I love executive coaching. I love getting to meet ambitious leaders, hear about their dreams and their goals, and help them craft the best battle plan for achieving even their loftiest visions. What’s more, I really believe in executive coaching; I have seen it yield real benefits for countless clients. Indeed, many of the benefits of executive coaching are pretty well-documented, but there are some that may surprise you. That’s what I want to talk about today.

6 Surprising Benefits of Executive Coaching

Self-awareness. When you work with an executive coach, you probably expect to develop a better sense of your own strengths and weaknesses. That much isn’t really a surprise. With that said, I think a lot of executives and executives-in-training will be surprised by how much better acquainted they become with their own emotional life. For example, one thing you’ll learn in executive coaching is what kinds of people and scenarios “trigger” you into stress or anger—and thus, how do deal with those triggers effectively. That’s pretty powerful! Empathy. When you have a more intimate understanding of your own emotional life, it allows you to empathize more acutely. You’re not suddenly going to start agreeing with everyone around you, and there may still be people who rub you the wrong way… but by better understanding where other people are coming from, you’ll be in a better position to compromise, communicate, and work together. Greater cognitive ability. It’s easy for any of us to fall into a rut, and to approach our work from a fairly narrow or rigid place. But an executive coach can show you new ways of solving problems and innovating new ideas. An executive coach can open up new parts of your brain you didn’t even know you had and facilitate real improvements to your cognitive functioning! Motivation. What motivates you? The answer may not be as obvious as you think. We’re all motivated by different things, and it’s seldom as clean or as uncomplicated as “making money” or “getting promoted.” Understanding your motivation on a deeper level helps you to set smarter goals, and also to become more effective at self-motivation—an invaluable skill! Social skill. You may consider yourself to be a friendly, outgoing, or extroverted person—but frankly, that’s not the same thing as having social skills. Tact, diplomacy, motivation, persuasion, conflict management… these are all skills that you can master in executive coaching, and they can really be beneficial to you as you lead your team.

And by the way, if you’re an introvert, your executive coach can show you how you can harness even those introvert qualities and use them to your advantage in the workplace. Pulling it all together. Everything I’ve talked about so far can be an asset to you as you lead your team—whether that’s empathy or motivation or improved creative thinking. And yet, these ingredients on their own don’t make for real leadership. The key is knowing how to synthesize them, bringing them together in such a way that makes you a truly inspiring and transformational figure. An executive coach can help you to see the big picture, and that may be the biggest benefit of them all.

Learn More With The Solutions Oriented Leader

Even with all that said, we’ve really just scratched the surface of what makes executive coaching so rewarding. To learn more about why you should pursue work with a coach, I invite you to reach out to me for a one-on-one chat. Contact me at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098. And also: You can now get flash briefings on your Alexa at home or on the Alexa app! All you have to do is enable The Solutions Oriented Leader and click on this link!