Earlier this week, our team flew out to meet with a large sports franchise. No, I’m not going to name them.

The discussion was interesting and had nothing to do with game-play, but everything to do with the “front office operations”. They are a very smart organization.

As any team would and should do, I debriefed with my team after the call.

I thought readers might like to see our executive summary of the 9 critical points that make up Corporate and Executive Coaching.

Let me preface this by reminding you that you might be surprised by what you see here. We use a proactive model to coach executives. Its based on what has worked time and again for the companies we work with.

What’s funny ( well- funny for a Business Coach) is how similar the process is regardless of whether the client is a multi-national engineering firm or a regional (but big) airline. The people are different, the products and services are different, but managing people  is the same.

It doesn't matter if your company pulls oil out of the ground , or is the lab that analyses the rocks – its your people that drive the day-to-day success of your business.

So, as a preface to the 9 points of Corporate and Executive Coaching….

1. We are professional business and executive coaches
2. We build leaders by showing managers how to use coaching skills and our material to manage their own people.

The 9 Points of Corporate and Executive Coaching

1. The key principles of effective coaching have to be defined.

Think of this as Executive Coaching 101. Remember back to University? The first thing you had to do was learn all the words and definitions of the subject before you got to the fun stuff. There’s no use sugar coating it, it's the same with becoming an effective manager. There is a language, an attitude and an approach to being a world-class manager of people.

2. Adopt the mindset for effective coaching.

Yes, there is a system for this. The mindset is supported by the visuals and conversation patterns we teach.

3. Introduce coaching skills.

This is the how-to part.

4. Learn to use the Executive Coaching Model.

This is the flow and pattern of your conversations and positioning when managing people to build a high performing team.

5. How-to develop the Art of Conscious Listening.

Yes, as an executive, listening is a huge part of being an effective leader. It flows directly into Point 6.

Being the leader of a high performing team, or changing your teams culture means “working from the neck-up”. Its not about how smart YOU are, its about how you develop the people who work with you.

6. Learning the Art of the Question.

As promised, point 6. Executive Coaching skills have a lot to do with asking the right questions, but only before and after you’ve listened!

7. When does the Art of Telling enter into coaching?

Yes! At some point you can “tell”, but like a lot of skilled work and intellectual pursuits, when you do it is just as important as how you do it.  

8. Practice, Practice, Practice. Then, practice some more

As Brian Tracy always reminds us, you can’t get worse at something by practicing it some more….

9. Measure and evaluate coaching skill level.

This is our part as Executive Coaches. We work with your leaders to show them how to get better and better at using coaching skills to manage and lead people

Well, that's it for today.

An interesting update from FocalPoint. We’ve been invited to contribute to a new book that will be published by KPMG. Stay tuned , we’ll let you know when it goes to print!

Thanks for reading – lets go change the world!

Dominic Rubino