Coaching Practice?“.  I always refer such questions, and mainly for this one, “Do I want to be a professional Executive Coach?” to two highly successful managers whose lives were transformed through Executive Coaching.

Manager – 1 (Sally) Sally (name changed) is Senior Vice President of Sales at a mid-sized IT hardware firm. She first told me of her experience with Executive Coaching more than a year ago. The company she is working at has been growing steadily year on year, and has seen a surge in revenue and volume in the last four quarters. With this tremendous growth and an excellent forecast for the next five years, the Board of Directors decide to promote someone from within the company to the newly created position of ‘Associate Vice President – Sales’.

Manager – 2 (Dave) Dave (also name changed), currently Head of Sales – South is chosen as the best candidate for the new position. Sally still remembers fondly how proud she was of Dave the day she handed the promotion papers to Dave. As AVP, “he will be in charge of overseeing the performance of all the Heads of Sales across regions”, that is what the letter mentioned. Dave is elated on receiving this promotion and starts work immediately, calling regular meetings with all the sales Heads.

Soon, however, he observes that his new team members (Sales Heads) are not listening to him. Dave is scared that in his new position he has created only more chaos. He talks to Sally about his concerns: “Despite my best efforts, I don’t seem to gain their respect. They constantly bicker with each other and undermine any decisions that I take.” Recognizing that Dave needs a partner who will help develop his potential, Sally speaks with HR and helps identify an Executive Coach for Dave.

Sally knows Dave to be an excellent manager, “I’m really pleased with how committed you are, Dave to enhancing your potential.” Sally is very ambitious and a high achiever. She has risen through the ranks through hard work and determination. As she discusses these events with a friend over a cup of coffee, she goes on to reveal how she no longer feels that same drive. “I love my work, but I feel as if I have plateaued. I’m no longer able to generate fresh ideas and strategies to take the company forward. Plus, I feel this niggling guilt about the time I have spent away from my family over the years, but I don’t want to give up what I do.” Her friend, who is an Executive Coach has had transformational results coaching senior executives and high achievers in breaking self-made glass barriers. They decide to schedule regular coaching sessions together.

Meanwhile, Dave has been working diligently with his Executive Coach. They really hit it off and their discussions help Dave unleash his latent potential. In one of these discussions, he realizes about his working style, and tells the Coach, “I’ve been treating my new team the same as my previous team members. That’s not going to work. I need to change my managerial style to suit senior executives and gain the respect of the sales Heads.” He decides to model how Sally successfully manages senior executives. She is an excellent manager and has, at several occasions proven her skills as a master at gaining respect and authority with senior executives. He puts into practice various techniques, thought processes and behaviors that he learns from Sally and soon the sales Heads begin to respond positively to his direction. They work with him to identify new avenues for sales and within the first quarter are able to achieve 120% of the quarterly target. Excitement levels soar in the department and everybody works with renewed enthusiasm. Suddenly, however, Dave begins to fall back from work and feels disengaged in meetings.

Sally notices this and encourages Dave, “Continue partnering with your Executive Coach. It’s an ongoing process that will help you become the strong, confident leader I know you to be.” She, herself has had tremendous success from being coached. In discussion with her friend, she realizes that her constant focus on work without positive breaks, which although worked well before when she was directly responsible for every sale, does not work as an SVP.  She tells her friend, “I need to cultivate a more strategic and creative mind-set. You know, when I was younger I used to turn to my guitar when I felt stuck.” Sally decides to re-ignite her passion for the guitar and spend more quality time with her family.

Unsure at first as to how to increase her bond with her family, she thinks of how she had won one of the biggest clients through establishing a personal rapport and puts into practice the similar strategy to increase personal connection. Her family is overjoyed and she spends many wonderful weekends with her little grandchildren. On one such picnic, a flash of inspiration presents her a unique way of approaching the market. It is quickly put into execution and revenue climbs. But, soon as she gets sucked into the new project, she begins to spend less time with her family and the old feelings of plateauing and guilt resurface.

She is, however, overjoyed with the success that Dave has had. As Dave continues his sessions with the Executive Coach, they delve deeper into his working style and the results are life transforming. Dave uncovers an underlying belief that was sabotaging his work – “A part of me doesn’t believe I am good enough to manage senior executives.” Working with the coach, he is able to efficiently and effectively re-program his belief system and turn himself into “an able, successful senior manager”.

Sally is encouraged by Dave’s phenomenal success and continues to meet her friend, the Executive Coach. As she explores her life more fully, she discovers “a painful memory from the past keeps me from enjoying time with my family.” Within a short span of time, as she works with her friend, she releases the memory’s hold on her. “The time I spend now with my family is filled with a lot of joy and constantly activates more of my creativity.”

I caught up with Sally recently and noticed how much more love she has for her life. She has implemented three more innovative ideas that have expanded the company’s reach in new markets. Dave is now a peak performer and has capitalized successfully on the growing market to more than double annual profits thanks to the joint efforts of his team. They both continue to partner with their Executive Coach and break old and un-resourceful patterns of thought and belief. I left Sally planning a vacation with her family within the next two weeks.